Dave Draper
Star Profile Part 2
The Blond Bomber Speaks!

MuscleMag May 1999

By By Lori Grannis

Seldom do we run a Star Profile over two issues. Generally our thoughts on the matter are as follows: If eight or nine pages are insufficient upon which to capture the essence of a person's past, present and future, then maybe the writer not the number of pages, is at fault. Of course, there are the exceptions - precious few it is granted, but they do exist.

Such an exception is Dave Draper, one-time embodiment of the supermuscled men of sun-drenched California, Venice sidewalks and Muscle Beach. Although now old and overused, the clich� "Been there, done that " never- the less holds true for the Blond Bomber. Having established a foothold on the Draper psyche and the physique behind the endless magazine covers, here in part two Dave recalls Arnold, Hollywood, and the climate of the world of muscle that once lay at his feet.

Click here if you missed Part 1

MMI: You mentioned that you had a carelessness for life.
DD: At that time I gained an insight into human existence, and I really loved it, but I was a little sloppy. It was ignorance, arrogance.

MMI: What did you do?
DD: Nothing too terrible, I guess. I just got into a loss of direction. A lot of guys did as little as they could to get by. There were years when I wasn't pursuing anything. I was driven, though, in some ways.

MMI: You're an Aries, Dave. Of course you're driven!
DD: [laughs] ... Oh, is that what they are? But my life was just a little blank back then.

MMI: So � you did a few drugs?
DD: Yeah.

MMI: And you're not referring to performance-enhancing drugs when you say that?
DD: No, I'm referring to recreational drugs.

MMI: Gotcha. Now, you and Arnold and Frank Zane were sort of the three musketeers of Gold's Gym. Tell me about some of those experiences, will you?
DD: Oh, I had many good times there. If nothing else, just the overall presence and feeling of the place were memorable. Artie Zeller had a lot of photos of that time. I liked Artie a lot. In fact, when I first moved to Weider BB, Artie lived down the street. He used to get Weider's mail, via the post office, and he'd have to go down with a cart to pick the stuff up. It was like a big laundry basket on wheels. He'd sort it out and send it off to Weider. That was a long time ago...

MMI: Yeah, Artie was a great person.
DD: He was a real character... an original. He had pictures of me that have never been used before. He was nice enough to release some for me to hang up on the gym wall. All black and whites.

MMI: So tell me some stories. Were you all ladies' men, or what?
DD: Well, I was married so I wasn't. It was a struggle [laughs]. Arnold was an interesting guy. He was able to go about his way, any way he felt suitable. He was a free guy. He got a lot of support from Weider back then, and had free rein to live as he wanted to. He certainly earned it too. But he had a life that I didn't know much about after leaving the gym. Arnold has a million and one stories from that time, I'm quite sure.

And Zane was, of course, married to Christine. He was a pretty straightforward guy in that respect. He liked studying and training and spending time with Christine. Arnold and I have a lot of stories together from when he first came to town, settled in, and found himself training in the same gym as us.

MMI: Didn't he train with Gironda too?
DD: Yeah, he was first in the valley, that's right. He trained at Vince's. Then he moved to the beach where he got in with Joe Gold. Shortly after that we were invited to go to Hawaii together on what was supposed to be the beginning of a long tour. I think we were going to visit four islands and Vietnam or something like that.

MMI: Like a USO-type thing?
DD. The promoter was Australian. So Arnold and I got together to train, do some PR, and go from one island to the next. I made arrangements for my daughter to be cared for, and my wife was going come with me.

By the time we got to Hawaii and did the first show, we'd made some friends - luckily because one of the promoters wound up in jail as a result of some car-importing he was doing. It wasn't a major crime, but he was bringing them in from Australia without the proper documents, so the authorities locked him up. That cut the first promoter down. The second guy turned out to be a kind of circus person. He had children that he'd cart around like carnie kids.

Arnold and I are there doing the show, Zane's there, and we're getting to know the promoter. The show doesn't go over too big because right across the street there's a famous rock group.

MMI: Do you remember which one?
DD: Something like Canned Heat. They performed the same night we did, and people didn't want to come see Arnold and me compared to a rock group.

The promoter skipped out the following day, leaving a lot of unpaid bills. He just disappeared and left his kids with us. Arnold and I were stuck with them. They were really sweet and I liked them, but they became our responsibility. A handful of people were angry with us about these bills that were unsettled at that point... bills for hotel, food, the ad that was run in the local papers, the hall that had been rented, the gyms... just a lot of mess. He really ditched us.

