Mythic Physique The_Muscle_Men

Bring on the Muscle Men Part III

By Oscar Williams-Smith

The Swinging Sixties

The 1960’s are often seen as the decade that changed everything, however as we have seen these changes were already taking shape in the early 1950's. The human body was being celebrated like never before. Actresses like Marilyn Monroe and Anita Ekberg where big box office stars of the 1950’s. And now body builders like Steve Reeves, Reg Park, Gordon Scott, Mark Forest, Brad Harris, Dan Vadis, Gordon Mitchell began showing real box office muscle. Playing parts like Hercules, Ulysses, Samson, Maciste, Ursus the Son of Hercules, Atlas, Goliath, Romulus And Remus, Colossus, Gladiators of all types and Achilles.

Swords Sandals and Bikinis

These were exciting times. The baggy bulky suits and long dresses of 1940’s and 50’s gave way to the thinner tighter suits and pants and the mini-skirts of the early 1960’s. There was raw sexuality even in the more adolescent movies of the early 1960’s. The Surfing movies genre was created. Celebrating bare chested men and full figured women dressed in the new style bikinis. (The bikini bathing suit was considered so hot that it was named after the Bikini Islands where atomic bombs were tested.) The surfing movie genre started in 1959 with 'Gidget' staring Sandra Dee. 'Gidget' became a big box office hit with the now teenage baby boomers.

There was quite a bit of cross over between the Sword and Sandal and the Surfer genre movies. 'Gidget' was followed in 1963 by the hit musical comedy 'Beach Party' staring pop singer Frankie Avalon and the well endowed former Mouseketeer Annette Funicello, with the double entendre character name of Dee Dee. The movie was a huge hit and was followed the next year by 'Muscle Beach Party' (1964).

In 'Muscle Beach Party' a group of body builders, led by their coach Don Rickles, clash with the local singing surfers. The movie was a cross over between the sword and sandal/muscle men movies and surfing genre. It showed just how mainstream body building was becoming.

Bodybuilding the Early Days

Looking at the group of bodybuilders in 'Muscle Beach Party' there few who are more than moderately built by today’s standards. The access to weight lifting equipment and techniques was still extremely limited.

'Muscle Beach Party' featured body builder Peter Lupus (born June 17, 1932, sometimes credited as Rock Stevens) as Flex Martian. Lupus would go on to star in the Sword and Sandal classics as 'Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon' in 1964, as Hercules and 'Goliath at the Conquest of Damascus' 1965, as Goliath. Before landing the part as strong man Willy Armitage in the original 'Mission: Impossible' TV Series. 'Muscle Beach Party' also feature the voluptuous Italian actress, who played a bit part in the 1957 Steve Reeves 'Hercules' and would the next year become one of the most popular Bond girls of all time, Luciana Paluzzi.

Bond, James Bond

Sean Connery, the man who would be Bond was born to a poor working class family in Edinburgh, Scotland on 25 August 1930. He was cast as 007 because of his stature and his grace. Sean Connery had been a body builder.

Connery began bodybuilding at the age of 18, however he was also a first class football (soccer) player. So Connery was never really was able to put on the sheer muscle mass needed to be a champion bodybuilder. Connery was fighting fit but he was built more for endurance on the football pitch (soccer field) then sheer bulk. Connery placed Third in 1950 Mr. Universe contest. His athletic grace as a footballer would serve him well in his second career as an actor.

Connery is a big tough well muscled man, unlike any other British leading male actor of his day, with the one exception of Carry Grant. Carry Grant (January 18, 1904 – November 29, 1986) had started out in show business as a Circus acrobat and was quite well built, and fast on his feet. If you ever watch Carry Grant in movies you can see he is excellent as doing pratfalls and other very physical comedy. By the time the first James Bond "Dr No" was in production in 1961, Grant was too big of star for the meager production’s budget to afford. So the graceful and well built Sean Connery landed the role as the British secret agent and history was made. The working class Connery was trained in the manners and snobbery of an upper-class British gentlemen.

Connery made the James Bond movies a success, as did the beautiful and sexy Bond girls. But the times were changing again. The Sword and Sandal movies with their muscle men and curvaceous women were giving way to the hippy movement and the new age of the anti-hero and to a feminist backlash against exploitation.

Suddenly thinner men with longer hair were becoming popular. Women in movies became less overtly sexual. The Bond girls of the Roger Moore era became less voluptuous, going from the hourglass figures of Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore, Luciana Paluzzi as Fiona Volpe and Lana Wood as Plenty O'Toole to the more straight body types of Britt Ekland as Mary Goodnight, Maud Adams as Andrea Anders & Octopussy and Carole Bouquet as Melina Havelock.

The first wave of muscle men movies lasted from 1957 – 1965. It had been a celebration of the human body in both men and women. But the Baby Boomers were growing up and their interests were changing. There was a war in Vietnam and many Boomers became anti-violence and counter culture, movies became less fantastic and mythological and more gritty and realistic.

But the early success of the Sword and Sandal movies had not been completely forgotten. A new generation of actors, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno and Sylvester Stallone had all been inspired by these early movies. These actors would sit on the sidelines during the age of the skinny anti-heroes waiting for their chance. And their chance finally came with the new dawn of muscle bound actions heroes of the late 1970’s.

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