1958 Mr. America Contest

by Bob Hasse

THE TRADITION that an easterner could never win a Mr. America crown when the big contest is staged on the west coast was shattered in Los Angeles June 21st with the awarding of this coveted title for 1958 to Tom Sansone, a 22-year-old City College of New York physical education major who is a resident of Jackson Heights, Long Island. A near sellout crowd of well over 2,000 enthusiastic spectators witnessed the competition, which brought to an end the 1958 Senior National Championships.

The new Mr. America's victory was popular with the audience in spite of an obvious amount of local sentiment favoring Lynn Lyman, the handsome Californian who placed a close second to Sansone. These two men finished in the same order in the voting for the Most Muscular Man award on the opening night of the championships. Either man would make a worthy Mr. America, and it's just a pity that only one man can be chosen for this tremendous honor.

The muscular Sansone had earlier won the Junior Mr America contest in York last May. Lyman, whose physique and posing style are strongly reminiscent of Steve Reeves, has in the past won just about every physique award available on the west coast.

Perennial Gene Bohaty of Chicago placed in the first three for the third consecutive year, this time dropping a notch into the third slot. Fourth place in the voting went to the personable Robert Walker of Los Angeles, and a surprise fifth was the new national middleheavyweight lifting champion, Fred Schutz. Earl Clark of Chula Vista, California placed sixth, and Vern Weaver of the York Barbell Club seventh. Other leading contenders included Bill Golumbick, Ray Routledge, Charles Sipes, Sam Martin, and Sgt. Ed Bailey of Honolulu.