Arnold and I spent three weeks there just living day by day. I had sent my wife home so that she could be with my daughter and not have to put up with meager living. We eventually had to make arrangements for these kids because the guy never came back for them. They essentially were orphaned. It really was a pretty monstrous situation. We were stranded with no money. No cash. People were very generous, though, and helped us out. I had a BankAmericard and we got flights back on that. Experiences like these brought Arnold and me together in a way that's different from how he's been tied with other people.

MMI: Were you guys close back then?
DD: In some ways you could say that, but we didn't do a lot of socializing because he was on another wavelength that was out of my territory.

MMI: But do you think anyone ever has really gotten close to Arnold, outside of, say, Artie Zeller and his wife?
DD: I don't know. He did have a lot of admirers and fans who just wanted to tap into his energy. His closest relationship was with Franco as his roommate.

MMI: Arnold had a way of coming off as if he was very simplistic, but he was extremely complex, and that type of person is always difficult to get close to.
DD: He is very complex. I could tell right away that he and I didn't speak the same language.

MMI: You still talk to him?
DD: Uh, no. I don't have any way of getting in touch with him. I could call him at his office or send letters, but someone would be there to either screen the calls or read the letter before he does. I just don't like that idea. On the other hand, I can look at him and see a lot of admirable qualities, the best being perseverance and vision.

MMI: I see exactly what you're saying. That's the tough part about being famous. It's almost a careful what you wish for type of thing.
DD: Yeah, true. I attribute a lot of my own popularity at that time to him. It was always "You're a friend of Arnold's, aren't you?"

MMI: I hope I haven't made you feel that way during this interview, with the questions pertaining to those times. Over the years I've heard enough about Arnold to choke a horse. It's just that I know MuscleMag is interested in hearing every detail of a person's life, particularly if he is a bodybuilding legend as you are. How did you get the nickname?
DD: Blond Bomber? That's Joe Weider's. Wherever it came from in his domain, that's one of his creations. It might have been Joe or any of his staff trying to give me a handle.

MMI: Did you think handles were important in those days?
DD: I think they always are. A nickname is a way to identify oneself. I always thought it was great. Catchy. Arnold was "The Oak" but that wasn't very interesting. The "Blond Bomber" was way more interesting.

MMI: You've been on a few covers in your day. Tell me about that. How many covers in a row were you on?
DD: Yeah, I was on a few, but not that many.

MMI: Oh, I thought you were on something like 12 over the course of a year.
DD: No, I didn't have that many, although I had a lot. We got them blown up for the gym. Again, not to sound arrogant, but...

MMI: No, no! Why shouldn't you celebrate your life and exploit your own image for the purpose of marketing a gym? Whose photos should you have up there? Arnold's?
DD: Okay, you have a point. There are six of them on the wall.

MMI: Didn't you get all those covers within one year?
DD: Maybe. Probably. [laughs] ...I think over two years, actually.

MMI: They don't do that any more. Nowadays I see fitness girls on covers more often than male bodybuilders.
DD: There are a lot out there now. Some of your top bodybuilders won't pull on the cover of a magazine though. Joe knows that. They just won't sell a magazine. I know they'd love to have a truly good-looking guy win the Olympia title specifically for marketing reasons.

MMI: You said you had some brushes with Hollywood. Tell me what you did.
DD: I was there less than a year. Guys in the muscle game got small acting parts here and there. A lot of them worked as extras. Channel Nine was the popular channel back then, and they were introducing male muscle-type films - pirates and swords, gladiators, any tough male roles. Everyone would show up at the cattle calls for these films.

The first time I ever heard of anything like this, someone said: "Some of the guys from the gym are going down to audition. Why don't you go down with them?" So I went down, and everyone was sitting around this studio on Melrose Avenue. Eventually they gave about 50 screen tests. They chose me for some reason. I think it was because of my Joisey accent and because I outweighed the other guys by about 40 pounds.

MMI: You were also a good-looking guy!
DD: I was very young then, 22 I guess. For a year or so I became "David the Gladiator." From 8 until 10 p.m. my character would come on to introduce shows or make comments.

They gave me a few minutes several times in the show - like what they do now on cable with someone talking about a film before it starts, and filling the audience in on tidbits about the film. I'd have to say some really corny stuff on camera, like, "Good evening ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and you muscle worshipers!" or "Down, girls!" to slave girls featured. That was the "shy guy" you could relate to! [both laughing]

But it worked for a year until they ran out of films to air. It was the most popular show on Saturday nights. I didn't realize what that meant back then, and I could have used it in a lot of ways. Too bad it ended.

