Arnold Did an IamA

[quote]LankyMofo wrote:

[quote]RampantBadger wrote:
“Arnold, you were an inspiration to my father who died 9 years ago. He framed your cover of Vanity Fair magazine, signed it himself, put it on his desk, and told everyone that you signed it for the entirety of his career as a trainer. I just wanted to let you know that you were a very personal hero for my father and if he were alive today, he’d be first in line to see every one of your movies.”

Response…

Imgur

Standup guy.
[/quote]

Yeah, if you forget about the whole illegitimate love child thing.

Arnold will always have a special spot in my heart but he’s an arrogant, manipulative asshole when it comes down to it. And I could say this even before the whole love child thing.
[/quote]

So what was this whole controversy about? From what I understand he had a child with some woman while he was married. But did he know the mistress’ child was his (from the time the child was born or there abouts)?

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]RampantBadger wrote:
Also Eddie murphy in Twins 2!?!
Looking forward to that -its going to be a classic or absolutely STINK[/quote]

In B4 “Brother from another mother” tagline. [/quote]

Yeah, don’t hold your breath.

Notice how he has “Former Mr. Olympia” at the beginning of his tagline. Either he’s acknowledging his earliest escapade to fame or he earnestly is most proud of his time as the best bodybuilder on the planet.

The one thing you can’t take away from the guy, even in light of his past transgressions, is that he still seems to cherish his roots; the early days if you will.

[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:

[quote]LankyMofo wrote:

[quote]RampantBadger wrote:
“Arnold, you were an inspiration to my father who died 9 years ago. He framed your cover of Vanity Fair magazine, signed it himself, put it on his desk, and told everyone that you signed it for the entirety of his career as a trainer. I just wanted to let you know that you were a very personal hero for my father and if he were alive today, he’d be first in line to see every one of your movies.”

Response…

Imgur

Standup guy.
[/quote]

Yeah, if you forget about the whole illegitimate love child thing.

Arnold will always have a special spot in my heart but he’s an arrogant, manipulative asshole when it comes down to it. And I could say this even before the whole love child thing.
[/quote]

So what was this whole controversy about? From what I understand he had a child with some woman while he was married. But did he know the mistress’ child was his (from the time the child was born or there abouts)?[/quote]

Yes, and paid her to keep quiet.

Arnold has never been known as a “nice guy”. He’s so damn charismatic and good at self promotion he can come across as a nice guy, but it’s purely for self promotional purposes. Which is why I say he’s manipulative. That being said, I still found the AMA interesting.

[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:
Notice how he has “Former Mr. Olympia” at the beginning of his tagline. Either he’s acknowledging his earliest escapade to fame or he earnestly is most proud of his time as the best bodybuilder on the planet.

The one thing you can’t take away from the guy, even in light of his past transgressions, is that he still seems to cherish his roots; the early days if you will. [/quote]

I’m not trying to be contradictory just for the sake of it, but he ran from those roots when he was an active politician. Those roots didn’t serve him well at the time.

Maybe you can’t be a nice guy and reach the level of success he reached. Of course, we’re talking about “success” as defined at the most superficial level - fame and money.

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:

[quote]super saiyan wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:

[quote]super saiyan wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:

[quote]super saiyan wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
No wonder no other bodybuilder has been called “The King” since Arnold.

Well, “King” Kamali doesn’t count![/quote]

“What did you say? I couldn’t hear you with this big-ass crown on my head.”[/quote]

Yeah, but Arnold retired on top!

zing![/quote]

Yeah, he sure did go out “on top.” wink wink

Oh, and…

8 > 7

double zing![/quote]

HAH! Arnold didn’t deserve his last win. Ronnie should have lost once to Flex Wheeler, and once to Kevin Levrone… IMHO.
[/quote]

Yep, right there with you ID.[/quote]

Let’s just call it a draw, and go get a couple of martinis!
[/quote]

What about Haney? Is he chopped liver these days?!

