Planet Muscle

Mr. Everson, why haven’t you (or someone), commented about some of the statements made in the new book called, Sergio Oliva - The Myth? I didn’t know too much about Sergio other than what I have read over the years in some bodybuilding magazines, that he was a past Mr. Olympia and I understand, a very good one, (even if he was before my time). But, his new book seems rather unkind and bitter against Joe Weider, whom he calls a tyrant. He says, “Joe Weider was a businessman I didn’t trust. He was out for one thing and one thing only, money. He didn’t give a damn about whom he screwed along the way.” Then, Sergio says later, “Sometimes he (meaning Weider), would publish articles under my name and send me $100 and I would try to cash the checks and the check would bounce. Here was a man making millions of dollars and his checks would bounce.”

Finally, Oliva adds, “He (again meaning Weider), pulled all kinds of tricks, changed judges and changed votes in competitions and did as he pleased. In 1972, they cheated and gave it to Arnold.” Sergio isn’t exactly mincing words, claiming that the legendary master blaster was basically screwing him. He implies that Weider even picked the winners of the events. What do you think of Sergio? Sergio clearly thinks he was far and away the best bodybuilder ever and was better than Arnold, that Arnold never beat him fair and square. I hope I can trust you to give me the truth about Sergio Oliva (and Joe Weider). What is your opinion of this book, of this ‘Myth’, as a bodybuilder? I have to say I read things in this book, that I never heard before.

I’m sure various and sundry will make comments on this book in due time, if they care about the subject matters at all (and many will not). I think this was supposed to be a “how to do it book” by Sergio, how he recommends training. I think there is not enough of those good guts in it, the training that made this 3 times Mr. Olympia (67, 68 and 69), perhaps the greatest ever. Why was he so much bigger and better than everybody else at the time?

Parts of the book are just real old news – only you are just from the wrong generation to know this. Parts are sort of a, ‘been there, done that,’ nothing really new. It did place me in a sort of time warp, whereupon I seemed to again be reading a Bob Hoffman 1970 Strength and Health magazine editorial.

I enjoyed the book, mostly reminiscing about circumstance affiliated with seeing the old pictures again. But-- it is too bad that the effort is generational and probably should have been written 30 years ago when Sergio’s opinions would have been more valued and meant more to more people. Now, like you, the greater majority will have no idea what Sergio is rambling about, as regards Joe Weider. There is a lot of writer’s unintended irony herein. Sergio does this miraculous and heroic stuff, risking his life to defect back in 1961, literally running from Communist Cuba to personal freedom, running to a country where he can say the things he wants about Joe Weider, without being sued or arrested, or whatever. Sergio ran into the country of supreme capitalism, a land of freedom to make both money and opinions.




That being said, Sergio rails at Joe Weider for being a hard-driving businessman. But, Joe Weider has always been that, first and foremost (just as Arnold has always been). Funny, the 3 main characters of the book, Joe, Sergio and Arnold, are sort of defectors in a sense, all with
different senses of purpose, style, zeal and desire.

Joe Weider started publishing Your Physique, which became M&F, when he was 16. Joe and Ben developed the IFBB so they could sell and promote bodybuilding, magazines and early on, the Weider (Wildcats) food supplements. One worthy goal was to make money and everybody knows this. That is no big state secret. Sergio seems to think Joe Weider owes him something special. You mean all the covers and articles didn’t count?



My best guess was that circa 1970, Joe Weider was not yet making millions of dollars. Yes, he did, but not until many years later, once Shape magazine got up and going and not until food supplements started to become real big business in the late eighties. For sure, Joe Weider never fixed contests or judges.

Diverting a moment, was Sergio the best ever? Well, if you rate someone against his contemporaries, as a measure of who is the best, this makes Wilt Chamberlain the greatest basketball player of all time. It makes Joe Louis (or Ali) the greatest heavyweight in boxing. In terms of how readily and easily each man could defeat their fellow contestants Arnold would be #1 and Sergio #2. Both would be well ahead of Zane, Yates, Haney and Coleman, the others to win 3 or more Olympia physique competitions (in my opinion). Where I absolutely would rank Sergio #1 in history was the overall impressiveness of his body mass relative to his contemporaries!

In 1968 and 1969, all the other top bodybuilders were like children next to Oliva. In case you do not know, this is why he was called the Myth, nicknamed by (heavens forbid), one of those Weider writers, Rick Wayne. Sergio was just so much better that he couldn’t have been real. He had to be myth!