MMI: I heard you were good friends with Sharon Tate before she was murdered by the Manson family in the Tate-LaBianco murders. What was she like and what connection did you have with her?
DD: We were friends, but not good friends. I mean, I didn't socialize with her outside of a movie set, but I did know her fairly well in a professional chat-on-the-set sort of way.

MMI: Is that where you met her? At the time you were doing this manic gladiator?
DD: She was already under contract with the studios who were doing the series. She was with Filmways, and I happened to screen-test again, so I got the part. We would spend time together on the set, talking. I think she felt safe with me because I wasn't wealthy or intimidating. I'd say she was just a step above being as shy as I was - a really nice lady who came from a small town in California. It was difficult to hear the news.

MMI: How did that impact your life when you heard that she was so brutally murdered while being pregnant?
DD: Well, I hadn't seen her for a long while. I think the best time I had with her happened when I ran into her in an airport in another city. We hadn't seen each other in a few years, and she was so happy to see me that she put her arms around me and hugged me. That was the first time she had shown me that kind of approval, affection and friendship. I remembered that more than anything else when I heard of her death, so I was really sad.

However, I seem to do okay with issues like that. I've lost a lot of people, and I seem to be able to handle such situations, but that murder was so monstrous that I could hardly relate to it. I just didn't dwell on it. There are actually some pictures of her from that movie here on the wall.

MMI: What was the name again?
DD: It was called Don't Make Waves. It was made in '66 and released in '67. It's a cute little film and we have a lot of fun with it here in town because we have a friend who owns one of those small theatres that seats 250 in one auditorium, 100 in another, and 75 in another. It's a popular theatre that shows art-house pictures. Once every two or three years my friend will advertise the movie, get a 16 mm projector, and we'll pack the big theatre with fans and gym members. It's a lot of fun. I get up and talk a little bit about making it, and then everyone makes fun of me!

MMI: How cool!
DD: Yeah, yeah, and everyone shouts, "Oh poor Dave" when there's a scene of me crying. I wish I had a copy. I'd send it off to you.

MMI: Sounds like The Rocky Horror Picture Show - except I'll bet your audience doesn't bring toast. Did you get any contracts out of it?
DD: I was under contract with MGM for a year, and I did some TV for them. I appeared in a Monkeys episode.

MMI: Oh, the Monkeys? Awesome!
DD: I was in it throughout with all the crazy antics. And I was in The Beverly Hillbillies for an episode where Granny was trying to cure my illness'. I was sick with barbell disease or something.

MMI: [laughing hysterically] � I'd love to see that one too.
DD: To go any further than that would have seared me. I can't play the game. I don't have the tools. Being on call all the time just suspends your life. Commando wouldn't have been bad, but Arnold was so well suited to the role. I have some great memories and great insights into whole Hollywood scene because I was able to get inside all the studios and get onto any set to meet all sorts of famous people. I doubt they'd remember me, but...

MMI: Oh, I'm not so sure about that.
DD: ...Cary Grant to Jerry Lewis to ...

MMI: Oh, you met Jerry Lewis?
DD: Yeah, he directed a film that I was in the background of called Three on a Couch. That means nothing to anybody, but being in a studio for a couple of days and sitting on the sidelines watching Jerry Lewis carry on, that was one of the great things I was able to see. I was also on the Johnny Carson show.

MMI: What did you do with Carson?
DD: I had him sitting on my back while I did pushups. It wasn't terribly adventurous, but we had a good ol' time on The Tonight Show in front of millions of people. In another stunt he was pulling on one end of a towel and making jokes while I pulled on the other end.

I also did a show where Dom DeLuise was the guest host for Merv Griffin. Backstage I was thinking, 'Oh, he's going to make so much fun of me', and I was getting nervous thinking about it. So when I ran into him before the show, I put my arm around him and said, "Dom, be gentle with me." He just looked at me, and he treated me as if we'd known each other for a long time. When we sat down onstage, he was nice as anything. I tried to get the attention off myself, and he was really, really cool during the interview. I can't remember what other celebrity was on there during that segment, but after DeLuise talked with me, I got to engage in a conversation on air with the other guest, so it was a great experience.

MMI: I like the old talk-show format, like on the old Johnny Carson show, where they'd have three celebrity guests and they'd all interact rather than one leaving before the next came out.
DD: Yeah, so that was my Hollywood thing, and then I sort of just faded out of the picture after getting much more comfortable going out in front of people. I more or less became reclusive.

