The Abbye (Pudgy) Eville Stockton and Les Stockton Papers

A Finding Aid to the Collection at the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports

Biographical Note

Abbye “Pudgy" Eville Stockton (1917-2006) and Les Stockton (1916-2004)

Abbye “Pudgy" Stockton played a central role in popularizing physical culture and exercise for women. She was born Abbye Eville on August 11, 1917 and grew up in Santa Monica, CA. Upon her graduation from Santa Monica High School in 1935, Pudgy became a telephone operator for the local phone company, spending many hours each day sitting down. As a result, she began to gain a little more weight than she wanted. Her boyfriend and later her husband, Les Stockton, born October 29, 1916, performed as a gymnast on the UCLA Team and suggested that she start lifting weights, unheard of for women in the 1930s. After some initial reluctance, Abbye agreed and began using Les’ York Barbell Co. weights. Soon she transformed herself into an athletic dynamo and joined Les at the Original Muscle Beach in Santa Monica. There she participated in acrobatics, weightlifting and adagio (the throwing and catching of acrobats). Pudgy became one of the first women to ever lift weights to achieve fitness in the United States. She and Les married on July 14, 1941.

Pudgy quickly became a sensation and graced the covers of many magazines, including Bob Hoffman’s (United States weightlifting coach and founder of York Barbell Co.) Strength and Health . In 1944, Pudgy began writing a column entitled Barbelles in Strength and Health dedicated solely to weight training for women, an idea never before tried. In addition, Les became a sales representative for York Barbell Co. on the West Coast. Pudgy helped to organize the first ever weightlifting meet for women in the United States, held on February 28, 1947. Another fitness magazine of the time, Physical Culture , founded by Bernarr Macfadden, ran a Miss Physical Culture Venus contest which Pudgy won in 1948. Also in 1948, Pudgy and Les became proprietors of the Salon of Figure Development, a women’s gym inside Walt Marcyan’s Marcy House of Health. In 1950, the Stocktons opened side by side men’s and women’s gyms on Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles, expanding to another men’s gym with partner (Mr. America and Mr. World 1950) John Farbotnik in Pasadena, CA, in 1952. Pudgy left the gym business from 1953 to 1960 to be with her and Les’ daughter, Laura Jeanne Stockton, born in May, 1953. From 1960 until 1983, Pudgy worked at Bruce Conner’s (fellow lifter and Muscle Beach acrobat) and later Al Hinds’ gym, retiring at the age of 66.

In the 1960s, Pudgy and Les began hiking in the hills surrounding Santa Monica and collecting butterflies, amassing one of the largest collections in the world. Pudgy received the Spirit of Muscle Beach Award on September 6, 1996 from Muscle Beach, Venice, CA. Les received a Muscle Beach Venice Award as well for sharing Pudgy with the world and being known as “Mr. Pudge." She and Les were also members of the (Original) Muscle Beach Alumni Association effort to get rings and other equipment reinstalled on the site in 1999. Les passed away on April 19, 2004, followed by Pudgy on June 26, 2006. Their Papers are a treasure trove of exciting people, places, times and events.

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Scope and Content

7 Boxes, 407 Folders, 1 Oversized Magazine Box, 1 Flat File, Scope and Content 11 Artifacts: 2476 Items (1922-2006).

The Abbye “Pudgy" and Les Stockton Papers contain 636 magazines, newspapers, and newsletters (1922-2006) [314 of them are Strength and Health’s from 1933-1966], 90 loose photographs (1946-1952) [2 with dedications from 1947-1948], 50 loose clippings (1939-1950), 29 programs (1944-1989), 17 pieces of ephemera (1952-1991), nine books (1931-1951), eight strength and sports pamphlets (1922-1948), two military pamphlets (1935-1943), and an undated equipment publication.

