John mccallum bodybuilding biography

John McCallum was a hardcore weight trainer that took methods from the iron greats of his era and passed them along to us, his young readers.
John Dennis McCallum (June 27, 1924 – December 17, 1988) was an American sportswriter and author.
I was in the Navy, and a real bug on bodybuilding.

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The Growing Workout
MuscleMag International
November, 1988

Once upon a time there was a tall, skinny young man who trained in a well-equipped basement gym in his parents’ house and who wanted, more than anything else in the world, to look like Lou Ferrigno. The young man trained very hard. He had lined the gym with pictures of Ferrigno. He had cut out and pinned up every routine of Ferrigno’s ever printed and he followed them slavishly. Unfortunately, however, other than having the same number of arms and legs at the various four corners, the young man looked nothing at all like Lou Ferrigno.

One rainy morning the skinny young man stood in his underwear shorts, gazing sadly at himself in the full length mirror. The week before he had gone to see Ferrigno’s movie, “Hercules”, which was playing at a downtown theatre. The young man had already seen it seventeen times, but this time he made the mistake of taking his girlfriend. When Ferrigno appeared on the screen, the young lady gave a strangled gasp and sank her nails into the back of the youn

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Keys to Progress, the gift that keeps on giving

My wife thinks I have a screw loose because I read certain books over and over. This past year I reread Tolstoy’s Haji Murid and The Cossacks, plus Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Faulkner’s The Bear and LeCarre’s Smiley’s People. I also watch movies repeatedly. “How can you stand to do that? You know the plots, the punchlines, the jokes – how can you stand to re-read books and re-watch movies? It seems like such a waste of time.” I thought I had a well thought out defense. “I pick up on things in books and see things in movies that I missed the first time.” She was unimpressed. “That’s lame…maybe you should have paid better attention the first time around.”

She might have a point. A few days ago, on a complete whim, I happened to pick up my well-worn copy of John “Mac” McCallum’s book Key’s to Progress. A copy sits next to my Yamaha studio piano and has sat, untouched, for years. For some reason on this day the yellow cover caught my eye. I picked it up and fanned the pages. The book is a compilation of 100 + monthly arti

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John McCallum (sports writer)

American sportswriter

John Dennis McCallum (June 27, 1924 – December 17, 1988) was an American sportswriter and author.

Personal life

McCallum was born on June 27, 1924, in Tacoma, Washington, to George A. and Mildred (née Tiedeman) McCallum. He enrolled at Washington State University (then Washington State College) in 1942, but completed only one year before enlisting in the United States Army, serving from 1943 to 1945 in mountain infantry and tank destroyer units. Upon returning home, he resumed his studies and graduated in 1947. After a brief stint in professional baseball, playing for the Portland Beavers, McCallum moved to New York City, where he began his sportswriting career.^[1] In 1961, he married television and movie actress Marjie Millar having met her while writing a book about her but the marriage lasted only a few years. Millar later remarried. She died in 1966 at the age of 35.^[2]

McCallum died on December 17, 1988, from cardiac arrest at the age of 64. He had long suffered from diabetes and progres