BIGGER: The Joe Weider Story

[Deleted]

www.digitalmuscle.com/bodybuilding/joe-weider-movie-concludes-production-heads-to-france/

[TexasRanger]

Hi Henry,

I've had the chance to speak to several people who got caught up in the Weider mafia.  

Mike Mentzer, as many may recall, talked about the sham and scam of the Weiders following the Mr. Olympia where Arnold won in 1980, tried to form a union to ensure fair pay and benefits for bodybuilders, etc., along with Kalman Szkalak.  Mike had nothing good to say about the Weiders including their morals or business practices.  And the Weiders not only ran off but got many of the people associated trying to legitimize some of bodybuilding blackballed for years in the bodybuilding circles.

A Texas NPC winner (won't disclose his name) who I knew in the 90s told about the "casting couch"requirements of the Weider organization, how fixed the competitions are, the male prostitution and association with male porn.  He also said the Weiders sold bogus supplements and other products and their magazines were written, for the most part, by ghost writers.  (This has come out in recent years.)   He said he was young, dumb and trusted the Weiders while juicing and spending thousands on food and supplements, but, if you didn't follow the rules (casting couch), your career was mud.

All 3rd hand information, I know.  Mentzer's passed on and can't speak for what I posted nor can the Weiders.  So take my information as rumor, nothing more.

But, if you look around the web, you'll find similar stories about Ben, some about Joe, regarding their behavior and questionable business conduct.  I think the book Muscle Smoke and Mirrors also includes some of it.

[TexasRanger]

Weider's cross arms wanna be portrait and bust? Of course we know Joey W. looked nothing like that..his ego was 10x the size of his arms.

[dynoman]

I remember when I was a high school senior in 1976, and I bought a Weider weight gain supplement and I had the canister in my gym bag,and I was showing a friend it, and one of the members at the gym asked if he could check it out,I showed him and he read the ingredients, and he told he that it was garbage,he told me I should have bought Bob Hoffman's weight gain powder instead, much better product,last time I ever bought a Weider product, live and learn I guess.

[TexasRanger]

I forgot, Joe put his head on a bust of Robby Robinson...

Lyle McDonald, who has written several bb'ing nutritional books, on Weider:

I agree that Joe is a total crook and con man. I thought I'd share a little
story with you to help fuel the fire.
One of my professors writes for Ironman magazine and, apparently, they were
solicited by Weider to run an ad for one of his miracle supplements.
Well, the ad claimed that a study had been done at University of Cal San
Diego and even went so far as to reprint "results" from this study
showing how well the supplement worked. Well, my teacher was at UCLA
and knew that the study had not been done (i.e. Weider was lying out
his ass and happened to get caught). Well, UCSD took Weider to court
and ended up settling out of court for something like $40k to actually
perform a study on the stuff. Sadly, the money is but a drop in the
bucket for Mr. Weider considering that his supplements sell millions
each year. But, it points out just how full of it he is despite who
he claims to be.

Lyle

groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/misc.fitness/6BErZnhzbIo

[TexasRanger]

[TexasRanger]

Joe's biggest biz was actually in the gay bodybuilding porn markets and bad supplements, which is similar to stories we've heard regarding Vince's buddy Rheo Blair.  Joe published magazines such as Adonis -- there were two or three others -- which people like Vince Gironda posed in.  The exact quotes are out on the web, but, Vince talked about Weider's magazines and Weider's involvement in the gay side of the bodybuilding business, which is alluded to in the book Pumping Iron and other publications.  

When Weider hit the scene in the 1950s and 60s, so-called “physique magazines” were the closest thing to gay porn you could find. Weider—who is survived by his wife, Betty—didn’t hesitate to encourage his bodybuilding protegees to pose in his magazine to help fund their training.



There were even allegations Weider “pimped” his athletes to closeted gay men—but it was all very “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

www.queerty.com/physique-magazine-magnate-controversial-bodybuilding-icon-joe-weider-dies-at-93-20130324



View at your own risk:



www.ebay.com/i/122881788040?chn=ps

Weider's ads were such a facade and brain washing tool, it is ridiculous...he learned how to play on the ego of so many males, it is ridiculous.     Weider and his peers had so, so many of us believing the lies and scams.  And as was discussed on the other thread, he (and Bob Kennedy, Dan Laurie, etc.) had us believing women were/are attracted to juiced up dudes.  "Not"


Read the book Little Big Men...great discussion on how Charles Atlas and bodybuilding plays to the male insecurities...like "BIG ARMS" are going to address anything in your life. 

Size, masculinity, and physical appeal are equated with bodybuilding, and through magazines and ads that work by invidious comparison, they are hyped to an insecure public. Weider's latter-day versions of Atlas ads have not changed. The sexism is still present in his images of fine women seemingly delighted in being dwarfed by their he-men. The men all hold large impressive weights, while the women hold smaller, chrome plated versions of the same. It exaggerates their weakness to be cast in these scenes, but sales of these magazines have risen dramatically in the past 6 years.



