Iron History

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01/15/2009 Entry: "1/16/2009: Letter from Charles A. Smith to Joe Roark, May 4, 1988"

Letter from Charles A. Smith to Joe Roark, May 4, 1988

Thanks for yours of April 30th, reaching me on the 2nd. THX also for the return of the Hoffie opinion.

I have also heard that MD [Muscular Development] will soon be no more. From what I have been told the two MALE HEIRS are arguing over the division of the spoils. One wants to keep the mag, recognising (sic) that the barbell business is no bloody good without a catalogue masquerading as a muscle mag. The other [heir] alleged to be the 'book keeper' wants to cut and run- take the spoils of war and say Ta Ta. There is a very nice apothegm- 'when rogues fall out honest men get their rights' Nu? Personally I think it would be a mistake to drop the mag. We need all the opposition to those mags which make it necessary to wear high hip waders while perusing them to avoid besmirching one's body with all the bovine bowel movement billowing around in the pages. Not that MD hasn't has its share of the 'end product' in some of its issues in the past. But all things pass, an inexorable law of nature. Nothing stays the same. Like empires, mags have their birth, rise, decline and fall. It is so with MD and it will, eventually be the same with the slicks of the Wunder from the Hills Woodland.

As for Balik telling you he is barely breaking even, or whatever. Ask yourself,would he be bringing the mag out on a MONTHLY BASIS if he was going into the hole. He told me his subs AND newsstand sales were improving steadily. He also would not employ a PERMANENT STAFF, as he has, if he was doing poorly. The quality of his ads is also good AND STEADY. Nuff said. I have always wondered who Nuff was and what it was he said.

Irving Clark. What a story there. Let me tell you some. Clark was well tied with George Walsh, the Wanking Wonder of his day, apart from the fact that he ran no mag, but several courses AND a gym. He ran the Harold Laurence Course, the Ron Walker Course, plus his own course, plus several others. When 'Pupils' failed to cough up the monthly installments, he had Clark, an attorney, send them threatening letters. Clark of course was also in on the courses PLUS getting a percentage of what he managed to bully out of the 'pupils'., tardy in their payments. BOTH MEN committed suicide. Walsh by walking off the platform of Clapham Junction, laying his head on the line and waiting for a train to oblige; Clark by walking into some German woods and eating his gun.

H&S [Health and Strength] made a brief comeback last year. Some German firm took it over in 1986, had no bloody luck with it, got rid of it to some bloke. He fucked it up- what did it have to offer anyway. And that was that. Alas, in this instance, one cannot say its course burned briefer, not less bright. Can you imagine that this mag, at one time was published WEEKLY. And Weider brags. Tut tut.

I think the mag you refer to, the one you leafed through at the Collection- was the British mag Superman, originally run by some right wing, Cololen Blimp Lt. Colonel, a gay might I add, who also formed the Paladin League as opposition to H&S mag and their Health and Strength league- more than a quarter of a million members H&S had at one time- not much of a mag Superman, and with--at least to me-- a fag bent. Cedric Underhill who was their 'posing expert' was alleged to be 'gay'. Strange how this word has been entirely changed from its original sexual meaning. In the Victorian Era the term GAY was applied to all women prostitutes.

That Aussie mag I had a brief flight with was POWER DIGEST run by a Ron Modra and both he and the mag took a nose dive and he, plus mag, are no more. He was another who didn't pay up for articles. He owes me fifty bucks and he never paid Jan for a power lifting meet she covered and shot. I have them around here somewhere-- not too many issues, around five or six I think. If I can find them I will gladly sell you them for eighty two thousand dollars, plus a new shirt and a set of silk pajamas PLUS POSTAGE. Joking aside, if I can lay my feeble hands on them, you can have them. Nothing in terms of value anyway, not even the blathering I had in them.

At this stage of the Game I doubt if IM will fold. It depends on the writers--hmmm--Bollocks has scribbling for him. I wrote him recently and suggested that, instead of having Grimek write all that blather about Old Timers, where the name of Grimek creeps into the offerings like King Charles head did in Mr. Dick's depositions (See David Copperfield) he get John to write a series of articles on training. I know of two that would stand in loci classici one day- an article on calf development and one on posing. I suggested that with the right editorial direction, Grimek could do a whiz of a series giving his favorite exercises and WHY they were.

Bollocks also asked me to do another article on some of the stuff that appears by the 'soi disant' experts in some of the mags. I said, 'Fine Bollocks, I'll start with your mag in which one of your experts said that cambered bars were uselss except as psychological 'lifts' and another who said that in the 30s and earlier blokes trained three days a week because there were no squat stands around in Steinborn's day. And this from an 'editor' with an MSc after his cognomen.

Re that strange letter you had about an EYE TYE bloke and his wanting to know about Strongwomen. I used to get loads of letters from blokes when I was running Weider's Wrestling mag wanting to see shots of women wrestling especially SWEATY women wrestlers. Strange indeed are some of the sexual mores of some cutomers. I was constantly asked to shots of sweaty crotches and arm pits. Honest. I consigned all such stuff to file thirteen. The The Wanking Wunder got hold of a letter one day and henceforth we had women wrestlers in the mag. He's the boss I told myself.