I'm often asked about what bodybuilding contests and the multitude of female competitors were like from the earliest days and through the 80's and 90's. When considering the staggering amount of travel I experienced over the past 34 years covering contests all over the world, there is much to remember - so much so, in fact, that short of writing a lengthy book, I'll approach the recollections in a series of articles - a little at a time - and without any special attention to chronological order of occurrences. There were some pretty crazy happenings along the way.
Where to Begin................
A Bikini Malfunction on the World Stage
In 1981 a multi-sports event called the World Games was inaugurated to be held every four years in the same format as the Olympic Games. The catch was the sports included were non-Olympic events such as racquetball, artistic roller skating, powerlifting and squash. Bodybuilding was one of the 18 inaugural sports selected. Held for the first time in Santa Clara, California, during the last week of July, the contest was one of the first truly international events in the early years of women's bodybuilding as competitors came from nine countries and from as far away as Australia, Finland, Holland and France. A total of 34 contestants in two weight classes took part with the quality of competitors at a first rate level - a reality that generated a widespread interest due in large part to the rapidly growing popularity of the sport.
Future Ms. Olympia Kike Elomaa would win the middleweight division that also included the likes of Carla Dunlap and Kay Baxter. American Pam Brooks won the lightweight class to become the first winner of a World Games gold medal for the United States.
| Josee Baumgartner |
But my most vivid memory of this contest had nothing to do with the final placings and who won gold, silver or bronze. The incident I remember most notably had more to do with a string of rhinestones and the journey they traveled during the prejudging.
Josee Baumgartner was a lean, muscular bodybuilder representing France, and the rhinestones in question belonged to her excruciatingly tight fitting competition suit. Baumgartner would earn the eventual silver medal finishing a close second to Pam Brooks in the lightweight class. But it was her bikini that set the audience a buzz when she experienced one of the sport's first wardrobe malfunctions.
During the prejudging as the competitors were put through their compulsories, Baumgartner was called out for a series of poses which included a side chest pose.
At contests in the early days, it was fairly common for photographers to be seated in front of the judging tables, and I found myself in a great vantage point to get the best possible photos. ....and more, as it turned out.
Baumgartner was positioned directly in front of me on stage and I began to take shots of each of her compulsories. But when the side chest pose was called for Baumgartner's suit simply wasn't strong enough to withstand the expansion of her upper body
. The result was that a string of rhinestones that held her bra cups in place tore lose and was jettisoned into the air landing squarely in the middle of my lap. Unfettered by the sudden exposure, Baumgartner made her way off stage to make a quick repair - returning to the lineup in a matter of minutes to a resounding cheer from the audience.
After the completion of the prejudging I made my way backstage to offer the string of rhinestones to Baumgartner in case she might have needed them to make more repairs to her suit. When I showed her the string of stones she laughed and said, "No, keep them as a souvenir of my first visit to America!"
Photographically, I missed getting a shot of that wardrobe malfunction due to the rhinestone string falling into my lap. But I still have that souvenir - 30 years later - of Josee Baumgartner getting her first major ‘exposure' in the United States.
A Comeback for the Ages
In bodybuilding, it isn't really unusual for a competitor to announce their retirement, only to return a few years later to once again seek the feeling of being on stage and under the lights. The curiosity of returning to a level of ultimate physical condition can be intoxicating.
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| Mona Krause |
But it is rare that a competitor comes back after 20 or more years and even rarer when that comeback results in a victory. Yet that is exactly what Southern Californian Mona Krause achieved.
For Mona Krause, her bodybuilding efforts began in the early 80's. And in 1983 the Orange County Muscle Classic helped put her on the competitive map when she finished second in the heavyweight class of that contest. A year later she was the runner-up to Clare Furr in the light-heavyweight class at the 1984 NPC USA. Krause would compete in a total of five USA's and two NPC National events, but her pro aspirations never quite materialized.
Now here's the kicker. In 2006 Krause returned to the competitive stage and at age 53 she WON the heavyweight and overall titles at the same Orange County Muscle Classic she had entered 23 years earlier!
"I just decided to get back into it to see what kind of shape I could reach, and how I would do," said Krause at the time. "Winning was just a really pleasant surprise."
.....and speaking of the Orange County Muscle Classic. The OCMC carries a rich tradition and is recognized as one of the finest regional qualifiers in the country. With a women's division that has existed at this event since 1979, it is the longest continuously running contest to include women west of the Mississippi. It has also produced - along with Mona Krause - a very impressive list of past winners that includes 1980 winner Susie Green (she placed sixth at the 1980 Ms. Olympia), Diana Dennis(1984), Yolanda Hughes(1988), Denise Rutkowski(1991), Iris Kyle(1996), Dawn Riehl in 1999 who also won the 1999 NPC USA middleweight class; Barbara Fletcher in 2005, the winner of the 2005 NPC USA LW division, and future figure pros Ali Metkovich(2004) and Amanda Savell(2005).
