Thread: Harold Zinkin

Another from the old-time west coast coterie that included Joe Gold:

FRESNO, Calif. - Harold Zinkin Sr., a bodybuilding icon who invented the universal gym machine, has died after hitting his dead in a fall at his home. He was 82.

Zinkin won the first Mr. California bodybuilding title in 1941 and befriended many of the legends of the fitness field, including Jack La Lanne and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

La Lanne, who turns 90 on Sunday, said he was stunned by Zinkin's death. He said the two were like brothers and recalled their first meeting in the 1930s.

"I had quite a reputation. He had quite a reputation. He heard about me, I heard about him. I was a champion wrestler, he wrestled a bit. So before we even shook hands, we challenged each other," he said from his home in Morro Bay. "We were in the damn sand for a half an hour. Nobody won, but we've been friends ever since."

Schwarzenegger said he had known Zinkin since coming to the United States from Austria in 1968 and recalled the two doing balancing acts together at Southern California's famed Muscle Beach. He saw Zinkin this summer at the funeral of Joe Gold, founder of Gold's Gym.

"Harold was a great mentor, and I am deeply indebted to him for the friendship we shared and the counsel he gave me," the governor said in a statement. "He was a trusted confidant and supported me personally and professionally throughout my bodybuilding, movie and political careers."

Zinkin fell in his home Monday night and hit his head, said Harry Gaykian, a neighbor who was Zinkin's financial adviser for 40 years. Gaykian said Zinkin went to sleep Monday night and never regained consciousness. He died Wednesday at Saint Agnes Medical Center in Fresno.

"It was a shock," Gaykian said. "Harold always seemed like the kind of guy who would be around forever."

A native of San Francisco, Zinkin devoted his life to physical fitness.

He was a regular at Muscle Beach in the 1930s, part of a core group that started the then-ridiculed physical fitness movement.

Zinkin moved to Fresno in 1953 and later started a chain of fitness centers. In 1961, he patented the Universal Gym Machine, which today is found in most gyms. His invention was designed to make multiple exercises possible on a single piece of equipment.

"That was the idea, how to do it quickly, easily," Zinkin told The Fresno Bee in a 1999 interview.

He sold his company in 1968 in a multimillion-dollar deal, turning his energy to developing property.

"You could never find a more terrific human being on this earth - father, businessman, citizen," La Lanne said. "If there were more people like Harold Zinkin, this would be a better world."