Plague of Strength

Eric Pedersen’s Bodybuilding / Wrestling / Acting Career (1946-1961)

Following the 1947 second place showings, everyone thought Pedersen was going to dominate bodybuilding, but like 1946 Mr America Al Stephans, Pedersen faded from the stage, which was packed with big name lifters from what was then the old school starting to really battle it out with the beasts of the new (Sig Klein, who spend most of his career in an old-timey strongman singlet, had won the biggest bodybuilding contest in the world in 1946, but only because he and John Grimek, a younger but still old school bodybuilder, were in entirely different classes and never took the stage together). Pedersen dipped his toe in the water a bit, but he was already wrestling full-time by 1946, which meant constant travel in shitty cars on dirt roads and nightly matches all up and down the West Coast.

For all but the first year of his eleven-year bodybuilding career, Pedersen was a professional wrestler based in the LA area but travelling throughout the contiguous United States and Hawaii (which is insane considering the total lack of a highway system in the United States at the outset of his career- travel was certainly not easy). From 1946 to his retirement in 1961, Pedersen bodyslammed his way through opponents in over 1000 matches, which left little time for the other shenanigans the big dudes from the gym he called home in Hollywood got up to, and those motherfuckers were living the dream.

The owner of that gym, 1938 Mr America and Hollywood stuntman Bert Goodrich, utilized his position to staff Mae West’s scandalous travelling review with lifters from his gym, all of whom became either somewhat wealthy and famous or just marginally so from their time with the ultimate diva of the 30s and 40s, but somehow Eric Pedersen didn’t join the likes of 1948 Mr America George Eiferman, shredded pothead and Gold’s Venice mainstay Irvin “Zabo” Koszewski, rags-to-riches pretty boy phenom and 1954 Mr. America Dick DuBois, hypertalented handbalancer and Mr Muscle Beach Dominic Juliano, founder of Gold’s and World’s Gym Joe Gold, raw meat scarfing sultan of shred Armand Tanny, sword and sandal actor Gordon Mitchell, and Jane Mansfield’s eventual husband and 1955 Mr Universe Mickey Hargitay. Given the licentious nature of Mae West’s review, one would think it would have been right up Pedersen’s alley, but he was apparently more interested in breaking bones than busting nuts at the time (either that, or he really didn’t want to dye his hair black for her show, which was a requirement).

Though working for West would have been the perfect day job from which a person could pursue a career in bodybuilding, bodybuilding was barely even a sport at that point (and it’s a questionable sport even to this day) and Pedersen clearly didn’t have it at the top of his list of priorities. Reflective of his hilariously dismissive nature towards a sport for which he seemed naturally suited, Pedersen’s competition history begins with a preposterous entry into the most prestigious bodybuilding competition in the world at the age of 16. Even in bodybuilding’s infancy this must’ve looked idiotic, but he was a damn good looking kid.

1945 AAU Mr America

• Did not place (he was 16)

1947 AAU Mr. California

• Tall Class & Overall Winner

1947 AAU Mr America

• Runner-up in the overall (to Steve Reeves), won Most Muscular

1947 AAU Mr Pacific Coast

• Runner up (to Steve Reeves again, in another hotly contested competition)

1947 FIHC (now the IWF) Mr Universe

• 3rd. This was the first year of an attempt to make an international contest to follow the Mr. America that would be associated with the AAU and the international weightlifting championships. Pedersen lost a tie-breaker for second to 1950 Mr America John Farbotnik (1925-1998) in a contest skewed heavily in favor of our weightlifting Olympians (Steve Stanko mysteriously won it in spite of having no legs due to a horrible injury that made it impossible for him to train them). Pedersen did place above his buddy 1938 Mr America and 1962 Mr Universe George Eiferman, who also owned the gym at which Pedersen trained, as well as shredded-to-bits 1943 Mr America Jules Bacon.
  • As no one I’ve seen has any information on this, the FIHC stands for “Federation International Halterophile et Culturiste.” For those of you who recall, “halteres” were the dumbbells invented by the Romans and used for the long jump and lifting. The name, then, is just French for “dudes with a hardon for lifting,” and they were the Frenchies behind the removal of the continental from weightlifting because the French and English weren’t strong enough to compete with the Central Europeans on true brute strength tests. In any event, the fed that eventually became the International Weightlifting Federation ran their bodybuilding meets in just as dull a fashion as their lifting meets- almost the entire competition was the competitors standing relaxed, with only a 90 second posing section in which they were actually allowed to flex.

