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Muscle Beach
St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture by Jan and Terry Todd
Hard by the Santa Monica Pier, on an otherwise empty section of beach, there is a plaque which reads, "The Original Location of Muscle Beach. The Birthplace of the Physical Fitness Boom of the Twentieth Century." Although somewhat hyperbolic, the statement is not far wrong. What began as a sort of playground for acrobatic adults in the years before World War II became, after the war was over and people were looking for a little overdue "R & R," a magnet for men and women who were captivated by the sun, the sand, the skin, and the sense of endless summer that resides in the mythology of Southern California. The original Muscle Beach drew, and helped to shape, the careers of many cultural icons, including Steve Reeves, Jack LaLanne, Mae West, Pudgy Stockton, Vic Tanny, Joe Weider, and, of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
There were, to be sure, other--and earlier--locations where, for a time, physical fitness boomed, albeit under the more precise label of physical culture. Battle Creek, Michigan's Sanitarium, under the energetic, eccentric direction of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg; Bernarr Macfadden's Physical Culture Hotel in Florida; and Robert (Bob) Hoffman's York Barbell Club in York (often called "Muscletown"), Pennsylvania, were among the spots where people came in hopes of improving their strength, their health, their appearance or, more usually, all three. Two things elevated Muscle Beach over these earlier Meccas of strength and health: first, the "Beach" did not depend on the personal force of one man, and second, the location was unbeatable.
American photography, art, advertising, television, and film have traded on the image of a magical Southern California lifestyle since the beginning of the twentieth century. "California dreamin'" is, in a way, the logical extension of the American Dream; and names such as Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and Sunset Boulevard evoke glamour, youth, and good vibrations throughout America. All that was needed to ignite an explosion of interest in the beach lifestyle was a group of insouciant young folks who, by their own example, showed Southern Californians and the world how to have fun in the sun.
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Although some historians note that a gymnastics "horse" was set up on the Santa Monica beach in 1924, or that Kate Giroux, a playground instructor at the beach, installed parallel bars, rings, and a gymnastics platform in 1934, the real Muscle Beach began when Abbye "Pudgy" Evile (Pudgy Stockton) and her boyfriend, Les Stockton, began to meet in the summer of 1939 with a small group of tumblers and hand balancers at a platform built there by the W.P.A. Soon they were joined in the long summer afternoons by others who either liked acrobatics or who thought they would. By 1940, the Beach was bustling, and in the months before the war, Pudgy and Les were joined by accomplished tumbler-balancers such as Glenn Sundby, Bruce Conner, and Wayne Long. The weekend crowds who came to see the free, circus-like performances grew, and grew again, often reaching several thousand spectators.
In the beginning, there were no barbells or dumbells on the beach, but soon they began to appear, brought by weight trainers who were drawn by the jolly camaraderie of the acrobats, most of whom used weights to strengthen their bodies for the rigor of their stunts. The open use of heavy weights by men and women who were such marvelous athletes had another significant effect on the American culture. The nimbleness of these weight-trained athletes went a long way toward convincing anyone who saw them lift and tumble that the use of barbells and dumbells, contrary to the opinion of almost every coach and sports scientist in the country, would not make a person "musclebound." In 1940, it was believed that the lifting of heavy weights would make a person slow and inflexible, even though there was no scientific evidence to support the belief. But no one who watched Pudgy and Les Stockton lift weights and then perform their stunts could still believe in the myth of the musclebound lifter. Such weight training, now universally accepted by coaches and athletes in all sports, demonstrates the precocity of the Muscle Beach Gang.
A story published in an American magazine during those years described the crowded scene as a "wide stretch of sand between hot dog stands and ocean, [with] dozens of big muscular people throwing little muscular people high into the air, shapely girls doing flip-flops on a long platform, agile teen-age boys twisting through space." One of the most crowd-pleasing stunts the Muscle Beach regulars performed was the building of human pyramids. Stunts of this sort, as well as what is known as adagio (in which people are thrown and caught), require careful cooperation. They fostered, and built on, the sense of fellowship engendered by the non-competitive atmosphere which prevailed in the early days. Harold Zinkin, who years later would help to invent the Universal weight machine, said the acrobats "shared everything we knew. It was a happy atmosphere, like a jam session with everyone playing his part."
