Muscletown USA: Bob Hoffman and the Manly Culture of York Barbell

Rating:
Summary: A history of the unique physical culture of weightlifting.
Review: "For anyone interested in the inside story of the iron game in this century, the publication of Muscletown USA is the event of the year, perhaps the decade."-Clarence Bass, Ripped Enterprises website

"Muscletown USA will quickly be viewed as THE standard reference work for people interested in the modern history of weight training. It fills a large void in our knowledge of twentieth-century American sports." -Jan Todd, University of Texas, Austin

From the 1930s to the 1980s, the capital of weightlifting in America was York, Pennsylvania, the home of the York Barbell Company. Bob Hoffman, the founder of York Barbell, propagated an ideology of success for Americans seeking physical improvement. Often called the "Father of World Weightlifting," Hoffman was a pioneer in marketing barbells and health foods. He popularized weight training and inaugurated a golden age of American weightlifting. Muscletown USA-part biography, part business history, and part sports history-chronicles how Hoffman made York the mecca of manly culture for millions of followers worldwide.

Hoffman created his so-called muscle empire out of an oil-burner business that he started in the early 1920s. Within a decade, his passion for sport exceeded his need to produce oil burners and by the outset of the Depression he began manufacturing barbells at the factory. He soon discovered a willing public of aspiring weightlifters like himself who would buy not only barbells but also health and fitness products. Hoffman soon recruited a remarkable group of athletes, whom he tagged his "York Gang." He gave these men jobs in the factory, where they trained for national and international meets. Gradually, Hoffman emerged as one of the most prominent muscle peddlers in America, using his fame and fortune to promote competitive weightlifting, bodybuilding, and powerlifting. Muscletown USA reveals other innovations in which Hoffman played a major role, including weight training for athletes, health foods, bottled spring water, isometrics, and women's weightlifting. Even anabolic steroids, first used by weightlifters in the early 1960s, were a direct outgrowth of the fitness culture spawned by Hoffman.

Meticulously researched and engagingly written, Fair's book will appeal to a wide range of readers, including anyone fascinated by American sports history and the iron game.

Rating:
Summary: Hoffman was crystal-clear to me as a kid
Review: A good book, and it seems solid in its accuracy.

I can say that, being a bodybuilder for 25 years and a youth in the 70's when I would buy Strength and Health Magazine, that it was crystal clear that Hoffman had no care for bodybuilding. I was not smitten with his bodybuilding 'writings', and can say that his supplements were garbage which we could barely ingest without vomitting.

It is true that one had to demonstarte athletic prowess along with bodybuilding development to even compete in Hoffman's shows, and then you were posing at about 2 a.m., after the weightlifting events had been completed. Hoffman did much to hold bodybuilding back, and he is only thought of in reverence by those who perhaps live in York.

Rating:
Summary: Please review the book, not Bob Hoffman
Review: As an olympic style lifter and subscriber to Strength and Health during the 60's, I was not aware of the real story behind the York Barbell Club. John Fair has thoroughly researched the Hoffman era and exposed the good and bad side of many of the personalities. For anyone who was active in weightlifting during this period, there are numerous familiar names and anecdotes. Some of the reviewers of this book have gone on a tirade about Bob Hoffman and seem to be assigning a rating based on their hatred for him, not on the quality of the book. Please rate the quality of the book, not the subject of the book.

Rating:
Summary: It's really irrelevant
Review: Comparing what York Barbell controlled to what the Iron game is all about today is like comparing a small Mom n Pop store owner to the Ceo of Wal Mart. The Iron game was in it's infancy and unfortunately, Hoffman did little to promote the sport to the general public. It was for his own ego and to sell his magazines, barbells, weights and food supplements.Comparing what Hoffman had control over back in the old days to where the Iron game is today is totally irrelevant.

Rating:
Summary: Who cares????
Review: Does anybody really care what the York Dumbell outfit did to exploit weightlifting or that Bobby Boy Puffman was just looking for a tax writeoff for his incredibly successful oil burner business?

I find this book boring and totally irrelevant. Recommend Dick Tylers West Coast Bodybuilding Scene instead of this one.

Rating:
Summary: Hoffman did it for his ego alone
Review: Finally we know the truth about Bob Hoffman. That he didn't work out. Didn't eat right and was nowhere near as healthy (actually pretty unhealthy) as he pretended to be.We also discover that Hoffman was not as well liked even among the weightlifters as we had thought.In fact, the whole thing was probably just used by Hoffman as a tax writeoff to offset his successful oil burner business. And in the end, Hoffman did writeoff a lot of the people that he used in his magazines to promote his ridiculously over rated products.Yeah, John D. Fair is correct, Hoffman did it for his ego alone.