The correspondence encompasses within it a “meatball file" (also smaller “ego" and “screwball" files) for letters that Pudgy felt were strange (at times she responded with a form letter, while sometimes she did not dignify them with a response). The significant correspondence embraced in the Papers is as follows: 128 items with miscellaneous people (1941-1960), 87 with “meatball" corresponders (1947-1951), 79 between Pudgy Stockton and potential Barbelles subjects (1944-1955), 41 with “egotistical," “nuts," or “screwball" writers (1948-1952), 41 between Pudgy and Jim Murray (an editor at Strength and Health), 30 with Ray Van Cleef (at Strength and Health, gym owner) (1939-1963), 26 between the Stocktons and John Grimek (1947-1967), 25 pieces of correspondence between Pudgy and Siegmund Klein regarding his Stars of Strength show, in which Pudgy and Les appeared in November, 1947, 20 with Mr. America 1947 Steve Reeves (1947), and seven between the Stocktons and Mr. America 1948 George Eiferman (1952). Much of the material is stamped with received and answered dates.

The Papers also comprise 102 subject folders (including 137 pieces of correspondence from the 1980s-2000s) started by Pudgy and Les Stockton during a filing project, eleven publicity clipping binders (1934-1999), 14 photo binders (1937-1999): including a binder about the Salon of Figure Development and the Stockton Studios (1948-1955) run by Pudgy and Les, another detailing Pudgy and Les’ April, 1949 Hawaii trip (on which they were accompanied by Reeves and Eiferman); a Santa Monica Muscle Beach Acrobatics and Handbalancing photo binder, a publicity binder for Five Years of Awards and Recognition (1993, 1996-1999), and a binder containing the original photo albums (1946-1947) that Pudgy referred to in her form letters and sent to fans.

A binder of Pudgy Stockton’s Barbelles columns in Strength and Health from 1944-1949 is also herein (she wrote columns from 1944-1954). Many of the photos portray amazing acrobatic feats on the “Original Muscle Beach" in Santa Monica. Moreover, there exist 11 Publicity Binders full of Pudgy and Les Stockton articles from magazines and newspapers. Each binder comprises an index to guide researchers through its contents. Within the Papers reside 51 oversized photographs and five oversized magazines, placed in an oversized magazine and photo box; and 25 posters and signs (1945-1952), stored in a flat file. Furthermore, the Papers include two trophies (including The Spirit of Muscle Beach Venice, CA in 1996), two wooden bowls stating “Aloha" (one to Pudgy, one to Les (broken) from their Hawaii trip), three plaques, a glass plate, framed photos of Pudgy and Les and a smaller-than-normal 5 foot Olympic barbell used by her for training and exhibitions.

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Restrictions

Access

Access to the Stockton Papers is restricted to visitors of the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports and must be requested in writing prior to arrival at the Center. The research request/proposal should explain the proposed project, the expected outcome, and institutional affiliation, if any. Requests should be sent to: Dr. Jan Todd at . For additional information, please phone 512-471-0993. No digital copies of the papers are available.

Restrictions on Use

The Stockton family retains the right to limit the use of the Stockton Papers under certain conditions. No copies of any materials in the collection may be made without permission.

Copyright

The user is cautioned that the publication of any of the contents of this collection may be construed as constituting a violation of literary property rights. These rights derive from the principle of common law, affirmed in the 1976 copyright act, that the writer of an unpublished letter or other manuscript has the sole right to publish the contents thereof for the duration of the copyright. Unless he or she affirmatively parts with that right; the right descends to his or her legal heirs regardless of the ownership of the physical manuscript itself. It is the responsibility of an author or his publisher to secure permission of the owner of literary property rights in unpublished writing. This material may by protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).

Right to Privacy: Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center and the University of Texas at Austin assumes no responsibility.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

The Abbye (Pudgy) and Les Stockton Papers, H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports, The University of Texas at Austin. [There is no space between H.andJ.]

Processed by:

Geoff Schmalz, 2009-2010

To contact Geoff about the content of the collection, please write him at
geoffschmalz@mail.utexas.edu or call 512-471-4890.

Text converted and EAD tagging provided by:

Brent Sipes, 2011

To contact Brent, please write him at
brent@starkcenter.org or call 512-471-4890.

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Collection Arrangment

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