Who Was Joe Gold? The Man Behind Gold's Gym and World Gym

Joe Gold founded Gold's Gym. He was a Los Angeles machinist, Navy veteran and Muscle Beach regular who opened the first Gold's Gym in Venice in August 1965 and later founded World Gym. Born Sidney Gold in East Los Angeles in 1922, he built much of his gyms' equipment himself and created a no-frills training hall for serious bodybuilders that became the "Mecca" of the Golden Era. He died in July 2004 at age 82, still working at World Gym almost until the end.

His name now hangs over hundreds of gyms around the world, yet the man himself was famously unglamorous: a working sailor and tinkerer who never married. This Joe Gold biography sets out what is reliably known about his life.

Where did Joe Gold grow up?

Gold was born on March 10, 1922, in East Los Angeles. He was the youngest of four children of immigrant parents who settled in Boyle Heights. Iron Man magazine's obituary describes his father as a junk dealer. He attended Theodore Roosevelt High School, where, according to Iron Man, one of his classmates was Harold Zinkin, who went on to invent the Universal Gym machine.

His interest in lifting started early. Around age 12 he and his brother Robert began building their own training equipment from scrap. That habit of making his own gear stayed with him for the rest of his life.

What was Joe Gold's connection to Muscle Beach?

As a teenager in the 1930s, Gold found his way to Muscle Beach on the sand beside the Santa Monica Pier. It began as a public playground in the early 1930s, and acrobats, gymnasts, stuntmen and weightlifters soon took it over. Gold trained there, made friends and absorbed the open-air culture that would later shape his gyms. You can read more about that scene in our guide to the Original Muscle Beach in Santa Monica and in Muscle Beach History: From Santa Monica to Venice.

The Muscle Beach crowd also led to one of the odder chapters of his life. Gold auditioned for, and was picked to tour with, Mae West's stage revue, which featured a line of muscular men. Sources disagree on the exact year, but it is usually placed in the mid-1950s. He also appeared as an extra in two 1956 films, The Ten Commandments and Around the World in 80 Days.

What happened to Joe Gold in World War II?

Gold served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was badly hurt when a torpedo exploded alongside his ship in the Philippines. Reuters, in its obituary carried by NBC News, ties the injury to the 1944 Battle of Leyte. LAist reported that he spent about six months in a hospital. The injury caused him back pain for decades, and in his later years he used a wheelchair much of the time.

Gold also worked as a machinist in the merchant marine. Reuters reported that he carried dumbbells with him on merchant marine voyages for decades. That trade matters to the rest of his story. A machinist knows how to cut, weld and fit steel. Gold used those skills to design and build equipment for his own gyms.

Who founded Gold's Gym, and when did it open?

Gold opened the first Gold's Gym in Venice, California, in August 1965. He converted a building he owned on Pacific Avenue, a few blocks from the beach. Reuters quoted him describing it as "the first gym made specifically for bodybuilders."

What set it apart was the equipment. Gold designed and built much of it himself. Flex magazine's Peter McGough told the Associated Press that most of the gear was custom-built for bodybuilders. Iron Man publisher John Balik said that "before Joe, a lot of things were designed for the 'look'; Joe loved to fiddle and create until he got things that felt right." His machines let lifters train in ways dumbbells and barbells alone could not.

The atmosphere was just as spare. Michael Uretz, Gold's longtime friend and later his World Gym partner, said it was a place where "the only music was sweating and grunting." According to Reuters, a yearly membership cost $45 in the early 1970s.

The full story of the gym, including its later move and its rise to "Mecca" status, is in The History of Gold's Gym Venice.

Why did Joe Gold sell Gold's Gym?

The gym was famous among lifters but it was not a big money-maker. Around 1970, Gold sold the business to Dave Saxe and Bud Danits for a reported $50,000, and went back to the merchant marine. (Most histories give 1970; a few sources suggest a slightly later date.) The sale included the rights to the Gold's name, a detail that would matter a few years later.

