Two recent deaths:
Charles Durr Jr died on May 2, 2005. He had won the 1996 AAU Mr America contest, but was then disqualified for failing the drug test. He then sued the AAU. Some believe this is why the AAU decided to wash its hands of bodybuilding.
Don Youngblood died of a heart attack yesterday.
Harold Zinkin, one of the original members of southern California’s Muscle Beach, inventor of the Universal Machine , died yesterday after falling and hitting his head the day before. He was 82.
Joe Gold, founder of Gold’s Gym, died Sunday July 11, 2004 at 8:15 pm at Daniel Freeman Hospital in Marina Del Rey. He was 82.
He was born on March 10, 1922 in Boyle Heights, just east of downtown Los Angeles. After serving in the Navy in World War II, he joined the Merchant Marines. In the 1950s, Joe had been a competitive bodybuilder, movie stuntman, and a co-star of the famous “Mae West Show” in Las Vegas and elsewhere. In the mid 1960’s he opened a small training space in Venice that would later become Gold’s Gym. He sold his interest in Gold’s Gym in 1970, and returned to the Merchant Marines. In 1977 he opened World Gym in Venice, later moving it to Marina Del Rey. At the time of his death he remained chairman and CFO of World Gym International. He never married and has no descendants.
Pepper Gomez, bodybuilder from the late 1940s and early 1950s, died today at the age of 77. Most of his fans know him as a professional wrestler from the 1950s through the 1970s.
AAU Mr America Mike Scarcella died August 25, 2003 from siezures due to GHB withdrawl. Shortly after his death there were stories of him dying while in police custody only hours after being arrested. This article paints a little more complicated, but no less tragic story.
For more info on GHB addiction, see projectghb.org.
Sony Schmidt died January 25, 2004
Contest results at MuscleMemory
Contest results at MuscleMemory