IRON AGE: Larry Scott, the first ever "Mister Olympia" also known as ''Larry the Great'' and as the incarnation of the Californian Bodybuilding scene of the 1960's.

Okay folks, back in action again. Finally again... and or even maybe for one of the last times (ever) up here. As I made it clear in the last article some weeks or so ago I am about calling it a day up here and maybe starting something new. Various reasons led me to this decision - even it's currently not 100% sure if I will come up with something new or not which means calling it a day in general (it just feels to me that time is flying by and no matter how often and how hard I may think about that it would be cool do something on music or so again I don't find the right and real attitude, mood, and time to really do so in the end... maybe it's just a temporary episode but maybe it's just me growing old and find myself more satisfied with doing other things these days). Maybe I will explain this reasons or some of them in sort of a final post or so coming soon, who knows, which means: we will see.  My new project is anyhow so far quite a bit currently already in the work and on its way, I just have to figure it out if this will work like I want it to work or not, and it depends on this "I will see..."-thought how soon (and if ever) it will come up in the future (beside the above mentioned "growing old"-stuff).
But for now back again up here on your good old "MANSLAUGHTER THUG LIFE" blog... and beside the fact that it feels already a big bit "nostalgic) it's also incredible how quick and fast time moves on, thinking about that I do or run this blog now for already a bit of over five years in a row... and it's really sort of shocking when I think about what and especially who came and went over this time of sort of over five years... the times are a changing or so they say... I guess they are right...
Okay, that's in general for now, and now back to the topic of this post and this will be all about the IRON AGE posting series, and yes, you're right, after sort of over (?) a half year passed since the last IRON AGE article saw the light of the day and while I was busy up here with doing other things (especially music-related stuff like record reviews) it's really time to finally change this again (even it's for the last time). Even more after this very article here is now for a very, very long, long while already in the making, so it's time to give it finally the breath of life it desperately hungers for. You may or better you should know the deal(and hopefully, of course, you do so), which means: that you know what's now coming up here for you. Yes, you know it, and if not, then just in short two short lines to the point:

(1.) Bodybuilding.

(2.) Larry Scott.

You still need some more input? Really? Oh man, damn it, come on, I mean... but okay, okay, okay, so two short lines more to the point here and now for you:

(3.) Mister Olympia.

(4.) The first ever crowned.

This must be enough , I mean, really, come on, what should you need more right here, right now? Yes, you're right, nothing else, and so now here we go, so let's go, enough of the introducing small talk.

And now, already and just as a little bit of showing what and who we will be talking about (which means what I will be writing on and what you will be reading here and now) right now:

The incarnation of the Californian Bodybuilding ideal of the glory days of old...

- Larry Scott -

...and the first ever crowned IFBB "Mister Olympia" - and the definition of ultimate magnificence.

I. INTRODUCTION: If you ask anyone with a at least small education in Bodybuilding about the one man who should become pretty much to the one and only valid definition of the Californian Bodybuilding scene and ideal then he or she will name you this one man first and ultimately solely: Larry Scott. He became sort of a incarnation of Bodybuilding of his era, and with his looks, his appearance, his shape and physique he clearly became to the leading character and athelete of the Californian Bodybuilding scene and its ideal of the 1960's. His look had been defined to be a thru and thru American look, a typical American look, clean-cut all-American, and with this look, his robust and very well proportioned body and physique and with his arms that had been a couple of one of the biggest, the best, and the most greatest guns ever in the history of this, of our sport, he became to an idol and a role model for millions of other Bodybuilders now and then outta there. And we all shouldn't forget that he was and is also the first ever crowned IFBB "Mister Olympia". And so you see that there are more than enough justified reasons for him to be up here and become a prominent part of this very posting series named (the days of the) IRON AGE up here. Now let us have together a more precise look on him, on Larry the Great.

II. THE EARLY YEARS: Larry Scott or Larry "the Legend" Scott or Larry "the Great" Scott, how he was also named, was born at the 12th of October of the year 1938 in Blackfoot, Idaho/U.S.A. to his parents a son. Already as  kid and a teenager he showed some potential in doing sports, so he was back then known as a already very well versed gymnast, before with becoming and then being sixteen years old in 1954 he started to conquer as a Bodybuilder. His parents had a own dump that they ran back then and when he was doing his work and duty by working in the family business he found an old Bodybuilding magazine with the great old school Bodybuilder George Paine on the cover of it, showcasing a triceps-pose from the side. He found it, saw it, grabbed it, and he was fixed. It was something totally new to him, something that he had never ever seen before. To Larry Scott the triceps of George Paine looked like shredded and ripped bananas in their most ever massive form. He wanted this for himself, and he wanted it badly. And so he even couldn't be stopped by the fact or circumstances that he had no access to proper weight lifting euqipment. Because instead of this he had a old tractor axle, and when he scrolled through the pages of the magazine he saw pictures of George Paine who did exercises that probably helped building up his impressive arms, and with his hunger and firy will as well as his creative artisanal skills he soon started to work out with his tractor axle like the pictures showed him the way (as far as he could adopt the exercises with his improvised training device). And they showed him good. Just with his improvised training device and his also pretty improvised exercises he managed to catch good worthy pumps after pumps and he build up his arms to 32cm ambit, pretty impressive and big guns already. This great results pushed him further on to work and train harder and harder, with the one aim to come off as big, strong, and massive as only anyhow possible. So he was on a quest, and he started to make his way, his way to forever immortalized ultimate magnificence.

