Peary Rader and Iron Man magazine

When I turned 16 and got my driver’s license, I would once a month drive to Oakland (Calif.) to DeLauer's newsstand for the latest muscle magazines. I lived east of the city in the then rural San Ramon Valley.

It was the 1950s and the Joe Weider/Bob Hoffman wars for muscle world supremacy were waged monthly through the pages of Hoffman's Strength & Health and Weider's Your Physique magazines. A little mudslinging was not unknown in either publication.

Meanwhile, Peary & Mabel Rader's Iron Man magazine seemed to be Switzerland during the conflict. If you were into weight training at the time, as I was, you probably read all three publications and were well aware of the battle-lines.

It seemed to me at the time that the top people in the bodybuilding world, the superstars, were basically either Weider guys or Hoffman’s. It also seemed to me that Rader didn’t care much which camp you were in. He somehow remained above the fray. And in the subculture of iron pumping, I think everyone admired his neutrality, while at the same time he tirelessly promoted all that is good about weight training.

But the Rader story is really a story about American enterprise and ingenuity. Peary Rader was working as a school maintenance man when he found a broken copy machine. He fixed it and printed out 50 copies for friends of what was the first issue of Iron Man magazine. That was in 1936. When people began subscribing they paid 15 cents per copy.

The Raders bought an old barracks in Alliance, Nebraska, where they printed and published their magazine for 50 years, eventually having more than 40,000 subscribers. They also published books, training courses, and sold their own brand of exercise equipment. They sold their interests in 1986.

Peary Rader had been the typical skinny kid who discovers weight training and builds himself up. He was the Midwestern Heavyweight Champion for seven years, with official lifts of 220 pounds in the one-hand clean and jerk, 280 pounds in the two-hand clean and jerk, and a squat of 450 pounds.

An internet search will uncover many Iron Man historical sources and even places where you can buy their original training courses and books.

Peary Rader passed away in 1991. Perhaps one of the best tributes that I’ve found is “Our Best Man Gone,” from Terry and Jan Todd’s Iron Game History. I am unable to find Mabel Rader's obituary.

Jim Murray, former managing editor of Strength & Health wrote the following about the Raders: “Their unselfish contributions have stimulated the growth of strength sports and have inspired countless young people to embark on healthier lives — a legacy of enduring value.”

Peary Rader was a gentleman, open-minded and honest. At his Iron Man magazine, all reasonable points of view and training philosophies were welcomed.

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