Iron History with Joe Roark

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.

8/29/2008: Pages One and Two of a Letter from Charles A. Smith to Joe dated October 27, 1987
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Letter from Charles A. Smith to Joe Roark Oct 27, 1987
Thanks for yours post dated October 23rd which arrived yesterday 26th. The foul up in that reported 600 clean and jerk was the fault of the Los Angeles Times which not only reported the 600 but had it as a SNATCH. Just shows to go you (sic) what the general public- including the moulders (sic) of its opinion think of lifting. The exact poundages that were new world records, as reported by fan Glossbrenner were as follows.
Taranenko, Russian super heavy made a new world record clean and jerk of 585. Krastev, the Big Bulgarian Bloke, made a new world snatch record of 473 while Kurlovich, who won top spot, made a new world record total of 1041. The guy with the new C&J record placed 2nd. Krastev third and the new total holder won. Such lifting. As I may have remarked, I can recall the time when anyone dead lifting 476 went around bragging about it. And here I am yelling at the L.A. Times when it wasn�t Glossbrenner who reported the lifts to me but Dennis (sic) Reno. Shame shame.
Reno, who published a lifting news letter, had a front page shot of Taranenko making his new worlds C&J. It is very obvious what is happening here. It is no more a TRUE clean and jerk than my cock is a kippered herring. What is now happening is that they are doing the old continental and jerk but instead of taking it off a belt, they take it off the top of the thighs with a barely visible pause.
By the way, and this isn�t a facetious question, how many times do you have to change your typewriter ribbon? Mine seems to last no time and I don�t bash the keys that often- merely once a day with no more than four pages a clip.
I am feared for my mental processes which seem to be getting dimmer as the days go. Whoever said � Browning I think- �Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be� was a shit arse and didn�t know his tits from his testicles. The other day I suddenly lost my glasses and looked for them for two hours, unable to find them. I cursed as only I can with my sound apprenticeship in the Navy. I couldn�t find them and went on cursing. Sitting in a wheelchair in a fine huff, I raised my hands to sooth my troubled brow, brushed my hand against the pocket of my pajamas top and they they were. Wo, OH, woe.
[Roark: Charles then relates again the story of Weider�s Shape editor being killed, then]
Or as the greatest writer in the English language, Shakespeare wrote of life in MacBeth, �It is a take told by an idiot, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.�
Re Balik I am getting more and more disillusioned with him. I now think he is like all the rest- out for the buck at everyone�s expense. I am mystified at his non payment of you and the Reverend. I have always got my money, albeit after writing him and saying I must be paid pronto when the article is accepted by him. Indeed I find it hard to believe he hasn�t paid the Reverend Todd since the Reverend is mighty fast when it comes to getting what is owed him- as indeed he should be.
Fred Howell is having loads of grief over getting his �Dozens of articles� � says Fred- back. For this I blame that honest, upright, Christian, church going, bible thumping man from Nebraska who had no bloody right passing along property that didn�t belong to him and that had been entrusted to his care. They call if THEFT BY BAILEE. Balik refuses to answer ANY LETTER. I get complaints from all over including bitter diatribes from Dave XXX who says in that cynical gentle way British citizens have, �Fuck him. He doesn�t answer my letters, I won�t buy his fucking mag.� You can see Dave has a wide, expressive vocabulary.
I will hunt and grope and dig around for Hoffies� will. Christ knows what I have done with it. I know I haven�t sent it to anyone else, since Hinbern heard I had it and keeps asking for it. I have told him I have shoved it somewhere and will get it to him.

XXX. There seems to be something phoney about this bloke. The only time he writes is when he wants some info. His letters, when I get them, are never packed with any chit chat about this and that unconnected with lifting, but are all gimme gimme� Various people have told me he is a brain picker.
Now I don�t mind this at all, but when the end product is a book that purports to push over the author as an �authority� when the book is info weasled from the brains of others, I take it badly, And when my letter is filled with carrots on the ends of sticks, said carrots being mentions of shiploads of smoked salmon coming my way the very moment he gets around to jogging the elbow of the pal who is a famed smoked salmon broker in far parts, my suspicion is a little aroused.
[to be continued next week.]