III. "CALIFORNIA, HERE I COME!": Larry Scott trained every day and he always trained hard right from the start. His enthusiasm was nearly too much for his body's own growth potential at some times. Soon enough he exchanged his good old tractor axle with/to real weights, dumbbells, and barbells when he joined the local "YMCA". He also enthusiastically read all the issues of Joe Weider's own "Muscle Builder" magazine, and it added to his motivation and his imagination what all could be possible if he just sticked to his hard and honest working approach. Pretty soon it was and happened that Larry Scott came to the conclusion that if he wanted to really make steps ahead in Bodybuilding he had to move to California, California that already back then was sort of the Mecca of Bodybuilding. And so he started working on doing finally so. But just by wanting and planning to do so the job wouldn't be done, he needed something to make some money to make his living from with and that Larry Scott knew all too well, and so he started to work and graduate in the Californian Electronic-Technique industry beside his living as a Bodybuilder. California offered Larry Scott all that he wanted at this point in his life, he could study and work in his job and industry and at the same time he could work hard for becoming a better and stronger Bodybuilder. With this in his mind he one day entered a train and moved on to the shores of California. And there it all should really beginn...

IV. FROM BEING THE APPRENTICE TO BECOMING THE MASTER OF THE IRON: Larry Scott moved to California, made his plans and dreams come true. He had no car, but his school (for Electronic-Technique) was near by where he lived so that he could make it to there by walking, and he had dreams of and plans for making it big. And so on every front Larry Scott did his best to make it big - and how he did. He trained back then at "Bert Goodrich's Health Club", and this gym was only ca. around a mile from where he lived back then, so also nothing but a easy walk to go there and do what needed to be done. The "Bert Goodrich's Health Club" Gym was filled by sportsmen and athletes of all size and kind, but it was in particular the big, massive, muscular, and strong Lou Degni who was caught by Larry Scotts attention by far the most. For Larry Lous chest and back were the most incredible and the by far most imposing things or sights that he had ever seen so far in his life. With a 74cm ambit of his waist, arms with 48cm ambit, the chest and back of a giant, and seemingly centimeter deep carved abs Lou Degni was sort of all Larry Scott at this point in his life ever wanted to become, ever wanted to be. And even Larry Scott was the new guy in "Bert Goodrich's Health Club" and also only weighing around 68kg at this time no one else than Lou Degni himself soon should take notice of him, because of his quick and big progress' he made, and pretty soon the both should become training partners. Pretty soon after Larry Scott and Lou Degni joined forces in the Gym together it was Lou Degni who was offered a role in a Italian movie production and he had to leave the city for it. Later on Lou Degni should become sort of famous under his pseudonym or artist name of Mark Forest for playing in many sword and sandal films of that time. After the training partnership with Lou Degni broke due to him starting his movie career Larry Scoot soon decided to leave "Bert Goodrich's Health Club" to join the legendary "Vince's Gym" that was run by no one else than the infamous Vince Gironda, a legend of his very own. Especially in the 1950's and 1960's the gym of Vince Gironda, the "Vince's Gym", had a phenomenal good and strong reputation, not at least for bringing up and out many Bodybuilding champs. It had been Vince Gironda to whom all the Hollywood agents and movie makers send their actors to get in shape for their movies. It was sort of a fact that there would be no man with more knowledge of training/working out and nutrition than Vince Gironda. And so, you see, Larry Scott moved to the right place, at the right time - and to the right man. And Vince Gironda had a huge influence on Larry Scott and his future development, on his training, his nutrition, and also on his posing and on the way he posed or should pose up on stage. So it was Vince Gironda who, for example, teached Larry Scott also to pose between his poses, because, so he said to him, it would be more important what he did between the poses than what he does at or with or in his actual poses. And he was right with this. Vince liked the young athlete that Larry Scott was back then right from the start, even in Vinces eyes he wasn't one of the genetical gifted Bodybuilders. (But at least in this point opinions can surely differ a bit - if not maybe even a lot.) Anyhow, he liked him and so Vince Gironda helped Larry Scott out and cultivated his training and nutrition. Untill this certain point in time nutrition was just sort of side-thought in the head and mind of Larry Scott, something that Vince Gironda changed drastically and everlasting, and this was also the time when Larry Scott started to use protein supplements. It was also during this time period that Larry Scott should develop his fantastic arms, very much due to his excessive practise of the strict Preacher Curls, an excercise he was introduced to by Vince Gironda, and that should become so stronly linked with Larry Scott that the excercise very soon should become named after him the Scott Curl - and this is also so still today. After a few years of being trained and coached by Vince Gironda it was time for Larry Scott to take the next steps and enter a stage with competing at one of the big Californian Bodybuilding Championships. He already won back then in 1959 the "Mr. Idaho", but he knew very well that a competition in California was something very different. But anyhow in 1960 he competed at the AAU "Mr. Los Angeles" and he scored in on place no. # three, and in the same year he also won the AAU "Mr. California" and also gained the "Most Muscular Award" on this very show as well. Great kick off for his career. In 1961 he became the "Mr. Pacific Coast" after winning the AAU "Mr. Pacific Coast" championship, and just one year later in 1962 he became the IFBB "Mr. America". Over the distance of the next two years Larry Scott managed to let his victory streak grow on with winning the medium category of the IFBB "Mr. Universe" in 1963, and with taking the overall victory of this championship one year later in 1964. It really happened, the apprentice turned into the master, the master of the iron, and it was time that the king received his crown and take place on his throne.

