Iron History

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07/24/2008 Entry: "7/25/2008: Letter from Charles A. Smith to Joe Roark, dated August 11, 1987"

Letter from Charles A. Smith to Joe Roark dated August 11, 1987

Dear Joe,
Got your latest report yesterday and I must say you are steadily improving�body content and writing. In the latter you have made great strides.

The only fault, if it can be called that, is that the material on the Cyr DB was a tad too long. My feeling was that this could easily have been split in two parts�those who did it yesteryear and those who have done it after the so called Old Timers�and this is hardly criticism.

I also like the ideas of Arthur Saxon. I have always been a little suspicious of this man�s claims- or claims made for him- over the years.

Particularly do I find his two hands anyhow of 448 open to doubt. It may be that there are records saying where he did it, when he did it and how he got that 336 into his right shoulder. There may also be information as to those who were present and who were the officials and if it was weighed. But I have not been able to find this info- so I am not saying it doesn�t exist.

Particularly does his method of getting the bell into his right shoulder interest me. Did he clean it- one hand or two- did he upend it and �rock� it into his shoulder THEN bent press it?

Then comes the clincher. With this 336 overhead, he has to get a 112 pound dumbbell up to his left shoulder, while he is in the bent press bent legs position, STAND UP with the two weights, then, still holding the 336, AND dumbbell, overhead- the barbell at arms length, the dumbbell in at the left shoulder, PRESS the 112 DB overhead.

I am aware that Bill Pullum says he saw Saxon bent press 370 at either Bill Klein�s gym or Bill Bankier�s�that he had around 350 overhead and then TIED dumbbells onto the weight after Saxon had put the weight down. He is said to have bent pressed the bar�370 with dumbbells and plates tied on it, plates and bells kept falling off, Saxon continuing to hold the barell aloft, etc, etc, BUT I DO NOT BELIEVE this. Anyone who has deadlifted 400 off the floor knows what it feels like. Can either Saxon or one of his entourage have beaten Cheery Chinmore to the punch?

But your work will be most fruitful with the history of exercise equipment. You will find that neither the Wunderkind or Nautilus invented all those marvelous pieces of equipment at all�that most of them were in existence fifty, sixty and more years ago.

Frinstance, in the latest MMI of Kennedy, his new star? writer makes a remark to the effect that when Steinborn was squatting in his prime, the reason why Milo rocked the bar onto his shoulders after upending it was because there were no SQUAT STANDS in those days. This is nonsence since stands have been in being since men did squats. Ottley Coulter in his Apollo Course put out in 1922 tells you how to make a pair- as well as telling you how to do the SUMO STYLE of deadlifting. Ottley calling it a new way of DLing.

In a 1920 edition of the New York Newspaper WORLD TELEGRAM there is a shot of a piece of apparatus the exact counterpart of the so called modern PEC DECK. The only difference is that the 1920 equipment is not chromed. Caption on the shot is a long one and to the effect that the equipment is used in the Physical Therapy department of a hospital and strengthens the abductors and adductor muscles of the upper body.

Anyway, go at it. And success to your St. Joseph elbow.

Am interested in that Mr.___winner being shot before he won the contest. Strictly betwixt thou and I�who? This is, as you note, not the only time this sort of thing has been done.

Same goes for some�LOADS�of the articles in guess whose mags bearing the names of famous �stars�. Rarely, if any, were actually written by them. And if any did send in complete articles, then what appeared as the finished product was purely co-incidental. If there was no mention of the Wunderkind when the article arrived at guess whose desk, there were plenty of mentions of Mr. Wunderful when it appeared in print.

The last time I was up at the Collection I went through one year�s issue of a certain mag. I had written 54 articles under my own name and the names of others re bodybuilding�including those of Doug Hepburn�s. You only have to go through the mags to see the style and expression uses.

Hope all is well with you and yours,
Best answer. Chas.