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Whats the NY Muscle Club?
It was briefly a live venue featuring FBBs as the entertainers.
Really enjoying this thread. Talk about blast from the past!
Yep, really awesome. Herbiceps was definitely something that really opened my eyes to muscular women. I’m pretty sure it was herbiceps, I remember, well obviously seeing a lot of great women, but I remember seeing pics of Karen Pica and at some point I saw she was from NJ. Come to find out a little later on, she was my godmother’s cousin. I wish I had gotten the chance to meet her before she passed away. I probably did when I was a baby or something but yeah, unfortunately never saw her after I started getting into all this.
Y'all might want to think about re-formatting that NY Muscle club thing to something where you would have muscle girls put the crunch, crack, etc on you, Mike, and any other HB dudes who are willing while the rest of us just watch, LOL!
Let's not forget one of the most prominent additions HB made to the field very early. The message boards were a HUGE source of info and content. At this early point they presented a forum for us all to connect and find common ground with others with our "unique" interests. That common ground allowed many who thought they were alone to connect with a wide spectrum of fellow fans and add a normalcy lacking at the time. A real shame they were scrapped in the change over to a todays version. The community lost a real gem, but pay to play was the way to go and I commend the guys for their great success. Thanks for the hard work.
Muscle Mansion has been mentioned a few times, yet I also enjoyed the parking garage phase. That was around 2008 - 2010?
Unique.
The parking garage had a pretty long run. Photographer and brand development expert, Isaac Hinds, even created a Facebook page for it. Great times avoiding that summer heat in Chicago! 😂
Y'all might want to think about re-formatting that NY Muscle club thing to something where you would have muscle girls put the crunch, crack, etc on you, Mike, and any other HB dudes who are willing while the rest of us just watch, LOL!
Ha! Those days are long gone for us, my friend, but sounds look a potentially cool market opportunity for someone else, as the space is wide open.
Let's not forget one of the most prominent additions HB made to the field very early. The message boards were a HUGE source of info and content. At this early point they presented a forum for us all to connect and find common ground with others with our "unique" interests. That common ground allowed many who thought they were alone to connect with a wide spectrum of fellow fans and add a normalcy lacking at the time. A real shame they were scrapped in the change over to a todays version. The community lost a real gem, but pay to play was the way to go and I commend the guys for their great success. Thanks for the hard work.
Thank you for the kind words. I get why so many guys liked the forum - as you love the one here on GWM - and as many of you are aware, the community element of the DtV site was a large component which helped to move a lot of this whole scene forward in the first place.
But it's not what we're good at - GWM is! 😉 The door is not forever shut on the idea of trying to offer a new forum, but it would have to be something that could be easily integrated into the current platform and which would require very little maintenance. Those of you who have operated or moderated forums know that last part is seriously wishful thinking.
What strikes me as interesting is that there are more women than ever lifting. That plus social media makes this time especially “easy” to discover new talent.
However idk that they’d be down for the muscle fetish experience lol. The girls I’ve asked via TikTok don’t quite get it or straight up say no. Idk that NYMC would quite work out the same way.
Yeah it's a different culture than it was 20 years ago, and I'm sure New York has changed a lot too. I get the impression NYMC was at the right place at the right time.
You might be able to get away with a watered down version somewhere today but I have a feeling it wouldn't last either way. It would be an interesting venture though for some schmoe with a huge sum of disposable money saved up, which naturally excludes me.
Ok so I have a couple of new questions for Tre...
How come Herbiceps/Femflex all y'all gave up shooting contests/shows? It used to be a thing, and you'd have some pretty high quality photos posted up on the site, but now it's just a thing of the past. Why did you guys give it up?
How does that work anyway? Are shows contracted out to certain photographers?
If I could hazard a guess:
The meat and potatoes are the shoots around the showtime. Shifting focus to higher quality creative and leaving behind stage shooting (which already has a bunch of credentialed photographers that shoot stills only) was a good path. I think the metrics would support me if there are any. Higher downloads and views for muscle worship or HQ posing over a short routine.
I want to see Blakelee Ortegas giant biceps up close and personal, not from 40 feet away in the dark. Covered in honey is a nice bonus.
Ok so I have a couple of new questions for Tre...
How come Herbiceps/Femflex all y'all gave up shooting contests/shows? It used to be a thing, and you'd have some pretty high quality photos posted up on the site, but now it's just a thing of the past. Why did you guys give it up?
How does that work anyway? Are shows contracted out to certain photographers?
When a hobby becomes too expensive or when interests and priorities change, people move on. Besides, it’s not what we’re good at.
