Name: How Arnold Schwarzenegger Helped End Segregation in Bodybuilding
Uploaded: 2025-06-12T14:00:25.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'How Arnold Schwarzenegger Helped End Segregation in Bodybuilding' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-06-12. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'How Arnold Schwarzenegger Helped End Segregation in Bodybuilding' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-06-12. Transcript available.

But I mean, really, I retired in 1975.
After the South African show?
After the South African show, yeah.
Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Because I bet it was really interesting.
Just South Africa is probably my favorite country.
I mean, it is beautiful.
It is a gorgeous country.
And of course, at that time, blacks and whites and everyone was separated.
I mean, by separated, meaning they had different rights.
You know, the whites were the ones that ruled the country.
The blacks were kind of kept down.
Was Desmond Tutu down there at that time?
Do you know if he was speaking?
Yes, of course he was.
But I mean, the whites really were kind of in control.
They were kind of the leaders of it.
Exactly.
The Dutch and the British.
It was always a fight between us two in the parliament and all that.
And so then I got to meet and to know the minister of immigration.
And he was also minister of sports and minister of labor and blah, blah, blah.
So he was a very, very powerful guy in administration.
And he, when I met him, he said to me, Arnold, when you come over here to South
Africa and
you do posing exhibitions and strongman acts, you should also go to the townships.
To the townships.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I said the townships.
Like the Soweto's?
Yeah.
So as it was, of course, I did not know.
And so he then explained it to me and then he would organize with the Reg Park
together for
me to go in because he was not what we call the safest place in town.
Not that they wanted to do harm to you, but I mean, for someone like me to come
in there
and to do a demonstration there, I mean, everyone, everyone could lit.
I mean, they were drunk.
They were celebrating that someone would come in and give them the respect and
do something
special for them.
So very appreciative.
Right.
So I would go in there and I was in the cage into the Soweto's.
Is that what it's called?
Can you bring that up for me, Nick?
Yeah.
The townships, they're all over the place.
They're in every, every, in every town in South Africa, there is townships like
that.
There's places where the blacks would live.
Right.
And the very, very kind of flow.
They're called the Soweto's.
Are they or not?
That's one of them.
Yeah.
Soweto's.
Yeah.
I think so.
So in any, in any case, so I would go in there and do a demonstration and do my
posing
and the lift weights and all of this kind of stuff.
In these, in these small, like townships, there was like, you know, thousands
of them
surrounding and then just, you know, screaming loud and having the greatest
time.
And then we would go out.
Oh, they would put you on the grill.
I'm surprised.
I bet they were so hungry.
Sometimes they would be like, look at this wealth.
It was, it was, it was fantastic.
The reception and everything.
So, but the reason I mentioned that is because it led to the conversation with,
uh, you know,
uh, that minister of sports, um, and, uh, he said to me, he says, we should
have an international
competition here in South Africa.
He says, we, we should work together on that.
And I said, okay, we will.
And, uh, his name was Dr.
Kornhoff, Dr.
Kornhoff.
And he was an extraordinary man, very, very smart, but it just shows you that
there was
people like him that already wanted to do more for the blacks and to elevate
them.
So, so, so, so he, so he, then I set him up with Ben Weider, with Joe Weider's
brother,
who was the head of the, in the national federation of bodybuilding.
They got together and they hit it off really well.
And so Joe Weider and Ben Weider worked with him to bring the Mr.
Olympia contest to South Africa, to Pretoria, the capital of South Africa.
Yeah, but the conditions were that they, they, they were able to have a mixed
audience.
Okay.
So black and white audience, had they done that ever?
Never.
Wow.
So there was the first time there was black was blacks, but there was not just
black
and white in South Africa.
There was a group that was called blacks.
There was a group that was called colored was a group that was called Indians.
There was a group that was white.
I mean, there was like five different old Asians.
So everyone was, it was different to everyone.
A lot of variety.
It was kind of like, it was not considered we are all equal there.
