Brings the bigger-than-life soap opera to a new level of appreciation

If you think government conspiracies are hogwash brainchilds of those with too much time on their hands and wild imaginations, or perhaps exaggerations of a cover-up that never needed to be hidden in the first place, one merely has to look into the world of bodybuilding to know that fact can be stranger than fiction. The number and degree of political scandals and schemes concealing the Weider Empire and its “athletes” give testament that if such utter chaos and backstabbing can occur within such a small underground cult, then there must be secret forces lingering behind the Kennedy assassination, government (HAARP) control of the weather, and animal mutations on Plum Island.

Randy Roach is the quintessential investigator into the dark, bizarre and fascinating realm of physique training and competition, and his work over the course of the Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors anthology has left me up many a night not wanting to put the books down. His latest effort brings the bigger-than-life soap opera to a new level of appreciation, since although I’ve read bits and pieces of controversy surrounding the comebacks of Arnold and Franco, never have I read with such interest and zeal as with this book.

Arnold certainly is both iconic and of a different ilk, achieving success through manipulation and charismatic mind-games as much as good business sense (it can be argued they are one in the same to some degree), and it would not come as a surprise that he weaseled his way to a 7th Mr. Olympia crown in 1980, and later had some influence in garnering a win for his buddy Franco in 1981. Nonetheless, it is difficult not to think wow, huh, and holy smokes (and mirrors) when reading the detailed account of how all the political pieces fit together to shift opinion beyond mere speculation and evidence and into the territory of PROOF. And it would be difficult to argue “reasonable doubt” in Arnold or Franco’s favor after reading this book.

Mr. Roach had fully intended to make Volume III as one full-length tome of various aspects covering physical culture from 1980 to present, but was capable of appropriating nearly 200-pages just on the very subject of the comeback scandals. Consequently, the immense amount of work it must have taken to achieve the level of detail certainly encouraged and demanded its own book on the subject.

More importantly, Mr. Roach did so in a captivating manner that brought intrigue to the tables as though it were a detective novel uncovering facts that I suspect most of us did not know information based on first-hand accounts of individuals and associates involved in the contests promotion, photographers, magazine writers, Mr. Olympia competitors, et. al. In effect, what this book discloses are the comments, reports and facets kept out of the magazines and media the stuff that makes fact stranger than fiction. Excellent work and I cannot wait for the remaining books of Volume III to come to life.

Brian Johnston
Industry entrepreneur