1948 Mr USA

• 4th. The event was won by 1945 AAU Mr America and 1946 Pro Mr America winner Clancy Ross, followed by Steve Reeves and 1946 AU Mr America Al Stephens. Legends like Leo Stern and Jack LaLanne failed to even place in this thing.

1956 Mr USA

• did not place. This was essentially the best of the best from the 40s, 50s, and 60s. It was won by the inimitable Bill Pearl (Pearl and Reg Park were the two men to beat in the 60s), with Clarence Ross (he was one of the big three bodybuilders of the 40s, alongside Grimek and Steve Reeves) in second. Zabo, the abtastic maniac who ran Gold’s Venice, came in third, while Timmy Leong (Hawaii’s version of Joe Gold, who had to take a 9 hour prop plane flight just to get to San Francisco.  We forget how hard travel was then) took fourth. Bob Shealey took fifth (one of the earliest black competitors in the Mr America, he won the most muscular basically because his arms were ridiculous, pushing 20″). Along with the insanely ripped Vince Gironda, an actor who travelled from Hawaii named Rex Ravelle, Pedersen didn’t place. Pedersen had bulked up and lost cuts as a wrestler over the previous decade, and just couldn’t stand next to the biggest names in the game as a tourist from an entirely different sport.

If you’re thinking that Roman Reigns has no excuses for not being in bodybuilding shape at any time, you’re probably right, but the wrestling of Eric Pedersen’s day and the modern gymkata-style shenanigans that typically go on are about as far apart as the Republican party and verifiable scientific fact. Pedersen fought in the era in which wrestling was transitioning from carnival shootfighting matches to “worked” matches, and Pedersen trained under arguably the hardest of the old school, hardcore carnival sideshow psychopaths- Ed “Strangler” Lewis. Lewis fought in over 6000 verified matches, most of which were bloody free-for-alls against jacked farmers trying to make a payday by beating the circus’s ringer, and they’d try to do so by maiming the ringer nine times out of ten. Lewis lost fewer than 70 of his matches, and he continued winning even after being declared legally blind, because he was that kind of bad motherfucker.

Ed Lewis was partnered with a wrestler named Toots Mondt, the man responsible for the transition from the old school to the new, as he saw Ed as the only man on the planet who could impose his will on anyone and make the idea of scripted bouts work. If someone wouldn’t follow the script they were given, the “Strangler” would live up to his namesake, wrecking both the wrestler and their career enough that the other wrestlers joining his stable would never think of double-crossing the boss. Pedersen picked up Lewis’ catch wrestling “hooker” style from the carnival and became a terror on a circuit that included notable wrestling maniacs like catch wrestler Lou Thesz (who likely would have given Randy Couture a headache in the octagon even without any modern training). Pedersen’s matches at that time were a mix of shoot fights (as in real) and works, in the biggest wrestling federation in the world at that time, the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). And I realize that nothing that isn’t the WWE means shit anymore, but the NWA was far bigger on the world stage than the modern WWE before it broke apart into the WCW, All Japan PW, New Japan PW, and what’s now become Impact!…

so the fact that Pedersen was trained by the man who invented modern pro wrestling but was the most feared catch wrestler of the early 20th century isn’t just notable- it’s proof in and of itself that Eric Pedersen was one of the baddest and hardest motherfuckers about whom I have ever written, nevermind the fact that when combined with his unique training methods he becomes one of the most important people in both the evolution of modern bodybuilding and modern professional wrestling.

