Includes over 175 black and white photographs It's called the birthplace of hte physical fitness boom of the 20th Century. It's Muscle Beach, Santa Monica California - a stone's throw away from Venice Beach, a short drive to Malibu. But in the 1930s and the 1940s, it was The Beach, the place where Steve Reeves, Jack LaLanne, the Tanny Brothers and Joe Gold built their bodies. With firsthand knowledge and historic detail, Harold Zinkin, the first Mr California and the eventual inventor of the Universal Gym Machine, tells the story of this health-conscious beach.