MMI: Reclusive? What do you mean by that? I know you own two gyms, but was it serious reclusion, or what?
DD: No, not really. I simply didn't go many places to socialize. I would stay within the confines of my own home, working with my furniture. I ventured out less and became less social. I don't think I became weird. I just withdrew.

MMI: Okay, yeah, that's what I thought you meant. During the time you competed, dieting and training were a little different from today. What did you do back then to prepare for a show?
DD: I'd do exactly the same as now. I think the diet regimen we followed then still prevails. In spite of all the changes people are putting it through, and how they're trying to make it more profound or more complicated there's nothing much anyone can do to change it. The protein intake and understanding how much carbohydrate and fat you needed were all important. I still put protein at the top of the list today, just as I would have then. I've never changed my diet. I've never had problems with food. I enjoy the whole menu. A diet consisting of high protein, lower carbohydrate, and the correct amount of fat works well for almost anyone. I may have been a little drastic at one point when I eliminated all the carbohydrate from my diet, but I don't do that now.

MMI: Yeah, I agree. Eating too many carbs is the downfall of almost every diet gone bad, especially for women.
DD: I don't know what I see in the magazines these days, or who are champions (who aren't what I call great). I don't hold a grudge against anyone - don't get me wrong - but bodybuilding is so high tech now. It's almost mind-boggling. This is a new era of bodybuilders, and there isn't much you can do beyond what we all know in terms of training.

Bodybuilding is about quality, quantity and timing, So it's all pretty much the same today as it was in my time. The only difference is, a lot of money is dumped into chemistry these days!

MMI: "Better living through chemistry."
DD: You have to accept that fact because I don't think there's a champion out there who isn't supported by chemistry.

MMI: Well, a drugged physique has much less chance of messing up than a nondrug physique. Still, they all manage to do it at one time or another. Seems as if the more resources you have, the more opportunity you have to screw it up.
DD: Today it's all research, information and the written word. Application never changes. You just go right back to the basics and none of this other stuff matters.

I like creatine, a good protein powder, a good vitamin and mineral supplement, and good hard training. Then it's all a matter of food and training.

MMI: I totally agree with where you're headed, Dave. I think there's too much written word and not enough experience. I see it every day with the personal trainers in my gym. Many of them are good in the sense that they train people based on their own experience and practical knowledge and application. However, there are too many out there who train people by what they learned in a book or at a certification course. Supposedly they're the most learned and accredited people around, but they're often the worst trainers because they're totally disconnected from what really matters about training. I mean, you can go out and study all the books you want, but at the end of the day, it's not gonna take the place of experience and feeling. You'll just have a storehouse of useless information raffling around in your head.
DD: We're in an age of too much information, and people are brainwashed by it. Yet it almost seems to be a prerequisite to train now - like, if you didn't read this report or this study or this book, you won't know how to find your way around in the gym. Bodybuilding is an art without a textbook though. Personal trainers are essentially just hand-holders in many ways.

MMI: People tend to become robots.
DD: Exactly. Look, it's simple. When the exercise hurts, stop. When you can't continue, go easier. If you feel it in the muscle, chances are it's working. Just babbling about working out and what you've read is ludicrous.

MMI: Well, it's good party conversation [Dave laughs]. Hey, Dave, list your contest titles for me.
DD: Okay, my titles are Mr. New Jersey 1962, Mr. America 1965, Mr. Universe 1966, and Mr. World 1970. That's it. And then I stopped competing.

MMI: Thanks. I could have gotten them from Bob [Kennedy], but he has a lot on his plate at the moment.
DD: I stayed with Bob once up in Canada.

MMI: I heard that. How come?
DD: I don't remember, actually. A show - pictures.

MMI: I'm going to name a few people, and I want you to say the first words that come into your mind ... Frank Zane.
DD: An intellectual.

MMI: Artie Zeller.
DD: Chess! Good man. An original with a thousands stories (a lot of them dirty)... loves women ... loves bodybuilding ...a real character. A legendary lensman.

MMI: [laughing] � I couldn't have said it better, especially the dirty-story part! Sergio Oliva.
DD: I spent a little time with him and he was a good friend. I could turn around and he'd be covering my back.

MMI: Reg Park.
DD: Stem. Serious.

MMI: Joe Weider.
DD: The world's greatest manager, a trainer of champions, and an arrogant man. But he's an originator of a lot of things. He believed and had a vision for, bodybuilding when I was still playing in the dirt.

