Joe Gold was the youngest of four siblings, Robert Gold, Nathan Gold and Eunice Gold Fiss. His parents, Max Gold and Jennie Gold Glick Sussman were both Jewish emigrants having relocated from Belarus to the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles, California. Max Gold was the neighborhood junk collector and the family's back yard and garage served as a makeshift junk yard. His mother, Jennie, was a seamstress who divorced Joe's father and re-married two additional times. Joe attended Roosevelt High SchoolLos Angeles. He developed an interest in bodybuilding at the age of 12, when he saw his sister-in-law's design for strengthening her arms. She had attached a filled bucket to each end of a broom handle and was using them as lifts. Joe and his brother, Robert Gold, got the idea for building their own equipment from scrap obtained from their father's scrap yard in Boyle Heights. As a teenager he headed for Muscle Beach in Santa Monica. A machinist, he worked in the United States Merchant Marine and served in the United States Navy during World War II, where he was badly injured in a torpedo attack, and also in the Korean War.
Career
As a professional bodybuilder, he auditioned for Mae West with a group of musclemen. West approved, "I'll take all of you." Joe Gold toured the country in his revue. He also appeared as an extra in two epic movies: The Ten Commandments and Around the World in 80 Days, both in 1956. In 1965, Joe Gold opened the first Gold's Gym in Venice, California. It quickly became a landmark for local bodybuilders despite the dirty fixtures of its first incarnation. Joe Gold was known for the personal encouragement he gave trainers, although delivered in sarcastic jabs at their faults. Among Joe Gold's many devotees was Arnold Schwarzenegger, who began working out at the gym in 1968 soon after arriving in the US. Schwarzenegger called Joe Gold "a trusted friend and father figure." Joe Gold opened new gyms and designed the equipment for them. His innovations revolutionized the sport, enabling people to exercise more easily with machines. He sold the Gold's Gym chain in 1970. In 1977, he launched World Gym in Santa Monica, which he owned and operated until his death.
