If we want to see the future of fitness–we need to intellectually examine the past. Our predecessors in health and fitness clearly have created numerous systems which are still valid today…if we pay attention and are willing to learn from them. Most are long gone now, but their teachings remain along with some photographs, videos, and other rare resources. In this example, I’m sharing “Acrobat Magazine” from my personal interview with Mr. Glenn Sundby back in 2002. I first met Mr. Sundby at Jack LaLanne’s 2002 Hollywood star presentation. Shortly thereafter I interviewed Sundby for my masters thesis at CSU, Northridge on Sport & Exercise Psychology.
Ron Jones & Glenn Sundby
Oceanside, CA
November 2002
Glenn Sundby was a fascinating man and especially in relation to the history of American fitness, gymnastics, calisthenics, acrobatics, and of course–Muscle Beach in California. Glenn was one of Jack LaLanne’s colleagues who helped start the “Golden Era” of Muscle Beach back in the early 1930s. At this time, Muscle Beach was a place to hang out for the post-Great Depression people who basically had no money to do much beyond training at the beach. In the early days of Muscle Beach, the culture was very family oriented. Women and children were not just welcome to attend, but they were part of many of the human pyramids and other feats of fitness. Sundby and LaLanne and many others from early Muscle Beach history went on to other careers related to strength and health but never forgot their humble beginnings on Muscle Beach. What I sought to capture from my interview with Glenn was the “psychology” behind how these people promoted the physical culture FOR LIFE. They never stopped promoting health no matter how many thousands of miles and decades away they got from Muscle Beach. Health through fitness was a way of life for them–they spent their lifetimes spreading this message with millions of people. This my friends is worth studying–and repeating because we need to once again rebuild America through a foundation of strength and health–not sickness and disease.
I video taped my whole two hour interview with Glenn Sundby that day. We talked about the origins of Muscle Beach, how he left Muscle Beach to become a world-class acrobat act along with others (Wayne-Merlin Trio featured in above Las Vegas photo shows Sundby in top inverted handstand), how he became a magazine editor then covered multiple Olympic games for gymnastics competitions then eventually created the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. He was also responsible for the Muscle Beach Alumni Association and yearly pictorial calendars which celebrated Muscle Beach history from 1934-1959. What we know as classic Muscle Beach was destroyed by city officials in 1959. The current location of Muscle Beach is slightly different and not in the same configuration, but the politics involved in its demise is another story.
One of the best choices I made the day of my interview in 2002 was to photograph the “first” issue of Glenn’s Acrobat Magazine from March-April 1949 Volume 1: Number 1. It’s an amazing piece of fitness and physical culture history. I have painstakingly edited all the photographs into a PDF book so we can all learn to guide the future with the wisdom and passion of the past. Enjoy the magazine and its lessons because I know Glenn would be pleased as he was incredibly dedicated to preserving the history of Muscle Beach.
What will be OUR LEGACY for health and fitness? What will we leave our own children to help guide them through the many challenges our nation faces tomorrow? Will we leave them some history of Muscle Beach and the physical culture? I sincerely hope so because we cannot rebuild America on a base of sickness and disease and physical weakness. In Glenn’s generation, they used to say, “Weakness is a crime!”
Get Fit. Be Strong. Then help someone else do the same and especially a child.