Posted by TheEditor @ 08:42 PM CST
8/22/2008: Part Two of a Oct 19, 1987 letter from Charles A. Smith
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Pages 3 & $ of letter from Charles A. Smith to Joe Roark, Oct 19, 1987
Saxon too has me enthralled. Here was a man who stood, tops, five feet ten inches- if that- who never went more than 220 to my knowledge, yet here he is, years before we had any juiced up Johnnies, hoisting poundages what would be creditable even by today�s standards.
I, also, have never accepted his two hands anyhow record of 448. This means he first had to bent press 336- how did he get it into his shoulder? This isn�t told ANYWHERE. Then, after getting it to his right arm�s length, and while way way down, he grabs hold of a 112 dumbell and then, getting into his shoulder- we are again not told how he did this ANYWHERE- he then, while still holding that 336 overhead, PRESSES the one hundred and twelve pound DB overhead. It must have been done military style, since he had to preserve stability. How did he manage all this?
I also can�t find out where this was done, in what country, town, gym, or who were the judges present. If it was weighed and if it was underweight or overweight according to the face value of the plates on the bar. This poses the question. Did they take it at plate and collar and bar face value, or did they weigh it and give the actual weight, regardless of what the plates indicated.
For some time now I have been trying to get a copy of the Court case that Saxon had brought against him by Sandow- the trial transcript that is. I know the trial might have taken place at Birmingham Assizes�there�s a lovely word for you- but I can�t be sure about this.
The fussing over a claim Saxon made to the effect that he had lifted a weight Sandow had failed to lift.
It seems that they had a contest. Saxon bent pressed some poundage around 275- long, long way from his 336 or even his reported 370. Sandow failed to come to erect position with the weight, although he did get it to arm�s length- right arm I think.
The judge decided in Sandow�s favor and he was awarded 500 pounds�a whopping sum in those days- by the trial�s judge. The judge said, and rightly, that Sandow HAD lifted it above his head. While this may have been LEGALLY right, it was WEIGHLIFTING WRONG.
It might be of interest to you to know that some of Saxon�s lids are still alive and kicking in Manchester, England. Saxon married an English girl from that heavy manufacturing city. But whether they carry the name of Saxon or Hennig, I don�t know. So what you put out night throw a bright glow on what Saxon did or didn�t do.
But a caveat here. Most, if not all of the stuff that has been written about Saxon is but a repetition of what has been written before. In other words, those that came after other writers have accepted what they have written as Gospel.
Same sort of stuff was written about Oscar Wilde, each so called �historian� repeating the load of idiotic junk that had been previously written- such as Wilde having black teeth because of his treatment for syphilis by mercurial medications, and his being combative and throwing fellow students down a flight of stairs when he was at Oxford, and his reply to the Customs agent when asked at the Port of New York on arrival, if he had anything to declare and saying- ONLY my genius. All false, but all repeated ad nauseum in any book you read about Wilde.
I am getting sick and fed up with these steroid filled sods. Does any one of them own self pride and respect. The price they pay for �winning� is their health and the happiness of their families.
I haven�t heard from Ellio since I wrote a month or so ago over that rascality that was taking place in England, engendered by the bunch of toilet paper masquerading as a mag STRENGTH ATHLETE.
I am real sorrowed over the death of the Wanking Wunder�s gal editor Chris. You could pick up that mag and go through it and find not one iota of bullshit. But pick up any one of the Wanker�s men�s mags and the smell of the barnyard wafted out pronto. One had to wear a pair of hip boots so one could wade through the piles of bovine bowel movement without getting one�s Florsheims besmirched.
A 19 inch arm at 198. Come on Uncle Hezikiah. Come on. Goerner in muscular condition didn�t have an arm that big. True, at 290 and a tad overweight, he did have arms that went over 19. But for a man of 198- and I assume his height is not over 5�8 a 19 inch arm would appear so grotesque that one would wonder if he wasn�t suffering from dropsy. Or else his bladder and kidneys were backing up.
I am getting along as well as any man, confined to a wheel chair and unable to walk, and aching in his heart at not being able to do so. I didn�t get out of the house from August 23rd until last Saturday, October 10th. Then Vera took me over to her place to be climbed over, scaled, and trampled on like Mount Everest, by the two boys�if anyone has sense, he would try and find out where kids this age 5 and 7- get their bloody energy. I ain�t seen anything like it since the last Boston Marathon. They ran everywhere. One would think they�d never heard of walking. But it was marvelous to get out of the house and see the little sods again. They were delighted at my appearance.
That�s what makes my day. Their love and affection is so unconditional. So without the slightest reservation. They jus love you for who you are,
Best of everything to you and yours,
Chas.

