Muscletown USA: Bob Hoffman and the Manly Culture of York Barbell (Paperback)

by John D. Fair (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
From the 1930s to the 1980s, the capital of weightlifting in America was York, Pennsylvania, the home of the York Barbell Company. Bob Hoffman, the founder of York Barbell, propagated an ideology of success for Americans seeking physical improvement. Often called the "Father of World Weightlifting," Hoffman was a pioneer in marketing barbells and health foods. He popularized weight training and inaugurated a golden age of American weightlifting. Muscletown USA--part biography, part business history, and part sports history--chronicles how Hoffman made York the mecca of manly culture for millions of followers worldwide.Hoffman created his so-called muscle empire out of an oil-burner business that he started in the early 1920s. Within a decade, his passion for sport exceeded his need to produce oil burners and by the outset of the Depression he began manufacturing barbells at the factory. He soon discovered a willing public of aspiring weightlifters like himself who would buy not only barbells but also health and fitness products. Hoffman soon recruited a remarkable group of athletes, whom he tagged his "York Gang." He gave these men jobs in the factory, where they trained for national and international meets. Gradually, Hoffman emerged as one of the most prominent muscle peddlers in America, using his fame and fortune to promote competitive weightlifting, bodybuilding, and powerlifting. Muscletown USA reveals other innovations in which Hoffman played a major role, including weight training for athletes, health foods, bottled spring water, isometrics, and women's weightlifting. Even anabolic steroids, first used by weightlifters in the early 1960s, were a direct outgrowth of the fitness culture spawned by Hoffman.Meticulously researched and engagingly written, Fair's book will appeal to a wide range of readers, including anyone fascinated by American sports history and the iron game. John D. Fair is professor of history and chair of the Department of History and Geography at Georgia College & State University in Milledgville, Georgia. He is the author of two books on modern British history. He has competed in more than fifty Olympic and powerlifting meets, coached several teams, taught weight-training classes, staged meets, been a national referee, served on the national weightlifting committee, and even judged a Mr. America contest.

About the Author
John D. Fair is professor of history and chair of the Department of History and Geography at Georgia College & State University in Milledgville, Georgia. He is the author of two books on modern British history. He has competed in more than fifty Olympic and powerlifting meets, coached several teams, taught weight-training classes, staged meets, been a national referee, served on the national weightlifting committee, and even judged a Mr. America contest.

Product Details

• Paperback: 436 pages
• Publisher: Penn State Press (June 16, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0271018550
• ISBN-13: 978-0271018553
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #284,498 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Info or snesation?, February 3, 2000

By	Bobby K. (Riverside California) - See all my reviews

Once, when I was working out in the weight room at UCLA in the early 70's, someone called out, "The weight room is Mother!" And so it was, for those of us for whom working out had become a way of life. And if the weight room was "Mother", then Father was Bob Hoffman, who more than anyone else in my generation, popularized weight training for both athletes and the general public. Having been a disciple of Hoffman through his magazine, I had been thinking that a bio of him needed to be written (about 14 years after his death) when coincidentally Fair produced just such a book. The extent of Dr. Fair's research is impressive, especially about the era from the sixties onward, and his story of the degeneration of the US Olympic weightlifting team due to steroids and recreational drugs is particluarly compelling. Additionally, his debunking of the myth of Hoffman as a person was an eye-opener for me. The story of the Hoffman-Weieder wars is also interesting.

With regard to Hoffman however, the balance of the book may be a little off. While the details of Hoffman's sexual activity and his promotional quackery are interesting, I was disapponted not to see more about how Hoffman was as a coach. I have been told by a member of the York team that Hoffman was very good as a coach, but this did not come through for me in the book. Fair attributes the greatness of the post-war team to the socialization at York and the fact that the weightlifters were from immigrant families. He should have gotten more material from the lifters of that era and stuck more to history and biography; his psychologically-based simplifications detract from the book because he puts too much credence in them. All in all, it's a good book; it's not the last word on Hoffman, however.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the whole story, July 12, 2002

