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I was desperate to buy WPWQ magazines back then. There was an american bookshop in Vienna, that had the magazines. Near the time when it was due, I attended the shop frequently. The sales guy there must have thought I am onto something.
But when I get youre question right: how did I find out there are OTHERS with the same passion. I remember there were newsletters (in paper, sent by postal delivery), that advertised fbb cartoons or events like hte NYMC. That was the first time that I realized: I am not alone.
I realized I was not alone earlier than that era when I saw the female muscle and wrestling ads in the back of a wrestling magazine. WPW came soon after. I used to go look for it when it was due as well. They were a little late or on occasion a little early.
For me I still have a cut out of an advertisement of Famous Sports video store or something featuring Melissa Coates and Marianna Komlos on the cover that was in the sports section of the Los Angeles Times. This was during the internet and maybe pre internet era as well.
Yes. They had those stores all over the country and occasionally had famous fbbs visit the big city stores. I saw Denise Masino one time when I was in there looking at her videos and the store. That was not advertised. Sharon Marvel was advertised and I never went to that. I went to that store and other famous sports vids or L Scott sales TOO many times. Lots of old videos in VCR format. I probably have 100's in addition to my own collection made from years of taping TV shows during the 80's, 90's and early 2000's.
I was born in the mid 1950s. During my teen years, I was never attracted to "skinny" girls. A shapely figure and some substance was most attractive. I loved watching women's figure skating. My favorite skater was Janet Lynn. She was known as a "strong" skater who regularly did moves that required substantial leg strength. IMHO, her legs were awesome. She could leap into the air like a gazelle. The other gal that developed my interest was Soviet Gymnast, Ludmilla Tourischeva. Another gal with great muscular legs.
I am similar in age to you and remember Janet and Ludmilla. I would think about going on a date with Ludmilla while thinking, "I never thought I'd date a woman with muscular legs!" Both are fond memories!
There were plenty of ways. Go to the gym and I was fortunate that mine was filled with fbbs and some world class fbbs would stop in since the owner was Mr California. There were the old WSE strength extravaganza which was an hour away for me and I went to 4 or 5 times. There was ESPN. There was WPW. There was coverage of top women in all the strength publications.
The NY Muscle Club was mentioned but that was well after the internet was around. It was advertised all over the internet and I worked several of their shows. I would say it was better in some ways as you had to work to see the women. There was more personal interaction required and the women were not as afraid as they are these days. There were loads of ways and women with muscle on TV were much MORE common than now. The steroid scandal in baseball and other sports affected women's bodybuilding in a very bad way when they had the 20% rule. Women were told to lose 20% of their muscle. It was a confusing period. That seems to be gone again, though the sponsors never came back like they once were in the Cory or Lenda eras.
We are talking about a different internet though as we currently have it. The earliest usage of FBB on the net - for me at least - was the newsgroups. There were plenty of newsgroups with pictures of female bodybuilders, however, searching, downloading or sharing facilities were poor if any at all. You had to know where to look for the goodies.
The first chatroom I can remember was the one of Lor Braun: simple text on plain background. No graphics, pictures, or stream whatsoever. You logged on, and there were a bunch of people talking (similar to the homegrown chatroom here). I remember I was studying at the local technical university in Vienna, and we had one internet room (yes, such thing existed back then) that was open all night. There was a bunch of people in the chatroom who were sort of regulars, so we had our fun in the chatroom. Due to the time difference to the USA often I spent the whole night in that room. Only downside, once you left the room you couldnt enter it anymore after a particular time, so I had my share of snacks and drinks with me and hoped I dont need to go to the toilet.
Later the chatroom moved to "Diana the Valkyrie", which was the first sort of blockbuster website, and that was also around the time of NYMC and the later Extravaganz shows. The creativity of that time was amazing, it seemed like everything is possible. Felt like a wonderland for womens bodybuilding.
We are talking about a different internet though as we currently have it. The earliest usage of FBB on the net - for me at least - was the newsgroups. There were plenty of newsgroups with pictures of female bodybuilders, however, searching, downloading or sharing facilities were poor if any at all. You had to know where to look for the goodies.
The first chatroom I can remember was the one of Lor Braun: simple text on plain background. No graphics, pictures, or stream whatsoever. You logged on, and there were a bunch of people talking (similar to the homegrown chatroom here). I remember I was studying at the local technical university in Vienna, and we had one internet room (yes, such thing existed back then) that was open all night. There was a bunch of people in the chatroom who were sort of regulars, so we had our fun in the chatroom. Due to the time difference to the USA often I spent the whole night in that room. Only downside, once you left the room you couldnt enter it anymore after a particular time, so I had my share of snacks and drinks with me and hoped I dont need to go to the toilet.
Later the chatroom moved to "Diana the Valkyrie", which was the first sort of blockbuster website, and that was also around the time of NYMC and the later Extravaganz shows. The creativity of that time was amazing, it seemed like everything is possible. Felt like a wonderland for womens bodybuilding.
Yes. It was pretty functional by the time DTV took over in 99/2000. The internet was slower of course, but the sites and pics wrre thriving and functional. There was so much more new material. We have clips now instead. I never tried Braun...just saw ads. I had to try DTV with the chat and all that material as compared with anywhere else. DTV was one of the key sponsors of the NY Muscle Club and the guys who worked with it were operating sites under the DTV family in a couple of cases. DTV was a key player.
> > That strength competition show is a fantastic idea, I love seeing FBBs show off their strength. They're obviously weaker than powerlifters, but that's not the point, I wanna see those muscles at work. HB should host something like that with their girls, I think they have all the resources to do that. Imagine Vladislava Galagan, Melinda Lindmark, Ariel Rose, Shannon Seeley, Blakelee Ortega doing pullups, curls, benching, all until faliure. Doesn't really matter who wins, just the competition would be fun and really hot.
