A Letter of Importance

by George Walsh

Editor's Note: The Following letter was written by George Walsh, the famous British Physical Culture and weightlifting authority, to an old lifting colleague now settled in Canada. This eminent expert thought his views might be interesting to North American enthusiasts and sent us a copy for publicaiton saying "this letter expresses the sincere admiration I have always felt for American achievements in the physical culture world and my genuine concern about the state of affairs that now seem to exist in the U.S. and Canada."

MY Dear John:

It was a delightful surprise to hear from you and to know that you are so happily settled in Canada. I wish you every success in your new life and I hope that, from time to time, you will write to me. You will soon find some new friends in the lifting world in Canada - a little different, perhaps, from your North British colleagues but real enthusiasts and, I can tell you from experience genuinely good fellows.

You have asked me just what I think of the present situation of physical culture and weightlifting in the U.S.A. and Canada. And you have asked the question just as blithely as you used to ask me how to perform the One Hand Swing or who was the stronger of Louis Cyr and Arthur Saxon.

There wasn't very much to North American lifting in 1932 when continental strongmen came over to take all the titles. It was only because the European teams were so small that the U.S.A. lifters gained even minor places. But watching those 1932 Olympics events was a man who had acquired the same sort of iron fever that I have always suffered from myself. He was - and he still is - a big powerful and very friendly individual whom you know as Bob Hoffman. And, after watching the 1932 Games, this particular big fellow decided that, with proper training and encouragement, Americans could become just as strong and just as good as the Europeans at the sport of weightlifting. Shortly after he started his own magazine; and, having made up his mind, from that time onwards he and his magazine never looked back.

To you, of course, Bob Hoffman has been part of the game of weightlifting since you first became an enthusiast; and after Tony Terlazzo won the featherweight title in Berlin in 1936 and several other American lifters had had the temerity to place above some of the famous continentals you probably weren't surprised when Tony won the lightweight class in Paris in 1937 or when Johnny Terpak captured the middleweight crown.

It was all due, John, to the same enthusiastic Bob Hoffman who, by that time, had fashioned his small magazine into a national institution, who had seen to it that the most promising American lifters had a chance to train under ideal conditions, and who was willing to defray all the expenses of a full American team going abroad to meet the rest of the world. When, in 1939, the American team emerged as the best in the history of the iron game, the credit was due, entirely, to Bob Hoffman.

I know that I don't have to confirm the validity or authority of my words to a man like yourself who has known me so long; and I have the vanity to believe that I have written so much and taught so much that my word is believed by most of the body building fraternity. So, when I say that American supremacy in both weightlifting and body building today is entirely due to Bob Hoffman, I know that you will believe me; and were I to make the statement public, I should confidently expect the whole world to believe me.

Well, John, I think that all I have said so far was necessary in order to give you a proper picture of the situation as I see it - and, after all, that is what you asked for. In my opinion everything was fine in the American physical culture field and Americans were established as world leaders for some time to come - until recently!

It must be little more than three years ago when my Press Agent asked me what private arrangements I had mad to have my articles published in Canadian body building periodicals published by a certain Joseph Weider.

I had never heard of Joseph Weider. I had never heard of the Canadian publications concerned.

When my Press Agent handed me copies of the magazines and I saw that articles of mine, which had previously been published in European magazines, had been "lifted" without even the courtesy of asking for permission I was astonished. It was extremely difficult, I assure you, to placate my agent.

But this sort of business, I thought, must be a trans-Atlantic custom I knew nothing about. And, quite frankly, I was pleased to see that the immense American market for weightlifting and physical culture was being made competitive. I thought that Mr. Joseph Weider must be another Bob Hoffman of 1932 and that his efforts would be directed towards the furtherance of American physical culture. I expected to hear that Mr. Joseph Weider would furnish the necessary finance for additional competitors to the Olympic Games or to the projected "Mr. Universe" competition. I wrote to Weider in a friendly fashion and was answered with cordiality. I was offered - and I was quite prepared to accept in the early days - the position of weightlifting editor of one of the ambitious Weider publications.

You tell me, John, that you have seen all the old copies of these particular magazines and so, surely, I do not have to tell you why I did not proceed with the project.

The business of "lifting" without permission, or even the remote suggestion of payment (both articles and photographs) has gone on with Mr. Weider's publications to an unbelievable extent. I can not tell you off-hand how many articles by George Walsh have appeared in the two publications published by Mr. Weider; but I can tell you that none have been paid for and that my permission has not even been asked for their reproduction. A famous colleague of mine (and yours) whose article was also "lifted" and published without permission went to the expense of seeking legal opinion on the matter. I think he was wasting his time. I am sure that Mr. Weider must also have satisfied himself on this point.