For all this heterosexual posturinig, bodybuilding has long existed under a cloud of suspicion. Be it the inordinate attention paid to oneself, the preoccupation with prancing about on stage wearing as little as possible, or an awareness that for all that form there is little function behind bodybuilding, many outsiders see bodybuilders as somehow associated with homosexuality.

Caught in a similar quandry, many bodybuilders simultaneously search for requisite masculinity and a repudiation of homosexuality. Ironically, the selling of sexual favors to gay men is widespread in Southern Califarnia bodybuilding. Estimates of the activities range from 40% to 75% depending on who is queried., It is called "hustling" by people at the gym, but it only involves the male members of the community. Hustling is a range of transactions involving a bodybuilder and a gay male. Only on rare occasions is a woman the procurer of sexual favors. The act of hustling may entail selling one's time for "beefcake" photographs, or nude dancing at all-male events, but primarily it involves sexual acts. The latter might be passive or active, depending on one's conscience. Hustling is seen as distinct from being gay, a dichotomy made by both bodybuilders as well as myself. The two may merge, as when a gay bodybuilder engages in the act of hustling, but informants pointed out that very few of the bodybuilders they knew who hustled were also gay.


The process by which a bodybuilder moves from his conscious heterosexual upbringing to hustling is complex. Hustling is not found equally often among all strata in tbe gym. Pros, for instance, do not hustle that much, while amateurs do so relatively more frequently.

www.ergogenics.org/alan-klein-crisis-contradiction-in-bodybuilding.html

[fastfor40]

Aug 12, 2018 22:39:03 GMT dynoman said:

I remember when I was a high school senior in 1976, and I bought a Weider weight gain supplement and I had the canister in my gym bag,and I was showing a friend it, and one of the members at the gym asked if he could check it out,I showed him and he read the ingredients, and he told he that it was garbage,he told me I should have bought Bob Hoffman's weight gain powder instead, much better product,last time I ever bought a Weider product, live and learn I guess.

I remember that stuff. I bought two cases in 1975, and although it had an odd taste, it was certainly thick and went down well enough.  My mother, however, was suspicious as to what her little darling was drinking, so she asked to see one of the cans.  She was one of the first of the label readers, and after a quick glance she told me to bring "that crap" downstairs. 

The first ingredient, as it turned out, was sugar.

I'm not sure what happened to the weight gainer my mom confiscated, but she reimbursed me, God bless her.

[Michael]

Aug 13, 2018 11:27:17 GMT @thinman said:

       All I have to say is,"Ouch".

[mr potatohead]

Aug 13, 2018 23:03:23 GMT fastfor40 said:

I'm not sure what happened to the weight gainer my mom confiscated, but she reimbursed me, God bless her.

Yes, indeed! God Bless her!

[TexasRanger]

Hmmm.  So who did he rip off for that photoshop...Rich Gaspari?  Lou Ferrigno? 

Probably someone on his casting couch no doubt.

[Bruce Tackett]

Ben Weider was a Napoleon scholar. It was he who proved that Napoleon had been poisoned.

[TexasRanger]

Aug 29, 2018 15:40:47 GMT Bruce Tackett said:

Ben Weider was a Napoleon scholar. It was he who proved that Napoleon had been poisoned.

Oh...I get it...you're being funny!!!  

Ben...a scholar?  OMG...my stomach is cramping from the laffter!!!  

[TexasRanger]

Aug 29, 2018 15:45:26 GMT @thinman said:

It's not a Photoshop, it's an art painting by Boris Vallejo

Either way, Boris used someone else from the neck down...again, probably someone from the Weider Brothers legendary casting couch...

What a friggin' BS ego.  

[TexasRanger]

Aug 29, 2018 17:25:01 GMT @thinman said:

TexasRanger, I don't know if the painting was commissioned by Weider, doesn't matter to me. But when I was a kid the Joe Weider icon was cool in a graphic design way. When I got the Weider course here in Canada, the wall charts had Ben Weider wearing a blazer in the top corner not Joe so was disappointed. I don't know why Joe Weider never used his actual self in advertising like Charles Atlas did.

Looking at vintage photographs of Joe, he had a fairly good build but not dynamic enough for his ads, he didn't seem to show a good six pack like Sandow.

www.davedraper.com/fusionbb/fbbuploads/1435111892-6_Exercise_Charts_Weider_System.pdf

Sandow was likely Joe's inspiration, me thinks.

Joe was all about Joe and controlling his empire.  Bios, magazine articles and people who've been in the IFBB or one of the other Weider-owned groups all agreed.

I know I'm repeating myself, but, Joe -- like many of his peers -- sold fraudulent products (like his "Anabolic Packs") and scammed thousands (millions?) off of people, fostered the use of steroids and stronger and more dangerous options -- eg insulin -- by glorifying people that lived on that stuff and passed off bogus training and nutritional information as legit, safe and healthy.   Add the casting couch and other things and all I can say is I wish I hadn't shelled out $$$ that lined that asshole's pockets.