The Best Physical Culturists of the 1950's

[Harry Hayfield]

Overview
By the start of the 1950's, muscle, strength and fitness was starting to become the mainstay of life amongst those who had grown up in the Depression era and boy did they make a name for themselves. Vince Gironda, renowned for his movie roles before hand, introduced the neck press named after himself, Reg Park, three time Mr. Universe, was hailed as the best bodybuilder of the Golden Era, Ed Fury, a former model of Bob Mizer, appeared in such films as "The Wild Women of Wongo". Even movie stars such as Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson and Robert Wagner endorsed the style and of course where would we be without the great sporting stars of the decade such as Milton Reid who went on to appear in a number of films

Rules
1) All nominees must have been born prior to 1930
2) All nominees must have come to public prominence between 1950 and 1959
3) Nominations will be accepted in text (name of physical culturist), images or video (labelled with the name, country of birth and date of image)
4) Nominations will close at 0000 PDT on May 8th 2019

[Harry Hayfield]

Overview
By the start of the 1950's, muscle, strength and fitness was starting to become the mainstay of life amongst those who had grown up in the Depression era and boy did they make a name for themselves. Vince Gironda, renowned for his movie roles before hand, introduced the neck press named after himself, Reg Park, three time Mr. Universe, was hailed as the best bodybuilder of the Golden Era, Ed Fury, a former model of Bob Mizer, appeared in such films as "The Wild Women of Wongo". Even movie stars such as Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson and Robert Wagner endorsed the style and of course where would we be without the great sporting stars of the decade such as Milton Reid who went on to appear in a number of films

Rules
1) All nominees must have been born prior to 1930
2) All nominees must have come to public prominence between 1950 and 1959
3) Nominations will be accepted in text (name of physical culturist), images or video (labelled with the name, country of birth and date of image)
4) Nominations will close at 0000 PDT on May 8th 2019

Given what has happened to us this week, I am extending the close of nominations to 0000 PDT on May 11th 2019

[peter yates]

Thanks Harry, my mind really has been elsewhere.

[peter yates]

Sorry Harry, so much going on. meant to get this in so is it still valid? I nominate Steve Reeves.
Regards,Peter.

[Harry Hayfield]

Sorry Harry, so much going on. meant to get this in so is it still valid? I nominate Steve Reeves. Regards,Peter.

Yes, Steve Reeves is a valid nomination

[Harry Hayfield]

The list I posted earlier were all born after 1930 (and therefore not valid) so the new list of nominations are:

Steve Reeves (USA)
Reg Park (GBR)
Shohachi Ishii (JPN)
David Tsimakuridze (GEO)
Bror Viking Palm (SWE)
Imre Hódos (HUN)
Mithat Bayrak (TUR)

[raynobile]

i nominate reg park.he had a more active and longer career in bodybuilding than reeves. i cannot coment on the other nominees as i have never heard of them

[Harry Hayfield]

Steve Reeves (USA)

youtu.be/Busc9G6l9-w

Reg Park (GBR)

youtu.be/eV80yrQRWE4

Shohachi Ishii (JPN)
Shohachi Ishii was a Japanese freestyle wrestler who won a gold medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics. He was the first Japanese gold medallist after World War II, the only Japanese gold medallist at the 1952 Olympics, and one of two Japanese medallists in wrestling at the 1952 Olympics

David Tsimakuridze (GEO)
David Tsimakuridze was a Georgian middleweight freestyle wrestler. He won an Olympic gold medal in 1952, becoming the first Olympic champion from Georgia. Domestically he won the Soviet title in freestyle (1945–1947, 1949–1952) and Greco-Roman wrestling (1947 and 1948). After retiring from competitions he worked as a coach, and prepared the national team for the 1956 Olympics.

Bror Viking Palm (SWE)
Bror Viking Palm was a Swedish light-heavyweight freestyle wrestler. He competed at the 1952, 1956 and 1960 Olympics and won a gold medal in 1952, finishing fourth in 1960. In 1960 his bronze medal match against Anatoly Albul ended in a draw, but Albul had a lower body weight. Palm won two medals at the world championships, in 1951 and 1954.

Palm was born to a farmer and started training in wrestling aged 16, together with his elder brother Evert. He had a long wrestling career and reached the final of his last national championships aged 47. He was a firefighter by profession, but in 1972 began working as a policeman in Solna.

Imre Hódos (HUN)
Hódos competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki where he received a gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling, the bantamweight class. He also competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 1960 Summer Olympics

Mithat Bayrak (TUR)
Mithat Bayrak was a Turkish sports wrestler and trainer, who won two gold medals in the Welterweight class of Men's Greco-Roman Wrestling at the 1956 Olympics and 1960 Olympics. Born on 3 March 1929 in Adapazari of Sakarya Province, he began 1948 the wrestling sport in Sakarya Günes Spor club. Following his admission to the national team, he was trained by the renowned wrestlers Gazanfer Bilge, Mehmet Oktav, Hüseyin Erkmen and Celal Atik. Mithat Bayrak won the gold medal twice for Turkey at the Olympic Games. He ceased his international career after the 1960 Olympics and emigrated to Germany, where he joined the wrestling sports club KSV Witten 07. There, he wrestled almost 20 years more and served later also as trainer. After the end of his career, he ran a restaurant in Witten, Germany.

Voting is now open and will conclude on May 30th 2019 at 0000 PDT. To vote, simply post your first preference for the title of Best Physical Culturist of the 1950's and then your second preference.

[peter yates]

1Steve Reeves
2Reg Park

[Harry Hayfield]

Just a reminder that the polls close in 24 hours.