Being a closeted gay kid, to me it seemed that if I hit a gym and began lifting, somehow, in that era, I was going to be questioned. I knew I was gay from the time I had hormones and saw my first Tarzan movie. I stuck to wrestling and rugby in school. I loved it, but in my teenage brain I couldn’t explain my blend of awe and attraction to those men on stage.
I still remember the buzz about it the next day in high school, and I remember that it wasn’t entirely positive. World contest was televised on ABC’s Wide World of Sports between Arnold, Sergio Oliva and Dave Draper. How could guys look like that I wanted to be like that too. I remember the old bodybuilding magazines of the era like “Strength and Health,” when Larry Scott was competing and Arnold Schwarzenegger arrived on the scene with that supposedly unmarketable name.
I was born in the mid-1950s and remember the flavor of the 1960s.