V. BEING THE "MISTER OLYMPIA": The situation in the 1950's and 1960's was sort of a confused or confusing one in the world of professional Bodybuilding, with various federations fighting amongst each other who would be the leading no. # one in the world and what competition would crown the one and only best Bodybuilder in/of the world, and it was in and out of this particular situation that the Weider Brothers and their IFBB installed the "Mister Olympia" as their very own competition to make it clear that the IFBB would be the solely home of the elité Bodybuilders and that the "Mister Olympia" alone would crown the very best Bodybuilder worldwide. (And like we see it today and if "you" now may like it or not this was an all out success.) So when in 1965 the first ever "Mister Olympia" took place the IFBB managed to put a proper line up together and no one else than Larry Scott was a part of it - and he should with all justifications beat all his rivals and he succeeded on what should become the biggest stage of them all, he succeeded at and became the first ever "Mister Olympia" and when he won the title he was given a real crown encrusted with "jewels" - but no money (after back then out of and with Bodybuilding there was simply no real money to make, especially not for the athletes). In 1966 Larry Scott managed to repeat his golden triumph and he won also the second edition of the IFBB "Mister Olympia", again in tremendous shape and in a dominant way. In 1966 there was no crown handed to him but instead of this a check about 1.000 U.S. $ and asked if he would miss his crown he answered more or less in the way that he would have also rather taken the 1.000 $ instead of the crown the year before. But you see, to make your living out of and with Bodybuilding alone (as a sports man) was still something anything but really possible. This and a new priority-setting compared with the thought that he had reached all what he only could reach as a active Bodybuilding athlete let Larry Scott finally to the decision to end his career more or less straight after his second "Mister Olympia" triumph, and to move on to new shores and finally to move ahead in a monetary or fiscal sense, not at least because he had bills to pay. But anyhow, the unrivaled superstar had left the building, point and fact.

VI. BESIDE AND AFTER BEING THE "MISTER OLYMPIA": Larry Scott worked beside and after his Bodybuilding career in the movie business and he acted roles for example in "MUSCLE BEACH PARTY" together with Frankie Avalon and Anette Funichello where he was to be seen as "Rock", a Bodybuilder of the infamous Beach-Gang of Jack Fanny who was played by Don Rickles in the movie. He was also very often hired as a Fitness Photo Model, and especially the shootings he did with Pat Milo are today often called art for good reasons. And also he worked as an author for all the famous "WEIDER" publications of his time - and he wrote excusively for the magazines of the Weider Brothers. After his active career he worked for several companies to develop and sell work out machines, nutrition supplements, and first PC based work out/training schedule programmings. Finally he should start working for a big insurance company, and in 1991 he wrote and released his highly reputated Bodybuilding book "LOADED GUNS". He made a brief (and not really succesful) comeback in 1979 before forever retiring from competition in 1980. And in 1999 he was introduced into the "JOE WEIDER BODYBUILDING HALL OF FAME".
He lived his latter years together with his second wife in Salt Lake City, Utah/U.S.A. where he finally ran his personal training and nutrition company, "LARRY SCOTT FITNESS & NUTRITION", and together with his wife Rachel Scott he had five children, three of them, Susan, Erin and Nathan are still alive, while Derek and Michael sadly died long befor their time in 1992 respectively 1993. Larry Scott himself died on March the 8th, 2014 at the age of 75 years of complications from the Alzheimer's disease he was suffering through.
REST IN PEACE, Larry "the Great" Scott, you will always be remembered and never forgotten.
Keep on lifting in heaven, like we keep on pumping down here. R.I.P. /// Andy

So, okay folks, that's now all for this post, and all of us showing our heartfelt respect and honour to one of the greatest champs the stages of every sort of iron sports have ever seen: Larry Scott. I hope you enjoyed the reading through and of this article and that you had been entertained and maybe also at least a little bit educated by it. The rest you can read above in the introduction words to/of this very post/article... that pretty much is nothing else than the last ever and truly final real post up here... so I hope you've enjoyed it... That's it for now and pretty much also that's it up here in general... anyhow... and for now and so long, as usual, an honest "Thank you!" for your interest and for reading this article goes out to you from me. Cheers, your dear (Manslaughter-) Andy.