[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:
Maybe you can’t be a nice guy and reach the level of success he reached. Of course, we’re talking about “success” as defined at the most superficial level - fame and money.[/quote]

Eh, probably depends but I agree he couldn’t have reached that level of success without his character flaws.

[quote]LankyMofo wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:

[quote]super saiyan wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:

[quote]super saiyan wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:

[quote]super saiyan wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
No wonder no other bodybuilder has been called “The King” since Arnold.

Well, “King” Kamali doesn’t count![/quote]

“What did you say? I couldn’t hear you with this big-ass crown on my head.”[/quote]

Yeah, but Arnold retired on top!

zing![/quote]

Yeah, he sure did go out “on top.” wink wink

Oh, and…

8 > 7

double zing![/quote]

HAH! Arnold didn’t deserve his last win. Ronnie should have lost once to Flex Wheeler, and once to Kevin Levrone… IMHO.
[/quote]

Yep, right there with you ID.[/quote]

Let’s just call it a draw, and go get a couple of martinis!
[/quote]

What about Haney? Is he chopped liver these days?!
[/quote]

To me, Haney was that point in which bodybuilding took a huge jump forward.

Since his reign, it jumped 2 more times.

:wink:

It’s a funny thing about Lee Haney. Guy won the Olympia a zillion times, yet when people are talking about the greats it’s all Yates this, Coleman that. No one ever lists Haney as one of their favourites.

I wonder why that is.

[quote]rds63799 wrote:
It’s a funny thing about Lee Haney. Guy won the Olympia a zillion times, yet when people are talking about the greats it’s all Yates this, Coleman that. No one ever lists Haney as one of their favourites.

I wonder why that is.[/quote]

This might be funny to you, but Lee Haney is not amused.

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:

[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
What about Haney? Is he chopped liver these days?![/quote]
To me, Haney was that point in which bodybuilding took a huge jump forward.[/quote]
You’re just saying that because he apparently likes your work. :wink:

If Arnold is a manipulator and ego-ist then he certainly fits into the three areas he has succeeded in.

Bodybuilding, politics and film.

Never been a BB’er but it rivals beauty pagents for the bitch factor, without the bitches.

Politics? Liars, thieves, two faced people all over the place and people who have hardly worked a real job.

Hollywood? He came from Austria, he used his size to his advantage and it told other guys “hey its good to be big, go kick some ass”.

He made the Terminator, Predator, Conan, True Lies and every other action-cheese movie what it was, can you picture someone else as Conan?

Nope.

[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:

[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
What about Haney? Is he chopped liver these days?![/quote]
To me, Haney was that point in which bodybuilding took a huge jump forward.[/quote]
You’re just saying that because he apparently likes your work. ;)[/quote]

WHOA! Is that for real?

Coincidentally, back in '83 I was doing advertising art for a bodybuilding show promoter in Philly. He once had Lee Haney as guest poser at one of the contests. At that time, Lee was the largest bber I had ever seen. He FILLED the small stage on the Penn campus! His lats were unbelievable.

Later, I was given Lee’s phone number and was asked to call him. Lee needed some artwork for his new TotaLee Awesome line coming out. So I ended up speaking with him on 2 occasions about it, but his star had risen so quickly (winning the O the following year), I lost touch and never did the artwork for him.

[quote]rds63799 wrote:
It’s a funny thing about Lee Haney. Guy won the Olympia a zillion times, yet when people are talking about the greats it’s all Yates this, Coleman that. No one ever lists Haney as one of their favourites.

I wonder why that is.[/quote]

My guess is because he was the segue from the classic era to the modern.

[quote]super saiyan wrote:

[quote]rds63799 wrote:
It’s a funny thing about Lee Haney. Guy won the Olympia a zillion times, yet when people are talking about the greats it’s all Yates this, Coleman that. No one ever lists Haney as one of their favourites.

I wonder why that is.[/quote]

This might be funny to you, but Lee Haney is not amused.[/quote]

LOL, this post should not go unnoticed.

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:

[quote]super saiyan wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
No wonder no other bodybuilder has been called “The King” since Arnold.

