In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a new aesthetic for men’s bodies emerged. At the time, the concept that there was an ideal way for a man’s physique to look was new, or at least long-neglected. In the immediate past, strongmen had only been required to lift heavy things. Nobody cared whether or not their muscles were visible or well defined.
Then, strongmen became bodybuilders and they were just as likely to pose for the public as they were to perform feats of strength. Having visible muscles and as little fat as possible became desirable. Nowhere did this catch on more strongly than in California, where the film industry celebrated both female and male beauty and the waterfront stretched on for hundreds of miles.
California Beaches
California is a place where people care about how they look, so it’s no wonder that body building caught on there early and tenaciously. Although men with well developed bodies loved to strut around all the beaches up and down the California coast, the beach south of the Santa Monica pier was California’s first official Muscle Beach, starting in the 1930s. The City of Santa Monica installed workout equipment on the beach, and it was a hangout for famous bodybuilders like Jack LaLanne, Joe Gold and Vic Tanny. However, in 1989, it was rededicated as a spot for gymnastics training. The beach at Venice, California had became popular with body builders, too, and its Muscle Beach is still going strong today.
Film, Television and Photography
Back in the early twentieth century, classic American films were being made and a modern image of masculinity and glamour was needed for this powerful new form of entertainment. A handsome face never hurt, but the healthy, compact look of a casual body builder was and still is our society’s most common ideal for male beauty. Increasingly, when men took off their kits in film and on television, they revealed lean, strong, athletic-looking bodies.
In the US in the 1930s and 1940s, bodybuilding magazines like Health and Strength, Ironman, Physical Culture and Vim showed the world a gorgeous and powerful new look for men’s bodies. It was a golden age before the use of steroids became widespread, when ideals were more aesthetic and less competitive.
The Amateur Athletic Union’s Mr. America body building contest started in 1938, and it continued until 1999. The ideal moved past the ancient Greek look and became bigger and bigger and leaner and leaner. As steroids came onto the scene, the game changed and (most would agree) not in a good way. Competition beat out both health and aesthetics.
However, we can still look back on the early and mid-twentieth century images of sun drenched California golden boys who loved to pose on the beach. They were captured on film and in photographs that were seen around the world, and they helped change our ideal for men’s bodies.
