Strength and Health Magazine Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

1949 AAU Mr. America Results

Posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2018 by John Wood

A look at Jack Dellinger, newly minted AAU Mr. America on the cover of the June/July 1949 issue of Strength & Health Magazine. The overall placings of the 1949 Mr. America contest were as follows:

1.Jack Delinger
2. Melvin Wells
3. Bill Melby
4. Harry Smith
5. Valerio Pasqua
6. Jim Krznarich
6. Stan Stanczyk
6. Kimon Voyages
9. Everett Sinderoff
10. Joe Shaw

Jack Delinger won the overall title although Melvin Wells won the “Most Muscular” Sub-division.

Young Harry Shafran

Posted on Friday, August 17th, 2018 by John Wood

A look at a young Harry Shafran who was known equally well for his physique as well as feats of strength. Early in his career, he was a partner of Professor Adrian Schmidt and was featured in Strength Magazine as well as Strength and Health Magazine. He ran a series of successful gyms in New York City but eventually grew tired of it and moved everything to a location near Scranton, Pennsylvania. He kept all his classic equipment in a large barn (including quite a few pieces he obtained from Warren Lincoln Travis).

Al Christensen

Posted on Thursday, April 19th, 2018 by John Wood

Here’s Al Christensen, of the Bosco weightlifting club performing a pretty amazing feat: he could clean and jerk 230 pounds while on his knees. You won’t be seeing that one again any time soon. Al won the AAU Mr. Florida bodybuilding contest in 1951 and appeared on the cover of Strength and Health Magazine. His wife Vera was also a long-time columnist in Strength and Health.

Doug Hepburn

Posted on Saturday, December 30th, 2017 by John Wood

The great Canadian lifter, Doug Hepburn is shown here in what probably could be called his signature pose. If the issues of Strength and Health on the wall are current, this picture dates to early 1947. — Although I suspect this was taken later than that. Don’t know if you realized this but growing up, Doug was of very average height and build.

At 17 years old, Doug was 5’8″ and weighed only 145 pounds. It was around that age that he discovered weight lifting… and the rest is history. To give you an idea of Doug’s immense power, his best 2-arm overhead barbell press was 335 pounds for 10 reps!

Strength and Health Magazine, March, 1934

Posted on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2017 by John Wood

The great weightlifter Art Levan on the cover of the March, 1934 issue of Strength and Health Magazine. This is one heck of an issue: Check out the lineup of strength authors: George Jowett, Earle E. Liederman, Harry Good, Bob Hoffman and Professor Paulinetti (among others.)

Harold Sakata

Posted on Friday, November 10th, 2017 by John Wood

You might recognize him by his most famous movie role as the villain ‘Odd Job’ in the James Bond movie ‘Gold Finger”, but Harold Sakata was also a great Olympic weightlifter, sometimes-bodybuilder and professional wrestler. Sakata got his start reading Strength and Health Magazine and, as a teenager, won many local lifting contests on his native Hawaii. After a stint in the Army, Sakata had a chance to focus on his training and he set a Hawaiian record in the clean and jerk as well as won the Mr. Hawaii bodybuilding title. His weightlifting totals were such that he was able to compete in the Senior Nationals, where he finished second to Stan Stanczyk at the 1948 Senior Nationals. His finish at the Nationals qualified him for a spot at the 1948 Summer Olympics (above) where he finished second, winning the Silver Medal, again, to the eventual champion Stanczyk. The two would go on to become lifelong friends. After his weightlifting career, Sakata traveled the country as the pro-wrestler Tosh Togo.

Gray Hair and Black Iron by Brooks Kubik

Posted on Saturday, September 23rd, 2017 by John Wood

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Ray Van Cleef

Posted on Thursday, October 13th, 2016 by John Wood

Many Iron Game fans will recall the name Ray Van Cleef from the pages of Strength and Health magazine. He was an Associate Editor and his column “Strong Men The World Over” appeared for many years. Before all that though, Van Cleef was a great strongman in his own right. Here’s a rare shot that most people haven’t seen before of Van Cleef performing a heavy one-arm snatch of a wagon wheel axle.

The article where this came from was authored by Van Cleef and the inclusion of this picture was to illustrate how one might be able to still train, or otherwise perform novel feats, without having a barbell on hand — a notion that we are definitely on board with.

It’s probably also worth a mention that Ray was a vegetarian.

Robert Conrad

Posted on Friday, October 7th, 2016 by John Wood

The TV actor Robert Conrad, who was best known as Tom Lopaka in “Hawaiian Eye” in the early 1960’s, and Jim West in The Wild Wild West” in the mid and late 1960’s, was also avidly into weightlifting, physical fitness, and as evident by this shot, rope climbing.

This was long before strength training was en vogue in Hollywood or elsewhere although he did it more for his roles since he also did all his own stunts. Conrad even graced the cover of the October, 1962 issue of Strength and Health Magazine.

Enrico Tomas

Posted on Saturday, February 20th, 2016 by John Wood

Enrico Tomas, from New York City, is shown here on the January, 1955 issue of Strength and Health magazine. Enrico only competed in a few bodybuilding contests but never finished lower than third and in 1954, he took first both in the AAU Mr. New York State and the NABBA Mr. Universe.