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.
10/29/2010: Two brief letters from Charles A. Smith to Joe Roark, June 2 and Jun 13, 1989
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Posted by TheEditor @ 08:07 PM CST
10/22/2010: Pages 3-4 of the May 23, 1989 letter from Charles A. Smith to Joe Roark
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Posted by TheEditor @ 07:48 PM CST
10/15/2010: Letter from Charles A. Smith to Joe Roark May 23, 1989. Page 1-2
Friday, October 15, 2010
Posted by TheEditor @ 10:54 PM CST
10/8/2010: Letter from Charles A. Smith to Joe Roark May 12, 1989
Thursday, October 7, 2010
In 1989 my letters to Charles lessened in length and frequency. This annoyed him considerably, and he pointed out that when he worked for Weider he ran several magazines AND kept his correspondence current.
During that time [1989] my youngest daughter was in college and she was working. I was working a fulltime job and two- and for a brief while three- part time jobs. My full time job had irregular hours- may work 16 hours, go home for 8, come back for work. Is all of this an excuse why my letters decreased? Yup. But what little time I had free needed to be dedicated to my family, AND, frankly, to me, some breathing room. So, I wrote to Charles less.
So this is the setting for this letter May 12, 1989, and why Charles mentions my infrequent writing.
Posted by TheEditor @ 06:34 PM CST
10/1/2010: Conclusion of letter from Charles A. Smith to Joe Roark April 18, 1989
Friday, October 1, 2010
Final page has been edited because home addresses were mentioned. 'Grover' refers to Grover Porter.
Posted by TheEditor @ 09:20 PM CST
