This morning I got an excited phone call from my good friend and Strength Historian David Horne. David mentioned that Wag Bennett's family were selling off 'bits and bobs' from the gym and that there might be some famous globe dumbbells available once used, no doubt, by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
After a quick training session with my other great friend, World's Strongest Man Competitor, Laurence Shahlaei (yes I am name dropping!) who had been staying with me I rushed over to the East End of London to Wag's old stomping ground. Wag sadly passed away last year but Julie and Charles, two of his younger children I believe were there to assist me.
The place is like stepping back in time! Some of the pictures are truly glorious. The equipment is well worn but still usuable. The memorabilia is vast. Charles said that the majority was being sold off at auction. However, I was lucky enough to purchase 13 globe dumbbells once owned by Wag and used by Sergio Oliva and Arnold to name just a few. David and I will split these but they have been kept alive as both of us appreciate and respect the older generations of lifters before us.
Here's a great piece of writing about Wag I found by Reg Seward.
"The indisputable claim to fame of “Wag” Bennett — and, it must
immediately be said, of his wife Dianne, also — was the role they
played in the rise to fame of Arnold Schwarzenegger, from an unknown
Austrian would-be bodybuilder, desperate for a break into fame and
fortune, to the Mr Universe title and thence to the US, movie stardom
and the governorship of California. It was a debt that Schwarzenegger
never forgot, and he always maintained contact with the mentors whom he
liked to call his “British parents”.
Schwarzenegger, born in Graz not long after the Second World War, was
only 19 when he came to Britain in 1966, with his eyes on that year’s
Mr Universe title. Bennett, who was one of the judges of the
competition, and Dianne were impressed by the determination of the
virtually penniless youth, as well as by the bizarre impression he
made, almost visibly growing out of his clothes in front of them. “His
trousers were flying at half mast, halfway up his calves,” Bennett
recalled, so Dianne took him off to buy some boots to close the gap.”
It was to be the beginning of a nurturing relationship that was to last
two years. Two of the mainstays of British bodybuilding in that era,
Wag and Dianne ran two gyms in the East End, one beneath their home in
Forest Gate and another farther down the Romford Road.
The Bennetts invited Schwarzenegger to share their home — no mean
sacrifice, since they had six children to bring up. Bennett told the
young man that he would have to sleep on the sofa, since all available
beds were taken by the family, and with this arrangement working
satisfactorily, they supervised his development. Bennett devised a
training programme for Schwarzenegger, taught him how to pose, and
chose the theme music from the film Exodus as his posing music. It was
a tune Schwarzenegger was to use for years to come.
All the while Dianne cooked him his favourite meal, turkey breasts —
several of which he ate every hour on the hour. And since he could not
get into regulation shirts bought off the shelf, she made them for him
in his favourite colours, fluorescent lime green and yellow. She also
took charge of his English, which had been somewhat rudimentary on his
arrival in London.
In the event, the 1966 title was to elude Schwarzenegger. He was beaten
that year by the American bodybuilder Chet Yorton, whose musculature
and legs were adjudged superior. Bennett immediately went to work on
these areas, improving muscle definition and the power of his legs, and
Schwarzenegger won his first Mr Universe title, the first of five, the
following year. As Schwarzenegger was to say in paying tribute to
Bennett: “The Mr Universe title was my ticket to America the land of
opportunity where I could become a star and get rich.”
Charles “Wag” Bennett was born in 1930 in Canning Town, East London,
where his family ran a business selling bicyles and motorbikes, and
were involved in speedway. He started bodybuilding at 15 at a gym in
Hackney, and by 1950 had become the first man in Britain to bench press
500lbs. He first met his future wife Dianne, herself from a
bodybuilding family, when he went down to Portsmouth that year to do a
show for her father, Bob Woolger.
They were married four years later and set up their first gym in
Wanstead; the famous Forest Gate gym followed in 1961. Dianne posed at
bodybuilding shows with her own group, Dianne Bennett’s Glamour Girls,
who lifted weights to Roy Orbison’s hit song Oh, Pretty Woman. She also
published a magazine, Bodypower. The pair also ran an equipment
company, Everest, a supplements business called Pinnacle and edited a
fitness and bodyculture magazine entitled Peak.
The Bennetts always derived a quiet satisfaction from the achievements of their protege"
The pictures I was allowed to take will show you even more about what history this place has seen over the past half a century. I think they speak for themselves.
It was lovely to meet Charles and Julie and to pick up a little piece of Iron Game History.
RIP Wag and thank you.
Nick
Wag's Globe Dumbbells after I lugged them up to the 4th floor. Wonderful!