I would love to see them bring it back with some sponsor. It would not be the same guys as 30-35 years ago sponsoring. They owned WPW and most of the FBB industry, so the money was different back then. Sponsors existed. We don't have that now.
This is a good idea. I like to think a fan' crowdfunding effort could relaunch something like a rebooted Extravaganza. But it would probably need a person who is respected/trusted within bodybuilding to lead it (?) I think we've conversed in the past about the Extravaganzas(?).. but I admit I never get tired of reliving 'em. My drive was further than yours.. but I trekked to a couple in the 90s. They were all around north Jersey (Clifton, Seacaucus, etc). They were a great way to meet & network. And seemed like a decent professional opportunity for the competitors.
One year, me and a homey bought the VIP tickets and got to mingle at the after party. Thea Bennington was there that year, and looked impressive as Hell in person.
HB should host something like that with their girls, I think they have all the resources to do that. Imagine Vladislava Galagan, Melinda Lindmark, Ariel Rose, Shannon Seeley, Blakelee Ortega doing pullups, curls, benching, all until faliure. Doesn't really matter who wins, just the competition would be fun and really hot.
Sounds nice, I know, but the fantasy is often way better than the deliverable reality.
This is a good idea. I like to think a fan' crowdfunding effort could relaunch something like a rebooted Extravaganza. But it would probably need a person who is respected/trusted within bodybuilding to lead it (?) I think we've conversed in the past about the Extravaganzas(?).. but I admit I never get tired of reliving 'em. My drive was further than yours.. but I trekked to a couple in the 90s. They were all around north Jersey (Clifton, Seacaucus, etc). They were a great way to meet & network. And seemed like a decent professional opportunity for the competitors.
One year, me and a homey bought the VIP tickets and got to mingle at the after party. Thea Bennington was there that year, and looked impressive as Hell in person.
Yes. Would need someone to step in and with strongwoman in play now. I'm not sure it would sell as well. The women had a bigger following as far as people willing to travel. You'd have to do it in NY or LA for obvious reasons. I was the one posting that, but I'm afraid those days are long gone. The sport of FBBing is in danger other than the session stuff or selling videos. Very sad.
Yes. Would need someone to step in and with strongwoman in play now. I'm not sure it would sell as well. The women had a bigger following as far as people willing to travel. You'd have to do it in NY or LA for obvious reasons. I was the one posting that, but I'm afraid those days are long gone. The sport of FBBing is in danger other than the session stuff or selling videos. Very sad.
Yeah I think Crossfit and Strongwoman would be a good alternative to this, and those women outperform many of the bodybuilders on this site. Jesse James West on Youtube made a couple of videos with popularbodybuilders showing off their strength.
Yes. It was pretty functional by the time DTV took over in 99/2000. The internet was slower of course, but the sites and pics wrre thriving and functional. There was so much more new material. We have clips now instead. I never tried Braun...just saw ads. I had to try DTV with the chat and all that material as compared with anywhere else. DTV was one of the key sponsors of the NY Muscle Club and the guys who worked with it were operating sites under the DTV family in a couple of cases. DTV was a key player.
Diana the Valkyrie was incredible, there were clips, images, short stories about female muscle growth and domination, artwork in both 2D and 3D. I think the lack of saturation made each new piece of content more memorable as well.
There was also another directory that was centralized similar to this site called AMG lite. It had most female bodybuilders listed with images.I think it still may be up
Muscles of DeeKay?
Now there's a name I've not heard in a long time...a long time...
Flex magazine was my go to.. There power & sizzle section always displayed amazing FBBs. MuscleMag was cool, discovered more FBBs also but I’d wait for there annual swimsuit issue to see the ladies. I was always searching for any bodybuilding mag I could find that had more features on FBB.
There was also another directory that was centralized similar to this site called AMG lite. It had most female bodybuilders listed with images.I think it still may be up
It's called AMG Lite because the original AMG (Andy's Muscle Goddesses) used some sort of client-side Java that was too much for most people's PC's to cope with, so either he (Andy) or someone else made a 'Lite' version, and that's the one that stuck. Now you know.
I go back a bit further than that, to the site created by someone who I think was called Mark Meloon? I read about it in some magazine feature like 'ten weird and wonderful things you can find on the Internet' and set about downloading the pictures via my dial-up connection or by staying late in the lab at uni and using the network there. That site had one or maybe two pictures each of about fifty different women, but there were some good ones :-)
Does anybody remember the site called, “Remmer’s female muscle”? It had great FBB photos
For the older ones Before the internet, how did you find other people who liked female bodybuilding?
I didn't tell anyone. However, I did date the muscular girls at my school.
I would sneak and buy muscle mags from the grocery store.
When we got cable I would watch Kiana Tom's Flex Appeal and Cory Everson's show. My favorite show back in the day was actually on PBS at 6 AM. I used to wake up early just to see it before school, I Sing the Body Electrric. I was way into its host, Margaret Richards. Beautiful woman whose biceps and pecs were always bouncing. Great cleavage. She flexed once and her bicep was a peaked ball, which blew my mind. But she never flexed like that again to my knowledge.
I was desperate to buy WPWQ magazines back then. There was an american bookshop in Vienna, that had the magazines. Near the time when it was due, I attended the shop frequently. The sales guy there must have thought I am onto something.
But when I get youre question right: how did I find out there are OTHERS with the same passion. I remember there were newsletters (in paper, sent by postal delivery), that advertised fbb cartoons or events like hte NYMC. That was the first time that I realized: I am not alone.