By Arnold Schwarzenegger as told to Dian Hanson
I was 21 when I left Munich for Santa Monica, California. Weider sent
his top photographer, Artie Zeller, to shoot me arriving at the airport,
and Artie became a friend, documentarian and guide to my new life. He
took me to Muscle Beach, and there was a long row of chess tables, like
a movie shot. Bobby Fischer was there one day, running back and forth,
playing against 10 people who were all hunched over, trying to figure
out a move. Fischer would come up, glance at the board, and boom,
take a piece away and move on. Then there was Wilt Chamberlain,
playing volleyball with his gang, big guys and girls, leaping around.
And over there were the acrobats and bodybuilders, doing balancing
acts, building human pyramids, lifting girls overhead on one arm.
Meanwhile, Gypsy Boots, the original Nature Boy, was running around
throwing a football. Here, the chess players and strength of the mind;
there, the strength of the body, and all of it very entertaining with
these weirdos and outcasts and creative people.