Eric Pedersen’s Known Wrestling Titles

NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Title (with Henry Lenz)- 1958/07/03 – 1958/09/05
NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title– 1958/11/14 – 1958/11/21
WWA International Television Tag Team Title (with Henry Lenz)- 1959/05/06 – 1959/??/??
NWA International Tag Team Titles (Georgia Version) (with Freddie Blassie)- 1960/05/03 – 1960/??/??
NWA Gulf Coast Heavyweight Title– 1960/08/14 – 1960/09/07

If it helps the WWE marks out there, Pedersen also wrestled for the CWC , but the real reason he’s important to the pro wrestling narrative is that he was the first bodybuilding prettyboy in wrestling. Instead of being a hardened badass who just wrestles a lot, Pedersen was billed as a literal Hercules who was trained by the most evil wrestler in history as a sort of mad experiment to produce the perfect wrestler, and he caught heat for it. Lewis brought in a number of bodybuilders in an effort to create a stable of wrestlers that sort of mirrored the 1980s WWF lineup- muscleheads alongside the hardcore old school dudes. Interestingly, that must have made an impact on Vince McMahon, whose father ran the Capitol Wrestling Conference, a part of NWA for some time, because shortly after the CWC broke off from the NWA it was stocked with an entire stable of bodybuilders transplanted directly from a single gym in Minnesota into the WWF.

Speaking of gyms that produced ridiculous numbers of jacked people, Eric Pedersen’s home gym was Bert Goodrich’s flagship location, which was the first true modern gym with leather and chrome equipment. Steve Reeves, Bert himself, most of Hollywood’s stars, all of the guys in Mae West’s revue, and all of the crazy-ass handbalancers you’ve ever seen pics of from muscle Beach, as Bert and his guys were all into that stuff as well. Another guy who trained with them was Pepper Gomez, a bodybuilder-turned-wrestler whom Pedersen accidentally made a star by failing to show up for a title match (Gomez filled in and took the strap). Pedersen and the bodybuilders-gone-wrestlers often travelled together from venue to venue (construction of the highway system had barely begun by the time Pedersen retired in 1961, so travel was a unmitigated nightmare), and would thus train together, just like the wrestlers of today.

That’s not to say they were particularly well received by either society or wrestlers- bodybuilders and weightlifters were generally assumed to be cock-hungry ass pirates (the guy who popularized bodybuilding in the US was insanely sex positive for the Victorian/Edwardian Era and was very vocal about it), who would prey on children at night and lure people into dangerous worlds of seedy people hopped up on “the marihuana” and committing indecencies that would curl the pages of this article if it were actually in print. As NWA legend Dick Steinborn (who trained George Eiferman briefly) put it,

“As far as the feelings about body builders entering wrestling in those days, it was a resentment by the boys. The promoters saw muscles captivating new fans, especially with the onset of TV, but it was the boys who could wrestle, that had to carry their opponents, because of lack of talent. The wrestling business had always gone to a turmoil time over the years” (Steinborn).

That said, Pedersen was absolutely no jobber- in fact, he was an insanely vicious heel just outside of the inner circle of old-time wrestling badasses like Lou Thesz, Ed Lewis, Verne Gagne, Buddy Rogers, and his tag team partner Classy Freddie Blassie. Whether due to his missed title shot (which made Pepper Gomez a star) or some other reason, Pedersen was never quite able to capture the nation’s attention fully on the wrestling scene either. That said, wrestling had only just hit television and the various wrestling promotions were, like the bodybuilding promotions of the day, in their infancy. As such, it might just have been a case of Pedersen arriving on the scene about five years too early to really make a splash in either.