Posted by TheEditor @ 08:32 PM CST
8/15/2008: First half of a letter from Charles A. Smith to Joe, dated Oct 19, 1987
Friday, August 15, 2008
Letter from Charles A. Smith of July 16, 1987:
Dear Joe,
Thanks for your letter post dated July 13th which reached me yesterday.
I am enclosing a cutting sent me by Joe Assirati or someone. As you will see, their surmise that only ONE death has taken place in the USA as a result of steroid use is grossly in error. You might- just a suggestion- get a paragraph or so out of it for your next newsletter. Joe is also preparing something for you on Charlie Assirati, his brother, who passed away recently. C has might, with more than the usual justification, be described as England�s Tony Sansone, although he wasn�t as tall. You should have seen him when he was in his prime.
Re the situation at the Collection. It is thus. I am no longer there. Last Wednesday, July 8th, I wasn�t feeling good at all. Hadn�t slept well for a week or so and was feeling real down. So I called Terry up at his home, since I couldn�t get him at the Collection. I told him these words. �Please don�t bother picking me up tomorrow. I haven�t slept well and I am in a bad temper.��He hasn�t called me since so there we are.
The last thing I was working on there was translating for Jan from French to English, excerpts from Las Rois De La Force- about Sandwina and Athleta and her daughters, Brada, Anna and Louise.
When referring to ED I was being lazy, not wanting to write out Ellington Darden to the full.
I am glad you and your lady have talked at length re Ell�s offer. And of course you know that you have my heartfelt wishes for the best of luck in whatever you do. It is just, to me, that heaving away almost twenty years appears somewhat shortsighted. In my opinion I think it better for both of you if you stay put, but try and work for Ell from where you are, doing both jobs and thus having your cake and eating it too.
I has a nice and very lengthy letter from Herb Glossbrenner, who sent me a copy of his mag, saying he hoped I would subscribe and also saying he would welcome continued correspondence. I haven�t replied yet, but will do so. However, twenty bucks for a quarterly mag does seem a bit steep to me, and also I can�t afford to pay it at the present time.
Also had a nice letter from David Chapman who tells me he will be visiting England this fall to call in on Webster and will also pat Joe Assirati a visit. He has written Joe to this effect.
There are lots of things that happened that I am at a loss to explain to myself. But that�s all water under the bridge now and I have what�s left of my life to think of. I have been double dealt before, but then it was at least done by an expert and I didn�t know what was happening. This time I did, but I had made a promise and I meant to keep it whatever.
Yes, Pacifico was arrested- AGAIN- for steroids and was sentenced. He is to perform some considerable period of community service. But instead of this community service being as it is in England, where they make the high and mighty as well as the lowly, mow old folks� lawns, paint their houses and repair their toilets, Pacifico�s �service� consists of his going around and lecturing to youth groups on the dangers of steroid use. I am told it takes him two to three hours to get his tongue out of his cheek when he gets homes from his chores.
Kennedy rarely if at all replies to letters. His style is more like Balik�s in that he phones. He does phone me at long spaced intervals and occasionally I get a letter of two or three lines. But that�s it. I�m a little suspecting of brother W�[not Weider]. Don�t know why but he seems to be a little too pushy for my liking. However I may be grossly in error here since I don�t know enough about the bloke to express a valid opinion. Re McCallum- who�s he? � I suspect that Kennedy simply used your query as �filler�.
His new writing find Greg Zulak is some find. In one article in the issue slamming Cheery Chinmore, he says that squat racks weren�t know in Steinborn�s day, which is a dump of donkey dust since they WERE KNOWN AND BUILT. In fact in 1922 Ottley Coulter tells you how to make them in his Apollo Course, as I may have mentioned. In another �gem� he gives press behind necks as a sterling exercise to develop the PECS. Well well. We live and learn don�t we?
Amazing.
I do hope they treat your article ok. But Balik has a pen crazy dame in his employ as copy editor. She is said to be an editorial worker for NBC in Hollywood. She knows naught about weight training in any of its forms, but manages to emasculate stories, and would probably do so if she was a lifting expert. And it�s so far back now- way way back in the middle thirties- when I first wrote an article for IM that I can�t remember if I was all agog over its appearance or not. I guess I must have been.
As for you being an accepted author. Ain�t you that already? Yeah.
