Brothers of Iron

by Weider, Joe

• ISBN13: 9781596701243
• ISBN10: 1596701242
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-09-15
• Publisher: Sports Pub

Summary

In the depths of the Great Depression a scrawny, dirt-poor Jewish kid with a seventh-grade education picked up a barbell and got hooked on weight training. Building his muscles gave him confidence and hope for a better life. He pledged to make the great, transforming power of strength training available to everyone and to give bodybuilding all the glory it deserved. The kid, Joe Weider, enlisted his younger brother Ben in his quest, and together the Weider brothers accomplished things much bigger than Joe's boyhood dreams. The little muscle magazine Joe started, working at his family's dining room table, grew into a publishing empire. From a backyard barbell business, Joe and Ben built equipment and food supplement companies each as big as Weider Publishing. And they transformed bodybuilding into a hugely successful sport, organized under one of the largest and best-run athletic federations in the world. The Weider brothers are heroes to bodybuilders and fans all over the world.

Table of Contents

For Joe
Arnold Schwarzenegger	vii
Ben Weider, Sportsman and Gentleman
Juan Antonio Samaranch	xi
Author's Note	xiii
by Ben Weider
Chapter 1 Born With a Barbell in My Hands	1	(21)
by Joe Weider
Chapter 2 Rabbi Joe	22	(16)
by Joe Weider
Chapter 3 Magazine Man	38	(21)
by Joe Weider
Chapter 4 Opening Shots	59	(26)
by Ben Weider
Chapter 5 Jersey Joe	85	(19)
by Joe Weider
Chapter 6 The Rise, Fall, and Re-Rise of Weider Publishing	104	(24)
by Joe Weider
Chapter 7 Man in Motion	128	(26)
by Ben Weider
Chapter 8 Joe and Arnold	154	(27)
by Joe Weider
Chapter 9 Golden Age in the Golden State	181	(24)
by Joe Weider
Chapter 10 Oscar's Golden Key	205	(27)
by Ben Weider
Chapter 11 Weider's World	232	(22)
by Joe Weider
Chapter 12 Realizing My Impossible Dreams	254	(30)
by Ben Weider
Valedictory	284	(5)
by Joe Weider
IFBB Roll of Honor	289	(7)
Acknowledgments	296	(2)
Index	298