Here we see Walt Needham with David Fitzen (left) a well regarded Salt Lake City
bodybuilder who somehow managed not to place in the 1956 Mr. Utah competition.
Maybe he didn't enter. (This Utah location bacame iconic in physique photography, btw.)
And speaking of competition, Walt Needham's ground floor organization of the
Connecticut Special Olympics made it one of the first and best in the USA.
Given what the State of Utah is most famous for, I'm very surprised to read that it was quite such a centre for bodybuilding and male physique photography. Perhaps that is explained away by the fact that everyone was assumed to be heterosexual, no one was ever guilty of rubber-knecking in the changing rooms and stripping off in the great outdoors was such a manly thing to do. I read only recently that pro rata, the Mormons produce more gay children than any other religion in America. I wonder what Dr Needham might have made of that fact.
ReplyDeleteYes, I was surprised, too. My Mormon friend (and neighbor) brings all her gay relatives to visit me when they come to Hawaii. When I commented on how many there were, she said that she knew lots of other families with the same situation.
DeleteMany are surprised that Utah was such a producer of fine physique models like Needham and Fitzen, who would guess.
ReplyDeleteThat location is in Utah, as Bellas travelled there and other places to recruit physique models on his way to rodeos.
Salt Lake City gave Muscle Beach a run for their money in the physique stakes.
-CA jock