Dave Draper, a popular bodybuilder in the 1960s, won three major titles before dropping out of competition at the age of 28 and died on November 30 at his home in Aptos, near Santa Cruz, California. .. He was 79 years old.
The cause was congestive heart failure, said his wife, Larry Draper.
Six feet tall, with a 54-inch chest and competing for 235 pounds, Draper emerged as a bodybuilding force in 1962 with a victory in New Jersey’s tournament. He soon moved to Southern California and continued to carve at the dungeon gym on Santa Monica’s legendary Muscle Beach and the Gold’s Gym in the Venice district of Los Angeles.
He loved lifting weights for his physical and mental benefits. However, he hated the grooming and poses needed for bodybuilders at competitions and exhibitions.
“In the rational season of my life, it seemed like something to do,” Draper said in an interview with T-Nation, a strength training and bodybuilding website, in 2009. “But there was competition between me and the relief of lifting iron. It’s my personal effort, pure joy, and the daily fulfillment of building muscle and strength.”
Despite its ambivalence, Draper, who became known as a blonde bomber, was a star in the bodybuilding scene of the 1960s. He was nominated by Mr. America in 1965 and Mr. Universe in 1966 before Arnold Schwarzenegger arrived from Austria and won the Mister World title in 1970.
“Dave trained harder than anyone else and always wore jeans at the gym,” Frank Zane, three-time Olympia, said in a telephone interview. “He loved training and was very strong. He just didn’t like to compete.”
Mr. Draper’s stunning physique occasionally found a home in Hollywood. He played a role in sitcoms such as The Beverly Hillbills (Dave Universe, Elly May Clampett’s Date) and The Monkees (a character named Bulk). He has also appeared in several films, including “Do n’t Make Waves” (1967), which played Sharon Tate’s boyfriend.
“In Austria, we put the cover of Muscle Builder magazine on the wall above the bed to motivate us,” Schwarzenegger said in a posthumous statement by Draper. “I thought,’My dream is possible.’ “
A seasoned woodworker, Draper became one of Schwarzenegger’s training partners and made some furniture for Santa Monica’s home. “I found out that his heart was as big as his pectoral muscle,” Schwarzenegger said.
Even while he was competing, Mr. Draper was abusing alcohol, marijuana, and angelic dust. (He also stated that he used steroids sparingly under the supervision of a doctor.) He continued to have problems primarily with alcohol until 1983, when he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure.
Draper, who met his future husband at a gym in Capitola, California, near Santa Claus, attributed his alcohol and drug use to the tensions created by responding to Hollywood’s demands.
“He got caught up in it, and I think he couldn’t handle it,” she said in an interview.
David Paul Draper was born on April 16, 1942 in Secaucus, NJ. His father, Dan, was a salesman. His mother, Anne (Simsec) Draper, was a housewife.
Dave, who wasn’t good at team sports, got his first weight set at the age of 10. By the age of 12, he was enthusiastic about trying barbells and dumbbells.
“They were my solid steel friends I could trust,” he said in his book “A Glimpsein the Rear View” (2020), an compilation of columns from his website. “When the situation got tough, when I kept missing baseball, and when the girl was too cute to speak, the weight was there and they spoke my language.”
He bought the gear at Weider Barbell in Union City, NJ. Part of Joe Weider’s Muscle Magazine, fitness equipment, supplements, and competition empire, he became a weekend manager for a gym in Jersey City at the age of 19. He also worked part-time at the Weider Barbell warehouse, where he worked with other sailors. Known as the Master Blaster, Weider gave Draper the nickname of a blonde bomber.
“He’s on fire. Don’t make fun of yourself,” Weider told GQ Magazine in 2000 about Draper’s profile.
After acquiring New Jersey, Draper moved to Santa Monica, where he continued to work for Weider. As Draper’s profile in bodybuilding went up, he appeared on the covers of magazines published by Mr. Weider, such as Muscle Builder and Mr. America, and in advertisements for his equipment.
Looking back on his victory at the Mr. America event at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Draper writes that he is proud to be “the original that builds muscle.”
“I invented, improvised, with a small, detached band of rebels to build solid muscles and exert power through solemn and hard love labor, the lifting of iron. It has taken root, “he wrote in a column contained below. “A glimpse of the rear view.”
In 1972, Draper sued Weider for not paying him for his support for Weider’s gym and bodybuilding products. He settled for $ 17,500 before the jury made a verdict.
Mr. Draper didn’t stop weightlifting until a year before he died.
Once sober, he was hired as a special programmer at the gym in Santa Claus. He married Laree Setterlund in 1988, opened two World Gyms with her in the 1990s, and owned and ran in the 2000s.
In addition to his wife, he has survived by his sisters, Dana Harrison and Carla Scott. His brothers, Don and Jerry. Two grandchildren. And great-granddaughter. His daughter, Jamie Johnson, died in 2016. His marriage to Penny Kanemund ended with a divorce.
In one column, Draper pondered what his life would be without weightlifting. According to him, the idea was intolerable.
“Do you have a set? No one in charge? Do you have a cunning decision on how to attack the deltoids or blow up the biceps?” He wrote. “Does it last for days without pursuing extreme pain with maximum muscle exercise?” He added. Shoot me! “
