For Lacy Victim of Aol censorship
Hr10316
Arnold, Chairman of the President’s Council On Physical Fitness
by Lacy H. Rich, Jr. (213) 851-6585
It still boggles my mind, that Arnold Schwarzenegger was
appointed by George Bush to the council. Even if you forget, his
involvement with Paul Graham, his hustling, his record in sports is
dubious at best. When I heard about the possibility of the appointment, I
called the White House and spoke to a woman who said she was responsible
for checking out appointees. I advised her of his past and asked her to
send the FBI or anyone else to check it. No one checked anything. Is it
any wonder that the Soviets were able to get all our nuclear secrets?
I accuse Arnold Schwarzenegger of rigging body building contests,
specifically the 1980 Mr. Olympia.
In his book “Muscle Wars”, Rick Wayne, former editor of Joe
Weider’s “Muscle & Fitness” writes that on the way out of the Sydney Opera
House after the contest Marie stopped to talk to the press. Arnold
shouted “come on Bitch, they will forget about this and I will still be
“Mr. Olympia” seven times. Well I haven’t forgotten. Even Arnie has
acknowledged his mistake. When asked in Germany by a friend, why he did
not enter the Olympia there, Arnie responded “I think I went to that well
once to often”.
Arnold portrays himself as supremely confident and self assured,
but in truth he is anything but. His two biggest mistakes, “After Dark”
and the “80 Olympia” were results of his fear that his movies (Pumping
Iron and Conan) would not do well. He did the “After Dark” article with
nude to get publicity for “Pumping Iron”. His PR firm has claimed, he had
nothing to do with nude being in the article, but the magazines managing
editor Patrick Pacheco says different. At the same time Parker Public
Relations said that Arnold didn’t do nudes except for Scavullo and they
were locked in a vault. Well, I think I proved somebody lied about that,
with the nude I gave to “Spy”.
The second mistake which brought me into this story was the fixing
of the 1980 Olympia to gain more publicity for the then pending release of
Conan. As we saw in Pumping Iron, Arnold retired form body building
competition with the 1975 win of his sixth straight Mr. Olympia. In 1976
Franco Columbo won. In 77, 78, and 79 Frank Zane won. Mike Mentzer
entered the picture in 1978 with a win of the Mr. Universe with the first
perfect score of 300 in the history of the Mr. Universe. Mentzer placed
2nd to Zane in the 79 Olympia. Many felt that Mike should have beaten
Zane in 79, but the judges were just not willing to let some one win on
their first time out. There was a lot of controversy that year about
Mentzer and Zane that centered on symmetry and mass and just what defined
a body builder. Most felt that Zane was just to small to be the ideal
body builder despite his symmetry and muscular definition. Compared to
most other competitors of the time, Zane was a twig. Mentzer’s type of
mass, definition, symmetry was were sport wanted to go, and has gone
since. Mentzer was expected to win the 80 signaling a change back to the
bigger guys like Arnold.
The other factor that ticked Arnold off was that Mentzer brought
a different style of training to body building call “heavy duty” which is
followed by and used by the current Mr. Olympia, Dorian Yates. “Heavy
duty” training was the opposite of Arnold’s methods. Weider was giving
Mentzer as much or more coverage as Arnold in his heyday and had tried to
claim “heavy duty” as his own by having Mike rewrite the Weider Principles
based on his methods. Herr Schwarzenegger just could take having to
defend his all day method of training with Mentzer’s 45 minutes a day.
Mike was eclipsing him in the body building spotlight. The truth is both
work if you have the genetics to be a champ. If brains had been a
requirement of Ken Sprague’s male whore house on Second Street in Santa
Monica, Arnold would never have been Arnold. Mentzer didn’t realize it
at the time, but he had made body builders start thinking seriously about
training and they began to challenge the messages of “Pumping Iron”. Mike
came after Arnie’s heyday and did not bow and scrape like the others.
Intolerable!!!
Arnold had a three year contract with CBS to do color commentary
for the Mr. Olympia, and in 79 Arnold asked Zane if it felt great to win.
Frank replied “almost as good as beating you”, a reference to his win over
Arnold the Mr. Universe. Intolerable!!! Arnie did not have the clout
then to have it cut, and it was broadcast to the world.
Arnold arranged for his partner in crime Paul Maxwell Graham, you
know the convicted car thief who was deported to Australia, to promote the
1980 Olympia in Sydney. Of course Arnold would be there with CBS to tape
the show. With Conan’s release coming up Arnold decided come out of
retirement and enter himself. Arnold later claimed it was a last minute
decision to enter, he had been training for Conan and was in shape. If
you believe that one, look at the two Conan movies. The first which he
supposedly prepared him for the 80 Olympia shows him as big and soft like
a larva. In the second done a few years later, Arnie is much harder
looking like a body builder is suppose to be. In truth, the only reason
Arnold got into that kind of shape. is that Lou Ferrigno embarrassed him
by the dazzling shape he showed up in, in the cheapy Italian Hercules
movies.
In Sydney, Paul Graham had a documentary film company making a
supposed sequel to “Pumping Iron” called “The Comeback”. If Arnold only
decided a week before to enter the contest how do you make a movie about
it? That is the Question that has never been answered. They now sell the
film in Europe and Australia as “Total Rebuilt”, but you can not find it
in the U. S.. What a mess, after the show the only one of the contestants
would sign the release to use footage of himself. The rest banded
together and refused to sign in protest. In the original that I have a
copy , they replaced the booing at the end with cheering. That is why
Arnold didn’t want to talk to the press after the show. All that booing
was embarrassing, hence come on bitch. Arnold could not deny Paul a
chance to recoup his investment but no showing or selling in the US.
CBS ( Sherman Egan) realized that the show was fixed and canceled
plans to show their coverage. Not only that, they paid Arnold off for his
contract for 80 and 81 and dropped coverage of future contests.
How was it fixed? The judges, were all personal friends or
business associates of Arnold’s. Mits Kawashima was a real-estate partner
in Hawaii, another was the manager of Paul Graham Gym, Dan Howard owned
a World’s Gym, Albert Busek “discovered” Arnold in Germany, and, Reg Park
from South Africa owed Arnold. The only one that didn’t was Head Judge
Bill Pearl who actually had the guts to call it fixed and told Sherman
Egan.
Rick Wayne covers the contest in “Muscle Wars”, but even he did
not have the guts to tell the whole story.
Mike Mentzer, who was 2nd in 79, was placed 5th. The message was
clear. You may have all the coverage in the Weider Mags, but I control
the judges, screw you. Mike not being a dummy knew what it meant and
retired from competition, but was not afraid to talk about Australia.
Ben Weider had believed that it was Mike that caused CBS to pull out of
body building and started pressuring his brother Joe to get rid of Mike.
Joe resisted a first, but with Mike being out of competition he was less
valuable. Mike finally got tired of being jerked around by the Weider’s
and quit. Mike, after loosing his home and everything else, turned to
speed to escape from the reality of what had happened. For a while he was
a street person , in jail, or mental hospital. When Arnold was told of
the damage he had caused, Arnie said that if Mike was no stronger than
that, he deserved it.