Rating:
Summary: An opinon to beat to death
Review: I am familiar with much of the content of the book having been part of the newest "York Gang" and knowing most of the newer characters. Although it is great to have a history of our sport, the author continually qualifies any positive aspects of Bob Hoffman with "He did it for his ego alone." There are enough inaccuracies that I am sure of that I have to question the accuracy of the entire text. One of the characters cited as an accurate historical reference is known to be an exaggerator of far greater proportions then Bob Hoffman ever was. Lastly one of the much much quoted references was run out of York for theft.

Rating:
Summary: An honest analysis of weightlifting in the 1950s
Review: I enjoyed this book and feel that it deals honestly with bodybuilding in that time. The book is extremely well written and documented. It is not a white wash job by any sense of the term. Bob Hoffman was a risk taking promoter who stretched the truth in many instances to promote a cause that he believed in. Like most people who bring about change he was highly concentrated in one area and had many character faults in other parts of his personality. He was competing against Charles Atlas who got his build with weights,but continued to deny it to promote his mail order course and Joe Weider who was more interested in bodybuilding than weightlifting. In the end Hoffman almost singlehandedly opened the benefits of weight training to athletes throughout the world and should be given credit for that. Must reading for anyone interested in the history of the sport.

Rating:
Summary: Not the whole story
Review: I have to admit that I was not aware of Hoffmans health problems untill I read this book, although on seeing him in person at shows in York in the 1960's and early 1970's it was very obvious that his physical and mental faculties were declining fast.I also wasn't aware of his problems with Charles Atlas. And while I am not a fan of the Atlas "Dynamic Tension" program, it certaintly couldn't have been any worse for muscular development than the York Simplified Barbell and Dumbell courses or Hoffmans Daily dozen.Hoffmans war with Weider, on the other hand, was well known and obvious. Most of us felt that Weider was just a con man and self promoter. Weider was, in fact, bodybuildings number 1 fan and promoter.The contests promoted by Hoffman were always in the worst venues and under the worst conditions. No air conditioning on a hot summer weekend, uncomfortable seating and disorganization. Some of the bodybuilding shows were held in gymnasiums with a flood light clamped onto a basketball net and the audience sat in the bleachers.The olympic weightlifters didn't fare much better having to compete in auditoriums or gyms in national competitions in 85 to 90 degree temperatures with competitions running all day and untill 2am.The Bodybuilders would get the worse end of the deal. The Mr. America contest would be held in a high school auditorium and contestants would stand on a band leaders pedestal and frequently, the best developed men would lose. In some cases, it would after midnite before the contest (which were always held after weightlfting contests) would start. Smaller contests were held in YMCA gyms or community centers.Of course the biggest losers were the fans who to pay for this nonsense and the sport, which failed to attract any real audience.In the 50's and 60's, bodybuilding lost a lot of good champions who quit in disgust. Some went overseas to compete in and win the NABBA Mr. Universe like Earl Clark, Mickey Hargitay, Enrico Thomas and Elmo Santiago while others just left the sport.Black bodybuilders like George Paine, Arthur Harris, Leroy Colbert. Leon Burke, Bob Walker and Harold Poole and non olympic weightlifter types like Bud Counts, Lynn Lyman, Jerry Ross and Lou Degni would frequently lose to lesser developed olympic lifters with a partial interest in bodybuilding.In the late 50's, American bodybuilders had an alternative with the IFBB and the Weider/Hoffman battles really heated up.Hoffman made a big deal about Chuck Sipes winning the IFBB Mr. America after placing 18th in the AAU Mr. America. The following year, Sipes would defeat Ray Schaeffer, a AAU Mr. America and Amateur NABBA Mr. Universe for the Pro Mr. Universe title.Weider would also sponsor bodybuilders like Clancy Ross, Jack Delinger (who beat Bill Pearl sponsored by York) Doug Strohl and Reg Lewis and others to the NABBA Mr. Universe in London competing directly with Hoffman and giving the great champions of the day, slighted by York Barbell an opportunity to go for the Gold.Hoffman would sponsor the current AAU Mr. America to the NABBA Mr. Universe.Hoffman was also a self promoter of sorts. In the 60's, Hoffman was trying to promote a new "secret" strength and muscle building system using a power rack doing isometrics and isometronics (partial limited range movements in the power rack) offered by York and endorsed by top AAU National Weightlifters and AAU Mr. America winners. In reality, their secret was anabolic steriods and the York people were among the first, if not the first to use steriods.The power rack "secret" system went the way of the hoola hoop once the truth came out.The last AAU show I attended was the 1971 AAU Mr. America. What a thrill it was to see Sergio Oliva, Arnold Schwarzeneggar and Ken Waller in the audience. How disgusting it was to see world class bodybuilders like Ed Corney and Mike Mentzer finish 4th and 10th respectively when both should have been in the top four at least and then losing to York man/Olympic lifter Bill St. John was a joke. The organization was typical York chaos and on a hot June night, the fans and contestants sweltered in 80-degree+ temperatures because the promoters told the school maintenance staff not to turn on the air conditioners.Corney and Mentzer never competed in the AAU again after that.I also recall Hoffmans energy bars having more sugar than nutrition and the Hi Proteen powder had a lot less protein than we thought and was hard to digest. Ditto for the Protein of the Sea, Energol, powdered Lecithin and Papaya Juice that Hoffman peddled.Strength & Health was mainly an olympic lifting news magazine and a catalog for Hoffman products with bodybuilding, fitness and health as a side interest.Hoffman did help some olympic weightlifters like Bob Bednarski, giving both an apartment and a salary (I thought these guys were supposed to be amateurs???) and then tossed him aside after he passed his peak. The best thing that I can say is that I enjoyed the articles in Hoffmans magazines by John McCollum, Bill Starr and Ernie Picket. Muscular Developent was at least initially, a good, quality magazine under York rule that deteriated badly in later years. Some of those AAU contests had some great champions: Olympic lifers-Tony Garcy, Phil Gripaldi, Bill MARCH and Bob Bednarski. Bodybuilders-Harold Poole, Hugo Labra, Don Howorth, Joe Nistam Jr., Frank Zane, Chet Yorton, John Corvello, Eric Pederson, Bob Hinds, Zabo Kosiewski, Jim Haislop, Boyer Coe, Chris Dickerson, Casey Viator, Ken Waller, Ed Corney and Mike Mentzer.Strength & Health and Muscular Development were both catalogs and commercials for York products primarily with some useful information as an afterthought.This book covers a lot about Hoffman, but it misses a lot as well and is not the final word on Hoffman and York Barbell. Bob Hoffman was no saint.