By the accounts of his friends, Pedersen wasn’t terribly social, nor was he quick to make friends. That likely hurt him in everything from casting for the Mae West review to wrestling and bodybuilding, but it did make him an ideal candidate for what he did after he hung up his trunks- collect debts for the mob in Las Vegas. Pedersen had all of the tools one would need for the job- superlative strength, he looked great in a suit, and he was trained in the arts of small-joint and large-joint manipulation and destruction by one of the most dangerous fighters in history, carnie-turned-pro wrestler Ed “The Strangler” Lewis. Lewis was the man who initially taught Judo Gene LeBell, one of the first modern mma fighters, how to break large humans into bite-size pieces.

Eric Pedersen was so good at breaking bones until money popped out of their marrow that according to his son, he took his future wife on the Deadpool-esque first date of watching him break legs. On that occasion, the man’s children ran out, begging him not to break dear papa’s legs, so Pedersen relented so as not to do it in front of the kids. In doing so, he won that woman’s beautifully black heart and gave that man one more evening with two working legs.

As I said, Eric Pedersen was the unmitigated shit.

Up next, which will be either today or tomorrow as the third part is pretty much complete, I’ll detail Eric Pedersen’s workouts, in which you will discover that

1. Arthur Jones, and by extension any HIT advocate, ripped off his training methodology entirely from Eric Pedersen.
2. Eric Pedersen was the first bodybuilder to publicly promote bodypart workouts (and possibly the first to do them, though that is impossible to state with certainty)
3. Bert Goodrich’s way of running the rack might be the easiest way to bring up shitty arms in history, but it will suck to do.

Jump to Part 3

Sources:

Alvarez, Pablo.  Eric Pederson.  Pro Wrestling Historical Society.  Jul 2014.  Web.  15 Sep 2020.  https://www.prowrestlinghistoricalsociety.com/bio-0113.html

Fair, John D. Mr. America: The Tragic History of a Bodybuilding Icon.  Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015.

Flammini, Vincent.  Facebook comment.  Facebook.  13 Apr 2020.  Web.  18 Oct 2020.  https://www.facebook.com/116733248412758/photos/eric-pedersen-lost-the-1947-aau-mr-american-contest-by-12-point-to-steve-reeves-/1672795086139892/

Hoffman, Bob. The 1965 FIHC Mr. Universe Contest. Reprinted from Strength & Health, Aug 1966, Page 22. Musclememory. Web.  10 Nov 2020. http://www.musclememory.com/showArticle.php?sh660322

Jailhouse rock.  Pulp International.  19 Oct 2019.  Web.  15 Sep 2020.  https://www.pulpinternational.com/pulp/entry/Photo-of-bodybuilder-Eric-Pederson-in-Los-Angeles-jail.html

Liederman, Earle. Try this unique system of training. Your Physique. Jul 19??. Pp 16.

Martin, Rueben. Facts About Reg Park “Mr Britain”. Reprinted from Strength & Health, Aug 1950, Page 26. Musclememory. Web.  10 Nov 2020. musclememory.com/showArticle.php?sh500826.

Pedersen, Eric.  Arm Development. Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban.  8 Nov 2018.  Web.  19 Oct 2020.  http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2018/11/arm-development-eric-pederson.html

Pedersen, Eric. Better shoulder development. Strength & Health. Date Unknown. Pp 16-17,47-48.

Pedersen, Eric. Exercises I like best. Muscle Power. Oct 1948. Pp 14-15,43.

Pedersen, Eric. Exercises I like best, part II. Muscle Power. Nov 1948.

Pedersen, Eric. Powerful abdominals. Publishing information unknown.

Pedersen, Eric. My training program. Muscle Power. Date unknown.

Weider, Joe. “The great 1963 IFBB Mr Universe- Mr America- Miss Americana.” Reprinted from Muscle Builder, Vol 14, Num 2, Page 12, www.musclememory.com/showArticle.php?mb640312

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