Right.
And so what Ben negotiated was that we have a mixed audience to anyone, no
matter
what the nationality and what the kind of color is, uh, or religious beliefs,
anyone
should be able to come to this competition and also not only that, but to be a
judge.
We will have also half black and half white charges and blah, blah, blah.
So was that scary to go before a black judge?
Did you think that they would judge you fairly?
I would be.
No, no, not at all.
Because they were not.
I mean, I was competing in America at that time.
Oh, you were used to it.
And I was used to it.
We have a Lyric Colbert who was, was the first guy with a 20, one 22 inch arms,
big,
big bodybuilder from the fifties and sixties.
And, uh, he was a judge in New York several times and, uh, he was a totally
honest judge.
There was other black judges that, so there was the, that's the great thing
about bodybuilding
bodybuilding.
There was no prejudice, you know, there were some people in bodybuilding that
were prejudiced.
Right.
But in general, like, especially under the Weeders, the Weeders, I think
because they
were Jewish, I think it had something to do with the fact that they were that
kind of
open-minded about it.
Oh yeah.
A lot of times they're the leaders in like, they're like the leaders in
promoting
diversity, diversity, fine things.
That's right.
Yes.
So there was no prejudice, there was no, there was no prejudice there at all.
And as a matter of fact, there was a guy by the name of Bob Hoffman.
He always made sure that when they had the AAU at the Mr.
America competition and the only whites could win, no black could win there.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
So there was really embarrassing.
So there were some barriers within the, there was guys like Sergio liver that
would
be competing in 1966 or 1965 in the Mr.
America and he would get beaten by white guys and it was totally unfair.
Oh, Harold pool got beaten in 1963 by Vern Viva, which I thought was unfair.
So it was, there was this, so what they did then was because there was now two
federations, there was the IFBB, there was the AAU in Napa, AAU, the American
athletic union.
Yeah.
And so they then went from that federation over to the IFBB and there, Sergio
Oliver won immediately.
Got it.
He became Mr.
America.
He became Mr.
World and Mr.
Universe.
Then Mr.
Olympia.
And he actually, in the first Mr.
Olympia competition, Sergio liver beat me 1969 fairly.
I mean, there was no complaints there at all because he was extraordinary.
Right.
And, uh, so then in 1970, I came back and I beat him in the Mr.
World competition in Columbus, Ohio.
And then two weeks later in the Mr.
Olympia in New York.
So, so we, we, we, we were big rivals and that was of course a big admirer of
his and a big idol.
And he treated me really well.
That audience in South Africa, what was, did, did it have the, uh, the feeling
during the
show of like, this is like a novel thing.
This is like a, like, was there that energy in the, in the, in the event?
There was so much energy in that auditorium and it was not a big auditorium.
It maybe held, I would say 1500 people, I would guess.
Um, and it was, the energy was fantastic.
The joy of being together was fantastic.
And I really think that had a tremendous impact also in the future of South
Africa.
And, uh, it was just wonderful that there were leaders there that believed in
that and
wanted to organize that and everyone, the police and everyone was really
cooperative.
Everyone worked together.
So it was a fantastic show and a fantastic competition.
And of course I won.
So it was always a fantastic competition.
You know, when he went, Mr.
Olympia, but I, what was interesting about it was I got a thousand dollars cash
prize.
And I was really upset about that because I felt like, wait a minute in 1965,
10 years
ago, Sergio and Larry Scott, when he won Mr.
Olympia got a thousand dollars and now 10 years later, we still get a thousand
dollars.
So that's what made me actually motivated to go then in front of the IFBB, the
international
bodybuilding Congress, and to ask them for permission to organize the next year's
Mr.
Olympia in Columbus, Ohio.
And that's exactly what we did.
I got the permission and then we upped the cash prize to $5,000, then to $10,000
to 20,000.
We doubled it every year.
And now, now we're giving over a million dollars away for cash prizes for the
Arnold Classic.
Thank you.