IronMan, Vol 6, No 3, Supplemental Page 1, unknown date
The National Weightlifting Championships were held in the Hollywood Legion Stadium, Sat and Sun, June 2 and 3 David Matlin was the director. As usual, the "Mr. America" contest was also held with this meet.
Saturday night the subdivisions of the Mr. America contest were held before a large crowd. The lifting took place then the Mr. America contest. I had one man entered in the contest, Rodriquez. He is small but has a perfect build When I saw them lined up I was amazed. Never before has mortal man gazed at such a display of wonderful manhood. The average height was about 5' 10" and many were over 6'. They all had the beautiful lines of greek statues I was sure that Rodriquez would get last place as all of them were taller and heavier built.
This night they were going to judge the best arms, chest, back, legs, abdominals and most muscular man. The best arms was first. Sam Loprinzi was first to come on. He has as fine a pair of arms as any man ever built 16¾" on a 5' 5" man. He received only 41 points as the judges were a little slow about giving out point at first. Eric Pedersen a 16 year old ran up a score of 44 with a super pair of arms. Cliff Byer came next with a winning score of 47 points. He has wonderful arms. Words can't describe the wonderful biceps and triceps that he shows. Clarence Ross made a score of 43.
The best chest came next. This was a tough one as one fellow had a chest that stuck out a foot and was round like a barrel. Clarence Ross won tho because he had a beautiful pair of pectorals and a fine deep rib box.
Joe Lauriano the "Jr. Mr. America" won the "Best Abdominals". Rodriquez won second place. His abdominals were sharper but Joe showed his better.
Ross won first in the most muscular man contest. All contestants used the same pose as is used by Rudy Gambacorta on page 19 of this issue of "Iron Man". Ross kept tensing up for about 15 seconds until I thought he would surely blow a fuse Sam. Loprinzi took second with 46 points. Kimon Voyages got 42. Rodriquez 41.
Best Legs was won by Kimon Voyages. He has huge legs and good shape. He does 5 sets of squats for each workout. Rodriquez was second and has without doubt the best shaped legs as you can see every muscle in them.
Best Back was won by Ross. He had fine arms and terrific separation along his spine. Ross won on total points Sat. night and Rodriquez was second. Right then I picked Ross for Mr. America to be chosen Sunday night and moved Rodriquez up to fifth place because of his showing against taller men.
Sunday afternoon after the lifting championships. Mr. Walter Baptiste gave a very fine show of muscle control. He has super muscles and a way with a field of 31 men. They were all marched on the platform good change of pace. [sic]
The Mr. America contest got under and introduced. The night before I told Sam it was too bad that he had to go on first as a test case or starter and so on this night he refused to go on first. Five mins. later he was disqualified but the crowd made such a furore that the judges let Sam back in but the judges decided that after such a show, Sam needed spanking. They did with a poor score of 92.
Rodriquez now went on and ran up a score of 102. I almost fainted. He did too. Then Clarence Ross went on and made the top score of 111 points. Others came and went with Harold Zinkin making 107 for second place and Ken Graham also making 102 and thus tying with Rodriquez for third. They gave 3rd place to Graham.
Clarence Ross is a very nice looking fellow -- modest and of fair hair and skin. He is 5' 10" tall and weighs 178 and has a very beautiful build. Everything is in the right place and has a thin skin with no flaws, all of which made him the most pleasing to the eye and that is how the judges pick them. There were many who had larger muscles but they did not have the eye appeal that Ross had.
I have not said much about the lifting but I must mention one thing. You will notice that there is no 123 lb. class given. This class was to start at the Legion Stadium at 7:30 p.m. Sat. There were two men in this class - Emerick Ishikawa and Joe DePietro, two of the best men in the world. However the officials of the American Legion heard that Ishikawa was a Jap born in Hawaii, and they would not let him lift in their Stadium or have anything to do in the meet. It looked bad until Johnny Terpak got the idea of letting Emerick lift in the afternoon at the L. A. YMCA. I was invited to watch the lifting along with a small handful of men. DePietro said he would lift in the 132 class as he wanted to lift at the Stadium. Muril Mitchel said he would lift with Emerick. After a short warm up Emerick started off in the press with 185 then 195 which was not good then again to succeed nicely. Muril made 140 in the snatch Emerick took 185 and then 195 and then a miss with 200. Muril made 140. In the clean and jerk Emerick made double bodyweight 245 very easy and then failed on 255 as he did not try very hard because of a lack of competition. Muril made 190. This gave Muril a nice total of 470. He only made one attempt on each lift as he was unprepared to lift for he didn't know he was to lift until the morning of the meet, Emerick totaled 635, one of the best totals ever made in the 123 lb. class. He lifts like Terlazzo in the press and like Terpak in the snatch and clean and jerk. Bachtell was too nervous in the 132 class and lost to powerful DePietro. Terlazzo did wonderful tho training injuries prevented him from proper training. Terpak had an easy victory tho Weeks made him work to stay ahead in the press. Weeks has great power but needs to change and work on his form. Zinkin with a wonderful build had it his own way in the 181 class. All three top men in the 181 class used the squat in the snatch and clean. The squat is here to stay. In the snach it is risky business but in the clean it is unbeatable. Have seldom seen a man miss a clean in the squat style. The heavyweights were all good at pressing. Fair in the snatch. Almost all tried 300 in the clean and jerk and had plenty of power but lacked good form.
NOTE- Mr. Fay starts a complete course in handbalancing in next issue. Don't miss it. He is also planning an article on "'How To Enter a Physique Contest".
- The new "Mr. America", Clarence Ross. Note the fine chest, legs and shoulders. He typifies the tall slender physique admired by the general public in preference to the very heavily muscled athlete.
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