Sergio though, post 1969, did not care to change his body the way he needed for victory. Standards changed by 1970, when Arnold first beat him, physique changed, being much more cut, hard and defined, were required to win. (True, this was a function of nutrition and drugs much more than it was training).

Should the 41 year old Bill Pearl have beaten Oliva in NABBA, back in 1971? Should Arnold have beaten Sergio in 70 and 72? Isn’t this physique’s storied storyline over the years, its lack of objectivity? But, what difference does it all make now? None!

In his vaunted “comeback” at the Mr. Olympia in New York City in 1984, (assuming Sergio was 22 or so when he defected in 1961), he would have been at least 45! Yet, he finished 8th! I was in the audience, and by that time, the standards and physique had so melded, had Sergio received 3rd or 10th, it would have made no difference as the bodies looked about the same, even as they do more so today. What is more amazing is that his body looked as it did, at 45-46 years of age, or older!

On your observations about Sergio’s characterization of Joe Weider? Well, Joe always has had an enormous appetite for success. In “his starting day”, (40’s, 50’s and 60’s) launching a bodybuilding magazine was extremely difficult. Joe had to do what he needed to do, to get that job running. Again, I do not believe Joe Weider ever controlled judges or contests, nor did he tell them what to do. He did not care much who won. Indeed, it always seemed to me, that Joe just as soon that everybody won. Arnold did capitalize (in his sort of odd way of having to compete over every single aspect of life) to what Joe ‘presented’ him. Dave Draper just did not care to play the game and Sergio was not able to.

Bear in mind, some did perceive Joe a bit differently way back then.

I have a magazine letter in front of me. It was published in Strength and Health in 1971. It was a letter written by a Mr. William Ely, both to Strength and Health and copied to Sports Illustrated. It was about an article that appeared in Sports Illustrated in April of 1970, about Joe Weider, called “Be a Take Charge Blaster,” by Herman Wesikof. Joe Weider was 48 at the time. Ely notes in his letter, “In 1962, a federal court awarded Bob Hoffman punitive damages of $30,000 when it ruled that Joe Weider had conspired to destroy Hoffman’s reputation.”

Sports Illustrated responded to Mr. Ely thusly, “in printing the story of Joe Weider, our editors did not extol him as the most admirable or knowledgeable of bodybuilders. They set forth a factually accurate report, certainly not guaranteeing success from Weider’s methods.” They went on, ‘It is indeed unfortunate that the sensationalism inherent in Mr. Weider’s advertising detracts from the sportsmanship and healthful benefits in the related sports of weightlifting and bodybuilding.” They add later, “It is sad that there are gullible people in the world who may approach the fantastic claims of a Joe Weider, with the intelligence we expect of those who read our magazine.” You see what I mean about perceptions then, and that Sergio’s time-warp book might have been more appropriate written 30 years ago?

Times and people change. Today, I view the world that Joe helped create, (physique events as bodybuilding), as what they are, incredibly difficult and a specialty, one that requires being obsessive, with rigid attention to drugs, nutrition, training and a 24 x 7 lifestyle. None but the very few can even understand it. Frankly, relative to the whole who trains with weights, not many are interested in physique competition. It is a fact that roughly 4500 - 5000 people attended the 1949 Mr. USA contest where John Grimek was first, Clancy Ross was second, Steve Reeves was third and George Eiferman was fourth. This is about the same that attended Mr. Olympia in 2006.

Point being, many thousands upon thousands more people, want to gain lean muscle and lose fat and get healthy and learn how to do this realistically, (as opposed to being interested in physique contests, or the exploits of a Sergio, Arnold or even Jay Cutler, today). I can only add my opinions. In 1968 Sergio Oliva was the most fantastic physique ever, certainly relative to those of the field before him or around him then, but I believe his views on Joe Weider are blighted, wrong and irrelevant today.

Having known and worked for Joe Weider starting in late 83, and being in the fields of bodybuilding, writing and publishing (and as a historian), I admire Joe’s work immensely. I enjoyed greatly my time working for him as some of the best in my life. I found Joe fatherly, kind and generous to a fault.

I just think the days of vile and jealously dredged up by Sergio now are long gone, passed into history, regardless of their accuracy. Sergio’s true legacy should remain that wondrous and incredible body, not being seen as a whiner about Joe Weider’s (supposed) $100 bounced checks back in 1970.