R.I.P. Larry Scott

[Gymini29]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...4812136&type=1



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Scott_(bodybuilder)

[Mdlftr]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Scott_(bodybuilder)
Death[edit]

On March 8, 2014, Scott died of complications from Alzheimer's disease in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was 75 years old.

Distinctions[edit]
The first bodybuilder to win the Mr. Olympia competition.
The only undefeated Mr. Olympia (retiring after his successful defense of the title).
One of the first bodybuilders to have 20 in. upper arms



Larry Scott

— Bodybuilder —

Personal info


Nickname
The Legend, The Golden Boy

Born
October 12, 1938
Blackfoot, Idaho, U.S.

Died
March 8, 2014 (aged 75)
Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.

Height
5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)

Weight
205 lb (93 kg)

Professional career


Pro-debut
1959 Mr. Idaho, 1959

Best win
IFBB Mr. Olympia 1965-1966, two consecutive times,

Predecessor
None

Successor
Sergio Oliva

Active 1960-1966
Retired 1980-2014

Background[edit]

Scott began training at age 16 and, by age 20, won the Mr. Idaho competition in 1959. After moving to California, he promptly won Mr. California (1960), Mr. Pacific Coast (1961), Mr. America (1962), and Mr. Universe (1964). When Joe Weider created the IFBB's Mr. Olympia title, Scott won the first two contests in 1965 and 1966. Although Scott retired after his 1966 Olympia win, he staged a brief comeback in 1979 before retiring from competition for good in 1980. He studied electronics at the California Air College, and was known to be a devout Mormon.[1] He was married to Rachel Ichikawa.

History[edit]

Prior to claiming his back-to-back Olympia titles (besting Harold "Damian" Poole on both occasions), Scott took Mr. America in 1962 and Mr. Universe in 1964. He also had a minor role in the 1964 movie Muscle Beach Party. However, Scott is said to have possessed little apparent genetic potential when he started training with weights in 1956, his narrow shoulders having been a particular weak spot. He trained with Vince Gironda, another well-known bodybuilder of the time, and became best known for his arm development, particularly his impressive and unusually long biceps, which allowed for good development and shape. He attributed his football-shaped biceps to an exercise called the "Preacher Curl," invented by Gironda, which became part of the standard repertoire among many bodybuilders. The Preacher Curl is often called the Scott Curl, due to its association with Scott.

Scott was also a popular physique model during the early to mid-1960s, working for such famous photographers as Bruce of LA and Don Whitman (of the Western Photography Guild). His "posing strap" material for Pat Milo is considered fine art. It was Milo who introduced Scott to a wide, appreciative audience and helped him hone his posing and photographic persona: that of the "boy next door." Larry regularly appeared in all of Joe Weider's bodybuilding magazines, including Mr. America and Muscle Builder, and he also figured prominently in Demi Gods, Muscleboy, Muscles a Go-Go and The Young Physique.

From 1960 until his first retirement from competition in 1966, Scott was bodybuilding's top superstar. Bodybuilding magazines soon began capitalizing on his clean-cut, all-American image, but Larry -- an IFBB athlete -- wrote exclusively for Joe Weider's publications. Larry's popularity completely eclipsed all other bodybuilders of his time, including such famous personalities as Freddy Ortiz, Chuck Sipes, Dave Draper, Leo Robert, Harold Poole, and Sergio Oliva. The phenomenon has since become known as "Larry Fever" and reached its apex at the 1966 Mr. Olympia competition, where Scott defended his title and once again took home the crown (literally, since the prize was $1,000 and an actual crown).

Scott's first retirement at the age of 28 sent shock waves throughout the sport. But Scott had other priorities (a second marriage), and after two Olympia wins, he felt he had done all he could do in competitive bodybuilding.

Rod Labbe, a freelance writer and fan of Scott's, collaborated with Scott on four articles: a two-part interview in Flex magazine, two articles in Ironman, and an article in MuscleMag International. According to Labbe, "Larry [was] my childhood hero, a true American success story. He came from nothing and reached the top as a Bodybuilder. It's an honor for me to work with him." Their last interview, entitled "The Golden Man," appeared in two consecutive issues of Ironman magazine in 2006. Before Scott's illness, he and Labbe collaborated on a new article for Films of the Golden Age magazine about American International's Muscle Beach Party (released in 1964), in which Scott played the role of "Rock," a bodybuilder who was part of "Jack Fanny's" (Don Rickles) exercise group (Scott's character name is listed incorrectly on the Internet Movie Database as "Riff" -- the shirts he wears in the film all read "Rock").[2]

Scott lived his latter years in Salt Lake City, Utah where he ran his personal training company, and manufactured and sold eponymous custom-made gym equipment and health supplements.[3] He was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 1999.

