DAN LURIE: 1923-2013
DAN LURIE: 1923-2013
The Passing Of a Bodybuilding Pioneer
On November 6, 2013, Dan Lurie, one of the most colorful figures to ever illuminate the bodybuilding scene, passed away at the age of 90.
Born April 1, 1923 in Brooklyn, New York (his birth date maybe appropriate for such a jokester), Lurie was a top bodybuilder of the ‘40s. He finished runner-up in the AAU Mr. America, the top amateur contest of the time in the United States, three times: 1942, ’43 and ’44, and all three occasions won the Most Muscular award.
During that same period he entered a barbell business partnership with Joe Weider, then publishing Your Physique. However, they fell out over a disagreement in which each blamed the other and they maintained a lifelong disdain for each other. Their rancorous relationship was laid bare for all to see at the 1968 Olympia when winner Sergio Oliva took the microphone to thank Joe Weider for all his support and stated, “I owe all my muscles to Weider Supplements.”
Sitting in the audience Lurie sprang to his feet and shouted, “You’re a damn liar.” He then clambered onto the stage and told the audience that he had sponsored Oliva for the contest and the champ had used his weight gain supplement. Oliva denied it exclaiming, “You conned me you crook.” Eventually the spat was over but Gee, can you imagine the CEO of MuscleTech and Phil Heath having such a hostile exchange onstage at the Olympia?
In the ‘50s the flamboyant Lurie became known to a national TV audience by his appearances on the Sealtest Big Top Circus Variety Show, in which he played the role of Sealtest Dan The Muscle Man. Sealtest was a leading dairy company of the time.
He opened his fist Dan Lurie Gym in 1943 in Brooklyn and over the years was responsible for opening eight others.
In 1965 he launched his own magazine Muscle Training Illustrated, which ran in bi-monthly until 1993. In 1965 he also established his own bodybuilding federation, the World Bodybuilding Guild (WBBG). Over the years such luminaries as Sergio Oliva (having fallen out with the IFBB), Boyer Coe, Serge Nubret, Tony Pearson and Harold Poole entered his contests and the Guild held events into the ‘80s.
In 2007 he published his autobiography, Heart Of Steel, which gave his version of his bodybuilding life and times including his assertion that he – and not Joe and Ben Weider – founded the International Federation of Bodybuilders (IFBB).
Our publisher Steve Blechman met Dan Lurie on several occasions during the early '90s and found him to be, "A visionary. An accomplished entrepreneur and very charismatic." Dan Lurie was a man who elicited both fierce loyalty and misgivings: not an unusual combination for such a driven individual. Whatever the reaction, what cannot be denied was that the man was a character who trod his own path. And what cannot be ignored, and what should be fully recognized, is that he was a pioneer who walked the walk and helped solidify and grow the sport in its earlier days and who left an indelible mark on the bodybuilding landscape. Rest in Peace, Mr. Lurie.