Joe Roark's IronHistoryArchives.com
The HUGE library of Iron History compiled by Joe Roark.
Welcome to Iron History with Joe Roark!
Joe Roark has been studying the iron game since 1957, and by 1970 began a systematic gathering of information on index cards. By the time his first computer was acquired, there were several hundred thousand references to be typed into it.
For a few years he published his own newsletter called MuscleSearch: The Roark Report. By 1992 he was appointed as the IFBB Men's Bodybuilding Historian, and began writing about history for FLEX in his column Factoids. For ten years he contributed to Iron Game History from the U of Texas at Austin. Recently he also began writing All Our Yesterdays for FLEX.
His passion has always been the period between 1880 and 1920, with particular emphasis on the oldtime strongmen of that era. Joe will be offering bits of history for Cyberpump once per week, and the text will be relevant to the dates of the calendar for those events of yesteryear relevant to the coming week.
In this column, readers will also be able to ask Joe questions or comment on his posts. Note: The comments are solely for interaction between Joe and the readers only -- not reader to reader.
8/27/2004: Letter from Charles A. Smith to Joe Roark
Friday, August 27, 2004
[Mac Batchelor]
The circumstances of Mac's passing are as follows. Some time in October, he began to have trouble urinating. He went to see the doc and was told he had cancer of the prostate. The surgeon and the oncologist made the decision to perform an orchidotomy - that is, surgically remove his testicles. Scheduled the op for two weeks hence. He was then close to 90 so why they would subject him to radical surgery at that age is beyond me. I asked the Reverend Todd why some sort of chemo therapy wasn't resorted to, such as injections of estrogen. He replied that had been considered but rejected because- get this- it would HARDEN HIS ARTERIES.
In the meantime Mac starts to have some ischematic strokes at home- small affairs that more often than not go unnoticed. So off he goes to hospital- 400 dollars a day for room alone, BASTARDS- and stays there where the strokes continue and increase in severity- as is their normal course. Finally they stick him in a nursing home, where his condition gets worse. Back he goes into the hospital again, gradually worsening in condition and drifting in and out of a coma.
Suddenly he can't eat. They try feeding him via esophagus but can't get the tube in. So they incision his stomach and feed him right into it.
Then his kidneys start to act up, so they give him antibiotics. These cause him to have severe diahorrhea and dehydrate him. Then he starts to run a fever and goes up to 104. It would seem that at this point, realizing they couldn't do anything for him, the Doctor says "No Leo". This is a medical and nursing phrase- according to Vera, in which, in the event of any crisis, no measures will be taken to prolong or help restore life. He passed away 12:30 PM on Saturday, December 6th. [1986]
This man is one of the unsung, un-honored members of a band who have done more for weightlifting than the Woodland Hills Weed is likely to do if he and a million of his kidney lived a million lifetimes. Mac was the very first person in America- and for all I know the world- to teach weightlifting at any American University as a college CREDIT COURSE- a tradition that has continued to this day. Starting in 1920 !!
No, I didn't attend the funeral. I haven't gone to any since my wife died and that was so distressing for me that I vowed I'd never go to another one- except my own.
As for your writing for Balik, GREAT. I can see no reason why not. As I see things you CAN WRITE. In fact anyone can write if he has something to say and feels strongly enough about it�He, Balik, seems to be reliable. He has phoned me a few times and spoken at length. Has asked me to do articles. I have. He has PAID ON ACCECPTANCE something good honest Rader NEVER DID. In fact Balik has articles by the carton, scores of them still unpacked, that he took over from Rader, NONE OF WHICH HAVE BEEN PAID FOR. Don't sell yourself short. You can write BETTER than most of those authors he had in his first issue. So hop to it.
I have been getting a load of feed back over the first issue of IM put out by Balik. The great majority of it negative. Those who don't know what is entailed in putting out a mag have screamed the loudest. There are mainly the so called 'Old Timers' who would holler at ANY change simply because change has taken place, not whether that change was for the better or otherwise.
