Co-founder with his older brother of a billion-dollar body-building empire, Ben Weider was responsible for launching Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career in the United States, writes Bill Gladstone.
His brother Joe, who with a sister survives him, first began lifting barbells as a scrawny teenager to respond to antisemitic taunts. Ben emulated him, building his own barbells from old car wheels and axles.
His publishing empire started with mimeographed sheets on a Gestetner copier, at a cost of $7. The brothers’ corporate empire eventually included magazines such as Muscle & Fitness, nutritional supplements, the rights to international bodybuilding competitions, and a line of home and gym exercise equipment.
After serving in the Second World War, they founded the International Brotherhood of Body Builders in 1946. In 1968 they brought Arnold Schwarzenegger, then a little-known Austrian bodybuilder, to the USA, where he became a movie star and then governor of California. Schwarzenegger acknowledged Weider’s role as a vital “stepping stone” since he had neither the knowledge nor the money to make the career-changing move on his own.
