End of an era as world famous bodybuilding show promoter set to retire after more than six decades in the business
A world famous bodybuilding coach and competition organiser from the Black Country is preparing to throw in the towel after one last show, following more than six decades of championing the sport.
Jim Charles, who has run Jim’s Gym for 67 years, has been the National Amateur Bodybuilder's Association (NABBA) show organiser for the Midlands as well as running Mr Britain and Mr Universe contests for getting on for 50 years. He's also been chairman for many years and honorary life president of the association which set a young Arnold Schwarzenegger on the road to bodybuilding success in the 1960s.
But after a lifetime of promoting fitness training and bodybuilding through the shows, NABBA and Jim’s Gym in Lye, Stourbridge, Jim has decided it’s time to ditch the heavy lifting and take things a bit easier.
His wife Val, who has been secretary of NABBA and co-organiser of the shows for 27 years, has also called it a day.
The couple have staged Midlands and Mr England shows at Brierley Hill Civic Hall for decades as well as the national Mr Britain and internationally renowned Mr Universe shows staged at various venues around the country.
In fact Jim remembers vividly the days when Schwarzenegger, then unknown, took the bodybuilding world by storm - winning the NABBA Mr Universe class 1 title four times in succession from 1967 to 1970, before becoming a Hollywood movie star.
He also often fondly recalls how he bought the young Arnold breakfast comprising black coffee and beans on toast in London as the young Austrian arrived in the UK to make his name in competitive bodybuilding.
Arnie, the association’s biggest success story and role model, has been a mainstay on Jim’s musclemen show posters including the latest one advertising his final competition.