[CelticMuscle]

Perhaps this will spur research into Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. Here in the UK, there has been research published today suggesting that within a few years a simple blood test will be all that is needed to determine if you are liable to have it or not. Perhaps the next Muscle Beach contest could hold a drive for Alzheimer's Research in the United States?

[anpuZA]

He had 20" arms, was huge etc and lived till 75. How come the older bodybuilders lived longer than the guys of today?

[tekuno]

Originally Posted by anpuZA

He had 20" arms, was huge etc and lived till 75. How come the older bodybuilders lived longer than the guys of today?

Possibly because the early bodybuilders injected themselves with fewer exotic chemicals and abused fewer drugs? I have a sneaking suspicion that even if, say, you survive dehydrating yourself with diuretics for a contest, it still chops some time off your probable lifespan.

Originally Posted by CelticMuscle

Perhaps this will spur research into Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.

Possibly, but I doubt it. First off, if Terry Pratchett (known to and appreciated by tens, possibly hundreds, of millions worldwide, and receiving a knighthood) couldn't do it by getting Alzheimer's at 59, Larry Scott (known to and appreciated by a much smaller and probably poorer audience) won't do it by dying of it at 75 ? which is, of course, several years older than the average male age of death.

Alzheimer's is a terrible way to go, but for most people by age 75 "cause of death" is a race between what's going to go wrong first (wish it wasn't so, but it is), and so this isn't particularly shocking.

[hotmuscle_101]

[anpuZA]

Wow, just the idea of being a closeted muscle worshipper back then and coming across that black and white pic must have been incredible! Pun intended BTW.

[The Magus]

So happy to see that no matter how old a body builder is or what he dies from, there will always be someone ready to use it as an excuse to talk about drug use.

[suma]

I've always heard so much fuss made over his amazing biceps.
Sad that I never saw him at his prime or even in his latter years.

Is there any current bber with guns that get compared to Scott's ?

[tekuno]

Originally Posted by The Magus

So happy to see that no matter how old a body builder is or what he dies from, there will always be someone ready to use it as an excuse to talk about drug use.

How terrible! Someone asked why this guy lived longer than many more recent bodybuilders do, and I gave the obvious answer! How terribly offensive! Obviously, nobody should ever, ever suggest that there is any downside at all to drug use, no matter what the context is! After all, if nobody mentions a thing, it doesn't exist ? it's a good thing they teach kids about gravity in school, or else we'd all float off into space!

[Jethro]

Originally Posted by Gymini29

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...4812136&type=1



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Scott_(bodybuilder)

Photos of Larry Scott were a true inspiration to me as this skinny kid yearning for muscles. His arms for sure were always the main focus, but thinking back today I realize it was his whole physique and way he made so many poses into instant classics. He was to bodybuilding and posing what Fred Astaire was to movie musicals and dancing—a defining artist. A style and class never quite matched by anyone else.

[The Magus]

Originally Posted by tekuno

How terrible! Someone asked why this guy lived longer than many more recent bodybuilders do, and I gave the obvious answer! How terribly offensive! Obviously, nobody should ever, ever suggest that there is any downside at all to drug use, no matter what the context is! After all, if nobody mentions a thing, it doesn't exist ? it's a good thing they teach kids about gravity in school, or else we'd all float off into space!

Show some respect. A human life has ended and you want to go on an anti drug crusade. Feel free to start a NEW thread to talk about drugs. The space is free. It woild be awesome of a memorial thread could go by without someone using a data sample of one to support their argument.

[tekuno]

Originally Posted by The Magus

Show some respect. A human life has ended and you want to go on an anti drug crusade. Feel free to start a NEW thread to talk about drugs. The space is free. It woild be awesome of a memorial thread could go by without someone using a data sample of one to support their argument.

Actually, if you bothered to actually read what I wrote, which most people feel is a prerequisite to criticizing it:

1. I was saying the guy wasn't on drugs. Did you notice that the guy died at a ripe old age ? several years older than the average for men? But more importantly:

2. The mention of drugs was in response to a specific question someone asked, and I didn't make a big deal about it. If you hadn't made a fuss and gone off half-cocked (to put it much more politely than I feel like being at the moment, and probably more politely than your tone deserves) there wouldn't have been any follow-up.

