Gold’s Gym Venice, back in the day: 1006 Pacific Avenue, Venice, California
On rare occasions the (mostly) sports site Deadspin.com has covered bodybuilding, strength, and fitness topics. One of the best such articles was posted in August 2018: Sex, Steroids, And Arnold: The Story Of The Gym That Shaped America. This oral history of the original Goldโs Gym in Venice, California, covers the mecca’s creation by Joe Gold in 1965 until it started to go mainstream in 1978. Journalist David Davis interviews seemingly everyone of note (except Arnold Schwarzenegger, unfortunately) who was still living. (Several, including Jim Morris, Ric Drasin, Eddie Giuliani, and Franco Columbu subsequently passed away.) Itโs a long read, but highly recommended. What follows are some juicy excerpts.
JOE GOLD
Jim Morris: What made Goldโs Gym Goldโs Gym? Joe Gold. Literally and figuratively. There are people who have a great sense of the body and how it moves and how it feels and how it works. Joe had all of that. He knew anatomy and he knew instinctively how the body worked and how it should feel. He applied that to his machinery. When Joe would make a piece of equipment, it just felt right. He knew how it should feel to exercise.
Franco Columbu: I would go to Joe and say, โI need a different bar for the triceps pushdown machine to grab. Not a straight oneโI want it to be slightly bent.โ He say, โOkay, Franco.โ The next day he show up with the piece. I say, โPerfect, Joe.โ
Lou Ferrigno:ย Nobody could drop his weights in the gym. One time I dropped a dumbbell. He was like, โYo, Louie, get outta here, you fat fuck.โ Even today, if someone drops a dumbbell, I get upset because I learned from Joe.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
John Balik: Joe Weider first told Arnold to go to Vinceโs [Gym] because they were doing business together. I was standing next to Vince at the desk when Arnold walked in for the first time. He was wearing flip-flops, white shorts, and a string T-shirt. Arnold was probably the biggest heโd ever been; he weighed maybe 255 pounds. He said in very broken English, โIโm Arnold Schwarzenegger. Iโm Mr. Universe.โ Vince took the cigar out of his mouth and said, โYou just look like a fat fuck to me.โ
Bill Grant: Arnold was ultra-competitive. It was no bullshit and it was, โI donโt want to lose.โ I can remember we were doing squats one time in the gym. We said we were going to do 12 reps. So Arnold finished his and Iโm on the last set, and heโs counting: โ10, 11, 12, 13.โ I racked the bar, and Arnold says, โBill, what are you doing?โ I said, โNothing.โ He says, โWe agreed to do 12 reps. You did 13 reps. You did one rep more than me! Youโre an asshole!โ Iโm like, โArnold, cโmon, man.โ But I love that competitive side of him. Any champion doesnโt like to lose.
Franco Columbu: Arnold had something else that most people donโt have and that was, number one, glamour. It came from inside out. Number two, more ambition than all of them. Number three, he had to do it or he would go back to Austria like nothing. He was not born rich in Los Angeles or New York, okay?
STEROIDS
John Balik: It was mostly Dianabol, and Arnold brought Primobolan from Europe. It evolved through competitive people who werenโt afraid to experiment on themselves. What do you need to do to win? An athlete will do anything short of killing himself to win. In other words, bigger, stronger, faster.
Ric Drasin: Weโd go see this pediatrician on Hollywood Boulevard. One side of the waiting room was pregnant mothers and kids, the other side was bodybuilders. Then heโd give you your shots.
Eddie Giuliani: Guys would drive down to Mexico with a broad and a kid. โOh, me and my wife came down to spend the afternoon,โ theyโd say, and meanwhile the trunk was full of shit. The Mexican connection.
Boyer Coe: If you eliminated anabolic steroids for a contest, and the curtains would open, guess how many people would be standing onstage? Nobody.
NUTRITION
Ken Waller: Arnold and Franco and myself and Eddie Giuliani and Kent Kuehnโwe would all go down to a place called The Germans after we worked out. It was like a ritual. Everyone would get at least a one-pound hamburger patty, sometimes weโd get two of them, and like six eggs.
Eddie Giuliani: Nobody knew anything about nutrition in those days. The only thing we did was eat. Things were real cheap. A six-egg omelet at The Germans was like a buck and a half.
Jim Morris: A guy named Bob Gajdaโa very nerdy fellowโgot on a desiccated liver kick where he was taking 200 pills a day. Because of him, the rest of us started taking 200 desiccated liver pills a day. We all ate tuna fish. One day, I realized that I had been chewing the same mouthful of tuna fish for a half-hour. It just wouldnโt go down. How the fuck am I going to get this tuna fish down? My protein drinkโwhich consisted of eggs and desiccated liver powder and milkโwas sitting there, so I dumped the tuna fish into it and mixed it up and chugged it. So, yeah.
THE MECCA OF BODYBUILDING
Frank Zane: To pay $40 or $60 a year for membership at a place like [Gold’s Gym Venice]โare you kidding? It was all serious people. I would go there like 6, 7 in the morning. Thatโs when the real serious guys were working out. Zabo was always there. There was no noise or nothing. Just silence. And you had access to all that equipment. It was fantastic. That was my experience coming to the mecca, and it really was then. It really was the mecca.
