The Larry Scott I Know - Vince Gironda

 

                                                                     "Larry Scott's Dressing Room" 

It has been some time since Larry Scott won the Mr. Olympia contest for the first time, but still the name spells magic for bodybuilders the world over. 

There is hardly a day when someone has not written to me for information concerning Larry's training . . . as if he had some secret to his super development that has not yet been revealed. 

I shall try to record my own recollections of the first man to win the coveted Mr. Olympia title. 

When Scott walked into my gym so many years ago, there was nothing about him that might have immediately suggested future stardom. I remember he was very narrow in the shoulders. He stood about 5'7" and his hair at that time was brown. We spoke for a while, he said he wanted to train at my gym and then the first chance he got he walked up to one of my students, a fellow named Hossein Shoukou (the spelling may be off, but who knows how to spell names like that!). 

Note: Hossein Shokouh . . .  

. . . Scott walked up to him and asked, "What do I have to do to get big?" 

"You talk to Vince," said Hossein.

Larry never missed a workout. And I remember that once he had found the exercises that affected him best, exercises like the preacher curl for biceps, dips between wide parallel bars, sissy squats, lateral raises and so on, he never dropped them. Oh, he was always forcing himself to handle more weight but the exercises hardly ever changed. 

I remember he invented an exercise for his shoulders that was a combination lateral raise and dumbbell press. 

https://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2011/03/advanced-deltoid-routines-larry-scott.html 

It worked wonderfully for Larry but even though many other fellows tried it out they seemed to get nothing at all from it. Perhaps they simply never got the hang of the movement.

Larry loved to work his calves. They were his favorite bodypart. After he had done a set of calf work, he'd pick up a pair of dumbbells and walk up the hill at the back of my gym, all the way to the top, on his toes. After a while, the satellites started doing it too. They'd form a long line, like ducklings following some muscular Mother Goose. 

Larry always trained six days a week. Never missed a workout. In fact, he trained on the night of his honeymoon, that is to say, the night he got married. 

We were always playing tricks on him. Like pretending we were not awed by him He wasn't very happy when he returned from New York after he won the Mr. Olympia for the first time. You see, we never mentioned the contest, as if the whole thing had been just another everyday occurrence. Of course, we were all very proud of Larry. After all, he had proven you don't have to break your back doing silly exercises to develop a super physique. 

Note: That sounds odd, considering who it's coming from. 

About that blond hair of his. Jay Sebring, who was murdered by the Manson family, created it for him. 

Larry never left anything to chance. The way he prepared for a contest was amazing. You'd come into the gym and no matter what you did you could not break his concentration. He lived, breathed and slept bodybuilding He practiced posing all the time. No, he never copied other people. 

He'd come to me and ask various suggestions. He'd take them home with him and then later I would see how he had incorporated everything I showed him into his own personalized routine. Roger Tory, who came from Idaho with Larry and shared an apartment with him for many years, once told me that Larry posed even as he was carrying his tray loaded with food at a favorite restaurant. 

I think Larry was at his best when he weighed just under 200 pounds. I have seen pictures of him that were taken when he weighed 225 and I didn't like them at all. But Larry never actually looked fat. Somehow he managed to look hard all the time. That is not to say he was defined even when he was heavy. But you could always see the separations. His deltoids always stood out clear and his biceps were never obliterated by fat. His shape was always great.

But where Larry really excelled was in charisma Here is something you either have or you haven't. The man was basically quite shy and yet he was able to attract hordes of admirers wherever he went. He was always so quiet. He'd get up under the posing light and a certain magic just oozed out of him. You knew there was something very special about Larry when he came on, even though he seldom spoke. 

He was always impeccable. He made a point of wearing slippers backstage at contests so that his feet . . . the soles . . . were forever clean. Now here is something other champs would do well to pick up on.

Larry was fully aware of the great part Joe Weider played in making him a legend in his lifetime. He is the grateful type. He always speaks highly of Joe and even though he has moved to Utah again and we hardly ever see each other, I see through his articles in Muscle Builder that he has not forgotten the days he trained at my gym. 

We still have a plaque hung over the area that he used for changing at our place. Larry Scott's Dressing Room, it says. 

Once we got a great picture of Larry and framed it in a toilet seat that we hung up on the locker room wall . . . oh, we used to have a lot of fun with the man whom the world still regards as one of the greatest champions bodybuilding has ever known. 

Bodybuilding may well honor this particular son.

We may never see the likes of him again.

Enjoy Your Lifting!