Muscle Beach

The Story

The story behind America's iconic patch of sand-Muscle Beach, California.Almost half a century before health clubs, fitness videos, and weight training became American obsessions, a pioneering enclave in Santa Monica, California, started the physical culture boom. In the 1940s, Jack LaLanne, Vic Tanny, Joe Gold, Les and Pudgy Stockton, and others like them drew thousands of visitors to the beach to watch their feats of strength and acrobatic displays. More and more viewers became participants, and these pursuits, originally on the fringe, came fully into the cultural mainstream. Muscle Beach is full of rich, new material about the original Muscle Beachers-many of whom are still alive and testaments to the benefits of a life devoted to fitness. With its fresh anecdotes and thirty-two rare and wonderful photographs, this history brings this legendary stretch of beach into clear focus.