“I’m just a middle aged mom living in Columbus Ohio.” Amy contacted us after she rescued a collection of physique magazines and photos from a dumpster behind a local antique store. "I love that you’re helping keep the history of what has happened alive." She thought it would be perfect for Homobilia and she was right.

The dozen or so magazines and twenty photos were all in very good condition. But even so, they were consigned to the trash. Not an uncommon occurrence. What makes this little collection special is a piece of stationery stuck between the pages of Joe Weider’s “16 Exciting Courses to a He-Man Body.”

Engraved at the top of paper: 

D. Karl Landstrom
110 N. High St.
Chillicothe, Ohio

Karl tracked his results on the “personal progress chart” and then switched to this bit of paper. The entries are dated: 1/4/64, 4/25/64 and 9/17/64. After 9 months, with what must have been disappointing results, he gave up.

What’s especially interesting though is the connection between his bodybuilding endeavor and the magazines he was looking at. His copy of “The Young Physique” from May/June 1964 provides all the inspiration a guy could want. That he was still collecting physique magazines 24 years later (Olympus No. 6, 1988) shows this wasn’t just a phase. 

The magazines and photos, just trash to some people, were his connection to a world outside Chillicothe Ohio. Where beautiful, muscular men posed for guys like him. Like me. Like you.