Oscar Heidenstam, The Mr Universe Contest, and the Amateur Ideal in British Bodybuilding |
| |
Authors: | Fair John D |
| |
Institution: |
Georgia College & State University
|
| |
Abstract: | During Britain's so-called golden age of bodybuildingduring the 1950s and 1960s, Oscar Heidenstam, through his NationalAmateur Bodybuilders Association (NABBA) and Health and Strengthmagazine, elevated the annual Mr Universe Contest in Londoninto the world's most prestigious physique competition. Whatmade this achievement so remarkable was Heidenstam's commitmentto the Victorian ideal of the gentleman amateur. Eventually,however, this outmoded approach prevented him from staying abreastwith the times and resisting countervailing societal forcesthat were commercial, American and modern. Tradition and parochialismprevailed as NABBA, the Mr Universe Contest, and British bodybuildingwent into relative decline in the 1970s. And California,home of the rival Weider organization and Arnold Schwarzenegger,displaced London as center of the bodybuilders universe. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 Oxford 等数据库收录! |
|