Ben Weider, bodybuilding pioneer, 85
La N
Ben Weider dies at 85
The Gazette
Saturday, October 18, 2008
MONTREAL - Ben Weider, Montreal's baron of body building, who became
an internationally renowned Napoleonic scholar and philanthropist, died
Friday at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal.
His death comes six days before he was to inagurate the permanent
gallery housing his multi-million dollar Napoleon collection at the Montreal
Museum of Fine Arts.
He was 85.
The funeral will be 1 p.m. Monday at Papermans.
Weider published several books on Napoleon and contended that the
French Emperor was poisoned in exile on St. Helena.
In his more than sixty years of involvement in bodybuilding, as
Founding President of the International Brotherhood of Body Builders
(I.F.B.B.),. Weider and his older brother Joe anticipated, then led, the
worldwide fitness revolution and legitimized the sport of bodybuilding.
The I.F.B.B., founded by the Weiders in 1946, has 173 member national
federations worldwide and sanctions thousands of amateur and professional
competitive events.
"I don't know of anyone who, starting with nothing, who did as much
as he did. He was downright heroic," said his biographer, Mike Steere."To do
what he did, to accomplish what he did in face of poverty and prejudice, is
nothing short of heroic."
Ben Weider was born in Montreal Feb. 1, 1923, to Jewish Polish
immigrants. He and his brother Joe dropped out of grade school to support
the family and worked in garment sweatshops and restaurants before he
enlisted in the Canadian Army and serving during World War II.
Originally, Weider wanted to be an architect, but because he was
Jewish, he was denied entry-level positions in Montreal architecture firms,.
He worked with his brother Joe to put out a physique magazine and helped him
operate his mail-order business in weight lifting equipment.
Ben became the promoter and producer of physique contests and traveled
the world as an ambassador of bodybuilding, introducing the sport overseas
and organizing new national federations of the I.F.B.B. In 1947, Joe moved
to New Jersey, later moving the U.S. Weider enterprises to Southern
California, while Ben remained in Montreal.
Weider is survived by his wife, Huguette Drouin, and their three sons
Louis, Eric, and Mark.
© The Gazette 2008
ddc...@yahoo.com
> http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=235b0678-ada...
Joe and Ben were geniuses of the highest order!
Bob Feigel
<nilita20...@yahoo.com> magnanimously proffered:
> Ben Weider dies at 85
I may have told this story before.
When the company that owned natural foods store I managed went into
receivership, I was asked to handle the receivership sale of all the
stock, fixtures and fittings, etc.
After a couple of weeks there was very little left and they receiver's
representative came in and told me to sell the rest or arrange for it
to be thrown away. "If anyone offers you twenty dollars for the entire
lot, then take it."
So I thought, what the hell and took twenty dollars from my wallet and
took the lot.
I won't got into all the goodies I got, but even after giving away
case of Mexican salsas to family and friends, I still had enough to
last for years. We still have the Sabatier knives and books, but there
were also several cardboard boxes full of Weider protein powders and
weight gain products.
These I stored on a shelf in the little shed behind our house in Herne
Bay and forgot about them until one day, while we were sitting on our
back deck enjoying the sun, we saw what we thought was another cat
walk across the top of the fence beside the shed. Half way across, it
looked down, saw our cat also enjoying the sun and fell off ...
landing on our cat, which jumped up as if pissed off, took one look at
the other animal and ran off like she'd been scalded.
For a moment we were too stunned to react until it became clear that
what fell on our cat wasn't another cat. It was the biggest RAT we'd
ever seen and I grabbed a nearby rake and tried unsuccessfully to
whack it before it sort of ambled away under the fence.
Looking back down along the top of fence, I noticed that there was a
large hole allowing access to the shed. Then I checked the shed (which
we used for storage) and noticed the redolent aroma of rat.
Following my nose to the shelf with all those cardboard boxes full of
Weider products I gingerly moved the nearest box and all hell broke
loose. The rats could not have moved faster than I did, but we all
made a quick exit.
Later I discovered that only the fronts of the boxes remained, like a
movie set of a wild west town with nothing behind the store fronts.
Over a period of months the rats had apparently eaten almost all of
the Weider products and had become SUPER-RATS!
It was a dirty, smelly job, but we finally got the whole mess cleared
out and the shed returned to normal. But we still laugh at the memory
of the look on Kitten's face when she realised that what had fallen on
her was a rat nearly her own size. I'm surprised she didn't require
counselling.
--
"It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wax-up and drop-in of Surfing's Golden Years: <http://www.surfwriter.net>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Charlene
> Later I discovered that only the fronts of the boxes remained, like a
> movie set of a wild west town with nothing behind the store fronts.
> Over a period of months the rats had apparently eaten almost all of
> the Weider products and had become SUPER-RATS!
>
> It was a dirty, smelly job, but we finally got the whole mess cleared
> out and the shed returned to normal. But we still laugh at the memory
> of the look on Kitten's face when she realised that what had fallen on
> her was a rat nearly her own size. I'm surprised she didn't require
> counselling.
Now there's a product testimonial!
wd44
Bob Feigel
<charlene...@gmail.com> magnanimously proffered:
I surprised Weider hasn't put me on the payroll.
R H Draney
Can anyone document or otherwise confirm that Weider's company once sold a
product called "Strong Gorilla Balls"?...I'm positive I remember seeing it
alongside all the powders and preps in their magazine ads back in the 70s, but
there's nothing on the web...you'd think at least *one* person would have
scanned such an ad and posted it on their blog by now....r
--
Little-known fact: About 2% of the famous
quotations credited to "Anonymous" were actually
originated by Jasper D Anonymous, a 14th-century
maker of carriage wheels.