MMI: Bob Kennedy.
DD: Always standing in the background with thoughts ticking away in his head. See, whenever I saw Bob at shows, he'd be standing in the background just watching. He would be taking in every single aspect of what was going on, but he never looked as though he was doing it. He's a cryptic kind of guy.

MMI: Two people I especially want you to tell me about... Vince Gironda and Joe Gold.
DD: Both were around in the '40s when there was nothing to pursue in the industry, yet they found a niche. I don't know that much about Vince, but I know that Joe is a very strong guy. He spent a lot of time in the Merchant Marines. I am who I am today largely because of Joe Gold. He's an honest, good guy who did a lot for me.

MMI: I heard you used to have a key to Joe's gym, and could come and go as you pleased.
DD: Yeah, I'd open the gym early in the morning. I originally trained at Muscle Beach Gym, and he plucked me out of that surrounding and gave me a free lifetime membership to his gym. I never took that lightly. I was pretty impressed by that. He had made a lot of his own equipment, and I liked his personality, his approach to gym ownership, and his philosophy of bodybuilding. I trained there from then on. I don't have any unusual stories about him though. He was always generous.

MMI: And Vince Gironda ... you didn't know him well?
DD: No, not really. I knew he was a charismatic, strong personality, and he trained a lot of guys like Larry Scott and Don Howorth and that whole era of champions, but I never really knew him. That was where a lot of Hollywood trained. Vince's Gym was just a little hovel back then.

Vince was the guru there and everyone sort of made fun of him, but they still worshiped him because he'd gotten into the most symmetrical shape I'd ever seen. All I knew was that he had a barbed-wire attitude and was an enigma to a lot of people. He would joke about it because he knew he was ornery.

I once made a commercial with him and some other guys. We were all in this car as it was driven through the Griffith Park Observatory area. A photographer was taking pictures of the different reactions we'd get as a result of our muscular appearance. We were kind of making fools of ourselves. The commercial was for the car, emphasizing the spaciousness of the vehicle.

MMI: Who else was in the car with you?
DD: Larry Scott, Gironda, Don Howorth, a motorcycle guy who was famous at the time, and I think Dan Haggerty was in it. Larry Scott may not have been - I don't remember for sure. But back to Vince. He was always nice to me, and I always tried to get on the good side of him because of his reputation.

MMI: Okay, Dave, what are some of your favorite things to do in life?
DD: Well, I'll tell you, these gyms take a lot of time. You'd think I'd get a life, but there's a lot of intricacy here. The relationships you build in the gym as an owner are many and varied. My wife works with me so we get to spend a lot of time together.

MMI: What do you and your wife like to do in the way of activities?
DD: We like to road-trip - just take the car and go in one direction. I don't have any real sports that I practice, so the gyms are what I do. And I like working out so much - still to this day - that I continue to train.

MMI: What do you love in this world?
DD: I love God. I'm a Christian with all the characteristics that go along with that.

MMI: When did you become a Christian?
DD: Early on. About the same time as I began lifting weights. God pointed me in this direction, I think.

MMI: Did you ever stray from Christianity during those years?
DD: Yes. From about 25 to 45. I wasn't an atheist, but I was just floating around aimlessly and didn't have any guidance in my life. Oddly, though, I think being Christian, and then not being a part of it on a daily basis, is a powerful contrast. It's a good way to see the marked differences in your life. Going out of your faith, so to speak, can teach you a lot and can give you reason to be grateful once you're back with God.

MMI: Did you make a conscious decision to forget God?
DD: No, I didn't make a conscious decision. He just became unimportant, I suppose. I didn't think I would ever do anything substantial in life after bodybuilding. I expected to just putter around with my furniture.

MMI: Do you still make it?
DD: No, not really, I'd like to though. But I'd have to find the time to do it.

MMI: How have you been blessed in life?
DD: My wife is a blessing. Finding God again after getting off the straight and narrow path was a blessing.

MMI: What do you mean by that?
DD: Well, I got involved in drugs and alcohol, but we don't need to go there in this interview. Let's just say that those weren't the best of times. But any negative experience is a good teacher.

MMI: If you could change anything about your life, what would it be?
DD: For the most part I wouldn't change anything. Maybe I'd change a few circumstances of those years when I was careless with my life. But then, on the whole, everything both good and bad that has happened to me has contributed to who I am today. I probably wouldn't change a thing, to tell you the truth.

MMI: It seems to have been a very grand adventure! Thanks, Dave.
DD: Well, yeah. It has been. Thank you.

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