Rating:
Summary: Everything about the old York Barbell Co. and Bob Hoffman
Review: I just finished reading John D. Fair's recently released Muscletown USA: Bob Hoffman and the Manly Culture of York Barbell. If you want to know everything about the old York Barbell phenomenon and the iron game in general get this book It's so good. You may feel like you've been dragged through a repository for used razor blades but at the end your perceptions will be striped of all those idealistic notions you may once have had about what motivates people. And, lest you give up all hope, there are real heroes who come shining through. Fair interviewed all the right people and lays out the Hoffman phenomenon beginning with his great grandfather and ending with his death. From it, you can draw a number of conclusions but probably not that Bob was a healthy man (infected gastric intestinal system, vascular circulation problems), not a strongman (used aluminum weights for his exhibitions), and not a model of post Victorian moral virtue (considered a sexual pariah by York society).

Fair depicts Bob as a man who is singularly focused, surrounding himself with mostly good people but concocting a fictional self-image that he himself came to believe. Believing that he was the world's healthiest man simply by repeatedly saying it, he worked incessantly with very little sleep, though he taught the importance of sufficient rest. Although promoting the benefits of exercise was his life's mission, he exercised little. And, despite his strong interest in nutrition, his diet was poor. There's the ironic incident where Bob's doctor lectures him on his need to exercise more. It's a story full of paradox. As one begins to doubt all of Bob's claims about himself, it turns out that he really was a decorated World War I soldier. Fair makes a case that Bob was sloppy in running his business, yet he was capable of making lots of money and during the depression, when many companies were failing, his York Oil Burner prospered. Though promotion of himself may have been his primary objective, he had linked his ego so tightly to weightlifting that it was impossible for him to promote the one without the other. The result was a financial and promotional boon for the sport. The revelation that encapsulates the book's theme for me is that Hoffman's Hi-Proteen wasn't quite as high in protein as we thought.