The Unfinished Joe DeAngelis Tapes by Rod Labbe

A Cautionary Tale:  By Rod Labbe

In the many years (1984-2012) I spent chronicling the sport and Art of Bodybuilding, there were invariably some worthwhile projects that never made it out of the planning stages or simply hit a brick wall and imploded.

Circumstance is a double-edged sword; it can present great opportunity or put the kibosh on carefully planned endeavors. One example? My interview with Mr. America, Joe DeAngelis.

I’d long followed Joe’s career, from his humble New Jersey roots to the unbelievable (and enviable) heights of the Mr. Universe stage. This rugged cat had everything…movie star looks, great hair, megawatt smile, and expert aesthetics, blended together with an artist’s touch.

Imagine my surprise to learn he was also quite a nice guy, someone willing to go the extra mile for quality and integrity.

Since I was writing almost exclusively for Iron Man magazine back then, I planned to place it there. Several telephone conversations ensued, and Joe and I found unusual common ground: we’re both horror movie fanatics and made amateur films during our teen years. That led to a lot of laughs, as we dissected Stephen King’s novels and compared monster kid memories. Honestly, I felt like I’d found a brother; we hit it off so well and quickly.

Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men. Circumstance raised its thorny head, raining on our parade. Joe had domestic troubles; he’d also started a new business that wasn’t going well. Both of us wanted to be in a good place before continuing, so the interview would have to wait. It did. For over a decade.

In the interim, Iron Man folded as a newsstand publication, Joe got married and became a dad. Alas, things didn’t go well for my monster kid buddy. His marriage crumbled, and Bodybuilding prospects passed him by. Then, one day, one very surprising day, I heard he’d died from kidney failure. The news devastated me. What an unfair ending to what should have been a triumphant story of strength and survival.

Except it wasn’t the end. I still had the interview, kept on my hard drive. After a thorough reading, I decided to write an intro and submit what we’d created to GMV, my new home. His story isn’t complete, in the sense of tying up loose ends…but Joe deserves to be heard. What he had to say is a cautionary tale, one from which we can all learn.

Thanks for being you, Joe. Hope this makes you smile.

Joe DeAngelis Photo Gallery

Joe DeAngelis Video Appearances.

JOE DEANGELIS
  1. Hey, man, I’m consistently blown away by your physique. How can you manage to pack on so much rugged muscle and still make everything look aesthetically pleasing?

JOE:  I appreciate the compliments. In order to fully answer that question, I’d have to go all the way back to childhood.

  1. Go ahead. Bring us on a trip through Joe’s early life.

JOE: All right (laughs). Back in the day, I was a skinny guy, very introverted. About 10 or 11, I went from being skinny to fat and was picked on a lot.  Most kids wear their emotions right on the surface, and when they see someone who doesn’t fit the norm, they can become very vicious.

  1. What inspired you to make positive changes?

JOE:  As long as I can remember, I’ve been a fan of science fiction and horror movies. I was into comic books; I liked them all, but particularly, the Hulk. There was a newsstand in Elmer (New Jersey) that carried Famous Monsters, Creepy and Eerie magazines, and comic books, like Hulk and Spider-Man.  I remember going there with my dad, and he’d say you can have a big book or a little book.  FM or the Hulk.  My dad was a mesomorph and very involved in heavy construction work.  Being magically transformed into some big muscular guy who didn’t get any crap appealed to me, as you can imagine, considering my social position.

  1. Richie Gaspari was also inspired by The Hulk.

JOE:  Well, it’s a very powerful image.  That was before I ever thought of lifting.  Mostly, I wanted to direct my own films and be an actor.

  1. Really? Wow. I did that stuff, too.

JOE:  Oh, yeah!  My dad had a super-8 camera, and we started doing our own films in the backyard.  I loved special effects and make-up.  I had a pretty good set-up and a lot of money invested.  There was a New Jersey Young Filmmakers festival, and I won three years in a row, from 80-82.  All my movies had a science fiction theme.  And we filmed with sound!

  1. This is so cool!

JOE: I did one called The Time Vortex, with superimposed animated monsters on screen to fight the monsters.  I’ve save all the movies.  My friends still talk about the times when we’d be filming, and I’d be stressed out.  The leading man in all my films was the best man at my wedding.  My dad even made us a coffin–the realest looking thing.  He made a Frankenstein operating table, too, and we still have it.  My dad was always a great help.  My brother was my stunt double, the poor guy.  In one film, I wanted a burning zombie, so…

  1. Don’t tell me you set him on fire!

JOE: Just a little bit. We did a test, and it turned out well. No burns, but it was sketchy (laughs).

