Victor “Vic” Boff (1917-2002) was a strongman, athlete, editor, entrepreneur, author, historian of the Iron Game, and friend to the Stark Center. He was not only interested in physical fitness, nutrition, and health, but wanted to preserve the history of strongmen, bodybuilders, and weightlifters. The Victor (Vic) Boff Collection documents these interests through newsletters, catalogs, magazines, newspapers, and over 300 photographs collected by Boff throughout his life.

From an early age, Boff was interested in health and fitness. In his teens, he began strength training and performing strongman stunts, in addition to playing sports and swimming in the ocean year-round (something he became famous for as an adult). Prior to moving to New York in 1935, he was a professional boxer and toured with “The Mighty Atom.” He also played semi-professional baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals Rochester farm team. After an unfortunate injury ended his professional baseball career, he began writing for magazines in New York. His first published features were in Let’s Live magazine in 1935. He also served as editor of Healthful Living publications prior to publishing his own books, You Can Be Physically Perfect, Powerfully Strong, in 1975, and Body Builder’s Bible for Men and Women, in 1985. His editorial work is visible in the many clippings and notations on photographs found throughout his collection. There is also a significant number of publications and newsletters related to weightlifting, body building, and powerlifting, like Denis Reno’s Weightlifter’s Newsletter and International Olympic Lifter.

A big part of Boff’s life (and fame) was the Iceberg Athletic Club. The Club, which Boff joined in 1947, was for winter bathing enthusiasts who met weekly at Coney Island Beach and swam together. They believed in the positive effects of cold-water swimming on physical health and fitness and never missed a swim, even during blizzards. He was awarded the title “The World’s Greatest Winter Bather” and served as the club’s President from 1976 to 1992. He was featured in many local newspaper articles about winter bathing, some of which are included as clippings in his collection. There are also several photographs of the Iceberg Athletic Club on Coney Island, like the one below.

Vic was also known for organizing the Association of Oldetime Barbell & Strongmen (AOBS). The AOBS started with a gathering of strongmen for a surprise dinner to honor Sig Klein and celebrate his 80^th birthday. The dinner became an annual tradition to honor notable figures in bodybuilding, weightlifting, and powerlifting. Boff also created and distributed newsletters to members, reporting on news within the physical culture community. Boff served as president of the AOBS until he passed away in 2002. After his death, the Highest Achievement Award of the AOBS became known as the “Vic Boff Award.”

Boff’s collection also documents his business pursuits. In 1950, he opened one of the first health food stores in Manhattan, Vic Boff’s Health and Fitness Aid, which sold books, exercise guides and equipment, supplements, and appliances. Catalogs and advertisements included in the collection show many goods that are common household items today but were not as common back then, like exercise bikes and weight sets for your home, daily supplements, juicers, and water purifiers. He also collected materials on healthy eating habits and the negative effects of tobacco, alcohol, coffee, and steroids.

The photographs in this collection feature many rare shots of the famous strongman and stunt performer Joseph “Joe” Bonomo. Bonomo (1901-1978) was good friends with Boff. He first gained notoriety in 1921, when he won the “Modern Apollo” contest at nineteen years old. Modern Apollo was considered to be the precursor to the Mr. America contests. He went on to find success as a professional stunt man in Hollywood and performed many dangerous stunts throughout his career like jumping from moving trains, wrestling alligators, hanging off airplanes mid-flight, and driving cars off piers, among many others Most of the photographs are from silent films that no longer exist and provide a unique glimpse into the silent movie era.

All of the photographs of Bonomo were gifted to Boff in two large, framed collages. When the collages came to the Stark Center, librarian Cindy Slater disassembled them and removed the photographs in order to preserve them. Keeping the collages intact would have further exposed the photographs to the deterioration and off-gassing of the adhesives, which could cause discoloration and acidification of the images or make them very brittle. Some examples of photographs before treatment are below.

The yellow coloring around the sides of the black and white photograph above are stains and residue from deteriorated tape, and the red paint around the bottom left has also stained it. The number of creases throughout the photograph make it particularly fragile and in danger of tearing if not handled carefully.

This photograph not only has red paint on the sides and on the image, but it also has a fragment of another photograph and black construction paper stuck to it. Toward the top of the fragment is a small piece of thick adhesive.

I used a micro spatula (a small, stainless steel spatula) to gently scrape crumbling adhesive residue, red paint, and old pieces of tape off the front and back of photographs and to separate the fragment image from the front of the photograph above. I also used a brush, a rubber cement eraser, and Absorene book and paper cleaner (an absorbent, putty like dry cleaner) to remove smaller amounts of residue and dust. When I removed old tape that was covering tears on the back of photographs I replaced it with document repair tape, which is acid free and safe to use on archival materials because it is removable and will not deteriorate like regular tape. Below are the same images after I cleaned them. 

Cleaning these photographs was a long process, but very rewarding as the images are now stable and much easier to see, handle, and store. The cleaning has also prevented further damage from the acidic adhesives. Although there are still red markings and some adhesive residue on the images, I did as much work as I could to clean the photographs without potentially damaging them. In the future it could be possible for a specially trained Photograph Conservator to restore some of these photographs.

The finding aid for the Victor (Vic) Boff Collection, as well as finding aids to other processed collections, can be found on the Stark Center website. A portion of our finding aids, including this one, are also available online through the Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO).  Researchers can contact the Stark Center by email at info@starkcenter.org or call (512) 471-4890 for access to archival collections.

Sources:

Bass, Clarence. “Clarence among Invited Guests at AOBS 25^th Annual Reunion/Dinner.” Ripped. https://www.cbass.com/AOBS25Reunion.htm.

Bonomo, Joe. The Strongman: The Daredevil Exploits of The Mightiest Man in The Movies. New York: Bonomo Studios Inc., 1968.

Pearl, Bill, George and Tuesday Coates, and Richard Thornley, Jr. Knoedler, Trudi, ed. Legends of the Iron Game: Reflections on the History of Strength Training. 3 vols. Oregon: Bill Pearl Enterprises, Inc., 2010.

Riell, Howard. “Vic Boff: A Legend, Naturally.” Brooklyn Graphic Magazine, October 27, 1982.

Rosa, Dr. Ken “Leo.” “Farewell to Vic Boff.” Iron Game History 7, no. 4 (2003): 12-13. https://starkcenter.org/igh_article/igh0704c/.

Thomas, Al. “Vic Boff: The Old Game’s Best Friend: Face-to-Face—and by Proxy.” Iron Game History 7, no. 4 (2003): 1-11. https://starkcenter.org/igh/igh-v7/igh-v7n4/igh0704a.pdf. 

Victor (Vic) Boff Collection, The H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture & Sports, The University of Texas at Austin.