TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF - Muscle and Fitness home

SCENE III
October 1974. Arnold wants to retire from bodybuilding. What
more is there he can do in the sport? He has just won his fifth Mr.
Olympia title. It’s as if the chalk on the wall said, “Mr. Olympia 5 times,”
and Arnold has drawn five lines underneath that. Time for a new goal.
Time to advance his movie career. But wait. What if going for Olympia
No. 6 will advance his movie career? One more go-round, then. He can’t
miss the 1975 Mr. Olympia contest. George Butler will be there.
Who? George Butler, the author, along with Charles
Gaines, of the book Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of
Bodybuilding, released in 1974, that delved into the subculture
of bodybuilding and profiled its major players, including
Arnold. The book was well-received,
so now George wanted to turn it into
a movie documentary. And he wanted,
no, needed, Arnold to be the star. No
other bodybuilder had the résumé, presence
and charisma of the Austrian. The
plan was to shoot a number of bodybuilders
preparing for the 1975 Mr.
Olympia, to be held in Pretoria, South
Africa, with the climax set for the finals
onstage. Arnold couldn’t pass up the
opportunity. The cast would include
him, his new “rival” and eventual star
of The Incredible Hulk series Lou Ferrigno,
Franco, Serge, and amateur competitors
Mike Katz and Ken Waller, among others.
Not that this was Arnold’s first motion picture. He had
just filmed the movie Stay Hungry in the spring/summer of
’75, which found him playing a considerable role as Austrian
1973
Arnold starts taking
business courses while
attending night school
at the University of
California, Los Angeles
January
Arnold has surgery on his
left knee, which was
injured in South Africa
Arnold wins his fourth Mr. Olympia title
March 7
Arnold’s second movie,
The Long Goodbye,
premieres
Sept. 8
Arnold wins his fourth
Mr. Olympia title (in New
York City)
bodybuilder Joe Santo alongside Jeff Bridges and Sally Field.
The role required Arnold to drop down to 210 pounds. This
made for close timing, as filming concluded in July and
Arnold had just three months before the Olympia to get his
weight back up to 230–240 pounds. With
cameras on him throughout his precontest
training, he managed to pull it off.
But the groundbreaking documentary
almost didn’t happen. If Charles and
George thought pulling off a book about
bodybuilding was tough — the book’s
first publisher, Doubleday, pulled out
upon receiving the manuscript, reasoning
that no one would be interested in
this character named Arnold Schwarzenegger
— completing a movie project
was a much more difficult (read: expensive)
challenge. George had raised
$400,000 for the filming but soon found
that wasn’t enough. He resorted to fund-raisers, dipping into
his own pocket and incurring serious debt to finance the film,
but it was eventually completed and sold. Once again, fate
was on Arnold’s side, for if the movie had never been made,
1974
Charles Gaines’ and
George Butler’s book
Pumping Iron: The Art and
Sport of Bodybuilding is
published and well-
received
Oct. 12
Arnold wins his fifth
Mr. Olympia title (in New
York City)
October
Sports Illustrated
features Arnold in
“The Men and the Myth”
by R.W. Johnson
Nov. 19
Arnold appears on the TV
show Happy Anniversary
and Goodbye with Lucille
Ball, playing the character
of an Italian masseur
PhotograPher’s Name
In the midst of filming the groundbreaking documentary Pumping Iron, which would introduce him to a worldwide audience
who knows what would have become of his Hollywood fate.
In Pumping Iron, Arnold brought the metaphysical — what
he calls “it” — into play. Franco didn’t have “it,” nor did Mike
or Ken, and Lou, playing the role of the subordinate son to the
domineering father, definitely didn’t have “it.” But what
exactly is “it”? Maybe it’s Arnold so eloquently describing
in a now-legendary segment of the movie how the muscle
pump he achieves in the gym is like sex and how he achieves
that orgasmic feeling all day, every day. Maybe it’s Arnold
having breakfast with the Ferrigno family the morning
before the contest, talking trash, telling the Ferrignos he’d
just spoken to his mother on the telephone and told her he
had already won the Mr. Olympia for a sixth time, even
though the contest was still hours away, yet somehow managing
to endear himself to Lou and his dad, the latter two
laughing right along with Arnold. Maybe “it” is Arnold owning
the spotlight throughout the film, concluding in the final
1975
June 16
People magazine
features Arnold in “Arnold
Schwarzenegger: A Name
to Remember in the Body-
Building Business”
by Andrea Joiner
Nov. 8
Arnold wins his sixth
Mr. Olympia title
(in Pretoria, South Africa),
then announces his
retirement from
competitive bodybuilding.
His preparation for the
’75 Olympia is the
backdrop for the groundbreaking
documentary
Pumping Iron, produced
by George Butler
scene with his arm around “Big Louie” on the bus going back
to the airport in Pretoria, even though he’d just beaten him
(Lou finished third). Maybe that’s what “it” is.
But who cares what “it” is? Arnold certainly doesn’t, so
long as he has it. “I had the personality better than anyone
else,” Arnold says. “And I had ‘it,’ whatever ‘it’ is. In terms of
the personality, I think it’s a combination of a zest for life,
curiosity and being entertaining, enjoying being on the stage
and being in the spotlight. Lighting up the room when you
walk in. This is what ‘it’ is. In movies, the camera guys
always come up to me and say, ‘You can’t take any credit for
this because the camera loves you.’ Certain people have it,
and luckily only a few. It means you can go further, you can
push the envelope much harder…you can get away with
more,” Arnold says, smiling.
Arnold, of course, won the 1975 Mr. Olympia competition
easily, beating out Serge and Lou in the over-200-pound class,
Nov. 22–23
Arnold begins a six-city
seminar tour
in Pittsburgh
1976
Feb. 25
With Frank Zane and
Ed Corney, Arnold poses
at the Whitney Museum
of Art in New York City in
an exhibition titled
Articulate Muscle: The
Male Body in Art
April 23
Stay Hungry is released.
Arnold stars with Jeff
Bridges and Sally Field
»
196 MUSCLE & FITNESS July 2007 2007OLYMPIA.COM 202 MUSCLE & FITNESS 05.10
197
THIS PAGE: ZELLER/©FITNESS PUBLICATIONS, INC./COURTESY OF WEIDER HEALTH
AND FITNESS; OPPOSITE PAGE: COURTESY OF WEIDER HEALTH AND FITNESS