Joe Gold (born Sidney Gold; March 10, 1922 – July 11, 2004) was an American bodybuilder and businessman. He was the founder of Gold's Gym and World Gym. He has been credited with being the father of the bodybuilding and the fitness craze.

Early life

Joe Gold was the youngest of four siblings, Robert Gold (born Ruben Gold), Nathan Gold and Eunice Gold Fiss. His parents, Max Gold (born Abraham Mordechai Goldglejt) and Jennie Gold Glick Sussman (born Zelda Feierman) were both Jewish emigrants having relocated from Belarus to Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. Max Gold was the neighborhood junk collector and the family's back yard and garage served as a makeshift junk yard. His mother, Jennie, was a seamstress who divorced Joe's father and remarried twice. Joe attended Theodore Roosevelt High School.

He developed an interest in bodybuilding at the age of 12, when he saw his sister-in-law's design for strengthening her arms. She had attached a filled bucket to each end of a broom handle and was using them as lifts. Joe and his brother, Robert Gold, got the idea for building their own equipment from scrap obtained from their father's scrap yard in Boyle Heights. As a teenager he headed for Muscle Beach in Santa Monica.

Military service

A machinist, he worked in the United States Merchant Marine and served in the United States Navy during World War II, where he was badly injured in a torpedo strike. He also served in the Korean War.

Career

As a professional bodybuilder, he auditioned for Mae West both released in 1956.

In 1965, Joe Gold opened the first Gold's Gym in Venice, California. in Santa Monica (later in Marina del Rey), which he owned and operated until his death.

Death and legacy

Joe died on July 11, 2004, at age 82, in Marina del Rey. The first Joe Gold Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Ric Drasin at the 2012 World Gym International Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada.

See also

  • List of male professional bodybuilders

References

  • Gold's Gym Official website
  • World Gym Official website