I intend to write a letter to Glossbrenner which will have the same sentiments as expressed by you. Olympic lifting will only die in this country if we allow it to die. I agree with Rudy Sablo who is of the opinion that US lifters are too bloody lazy too train as they should do. And of course I blame Hoffie in the long run for his monopolizing the sport as he did for so many years. We will see the same thing happening to Bodybuilding because of the Wanking Wunder�s monopoly of it now.
That opinion in Reno�s news letter that money can cure Olympic lifting�s ills is stupid and symptomatic of the times we live in when it is the expressed opinion of so many that every man has his price- watch the Contra hearings for verification of this. I can recall training with the Egyptian world champs in 1941 at their club. No saunas, no hot showers- cold water and can it get cold in Egypt, contrary to what you might think. Their club room was a disgrace by modern standards. Their diet as poor- Khoofts and bisella and stuff like that, yet they produced world champs and busted world records all over the place. If the spirit- note I sais the SPIRIT is there the body will be also and we will have champs.
I understand that Mae Mollica went to St. Lucia with Rick Wayne. I am also told there is some considerable acrimony twixt he and the WW of WH. Eo we will see. I understand Mae is said to be a bright gal.
The historian story is typical of the WW�s. Nice sounding title means no money has to be paid out. Am I cynical? Or is this just past experience speaking?
Re York, there are repeated rumors- note I said rumors- that once this suit is settled between Grimek and The Heirs, the company will be sold and the possibility exists that the mag will GO GO GO. I do hope not. I also doubt if Delinger would entertain any articles from me. Speak of Smith and you speak of the WW of WH.
Well it�s bloody hot- again, and I am sitting drinking iced coffee- HONEST, cross my heart.
[then after some comments on the Contra hearings�] What a bloody world.
With these inspiring words I take leave of you with the always good wishes to you and yours.
Chas.
Letter from Charles A. Smith of July 16, 1987:
Dear Joe,
Thanks for your letter post dated July 13th which reached me yesterday.
I am enclosing a cutting sent me by Joe Assirati or someone. As you will see, their surmise that only ONE death has taken place in the USA as a result of steroid use is grossly in error. You might- just a suggestion- get a paragraph or so out of it for your next newsletter. Joe is also preparing something for you on Charlie Assirati, his brother, who passed away recently. C has might, with more than the usual justification, be described as England�s Tony Sansone, although he wasn�t as tall. You should have seen him when he was in his prime.
Re the situation at the Collection. It is thus. I am no longer there. Last Wednesday, July 8th, I wasn�t feeling good at all. Hadn�t slept well for a week or so and was feeling real down. So I called Terry up at his home, since I couldn�t get him at the Collection. I told him these words. �Please don�t bother picking me up tomorrow. I haven�t slept well and I am in a bad temper.��He hasn�t called me since so there we are.
The last thing I was working on there was translating for Jan from French to English, excerpts from Las Rois De La Force- about Sandwina and Athleta and her daughters, Brada, Anna and Louise.
When referring to ED I was being lazy, not wanting to write out Ellington Darden to the full.
I am glad you and your lady have talked at length re Ell�s offer. And of course you know that you have my heartfelt wishes for the best of luck in whatever you do. It is just, to me, that heaving away almost twenty years appears somewhat shortsighted. In my opinion I think it better for both of you if you stay put, but try and work for Ell from where you are, doing both jobs and thus having your cake and eating it too.
I has a nice and very lengthy letter from Herb Glossbrenner, who sent me a copy of his mag, saying he hoped I would subscribe and also saying he would welcome continued correspondence. I haven�t replied yet, but will do so. However, twenty bucks for a quarterly mag does seem a bit steep to me, and also I can�t afford to pay it at the present time.
Also had a nice letter from David Chapman who tells me he will be visiting England this fall to call in on Webster and will also pat Joe Assirati a visit. He has written Joe to this effect.
There are lots of things that happened that I am at a loss to explain to myself. But that�s all water under the bridge now and I have what�s left of my life to think of. I have been double dealt before, but then it was at least done by an expert and I didn�t know what was happening. This time I did, but I had made a promise and I meant to keep it whatever.
Yes, Pacifico was arrested- AGAIN- for steroids and was sentenced. He is to perform some considerable period of community service. But instead of this community service being as it is in England, where they make the high and mighty as well as the lowly, mow old folks� lawns, paint their houses and repair their toilets, Pacifico�s �service� consists of his going around and lecturing to youth groups on the dangers of steroid use. I am told it takes him two to three hours to get his tongue out of his cheek when he gets homes from his chores.