  1. You weren’t known for muscles then, I’ll bet.

JOE:  Hardly. I was a bookworm, not one of the jocks, at all.  On Saturday, I’d do the films, and there’d be all kinds of kids.  I went through this King Kong phase, I got into making life-masks, prosthetics.  I wanted a gorilla suit something awful, but I wanted him to have a chest.  We made a mold of my chest.  We used latex, my mom looked high and low for material that would look like monkey fur.  We managed to find some, believe it or not!  My brother played King Kong.  My parents were good about helping me out with money.  They ran an ice-cream store, and essentially, I was a soda jerk all the way through high school.  I started there at age nine!

  1. When did the lifting bug hit?

JOE:  Age 14.  The reason wasn’t that I wanted to get bigger, I wanted to be skinny!  I weighed almost 200 pounds!  I started the summer before my 9th grade.  We had a bench, and my dad’s weight set.  I bought a book on weight training, read it thoroughly, and followed the instructions. I went on a pretty strict diet, too.  The first diet was a starvation diet.  I lost a good 55 to 60 pounds within the first few months.  For me, it’s always been a painfully slow process to develop.

  1. Notching the changes had to have been intoxicating, especially considering your self-image.

JOE:  You know it, brutha. I remember once in particular; I had this big mirror in our basement, and one day, I tried making a muscle.  My gosh, it’s a bicep! Unbelievable!

  1. Is that when dreams of competition began filling your head?

JOE: Not yet. I was still very much into filmmaking…but a turning point was coming.  I’d subscribed to Super 8 Filmmaker magazine, and all of a sudden, one month, it went from Super-8 Filmmaker to Amateur Videographer!  Absolutely no mention of super-8 film!  Well, at that time, your basic VCR was $2,000.  I was devastated.  That put the kibosh on my film career.

  1. That’s when the home video movement exploded. You never thought of going to film school? Like Spielberg?

JOE:  Coming from a small town of about 1,000 people, and me being so introverted, I would never dare to even entertain such a prospect!  If anything, I was a mama’s boy.  At the same time, weight training started picking up momentum, and people were noticing.

  1. And the tide turns…

JOE: Slowly, yeah. Senior year, I got this reputation for being a big strong guy.  The gym where I trained was small, they had a powerlifting contest, and I won.  The movie-making suddenly took a back seat.  When you’re 13 years old and chubby or skinny, people think you’re a wimp.  By 17, I was 210 pounds.  I looked radically different.  I was still really quiet.  I went from being a wimp to having a rep as a badass!

  1. You weren’t lifting for Bodybuilding, but more for strength?

JOE: Exactly. That’s what I wanted, strength, like the Hulk.

  1. What changed your direction?

     JOE: I was getting ready for a bench-press competition and hurt my shoulder.  The guys at the gym suggested a Bodybuilding show instead.  I gave it a go, since all my muscle was already going to the right places. I dieted for 7 weeks, went down to 179, and ended up winning my class.  It hit me–things had changed, and this was definitely very cool.

  1. At that point, you thought, hey, maybe there’s something to this?

JOE: Hell, yeah, bro! I definitely did. Just three years earlier, walking shirtless on the beach was near impossible…and here I was, posing in front of 2,000 people and wearing a mankini (laughs)! A mind trip!

  1. Was this around high school graduation?

JOE:  Yep.  I competed in another teenage show two weeks later and won.  That fall, I went to Rutgers, and my major was Biology.  More specifically, it was pre-med.  They didn’t have a pre-med major, and I wanted to be a doctor.

  1. Where were you training?

JOE:  At Gold’s gym in Milltown, NJ.  I was training hard for the 1985 Teen New Jersey and won.  There was no coverage in the Bodybuilding press, just local stuff.  The next summer, I was gonna go into the Teen USA.  The week before, I met Bob Gruskin.  He took me under his wing, and I won my class at the USA.  Bob was submitting photos, and I started getting decent coverage.

  1. All the while, you were still a big monster fan.

JOE:  Oh, yeah!  I read Famous Monsters right to the end (1983).  I was blown away by the cover art. FM was bent toward the good old days, like Karloff and Lugosi, and I just love those movies. I also got into the new stuff with Fangoria.