Balik phoned me and asked me for a critique and to pull no punches. I did. We had 122 pages- including covers- of body copy. 52 pages of ads. But just as each dog comes with fleas, so mags come with ads. You have to have them in order for the mag to survive. The mistake as I saw it was that NONE OF THE ADS were for Balik's products. He also had one man with two articles and another with three. Something he said he wouldn't do. None of the articles with the exception of three were worth reading. The so called gossip column was a shoddy, thread bare imitation of Rick Wayne's column in FLEX. There were also sixteen pages of contest results. On the other hand the mag was, because of larger type, easier to read and the photos tops. But he has forgotten that these alone will not sell his mag. The majority of IM readers are guys who have no interest in getting hugely muscular, but who just want a reasonable amount of strength and muscularity and build, PLUS good health. They don't want to be Mr. Americas or Olympias, and so need loads of HOW TO articles, plus a gossip column and letters to the editor.
One guy I know, tore the mag in half and mailed it back to Balik with a note to say, 'Send me no more of such trash.' BLOODY IDIOT. Balik should be supported by all HONEST guys in the game. If IM sinks, then the weed will have the entire field to himself.
Fred Howell is howling since- rather because- Balik hasn't returned his articles. Rader had them with no complaints from Fred. But Fred wants Balik to shove them back at once if not faster. I can't understand it. For years Rader has done this, enriching himself at writers' expense by paying them nothing for articles or publishing the articles of arrant idiots who wanted to get their names in print. Now that it is over, Balik's actions are seen as an affront, where they were once accepted without one word of complaint.
I have two articles coming up in IM shortly. One is about honesty in our sport and knocking the claims of the wunderkind to have invented all to do with weight training. The other is about the Collection, but with a different - somewhat- slant. Lots of Old Timers tales in it. And to go with it a couple of magnificent photos of Bobby Pandour and one of George Hackenschmidt. This latter has never been published before to my knowledge. It shows Hack as a very young man and is from the private collection of Hack's mentor, Dr. Krajewski.
As for that ad re the 'hitherto undiscovered' Grimek movies. This might well be true. It is a possibility- and just that- that they are from the collection of a character whose real names was Jack Abrams, but who also used the name Jack Kent- there was a bent presser by this same name- and Hugo Olsen, and other noms de crime. His habit was to contact people, ask them if they had anything to exchange or sell, or tell them what great deals he had to offer in the way of selling, hook the sucker, take his stuff or money and not follow through with delivery. When sucker screamed, he'd shove their way inferior merchandise, something they didn't want or order and sit back. Postal authorities had so many complaints re his dirty deeds they stepped in and put the block on him.
Vic Boff tells me he, Abrams, had closets filled with movies of the greats. What happened to them Vic doesn't know, but Abrams passed away, the victim of Parkinson's disease.
[the remainder of the letter is about Vera's nursing travels overseas and does not concern iron history]
Best of everything to you and yours,
Chas.
Posted by TheEditor @ 06:21 AM CST
8/20/2004: Letter from Charles A. Smith to Joe Roark Oct 28, 1986
Friday, August 20, 2004
Dear Joe,Just a brief note to bring you up to date and thank you for the phone call the other night.
Yesterday Vic Boff flew into town- presumably to discuss the affair proposed to be held here some time next year- or proposal thereof. Since Vic is an old friend, we spent most of the afternoon and part of the morning talking about old times. I have known Vic since the late 1940's when I settled here with my family on a permanent basis, in NYC.
Last evening until the baseball game was over and the Mets won- much to the delight of Vic who is a Met fan- Terry came over after he had dropped me off- I worked yesterday at the Collection- and took me OVER TO HIS HOME where he and Jan, Vic and I ate supper- steak, salad and trimmings. Excellent steak and not too bad a bottle of burgundy- which I didn't have.
Among other things Vic, who was very close to Jowett, told me the story of the letter Ottley Coulter wrote to Jowett. In this regard let me refresh your memory.
I think I told you of seeing a letter to Jowett written by Ottley Coulter to the effect that Ottley had been at a meeting in the late forties and Hoffman had told him that Jowett's daughter Phyllis had died and how it must be true since Hoffman wouldn't say something like this unless it was so, and how he, Jowett had written back to say- without once mentioning his daughter's name, that, yes, it was a terrible loss and he didn't know how he would get over it, when all the time his daughter was alive.