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| Yolanda Hughes | Barbara Fletcher |
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| Susie Green |
Denise Rutkowski |
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| Dawn Riehl | Iris Kyle |
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| Ali Metkovich | Amanda Savell |
Promoter Jon Lindsay will once again stage this event at Cook Auditorium in Anaheim, California on April 16th. For more information on this annual event, click on www.musclecontest.com. The Orange County Muscle Classic is a contest you don't want to miss, and you never know who might make another comeback!
A National Newsstand First
With women's bodybuilding gaining national interest with each passing year in the early 80's, it wasn't long before a magazine was needed to fill the void and satiate the desire of the reading and viewing public to see, first hand, this newest interest in the development and display of female muscle.
Most of the major bodybuilding magazines of those early years were giving women's bodybuilding various levels of coverage depending on the tastes of the publisher, but the first publication on the national newsstands that was devoted exclusively to women's bodybuilding was entitled Body & Power Magazine. The publication's first issue (dated April 1982), hit the newsstands in March of that year with California Muscle Classic winner Debbie Basile on the cover. And yes, I was the editor.
How the magazine made it to the newsstands and how I became editor was more a matter of being lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time than any detailed process or well thought out plan of development. In reality, a magazine was already in place that was originally called Power & Fitness and reached the newsstands in March 1981 with its premier issue. Soon the magazine changed names to Bodypower and then again to Body & Power. During this period I had been submitting articles to this publication on a regular basis. Then early in 1982, the editor of the magazine decided to go back to school with a desire to enter the financial world. It was at that point he asked me if I wanted to take over as editor of the fledgling publication. I told him I would be very interested, but only if I could change the format to an exclusively women's bodybuilding magazine. After a conference with the publisher, they agreed to my request and I began to hurriedly put together the first issue of ‘the new' Body & Power Magazine with a sub-heading that stated ‘The Art & Sport of Women's Bodybuilding.
Featured in the first issue were profiles on competitors such as Lynn Conkwright, Linda McCrerey, and England's Sue Tonks; a contest report on the first World Games, and philosophical articles with titles that included ‘Bodybuilding: What are Its Messages for Women?' and ‘Will Women's Bodybuilding Pass Men's Bodybuilding?'
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The magazine was published bi-monthly and seven issues were produced before the publisher was forced to pull the plug. Interestingly, Body & Power came to an end not because there wasn't enough interest by way of sales, but because the publisher had prior financial entanglements with another publisher creating a monetary drain that the magazine simply could not overcome. Over the seven issues, coverwomen included Lori Bowen, Lynne Pirie, Tina Plakinger, Lynn Conkwright, Anita Gandol, Suzanne Tigert and Basile.
The brighter side of Body & Power's demise was that in a matter of months, publisher Bill Jentz stepped up 
to give birth to ‘Women's Physique World'. With John Nafpliotis and me working as editors, writers and photographers, along with a faithful group of contributors, we launched an inaugural Fall 1984 issue in the summer of that year.
Meanwhile, magazine's featuring women bodybuilders entered their heyday with ‘Strength Training for Beauty' getting started in January 1984, ‘Body Talk' launching in the Spring of 1984 and ‘Sleek Physique' premiering in Fall 1984. Two years later ‘Female Bodybuilding' would also hit the stands in December 1986. Both Body Talk and Sleek Physique never made it past the second issue, but Strength Training for Beauty and Female Bodybuilding (which would change names several times) managed to hang on for several years. Women's Physique World held out the longest and published its final issue in the Spring of 2006 - winding up a run of 22 years. Over that time the magazine was published as a bi-monthly or quarterly.
But collectively, all these magazines served a very valuable purpose - they helped spread the word and pictures of a new sporting movement where women were challenging their physicality and reveling in the joys of showing off their newly developed physiques for the first time. They also helped in the creation of the sport's first stars - women who, by virtue of their familiarity, would become pioneering and legendary as the years progressed and the inevitable evolution continued. From those early years, every bodybuilding fan (and even much of the general public) had heard of Lisa Lyon, Kay Baxter, Laura Combes, Rachel McLish, Kike Elomaa, Carla Dunlap, Cory Everson, and many others.
It was an exiting time, and new stars such as Juliette Bergmann, Anja Langer, Lenda Murray and Bev Francis were waiting in the wings, along with a ground swell of far more muscular women than anyone could have ever imagined.
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