By A Customer

I have to admit that I was not aware of Hoffmans health problems untill I read this book, although on seeing him in person at shows in York in the 1960's and early 1970's it was very obvious that his physical and mental faculties were declining fast.I also wasn't aware of his problems with Charles Atlas. And while I am not a fan of the Atlas "Dynamic Tension" program, it certaintly couldn't have been any worse for muscular development than the York Simplified Barbell and Dumbell courses or Hoffmans Daily dozen.Hoffmans war with Weider, on the other hand, was well known and obvious. Most of us felt that Weider was just a con man and self promoter. Weider was, in fact, bodybuildings number 1 fan and promoter.The contests promoted by Hoffman were always in the worst venues and under the worst conditions. No air conditioning on a hot summer weekend, uncomfortable seating and disorganization. Some of the bodybuilding shows were held in gymnasiums with a flood light clamped onto a basketball net and the audience sat in the bleachers.The olympic weightlifters didn't fare much better having to compete in auditoriums or gyms in national competitions in 85 to 90 degree temperatures with competitions running all day and untill 2am.The Bodybuilders would get the worse end of the deal. The Mr. America contest would be held in a high school auditorium and contestants would stand on a band leaders pedestal and frequently, the best developed men would lose. In some cases, it would after midnite before the contest (which were always held after weightlfting contests) would start. Smaller contests were held in YMCA gyms or community centers.Of course the biggest losers were the fans who to pay for this nonsense and the sport, which failed to attract any real audience.In the 50's and 60's, bodybuilding lost a lot of good champions who quit in disgust. Some went overseas to compete in and win the NABBA Mr. Universe like Earl Clark, Mickey Hargitay, Enrico Thomas and Elmo Santiago while others just left the sport.Black bodybuilders like George Paine, Arthur Harris, Leroy Colbert. Leon Burke, Bob Walker and Harold Poole and non olympic weightlifter types like Bud Counts, Lynn Lyman, Jerry Ross and Lou Degni would frequently lose to lesser developed olympic lifters with a partial interest in bodybuilding.In the late 50's, American bodybuilders had an alternative with the IFBB and the Weider/Hoffman battles really heated up.Hoffman made a big deal about Chuck Sipes winning the IFBB Mr. America after placing 18th in the AAU Mr. America. The following year, Sipes would defeat Ray Schaeffer, a AAU Mr. America and Amateur NABBA Mr. Universe for the Pro Mr. Universe title.Weider would also sponsor bodybuilders like Clancy Ross, Jack Delinger (who beat Bill Pearl sponsored by York) Doug Strohl and Reg Lewis and others to the NABBA Mr. Universe in London competing directly with Hoffman and giving the great champions of the day, slighted by York Barbell an opportunity to go for the Gold.Hoffman would sponsor the current AAU Mr. America to the NABBA Mr. Universe.Hoffman was also a self promoter of sorts. In the 60's, Hoffman was trying to promote a new "secret" strength and muscle building system using a power rack doing isometrics and isometronics (partial limited range movements in the power rack) offered by York and endorsed by top AAU National Weightlifters and AAU Mr. America winners. In reality, their secret was anabolic steriods and the York people were among the first, if not the first to use steriods.The power rack "secret" system went the way of the hoola hoop once the truth came out.The last AAU show I attended was the 1971 AAU Mr. America. What a thrill it was to see Sergio Oliva, Arnold Schwarzeneggar and Ken Waller in the audience. How disgusting it was to see world class bodybuilders like Ed Corney and Mike Mentzer finish 4th and 10th respectively when both should have been in the top four at least and then losing to York man/Olympic lifter Bill St. John was a joke. The organization was typical York chaos and on a hot June night, the fans and contestants sweltered in 80-degree+ temperatures because the promoters told the school maintenance staff not to turn on the air conditioners.Corney and Mentzer never competed in the AAU again after that.I also recall Hoffmans energy bars having more sugar than nutrition and the Hi Proteen powder had a lot less protein than we thought and was hard to digest. Ditto for the Protein of the Sea, Energol, powdered Lecithin and Papaya Juice that Hoffman peddled.Strength & Health was mainly an olympic lifting news magazine and a catalog for Hoffman products with bodybuilding, fitness and health as a side interest.Hoffman did help some olympic weightlifters like Bob Bednarski, giving both an apartment and a salary (I thought these guys were supposed to be amateurs???) and then tossed him aside after he passed his peak. The best thing that I can say is that I enjoyed the articles in Hoffmans magazines by John McCollum, Bill Starr and Ernie Picket. Muscular Developent was at least initially, a good, quality magazine under York rule that deteriated badly in later years. Some of those AAU contests had some great champions: Olympic lifers-Tony Garcy, Phil Gripaldi, Bill MARCH and Bob Bednarski. Bodybuilders-Harold Poole, Hugo Labra, Don Howorth, Joe Nistam Jr., Frank Zane, Chet Yorton, John Corvello, Eric Pederson, Bob Hinds, Zabo Kosiewski, Jim Haislop, Boyer Coe, Chris Dickerson, Casey Viator, Ken Waller, Ed Corney and Mike Mentzer.Strength & Health and Muscular Development were both catalogs and commercials for York products primarily with some useful information as an afterthought.This book covers a lot about Hoffman, but it misses a lot as well and is not the final word on Hoffman and York Barbell. Bob Hoffman was no saint.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hoffman did it for his ego alone, July 25, 2002

By	John Toth (Renton, Wa) - See all my reviews

Finally we know the truth about Bob Hoffman. That he didn't work out. Didn't eat right and was nowhere near as healthy (actually pretty unhealthy) as he pretended to be.We also discover that Hoffman was not as well liked even among the weightlifters as we had thought.In fact, the whole thing was probably just used by Hoffman as a tax writeoff to offset his successful oil burner business. And in the end, Hoffman did writeoff a lot of the people that he used in his magazines to promote his ridiculously over rated products.Yeah, John D. Fair is correct, Hoffman did it for his ego alone.