I enjoyed shooting contests back then, because that’s what was being done. Along with GeneX, we were early with respect to posting pics online. The DtV members enjoyed that content in 2002, but at least in the last 10 years, I cannot recall a single customer asking us for contest coverage.
Different events often had different policies determined by the local organizer. Years ago, one of the things competitors cherished most were quality 8x10 prints of themselves on stage and fans loved getting signed 8x10s of their favorites. A photographer would contract with the local promoter to shoot the show and in exchange, any competitor who wanted prints of themselves would pay the photographer.
I don’t know anything about that marketplace today, however, in the U.S., I believe the NPC has a blanket policy at least with respect to the national events.
If I could hazard a guess:
The meat and potatoes are the shoots around the showtime. Shifting focus to higher quality creative and leaving behind stage shooting (which already has a bunch of credentialed photographers that shoot stills only) was a good path. I think the metrics would support me if there are any. Higher downloads and views for muscle worship or HQ posing over a short routine.
I want to see Blakelee Ortegas giant biceps up close and personal, not from 40 feet away in the dark. Covered in honey is a nice bonus.
Even if you're recording a show, a competitors gets what, 1, maybe 2 minutes on stage? There's just not enough there.
In 1990, for the most part, if I wanted to see pics of strong women, I had to depend on muscle magazines - Muscle & Fitness, Flex, Muscular Development, Musclemag, etc. Most featured a handful of contest pics, and there would be the occasional model profile. But for obvious reasons, most of the magazine space was dedicated to men. Women's Physique World wasn't diluted with guys, but was limited in total pages and had no way to publish monthly. But man, did I love it whenever the new issue appeared.
But ultimately, resources are limited, so they have to be allocated in ways that make the most sense. If something we're trying to sell isn't interesting to our customers, it's not going to be profitable, and that's not good for keeping the lights on.
Women's Physique World and Ray Martin Company were my gateway to female bodybuilding back in the late 90s.
Btw, what happened to Ray Martin?
Women's Physique World and Ray Martin Company were my gateway to female bodybuilding back in the late 90s.
Btw, what happened to Ray Martin?
I think "Ray" would have to be in his 80s by now. Bill Jentz is probably mid-70s, I'd imagine. "Millionaire Mike" Bogen passed 5-6 years ago and was in his mid-to-late 60s at the time. I used to meet him for lunch in Springfield from time-to-time before becoming a full-time dad. I didn't get to visit during his later years, but we did have a nice phone chat within the year before his departure as Mike (Eckstut) had recently re-connected with him about potentially doing some profiles for HB.
Those guys - plus John N and Steve W, of course, along with Dr. Al and many others - were giants. They literally crafted a magical universe out of dust and imagination and paved the way for everything we enjoy today.
Had no idea he died.
Actually it was pretty funny to read his obit. Didn’t know any of those things about him. No mention of WPW at all unless you’d consider “his company” (that was the phrase used) to be that. Could’ve also been his day job.
But I think for many of us Mike was the guy that was living our fantasies in the 90s lol
I’m a bridge age so for me it was a bit of Mike and a bit of Mike/Tre back when y’all were spending more time in front of the camera.
I never knew anything about the people behind wpw and raymartin, not even their names. WPW and RM seemed faceless brands to me, that were on their way out even when I first stumbled upon their works in the late 90s.
The real pioneer to me is O.J. Heller, who was photographing muscular women at circuses long before even male bodybuilding was a thing.
The writing Mike did for physique publications just a tiny amount of side work he enjoy doing. I don’t think he was paid for his video acting, but he sure did enjoy it. 😊
No, DtV was not an FBB.
O.J. Heller was a master and I would consider him a visionary, but I don’t know what motivated him to focus so much on what were considered “oddities” of the time. The person or team who decides to do that research will definitely be taking on a labor of love.
No, DtV was not an FBB.
O.J. Heller was a master and I would consider him a visionary, but I don’t know what motivated him to focus so much on what were considered “oddities” of the time. The person or team who decides to do that research will definitely be taking on a labor of love.
By the way, I believe the producer of LH Art was related to OJ Heller. ie his son.
Damn, you guys predate me a little. I wasn't aware of Mike at all. I do remember OJ Heller though, and I was subscribed to LH-Art back in the day around 2005 or so. I did enjoy the stories they published.
So a glaring pothole is this whole thing is Andy's Muscle Goddesses. I do vividly remember this was the "go to" site for a long time, kind of a portal of sorts. Who ran it? Who is Andy?
I may have heard it through the grapevine, but supposedly Andy now works with Annie R. at Muscle Angels?
Muscle Mansion has been mentioned a few times, yet I also enjoyed the parking garage phase. That was around 2008 - 2010?
Unique.