Bill Luttrell's Chet Yorton Memory
IronOnline Memory Archive
<< Only three people ever beat the Austrian Oak: Chet Yorton, Sergio Oliva and Frank Zane. We know about the later two and we even found out what Mike Katz is doing nowadays. I too, would be interested to learn "what ever happened to" Chet Yorton and more of Bill's run in with him. Kevin C. >>
<< I'm sure I'm not the only one that would love to hear more about your meet with Chet Yorton. Like - was he still in great shape? Was it a good gym? How exactly did you meet him? Stuff like that - what ever comes to mind. Henrik >>
OK, by popular demand ...
Some background to the story is in order. As Bill K. put it in his recent post regarding favorite workouts (awesome post, BTW), this is a great memory so I'm going to go a bit (?) long here. Plus, as my contracts professor used to say, this may be a "teachable moment" {egad!} on a point or two.
As far as I can recall, this was about 1976 or 1977, making me 24 or 25. Well over twenty years ago. I had been training at Zuver's Costa Mesa for about three years and had made great gains. At 6' and 205, I was training hard and heavy. Benching well over 400. Bf was in the high single digits. One of my training partners at the time, a guy named Neil Smith, decided to enter the Mr. Orange County (California) Contest. A qualifier for the Mr. California. Neil was in very good shape, about 5'10" and just under 200 pounds. Great arms and shoulders. Softball peaked biceps. Good cuts in the upper body. Like a lot of young guys at the time, his legs weren't quite up to the upper body standards, but not bad either. He was definitely lookin' good enough to enter this contest. Neil tried to talk me into entering, but I chickened out. Said I wasn't "ready." "Not big enough ... blah, blah, blah ..." More on this later.
The show was held at the Garden Grove High School Auditorium where GGHS alum comedian Steve Martin had performed on the stage in high school plays a decade or so before. Ironically, the arch-rival high school to my own. At least 1,000 paid spectators as this was in the immediate post-"Pumping Iron" boom years of bodybuilding in the 70's. Anyway, Neil enters and does very respectable against some very tough competition. Third in his under 200 class, as I recall. He looked great on stage and had a blast! The guy who won Neil's class (and overall) looked a lot like Shredder. The guy was ripped and fairly big. Cross-striations in his lower quads and lower back! Unbelievable! Remember, this was the late 70's when *nobody* was quite *that* cut.
Chet Yorton was both guest poser and one of the judges. Bill Howard, who had been a Vince Gironda protege and top Mr. America competitor, but had just come to OC and was training at Zuver's, was the MC. Pete Grymkowski, then Mr. World and nascent Gold's entrepreneur, made a grand entrance and wowed the crowed with his monstrous size. Lots of luminaries of the bodybuilding world for such a seemingly small contest. However, OC was booming in bodybuilding terms at the time, so it was a good place to be. Probably second only to Venice/Santa Monica. When the final pose-downs were over, and the judge's scores were being totaled, Chet went back stage to change and get ready. The crowd was going nuts in anticipation, as he had been fully dressed in pants and long sleeves before he went back. Although he wasn't showing anything through his fairly loose clothing before going backstage, his above mentioned win in the Mr. U over Arnold had everyone talking about him.
Needless to say, we weren't disappointed. He was in great shape. Although as I said, we had just finished seeing some very good regional competition, Chet almost looked like he was from another species by comparison. I've had the good fortune to have been around some top bodybuilders in my time, but I've rarely seen one as perfectly proportioned and "finished" as he was. And, this was well past his competition years. Not to be cliche, but he looked like a statue. Most photos of him I've seen don't do him justice. He was far from huge (I would guess he weighed 190-200 or so), but *everything* was in perfect proportion, separated, and cut. I swear, no need to add or subtract an ounce anywhere. The finish to his physique had that very rare quality reminiscent of a thoroughbred horse or large cat. I don't want to overstate this too much, but unlike a lot of bodybuilders before or since, a build like that looks like it was made by the hand of God rather than Man - everything went together that well. Arnold, Dave, Pearl, Zane and very few others I can think of fall into that category. He posed to "Exodus" or one of those really inspiring pieces. It was outstanding. I won't forget it. The crowd went wild.
After announcing the winners of the contest, I went backstage to help Neil collect his things. Chet was back there, shaking hands and congratulating the competitors. After doing so with Neil, I'm introduced as his training partner. Chet looks at me and says: "why weren't you out there?" Once I picked my jaw up from the floor, I mumbled some lame excuse. Chet laughed and said: "keep up the good work!" We all parted, me feeling like a bozo for not competing, but amazed to have met him.
By pure coincidence, a couple of months after, my wife and I were on a weekend trip to Vegas. Being on a 6-day split, I don't want to miss a workout, even on vacation, right? I check out the phone book and see "Chet Yorton's Gym." So, I went there, not really expecting to see him again, just to workout. It was an awesome gym for the time. Since I was used to the "funkiness" of Zuver's, this place was more like most of us would now be used to. Large, clean and very well-equipped. Well lit as well, unlike Zuver's. The guys training in there had obviously benefited from Chet's tutelage. I change into a Zuver's tank top and a pair of shorts and start my chest workout.
By this point, I'm now at about 210 lbs. Tanned and big at the tail end of Summer. My waist size was right at 32. Abs were good. Arms were about 18, maybe a tad over. Still have some photos ;-). Actually, in retrospect, I was probably in the best shape of my life physique-wise (hence, my current obsession with reaching that weight and/or bf level). As I'm doing incline flys to finish my chest work, my pecs pumped and poppin', Chet walks in the front door, dressed in dress street clothes (slacks and short sleeves). Still looking perfect, the guy has that walk and carriage unique to a champion bodybuilder. Hard to describe. He recognizes me and says hello. After exchanging pleasantries, we chat about the Mr. OC contest. He asks me if I'd like to show him a few poses. Who am I to refuse a Mr. U, a guy who beat the Austrian Oak?
Oh, the moral of this story? The next winter I set out to get huge. Really huge. As big as possible. To add to the weak points and make everything in general bigger. Took the weight up to 235-240. Had my personal best bench of 475. Strong as a horse, and almost as big. My three lift total was right around 1700. But, the bf was there too. The abs were long gone. No problem, I'll fix that next summer, right? Wrong! Next summer, my wife was pregnant with our oldest, my work/business load was overwhelming, and I wasn't in the gym enough to get in shape or cut down. Stayed that way for a long time. A *very* long time. Who knows, maybe that was as good as it gets? Should've taken the shot when I was there. Woulda ... shoulda ... coulda ... So kids, if you're anywhere close to contest shape and have an inkling to compete, DO IT! You may do better than you think.
Bill L
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