Well, “King” Kamali doesn’t count![/quote]

“What did you say? I couldn’t hear you with this big-ass crown on my head.”[/quote]

Yeah, but Arnold retired on top!

zing![/quote]

ID, I gotta set you straight on Arnie, because I think you have the wrong idea.

So when he left, Arnie knocked up his maid, had a child with her, hid the child in Barstow (a shit town between Los Angeles and Vegas), cheated on Maria more times than you can count, bankrupting California, and commuted the sentence of his friend’s son for murder.

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:

[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:

[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
What about Haney? Is he chopped liver these days?![/quote]
To me, Haney was that point in which bodybuilding took a huge jump forward.[/quote]
You’re just saying that because he apparently likes your work. ;)[/quote]

WHOA! Is that for real?[/quote]
It is, sorta. Turns out it’s an unofficial fan page:
https://www.facebook.com/LeeHaneyBodybuilder

[quote]MaximusB wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:

[quote]super saiyan wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
No wonder no other bodybuilder has been called “The King” since Arnold.

Well, “King” Kamali doesn’t count![/quote]

“What did you say? I couldn’t hear you with this big-ass crown on my head.”[/quote]

Yeah, but Arnold retired on top!

zing![/quote]

ID, I gotta set you straight on Arnie, because I think you have the wrong idea.

So when he left, Arnie knocked up his maid, had a child with her, hid the child in Barstow (a shit town between Los Angeles and Vegas), cheated on Maria more times than you can count, bankrupting California, and commuted the sentence of his friend’s son for murder.[/quote]

I know of all those things, Max. In fact, I cannot excuse the last item.

Still, what he did for the sport is immeasurable. Can’t say that about any other BBer. Not even Ronnie.

Best Part, bodybuilding pranks:

Question: “In the Pumping Iron documentary you mentioned that you once deliberately trained a “fellow” bodybuilder wrong just before a competition in Austria. You told him that the latest thing in posing over in America was to scream for every pose you took on stage. In the story the man did this during the competition and then got escorted of the stage by security since they thought he was insane. What was the repercussions of this? Was the man in question mad at you afterwards? Do you regret doing this?”

Response: "I had to come back to answer this one. First of all, it was in Munich. I have always loved a good prank, and this one was one of my favorites. The guy was a little wild. We mostly pranked the guys who showed up huffing and puffing and acting tough. So this guy was already saying he was going to win the competition. I told him that the new trend in posing was sound effects.

The higher your arms are, the higher the pitch of the scream. As you get lower, you drop your voice. I told him not to worry about the reaction, this was the big thing in America and England and Germany would catch up. By maybe the fourth scream, he was dragged off stage and thrown out the back door. There were no repercussions for him, except some embarrassment.

Another great one was the time we oiled up a tough guy who wanted to squat with us. He literally waited for me by the squat rack for 12 hours on two days until I came to squat. He knew I would be there at some point because I squatted that frequently. When I put on 135 to warm up, he called it chicken weight. Then as I gradually moved the weight up, to 225, 315, etc. he said we were doing it wrong and we were going to get worn out. When we got to 405, he finally said, now you’re at my weight.

I told him we planned to take photos and asked if he wanted to join us. Of course there was no camera. So he took off his shirt and we really oiled up his traps. Then we said we should keep working out until it was time for the photo. He only did a half rep (he was one of those guys who did twice the weight he should have and didn’t do full reps), but when he came up, because of the oil, the weight was 2 inches lower. On his second rep, the weight slid completely off and we caught it so he wouldn’t get hurt. I said, “You should really warm up next time.” After that, he never made fun of us for our warm-up, and he even joined in.

I also pulled pranks on my best friends, like the time Franco had just arrived in America and I greeted him with a marijuana cookie. He was fresh off the plane and I wanted to be a little cautious so I only gave him half. I took him to my friends’ apartment and they couldn’t figure out why we spent an hour lying on their floor laughing. They only knew Franco’s reputation as the strongest man in the world, so they were shocked. Franco had a great time but didn’t know why. I finally told him a few days later."