I was having a discussion with a tech guy about “translating” IRON MAN from the printed page to mobile devices such as smart phones. He’d never seen IRON MAN, nor had he visited IronmanMagazine.com. His expertise was moving information to small screens. He was enthusiastic about the sheer volume of high-quality, authoritative content that IRON MAN has in every issue and the incredible storehouse of knowledge and experience contained on our Web site.

To him, “Founded in 1936” was a powerful statement. Someone once said that to truly understand something, you must be able to explain it clearly to someone else. In order for the tech guy to help us, I had to explain who our readers are, what they want and why they read IRON MAN. So I started to distill my thoughts about our readers and how we serve them. IRON MAN is its readers, and its readers are IRON MAN. I thought about my own journey to become a part of IRON MAN. What made the magazine stand out to me as a teenager?

I had recently attended a media seminar, and one of the speakers was the chief revenue officer of The Wall Street Journal, Michael Rooney. His presentation was both brilliant and funny. He talked about what his readers wanted and how The Wall Street Journal was perceived, and he made the statement, “The Wall Street Journal is an island of clarity in a sea of madness.” That resonated with me as I tried to formulate my explanation for the tech guy.

I think Michael Rooney’s statement applies to IRON MAN as well—IRON MAN is an island of clarity in a sea of madness. The madness is the incredible volume of information that exists in our world that is simply naive. Anyone who has access to the Web becomes an expert. There’s no question that the Web is a wondrous tool, but it’s also a “sea of madness” because it’s so difficult to separate the expert from the neophyte.

IRON MAN is created by a group of writers who have hundreds of years of combined experience and a track record of excellence. That foundation is what gives clarity to the content. Time has created a body of proven information that defines the expert, and Steve Holman, IM’s editor in chief, is our curator of content. Not only must our information be accurate and useful, but it must also be well written and accessible to the reader. As I explained all of that to the tech guy, he smiled and said, “Integrity.”

Arnold’s birthday always reminds me of his parties in the late ’70s and early ’80s and the cast of characters he would assemble. There would be the usual suspects from the gym—me included. Even then, however, the group also included actors, filmmakers, writers and artists—a guest list representing the various parts of his life. Incidentally, Arnold’s interest in art and artists was nurtured early on by Joe Weider, a lifelong collector who was very happy that Arnold was such an apt pupil.

At each step along his way Arnold attracted the best and brightest of the time. Literary connections opened on his collaboration with Charles Gaines and George Butler on the book Pumping Iron, which became the historic movie. “Stay Hungry” exposed Arnold to such talents as the legendary director Bob Rafelson (“Five Easy Pieces”), a young Jeff Bridges and, of course, Sally Field. Later John Milius (“Conan”) and James Cameron (“Terminator”) joined the group. In a way they all had a part of their start toward greatness in conjunction with Arnold’s own rise. Arnold’s collaborations with Milius and Cameron led to blockbuster success for all involved.

Arnold’s parties were always very casual affairs with plenty of ice cream—even before the cake. About two blocks from Arnold’s house was a wonderful ice cream shop—Clancy Muldoon’s. One year the “task” of picking out the flavors and buying the ice cream fell to me. Because I wanted the best for Arnold and his guests, I, of course, had to taste many of the flavors. Arnold and I both love ice cream, but my observation has been that he’s better at moderating his love than I am: He knew he’d picked the right person for the job.

Bodybuilding was always a part of Arnold’s life but never his entire life. He could compartmentalize—he was in control and comfortable—and could always move from segment to segment seamlessly while being totally in the moment with any group. His parties were like that too—a relatively small, diverse group of, say, 20 people held together by his interests.

Fast-forward to now, and I am again in charge of the “ice cream”—this time in the form of iconic photographs by Gene Mozée, himself one of the seminal characters in California bodybuilding. Gene is a bodybuilding “renaissance man,” from gym owner in the ’50s to protégé of legendary photographer Russ Warner to prolific writer, covering all aspects of the weight sports. Gene’s contributions to bodybuilding are second to none. To enjoy his classic photos of Arnold, the “ ice cream” of this birthday celebration CLICK HERE. Enjoy! IM

Because of my lifelong interest in bodybuilding, I’ve had the good fortune to meet and become friends with a wonderful cast of characters, many of whom are larger than life in the Damon Runyon sense. When it comes to personality, the trio in the photo below goes to the head of the class.