In fact, the more you whine and complain about it, the more you're going to entice me, or anyone else who feels similarly, to talk about this on this thread, this particular post being a prime example. If you're really so serious about this being "a memorial" (which is a little dubious; I wonder if anyone who knew Larry Scott personally is even aware of the existence of this board ? if you throw a memorial and nobody involved in the deceased's life comes, does it even count?) then the best thing you could possibly do is to stop being so absurdly oversensitive. You can't stop other people from saying things, but you can prevent them from replying to you.

[anpuZA]

Magus I asked why the "old guard" (if you will) achieved what so many guys try to do today, some dying quite young, whereas the older guys seemed more long lived. I didn't see the answer as an anti-drug tirade, it was just an answer, or probably part thereof, God knows there must be other factors as well, more processed foods and meats, more stress etc.

[nnnrg]

I'm not at all certain that we can say that more people are dying young who are bodybuilders, as a percentage of how many ARE bodybuilders.

There are a lot more people in the sport nowadays, after all, than in the "old days". Based on the increase in participants, do we know that there is a higher percentage dying young?

If we were to do the statistical analysis and find out how many bodybuilders and strength athletes died of what causes, over the past century, AND it turned out that there are in fact more of them dying at a younger age, then we can examine the factors involved.

I suspect that there will be two factors: heart (as a result of metabolic) disease, which is probably following the same increased prevalence in the rest of the population, and there might be a correlation between the absolute size of the bodybuilders - it's clear that modern bodybuilders have been trending larger, and that group is (annoyingly) showing some of the correlations between extremes of size and shortened lifespan.

But I don't think the premise should go unexamined - is it a real thing, or a function of our normal human brain trick of seeing connections where they may not exist?

[The Magus]

Originally Posted by anpuZA

He had 20" arms, was huge etc and lived till 75. How come the older bodybuilders lived longer than the guys of today?

This statement makes no sense. Young men also died of heart attacks and cancer back in Larry Scott's day too. And there are bodybuilders competing today who will still be around in their 70s and 80s. My granddad lived to be 86 and he never stepped into a gym in his life and lived with a pack a day smoker for forty years......that tells us nothing about longevity or how we should live our lives. And neither does anything about Larry Scott's (or any other bodybuilder). You didn't mention drugs but you opened the door and Tekuno waltzed right in.

It's disrespectful to use someone else's life and death to make a point when people are paying their respects. This shouldn't have to be explained to anyone.
.
Tekuno, please learn to read yourself. When you stop spouting offensive nonsense I'll stop challenging you on it

[tekuno]

Originally Posted by The Magus

It's disrespectful to use someone else's life and death to make a point when people are paying their respects.

Sorry, but this actually made me laugh out loud. Let's imagine that we have access to a time machine and go back, oh, about twenty years, to when Larry Scott was alive and presumably hadn't shown any signs of Alzheimer's yet. And we ask him:

"Oh, hey, Mr. Scott, in the future there's a computer network thing where, well, mostly guys, who get off on the idea of huge muscles, share stories and pictures that they masturbate to. They also use it as a kind of dating service, and there's a section for bodybuilders to share training tips which doesn't have exactly the same group of users, but that's kind of secondary. The big deal is the stories and pictures.

"Anyway, in a few decades, when you're dead, we were wondering if we, total strangers to you, could have permission to put a bunch of pictures of you on the site. You know, to pay respects.

"No, really, it will be respectful. We promise. Just a few pictures of you in your prime, flexing.

"What? Oh, well, yeah, it'll show up in the section where the whack-off pictures are. There's, uh, only the one section for images. Don't worry about it. There won't be anyone playing with themselves while looking at you. Really. Well, at least no more than there would be anyway.

"Are you sure? Aw, come on, Mr. Scott! These future homosexuals you don't know will be completely respectful. They'll be so focussed on your body that they won't talk about anything else?"

(At this point, Larry Scott, being a big guy pretty much throughout his life, kicks us out of the house bodily.)

[anpuZA]

He was a devout Mormon, so I guess you wouldn't have even made it past the homo in homosexual with that explanation Tekuno. So I guess that might also be part way an answer as he no doubt partook of very little or no alcohol for instance. I still think today's lifestyle is toxic for bodybuilders even natural ones, not just because of the chemicals but also other stuff in their diet. I still wonder how he got to that size, and then also wonder what someone like him would have ended up at if he had had the access to all the stuff the guys have today?