The Black Prince

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Robby Robinson. By anyone's standards, Robby Robinson is a bodybuilding legend. Because of his longevity, professionalism, and his commitment to sport, any list of bodybuildings greatest athletes is sure to have his name on it.

Born on May 24, 1946, in Damascus Georgia, the "Black Prince" as he came to be known began displaying an affinity for athletics at an early age. Robinson excelled as an amateur bodybuilder, competing in well over 300 contests before turning professional in 1975. Robinson never won the coveted Mr. Olympia contest, but he did come close on two occasions. Over the years, he has been asked many times how he achieved the remarkable longevity and consistent quality for which he is famous. When asked this, Robby always replies "Bodybuilding is and will always be my life's passion. I've been blessed with substantial success over the years, and I attribute that to a burning desire to get to the next level and my undying passion for Bodybuilding." Currently, at age fifty-five, Robinson is more active than ever. After retiring from competitive bodybuilding, Robby launched a supplement line called UBT, and he now runs a successful website where he sells videos, clothing and other bodybuilding merchandise.

 

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His body is the one Wieder used for his bust.

 

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His body is the one Wieder used for his bust.

I didn't know that...

 

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Did the godfather of muscle magazines use a body double?


A former Mr. Universe, Robby Robinson, has filed a lawsuit claiming that Joe Weider is passing off Robinson's spectacularly beefy body as his own in the corporate logo for the Weider publishing and sales empire.





Robby Robinson


The suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court says that when Robinson, known as the Black Prince, posed for a sculpture in 1977, he believed his pectoral-rippling likeness would be erected as a monument to strength training in Weider's corporate headquarters in Woodland Hills.


When the bronze was unveiled, the suit says, "pride turned to humiliation" as Robinson realized that it wasn't his head crowning the torso, but Weider's.


The statue served as the model for the corporate logo that has been pasted on supplement and equipment advertising and in several of the seven magazines Weider founded. (In 2002, Weider sold his magazines, including Flex, Muscle & Fitness and Shape, for $350 million to American Media Corp., the Boca Raton, Fla.-based company that owns the National Enquirer. The purchase didn't include Weider Nutrition International Inc., a vitamin and nutritional supplement business.)





Weider-logo


"His image has become the brand of Weider Publications and Weider Health," said L. Douglas Brown, Robinson's Los Angeles attorney.


His client, Brown said, never signed a release form that would have permitted his upper body to have been used as it has been by the defendant.


Robinson, who recently retired, didn't go to court until now because he feared "retaliatory exclusion from professional bodybuilding competition."


Weider ??? who discovered Arnold Schwarzenegger at a bodybuilding contest in Europe in the 1960s and brought him to the U.S. ??? is a weighty figure in the industry, sponsoring many competitions.


In a 1989 interview with The Times, Weider acknowledged that the muscles of the sculpture's torso were modeled after Robinson, whose shoulders and arms are famously sizable.


But Weider spokeswoman Charlotte Parker said that the suit, which seeks damages of an unspecified amount, had no merit and that Weider would vigorously defend himself.


"Joe is saddened by this suit," she said, "especially in light of all he's done to create an industry so people like Mr. Robinson could have a career."


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"Joe is saddened by this suit," she said, "especially in light of all he's done to create an industry so people like Mr. Robinson could have a career." Joe is so full of shit... Joe Weider's nothing but a crook, he's the Don King of the Bodybuilding world.

 

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"Joe is saddened by this suit," she said, "especially in light of all he's done to create an industry so people like Mr. Robinson could have a career." Joe is so full of shit... Joe Weider's nothing but a crook, he's the Don King of the Bodybuilding world.

I never realized he was that way until this year.

 

[musclepump]

Weider is Satan.