The photo was taken by Mike Neveux in 1990 at the IRON MAN studio in conjunction with Arnold’s work on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness. What a piece of history! Arnold: bodybuilder/movie star/entrepreneur/future governor; Joe Gold: founding member of Muscle Beach, part of the Mae West stage show, founder of Gold’s Gym as well as World Gym and a gym-equipment innovator without peer; and in the middle, Tony Nowak—not a household name like the other two but no less a special personality and special friend. I’m sad to say that Tony passed away on April 6, 2010, while on vacation in Italy with his 17-year-old son, Enzo.

I first met Tony at Gold’s Gym in the mid-’70s and was always taken by his enthusiasm for anything he was doing and for life in general. Later Tony started a garment business that specialized in custom-made leather jackets. It’s really a gross understatement to call his jackets “custom-made,” however. Maybe I should say that every detail to the last stitch was important to him. Perfectionist is not a strong enough word—obsession is closer. The jackets were just one of Tony’s passions.

The last time I saw Tony was at the ’10 Arnold Classic with his commemorative jacket for the event. He had created the Arnold Classic jackets for years and always presented one to the winner onstage. Tony was a good friend of Arnold’s, and he created a special jacket for the cast and crew of every movie Arnold made.

Many of the people attending Tony’s memorial mass wore his jackets in homage to him. Arnold’s eulogy hit on the areas that always came up in any conversation with Tony—he had pure, unbridled enthusiasm, the kind that grabs you up and sweeps you away. His love of his family always surfaced. Included in that family were Gold and Arnold. When you talked with Tony, you became part of the family.

A naturalized citizen, originally from Poland, Tony also had an absolute love of the U.S.A. In his eulogy Arnold told a story of hanging out with Tony after a workout in the ’80s. When they heard someone at the end of the bar running down his beloved adopted country, Tony walked over to the guy and knocked him out with a single punch. Extreme? That was Tony. Every one of the 500-plus people in the church nodded knowingly. Only Arnold had witnessed it, but everyone knew that it was just Tony being Tony.

I had many conversations with Tony about his being an immigrant and what America meant to him. He spoke of a thousand different ways that his story could only happen here. Tony never left anyone “untouched”; he was a character that Damon Runyon would have loved to write about. In the beginning of his eulogy Arnold said that Tony’s passing made him angry—I feel the same way. We have no replacement for him. IM

The beauty of the sunrise never fails to inspire me, and the lingering afterglow of the sunset is my “happy hour.” As I stood on the windy beach last night talking with my sister, I was bathed in the afterglow of nature’s power that I so relish. But my emotions were jumbled.

My 92-year-old mother was at home where she wanted to be and was “ready to go,” as she told my sister. She’s had an amazing, healthy life until these past six months. My mother, as was my father, is of the old school—the school taught by the Depression and the Second World War.

The question: How do you say thank you for your life? Both literally and for the person you became. For me, actions always speak louder than words, and my mother was an action hero to me. She wouldn’t describe herself in heroic terms—far from it. She was just doing what was best for her family for a lifetime. Selflessness is what my mother was all about. Nothing meant more to her than my father and her children and grandchildren. Things never mattered to her. The material things were just that, soulless and inanimate. As I told her many times, the only way I can repay her is to try to do what she did for us and for my own children, both simple and difficult. She lived for us, and now we have to figure out how to live without her.

For me, the sunrise is the birth of the day, and one reason to get up early is to experience it. Birth is a mystical experience. Our children are in fact our only touch with immortality. Like the sunrise, birth is filled with hope and energy. Last week, Jonathan Lawson, our advertising coordinator, and his wife, Angeliina, brought a boy, David Alexander, into the world. As I talked with Jonathan about the experience, he tried to describe his feeling but finally just said it is nothing like anything else. As I listened to him trying to verbalize the sunrise of birth, I flashed back to my children’s births and what a tsunami of emotions those days were for me. When they brought David into the office, it was a wow moment, the perfect beauty of a newborn and Jonathan and Angeliina radiating love and wonder. As Jonathan said almost incredulously, “We did this.” The birth gave me perspective and renewal as the sunrise does each morning. IM

Just received this from my friend Jon Jon Park…

“We are hosting a presentation on Alkaline water this Saturday 13th here at the gym at 11:30 am. I highly recommend you attend. You will find it very enlightening & I don’t believe you will ever want to drink plastic bottled water again. I have been drinking this water for the past four months and have noticed significant improvements. Bring however many guests you wish.”

Legacy Gym
11845 W. Olympic Blvd., Suite 100
West Los Angeles, CA 90064