Kennedy rarely if at all replies to letters. His style is more like Balik�s in that he phones. He does phone me at long spaced intervals and occasionally I get a letter of two or three lines. But that�s it. I�m a little suspecting of brother W�[not Weider]. Don�t know why but he seems to be a little too pushy for my liking. However I may be grossly in error here since I don�t know enough about the bloke to express a valid opinion. Re McCallum- who�s he? � I suspect that Kennedy simply used your query as �filler�.
His new writing find Greg Zulak is some find. In one article in the issue slamming Cheery Chinmore, he says that squat racks weren�t know in Steinborn�s day, which is a dump of donkey dust since they WERE KNOWN AND BUILT. In fact in 1922 Ottley Coulter tells you how to make them in his Apollo Course, as I may have mentioned. In another �gem� he gives press behind necks as a sterling exercise to develop the PECS. Well well. We live and learn don�t we?
Amazing.
I do hope they treat your article ok. But Balik has a pen crazy dame in his employ as copy editor. She is said to be an editorial worker for NBC in Hollywood. She knows naught about weight training in any of its forms, but manages to emasculate stories, and would probably do so if she was a lifting expert. And it�s so far back now- way way back in the middle thirties- when I first wrote an article for IM that I can�t remember if I was all agog over its appearance or not. I guess I must have been.
As for you being an accepted author. Ain�t you that already? Yeah.
I intend to write a letter to Glossbrenner which will have the same sentiments as expressed by you. Olympic lifting will only die in this country if we allow it to die. I agree with Rudy Sablo who is of the opinion that US lifters are too bloody lazy too train as they should do. And of course I blame Hoffie in the long run for his monopolizing the sport as he did for so many years. We will see the same thing happening to Bodybuilding because of the Wanking Wunder�s monopoly of it now.
That opinion in Reno�s news letter that money can cure Olympic lifting�s ills is stupid and symptomatic of the times we live in when it is the expressed opinion of so many that every man has his price- watch the Contra hearings for verification of this. I can recall training with the Egyptian world champs in 1941 at their club. No saunas, no hot showers- cold water and can it get cold in Egypt, contrary to what you might think. Their club room was a disgrace by modern standards. Their diet as poor- Khoofts and bisella and stuff like that, yet they produced world champs and busted world records all over the place. If the spirit- note I sais the SPIRIT is there the body will be also and we will have champs.
I understand that Mae Mollica went to St. Lucia with Rick Wayne. I am also told there is some considerable acrimony twixt he and the WW of WH. Eo we will see. I understand Mae is said to be a bright gal.
The historian story is typical of the WW�s. Nice sounding title means no money has to be paid out. Am I cynical? Or is this just past experience speaking?
Re York, there are repeated rumors- note I said rumors- that once this suit is settled between Grimek and The Heirs, the company will be sold and the possibility exists that the mag will GO GO GO. I do hope not. I also doubt if Delinger would entertain any articles from me. Speak of Smith and you speak of the WW of WH.
Well it�s bloody hot- again, and I am sitting drinking iced coffee- HONEST, cross my heart.
[then after some comments on the Contra hearings�] What a bloody world.
With these inspiring words I take leave of you with the always good wishes to you and yours.
Chas.

Posted by TheEditor @ 05:54 AM CST
8/8/2008: Letter from Charles A. Smith to Joe Roark dated October 9, 1987
Friday, August 8, 2008
Letter from Charles A. Smith to Joe Roark dated October 9, 1987
[Please keep in mind these thoughts are from Charles� perspective and that the other people mentioned may have a different view of the same circumstances. I maintain the spelling CAS used.]
Dear Joe,
Your latest MuscleSearch arrived yesterday and I was most interested in that bit re Albert Beckles and his age.
Two days ago I received a letter from our smoked salmon �which still hasn�t arrived- in Alaska, Denis Weiss. Here is what he had to say re the age of Beckles.
�He [Beckles, CAS],) send me (sic) a copy of his passport which shows a 1930 date which in fact would put him at age 57 as he has stated. TOO BAD HE USED WHITE OUT TO CHANGE AN EIGHT TO A ZERO, BECAUSE THAT PROVES I WAS CORRECT IN STATING THAT HE IS IN FACT 48 YEARS OF AGE AS I STATED.�
My caps, CAS.