I have a lot of criticisms to make about Bob Hoffman and "Strength & Health" - and over the last few years I have made some of them. They are the sort of criticisms that one iron-struck fan will naturally make about another, and Bob, to give him his due credit, has always said that I can air my differences in his pages. Our differences, however, are small and both of us are working towards the same end.

But, John, you are a Yorkshireman and, therefore, something of a realist and when you asked me what I thought of the position of physical culture in Canada and the U.S.A. you weren't really asking me what I thought of Bob Hoffman, the York men or "Strength & Health" but what I thought of the two magazines I have mentioned. Aren't I correct? Of course I am.

Well, I'll tell you.

If prizes were to be awarded for tripe in the physical culture world and medals were to be given for the most utter nonsense that could be written about physical culture they would both of them be won by Mr. Joseph Weider for his publications "Your Physique" and "Muscle Power".

I invite you, John, to read some of the matter in the last few publications and particularly those sections which are alleged to be the subject of the Editor's private cogitations. if you have read anything more puerile, stupid and vindictive I hope you will send it to me. You will not, I am sure, be able to do so.

You will find a lot of fun, John, in Weider's magazines; but you will also find something that leaves rather a nasty taste in your mouth. You will find a lot of bitterness; some very unclean remarks made about men whose sincerity had been proved years before anybody in the physical culture world ever heard of Mr. Weider.

There is the business, too, of inviting promising youngsters to join an association which takes away their amateur status in return for a button and a future discount. To me this smells - and unpleasantly.

When the publisher of a physical culture magazine is unscrupulous enough to "lift" without permission or payment, articles and photographs that belong to other people and isn't prepared to subscribe even a portion of the profit he must make by his hi-jacking tactics to supporting amateur championships of his own country or continent, he is certainly no benefactor to the cause.

When, against those who oppose him, he descends to cheap invectives he keeps out of the sport a number of men whose taste and breeding are understandably shocked.

When, in his publication, he carries the adulation of the male physique to hysterical heights he is twisting the physical culture movement into dangerous channels and attracting to it a type that can do it no good.

These are the reasons, John, why I think that the intrusion of Mr. Weider into the American physical culture world is likely to start American supremacy sliding; and the last is perhaps the most dangerous of all.

You know very well, John, that nobody thinks more of masculine perfection than I do. I am all in favor of physique competitions.

But when I read pages and pages of ecstatic "oo's" and "ah's" about the breathtaking "lats" or thrilling thighs of men who have no other distinction than these particular attributes; when I read of displays and shows that consist almost exclusively of masculine posing and parading and which excite terrific interest; when I see columns upon columns of advertisements offering physique studies of men whose names are unknown in the strength field - then I know that I am in territory that is not 100% physical culture.

If Weider would publish a magazine containing articles and photographs for which he had paid and would give up his "pirate" tactics, which naturally alienate him from ordinary commercial people like myself who think that if you have written an article or taken a photograph you shouldn't have it snatched from your without permission or payment; if he would put a stop to the silly little association he has formed and which is trapping youngsters into professionalism; if he would engage a competent journalist to make his publication read less like a comic strip; he would infuse more masculine virility into his pages so that men's deeds as well as their looks were made to seem a key to greatness - then I would say, John, by all means support Mr. Weider's endeavors.

But no! - I am wrong. Even if Mr. Weider did fulfill all the above requirements you would still have to ensure that he would subscribe the sum of approximately $50,000 for the sole purpose of taking North American physical culture athletes abroad. For this sum at the very least, is what Bob Hoffman has spent to put American physical culture at the pinnacle from which I think that Mr. Weider is so busily and profitably engaged in dethroning it.

You were always a straight-forward and trusting fellow, John, and as it is right in your blood you are bound to be drawn into the physical culture business now that you are in Canada. Don't go into it, old friend, without exploring all its angles. Get to know as many people as you can amongst those who matter. Go to as many shows as possible. Talk - or better still, listen, - to as many enthusiasts as you can manage to meet. Don't confine yourself to one particular camp for you will find that some splendid and knowledgeable men are writing for Weider publications.

If the opportunity ever presents itself pay a visit to York. It is still dependent entirely upon York men - upon Bob Hoffman himself and upon such genuine and experienced authorities as John Grimek, Gord Venables, Ray Van Cleef, Johnny Terpak, Steve Stanko and a whole host of others. You will find them great fellows - and between them they will probably be able to answer all your questions.