Joe Weider - Biography

Josef E. "Joe" Weider (born November 29, 1919) is co-founder of the International Federation of BodyBuilders (IFBB) along with brother Ben Weider and creator of the Mr. Olympia, the Ms. Olympia, and the now-defunct Masters Olympia bodybuilding contests. He is the publisher of several bodybuilding and fitness-related magazines, most notably Muscle & Fitness, Flex, Men's Fitness and Shape, and is the manufacturer of a line of fitness equipment and fitness supplements.

תוכן עניינים

1 Biography
2 Settlements related to advertising and marketing claims
3 See also
4 External links

Biography

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, before founding the IFBB, Weider published the first issue of Your Physique magazine in 1936 when he was 17 years old. In 1953, the publication was renamed Muscle Builder magazine. The name changed again to Muscle & Fitness in 1980. Other magazines published by Weider's publishing empire include "Mr. America", "Muscle Power", Shape magazine, Fit Pregnancy, Men's Fitness, Living Fit, Prime Health and Fitness, Cooks, Senior Golfer, and Flex. He also authored numerous training courses beginning in the 1950s and developed the Weider System of Bodybuilding course. In addition, he penned numerous books beginning with The Weider System of Bodybuilding (1981) and co-wrote the 2006 biography Brothers Of Iron with Ben Weider. In 1983, Weider was named "Publisher of the Year" by The Periodical and Book Association. Weider made few motion picture appearances however in 1995, he appeared in the Charlton Heston and Peter Graves film, America: A Call to Greatness, directed by Warren Chaney.

Weider, the scrawny, poor Jewish boy with a 7th-grade education, began his bodybuilding and publishing empire with $7 at age 17 after building his own barbells out of junked car wheels and axles. In the 1950s, he met Betty Brosmer, who was then the highest-paid pin-up model in the U.S. In 1961, he married Betty Brosmer, co-founder of the International Federation of BodyBuilders.

In 2003, his publication company, Weider Publications, was sold to American Media.

On Labor Day 2006, California governor and seven times Mr. Olympia winner Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Weider protege, presented him with the Venice Muscle Beach Hall of Fame's Lifetime Achievement award. During Weider's introduction, Schwarzenegger credited Weider with inspiring him and bringing him to the United States.

Settlements related to advertising and marketing claims

In 1972, Weider and his brother Ben found themselves a target of an investigation led by U.S. Postal Inspectors. The investigation involved the claims regarding their nutritional supplement Weider Formula No. 7. The product was a weight-gainer that featured a young Arnold Schwarzenegger on the label. The actual claim centered on consumers being able to "gain a pound per day" in mass. Following an appeal wherein Schwarzenegger testified, Weider was forced to alter his marketing and claims.

Weider was ordered to offer a refund to 100,000 customers of a "five-minute body shaper" that was claimed to offer significant weight loss after just minutes a day of use. The claims, along with misleading "before and after" photographs, were deemed false advertising by a Superior Court Judge in 1976.

In the 1980s, Weider found himself answering charges levied by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In 1984, the FTC charged that ads for Weider's Anabolic Mega-Pak (containing amino acids, minerals, vitamins, and herbs) and Dynamic Life Essence (an amino acid product) had been misleading. The FTC complaint was settled in 1985 when Weider and his company agreed not to falsely claim that the products could help build muscles or be effective substitutes for anabolic steroids. They also agreed to pay a minimum of $400,000 in refunds or, if refunds did not reach this figure, to fund research on the relationship of nutrition to muscle development.

In 2000, Weider Nutritional International settled another FTC complaint involving false claims made for alleged weight loss products. The settlement agreement called for $400,000 to be paid to the FTC and for a ban on making any unsubstantiated claims for any food, drug, dietary supplement, or program.