I have never believed that Beckles was as old as he said. If he was, then he would be a medical anomaly. Just look at his skin texture and his muscle tone. Just not those of a man close to sixty years of age. Look at the others who are around- Vince Gironda and others of his age group. You�ll see what I mean.
Weiss has me captivated. He never writes unless he wants some information. In each letter, after asking for info on how to develop this or that, or info on how to do this, that or the other, he always dangles that smoked salmon before me like a carrot on a stick hanging in front of a donkey.
Let me draw your attention to something else, which might make you keep your guard up when dealing with this bird.
Some time ago, he wrote and asked me if I wouldn�t like to write a series of questions and answers for him, for pay of course. I wrote back saying this would be very nice, since I was slightly strapped for the jolly old filthy. But I asked some questions like where, when and in what mag the material would appear. Whose name would appear as author. How much would be paid. How would the payment be made and other such stuff. In other words I sniffed a very large rodent.
After some time, back comes his reply � �forget my proposition for a while, we�ll get back to you later.�
Then YOU call me and tell me he asked you to look up that Q&A stuff that Grimek used to do for S&H. You turn him down. Now- dig the following- this from his letter, some of which dealt with Beckles.
�Bob Kennedy and I are in the process of inking a book contract with a major publisher in New York City. THE PUBLISHERS ARE INTERESTED IN A QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FORMAT and I am really keen since I have always wanted to try my hand at writing a book of this nature��.�
Need I say more?
At the end of his letter he asks for info on exercises that will strengthen the muscles for arm wrestling and adds��I still haven�t forgotten the promise of smoked salmon��
Now here is a man who professes to be, or poses as, a weight training expert with books to his credit and he is asking me how to exercise and what movements are good for what muscles. Which MIGHT indicate he knows not a bloody thing about exercises, gets his seeming expertise from others and what they wrote, and hasn�t the sense to get him a kinesiology text book and see how the muscles function. Proof?
In his book MASS, written with Kennedy I took him to task for saying the WASHER TECHNIQUE was new. This �technique� consists of adding washers to a bar, weighing a few ounces, instead of the usual 1-1/4 plates and up. I pointed out that this was being used �and in fact originated in England in the late Twenties and was used by a load of British lifters including Ron Walker. I demanded that he tell me where he got it from, since his book MASS carried a banner across the top of the front cover saying �NEW BODYBUILDING SECRETS.�
After some time, back came the reply, �I got it out of a 1960 edition of IRON MAN MAGAZINE.� You will notice, if you have his book, and have read it ,Roark note: I do not and have not] that there is no credit given for his lifting something out of IM- as IM gave no credit for the innumerable times this technique has appeared in the old British HEALTH AND STRENGTH as well as countless other British mags.
This Dennis Weiss is a joker to be watched.
Thanks for mentioning me in the Hise interview.
Yes, I agree some people are very lax, or discourteous, in answering letters.
Re this ARTHUR JOHNSON. There are two possibilities here. One is that this may be ARTHUR HARRIS, a finely built black kid who lived in the Bronx and was trained by me when I was teaching weight training at the Bronx YMCA. Arthur did take part in a number of Mr. A contests, starting in the very late forties. He had an exceptional build. The other possibility is that the man may have been HARRY JOHNSON who did win the Mr. America contest- if my memory serves me correctly. He was round in the late fifties, early sixties and several of his articles were published in IM.
By the way, it was I who started the weightlifting club or classes in the Bronx YMCA in the late forties- 1947 nut of course, the usual happened- as it always does with me- when I left the Y another cat came along- Mannie Tsingis and took all the credit for starting up the lifting classes. I got it so big that it became the major activity at the Y to a point where we took two handball courts away from the handball players, thereby starting up the Civil War all over again.
Not too much else to write about. A new world record snatch was made at the recent world championships. Krastov, the Bulgarian, although he placed third to Kuralov, did a snatch of 476. I can remember when any covey dead lifting that went around bragging.
It would be nice to have a line or two from you,
Best to you and yours,
Chas.
At the peril of being regarded as cynical, I would venture to suggest that the reason Beckles encourages the controversy over his age is that it is the best and cheapest way to obtain publicity I have ever seen. Keeps his name before the public. But for all this, he does have a remarkable physique for his age- which I think isn�t 57 but 49. CAS

Posted by TheEditor @ 09:50 AM CST