The thwarted daddy-love – and missing mommy – behind the pump-action hero I’m not a Sylvester Stallone fan. In fact, I couldn’t bear him back in the day. I spent much of the eighties sniffily ignoring his smash-hit movies and hence missed him single-handedly re-fighting the Vietnam War, with big… Read More »Home Stallone
How the Austrian Cinders became a Hollywood Prince Two decades ago, during peak metrosexmania in the US, the bodybuilder movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger, never exactly shy about drawing attention to himself – and now running for office – briefly came out as metrosexual. Or at least, welcomed the tag being applied to… Read More »Arnold Schmahzenegger
Set in an upmarket West London health club with ‘central heating and wall-to-wall fitted carpets’, this captivating Pathe newsreel time capsule from 1966 reveals an era when sportswear hasn’t been invented yet – so the guys are doing their exercises on the absorbent-looking shag in their undercrackers and vests. Or… Read More »The Keep Fit Craze
Mark Simpson’s love-affair with American engineering – & engineered Americans My first trip to the US, as a spotty provincial English teenager, was teeth-chatteringly exciting. Not least because it was also my first experience of space travel. My mum and dad took me and my younger brother on one those… Read More »Cool New World
Dispatch from the gun-filled frontline of male vanity My gym recently had a makeover. Previously owned by a budget chain known for the lowest membership fees in the business – and for its large free weights’ areas – it went bankrupt during Rona restrictions and was bought for a song… Read More »Male Changing Area