Tags:
70s,
America,
arms,
back lats,
Biceps,
black,
bodybuilder,
chest,
classic,
contest,
delts,
flex,
huge,
legs,
muscle,
pecs,
posing,
Quads,
robby robinson,
slideshow,
thick,
triceps
Added: Today
Robby Robinson was, for me, THE pinnacle of muscular development in the post-Arnold era of the 70s. He deservedly won many titles, but the big one, the Olympia, eluded him. As impressive as Zane was, I believe Robby’s physique was dramatically superior. Whether it was due to corrupt marketing influence or merely his being ‘off’ on contest day, his magnificence should be remembered.
He’s shown here just as he was hitting the national scene, right before the first major win that put him in the spotlight, but he’s fully formed, with awesome size and shape. A short series of tasty stills from the same timeframe is appended to further illustrate just how amazing he was.
The TV broadcast of the 1975 AAU Mr. America was a pivotal event in my life. One of few airings of a physique contest in that era, I was able to watch it enjoy alone in my own room, on my parents’ old black & white TV. A couple of years earlier, I had similarly enjoyed the only other such event that I know of – Arnold’s triumph in the 1970? Mr. World. This showing hit different though.
My lifelong attraction to muscle was initially seeded by seeing the occasional flex on TV (think Draper on the ‘Beverly Hillbillies’) or the rare muscular specimen on the pro wrestling shows I’d watch with my grandfather. I was a regular reader of comics then, intrigued by well-muscled heroes like Namor the Submariner and increasingly so by the random Weider ads nestled amid the pages. Intuitively, I somehow knew to keep my fascination a secret.
By the time of this Mr. America broadcast, I was in early adolescence, so the powerful physicality I saw onscreen threw me for a loop. Soon thereafter, I began thumbing through muscle mags in the shops where I bought my comics. Eventually, I worked up the guts to buy one, then a few weeks later, another and then another. Coincidentally, Robby, who was one of highlights of the America yet only finished 5th (the AAU sucked), was featured in one of them, as he switched to the IFBB and won the Mr. World later that same year. The final pic in the short slideshow that follows his America posing here comes from that issue, and it remains one of the most exciting muscle shots I’ve seen to this day, a head-to-toe orgasmic masterpiece of male perfection.