The new owners also struggled. In the early 1970s the gym was bought by Ken Sprague, a member with a film-industry background. (Sources differ on the exact date: some say late 1971, others May 1972.) Sprague staged competitions and exhibitions and made the business profitable. He also gave filmmaker George Butler full access when Butler began shooting Pumping Iron there in 1975. Ownership changed hands several more times after that, and Gold's grew into an international franchise. That film, Pumping Iron (1977), carried the gym's image around the world.

What was Joe Gold's relationship with Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Arnold Schwarzenegger started training at Gold's Gym after arriving in California in 1968, while Gold still owned it. By Schwarzenegger's own account, Gold looked after the young Austrian, encouraged him and teased him with a dry sense of humor. Iron Man reported that one of Gold's nicknames for him was "Baloon Belly."

The friendship lasted for life. In 1991, when Gold fell ill, Schwarzenegger ran World Gym for him for about a year and then handed it back, according to Iron Man. When Gold died, Schwarzenegger called him "a bodybuilding legend, a pioneer" and "a trusted friend and father figure."

For more on where Arnold and his peers trained, see Where Arnold and the Golden Era Legends Trained in Los Angeles.

When did Joe Gold start World Gym?

Gold came back to the gym business in the late 1970s. The company dates World Gym to 1976, while 2004 obituaries say 1977, so it is best dated to 1976–77. He had sold the rights to the Gold's name, so he could not put it on the new gym. He called it World Gym and opened it in Santa Monica. The gym later moved to Venice and then to Marina del Rey, where its headquarters stayed.

Gold owned and ran World Gym for the rest of his life. The Associated Press reported that he kept going in to work at World Gym headquarters in the months before he died, even while ill. World Gym also grew into a franchise with hundreds of locations. The original Marina del Rey gym closed after his death. Our article on World Gym History covers that second act in more detail.

When did Joe Gold die?

Joe Gold died in July 2004 at age 82. Most sources give the date as July 11, 2004, in Marina del Rey. He had been hospitalized days earlier. Reuters reported that he had suffered from heart and kidney problems, and Iron Man noted that no cause of death was announced. According to Reuters, he never married and left no survivors. Iron Man noted that people who wanted to honor him were asked to give to the Salvation Army Bell Shelter.

Tributes came from across the industry. Gene LaMott, then CEO of Gold's Gym International, called him "an icon in the bodybuilding and fitness industry." In 2012, World Gym presented its first Joe Gold Lifetime Achievement Award, to bodybuilder Ric Drasin.

What is Joe Gold's legacy?

Joe Gold's legacy rests on three things:

1. The serious training gym. Before Gold's, bodybuilders trained at the beach, at home, or in gyms not built for them. Gold built a room full of heavy, purpose-made equipment for lifters, and that model spread around the world.
2. The equipment itself. As a machinist who designed and built his own machines, he helped push training beyond free weights alone.
3. The place. His Venice gym gave the Golden Era of bodybuilding its home base. Schwarzenegger, Franco Columbu and their peers made it famous, and Pumping Iron carried the image worldwide.

There is a quiet irony in the story. The name Gold is printed on gym signs and T-shirts on every continent, yet the man spent his last decades running a different gym under a different name. Many people who wear the logo have never heard of him.

Can you visit the places connected to Joe Gold?

Yes. The places that shaped his life are all close together on the Westside of Los Angeles. You can stand on the sand where the Original Muscle Beach grew up near the Santa Monica Pier, then walk the Venice Beach Boardwalk to the outdoor weight pen at Muscle Beach Venice. From there it is a short trip inland to Gold's Gym Venice, the gym that grew out of Joe Gold's original. Today it operates at a different address from his 1965 building on Pacific Avenue.

These are exactly the Stops on our Golden Era LA Tour. It is a guided, roughly six-hour tour, not a workout. A working LA strength coach drives the group between Stops and tells the stories of Joe Gold, Muscle Beach and the Golden Era legends at each one. Gold's Gym Venice is visited from the outside, and entry to the gym is not part of the tour. The Seat price covers van transport, lunch and a T-shirt. Groups who want their own date can book a Private Tour, and a gift card makes a good present for the bodybuilding fan in your life. LA Gym Tours is an independent operator and is not affiliated with Gold's Gym, World Gym or the Gold estate.