Well, it seems that there was a death in the family, but it was Jowett's GIRL FRIEND, a woman named Irene, a secretary in the Milo Barbell Company, with whom Jowett had been knocking a little off and who he thought a great deal of.
Getting back to the material I related the other night over the phone, this stuff, out of the Apollo course, was dated either 1922 or 1924 when the Apollo Course started and consisted of author's proof sheets, the final typing to go to the type setters. In one section of the course, Jowett, via Ottley- the material was typed on Ottley's typewriter- tells how to do a NEW style of dead lifting- what they now call the SUMO STYLE and touted by power lifters as NEW. Legs wide apart and hands gripping the bar INSIDE the thighs.
The next bit is how to do the bench press, using either a box, a low padded stool or a backless couch. Also described were squat racks. And another exercise the Woodland Hills Wunderkind claims as having invented- the concentration curl. Ottley tells how to do it. Advises grasping the barbell with both hands in the middle of the bar, bending the body forward, stuffing the elbows into the groins and curling the bar thus.
Re George Weaver. He is presently living in St. Petersburg, Florida, and there must have been a little flap down there over him since he recently published a book, and the ST Petersburg Times had an article about him and his book, complete with shot. I am sure it would be no bother to track this edition down since his book came about a couple of months ago and the article is in the nature of a book review.
According to the article he is living in a government housing project.
All for now. Drop me a line when you can.
Best to you and yours,
Chas.
Posted by TheEditor @ 07:50 AM CST
8/13/04: Angus MacAskill
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Years ago when I began my newsletter MuscleSearch, it was in part to dispel and correct some of the greater myths that had been bobbing in the lifting waters without ever quite landing ashore carrying proof.
One such situation involved Angus MacAskill, a man about whom stories of strength abounded but consistent details did not. Some of the tales were taller than he was! Some of the claims are easily disproved if the writer looked any deeper than the shoreline water lapping those claims onto the beach.
Here is the article that appeared in the inaugural issue of MuscleSearch June/July 1985. If you wish to discuss this article, join us at the free forums at ironhistory.com by using real name registration.
Joe Roark
Editor's note: This is a 4 Megabyte download and is in Adobe Acrobat format.
Posted by TheEditor @ 08:36 PM CST
8/6/2004: Letter from Charles A. Smith to Joe Roark Oct 8, 1986
Thursday, August 5, 2004
I pondered whether to post this letter because of the nature of it. It is no secret behind the scenes that the bodybuilder mentioned had some mental problems. Many of you will know his identity. He has, since this letter was written, died.
Some of the statements in this letter may have evolved into other conclusions, but this is what Charles knew at the time he wrote it to meL
Dear Joe,
A very brief letter to give you some news. Got your news letter yesterday and will comment on it in a later missive.
Had mail yesterday from someone in Mass to tell me Leo Gaudreau had had a stroke 'a week ago.' Letter obviously written for Leo by someone, dated October 2nd and as obviously mailed a day or so later. Letter said Leo would be glad to hear from friends. [Roark: Leo died June 1, 1990, about 7 months before Charles would die]
Recently a story in MUSCLE AND FITNESS under the name of XXX .
XXX had written to Weider saying he was broke and could use some money. Weider says write an article about the Rest Pause system. XXX does.
Then XXX walks into a Calif bank with a radio blasting the ears of all and sundry. Personnel tell him to turn it down. He tells personnel to get stuffed. Personnel call cops. One responds and tries to deal with situation. XXX beats him over the head with the radio. Cop suffers irreparable brain damage. Other cops respond and ten of them cool XXX off and get him downtown.
There he screams that Ben Weider is after him and has a contract out on him. Screams that Schwarzenegger has been following him on a motor bike and is in the next room plotting his downfall. Attorney tries to please bargain saying XXX was under the influence of drugs- he had been snorting cocaine- Cops say no dice and XXX draws two to five in the toughest Calif jail.
Alas this sorry world of yours,
Chas.Posted by TheEditor @ 07:01 PM CST