  1. I’m also a big horror fanatic. Did you have a local horror host?

JOE:  We sure did!  He was called Dr. Shock.  ‘Let there be fright in the daylight!” he’d say.  That’s where I first learned about the classic Universal films.  Boris Karloff was the man.  I enjoyed Vincent Price, but he kind of played second fiddle to the real classic acts, like Karloff, Lorre, and Rathbone.

  1. You and I both share a love for Hammer films.

JOE: What I like about the Hammers are that they’re so gothic, you know? Frankenstein, Dracula, and Oliver Reed in Curse of the Werewolf, they don’t get any better than that.  And all the women in Hammer’s films had such fantastic cleavage, all these heaving breasts!  I loved it!

  1. Gee, maybe you should become a star, Joe. I can see you as a Terminator, definitely.

JOE:  That would be a dream come true, Rod, and I mean it. I’d either be the hero or the villain. Powerful stuff. “I’ll be back” (laughs).

  1. I’d assume the money situation at Ruger’s was tight. It’s an expensive school.

JOE: Very tight. I never saved any money, and it was just so hard to be there and not have cash on me.  So, I transferred to Glassboro State College in Jersey, about 20 minutes from home and worked at my parents shop.  Kept the same major.

  1. And you were making headway on the contest circuit.

JOE: I was the Teen USA that summer (85) and intended on competing the summer of 86.  I stuck it out through the year, going to classes and everything and training at a gym at home, where I felt comfortable.  It was a tough time, a struggle.  I wasn’t 100% sure if I was doing the right thing with my life.  Was I doing this to make myself happy?

  1. You mean, the Bodybuilding?

JOE:  No, going to school.  I think I was doing it because everyone else was doing it.  But putting everything together–working, training for competitions, going to school–it was a constant struggle.  The summer of 1986 helped me see things a little better.

  1. Why, what happened?

JOE:  I went into two shows, the Novice and Open Mr. Eastern Seaboard, which was in southern, NJ.  The very next day, we jumped on the train to Connecticut for a Mike Katz sponsored show, the NPC Northeastern America.  I won both Novice and the Weekend, then I won the Teenage and the Open.  It was a grueling two days, but it was great. I felt higher than a kite!  7 first place trophies, can you believe it?  Huge mothers, too.

  1. How’d you go about publicizing yourself?

JOE:  Well, I thought I was newsworthy, after winning all those contests, but nothing much happened.  I’d have a few photo sessions here and there, which I really got into.  One thing I’ve learned is that you’ve got to make your own opportunities.  Sitting around and waiting for publicity to come to you isn’t the way.

  1. I’m surprised about the lack of publicity. You’re outrageously photogenic, like you were born for the camera.

JOE:  Glad you think so, man, because I tend to be too critical about my stuff.  After a certain time has passed, I can look back and say they’re pretty good.  Especially in the off-season, when I’m 30 pounds overweight.  Then, I think all my contest shots look good!

  1. What was it like working for famed artisan Jim French?

JOE: Amazing. You can’t find a more talented photographer than Mr. French. He caught me in my best contest-condition. Some great shots there! I mean, come on…I was the fat-ass in junior high, and now I’m a Colt Man? What a crazy world this is. Honestly, I think they’re my best pictures, bar none. Loved the experience and would shoot with him again, in a heartbeat.

  1. After those two shows, you went back to school and took up the life of a student.

JOE:  Yeah, and Gruskin kept telling me about the junior contests in Europe.  They had the Jr. Mr. Universe and Jr. Mr. World.  He felt like I should give them a shot.  Maybe I could even win.  Well, I was afraid of flying, number one, and the contests were held in London and Belgium.  I had to do a qualifier in Arizona, a NABBA national contest, which I won.  A month later, despite being afraid to fly, I went to the Jr. Mr. Universe.

  1. Not a fun experience, huh?

JOE:  No.  Jerry Scalesse and I were left behind in London, and we had to find our way to Belgium.  The American team had abandoned us! I was all of 20 years old and didn’t know what the heck was going on!  We finally found our way to Belgium, and I ended up winning the Mr. Mr. World and beat the guy from London.

  1. You didn’t go back to school after that win?

JOE:  Nope. That was the fall of 1987.  I made the big decision not to go back to school.  Take a semester off, I told myself.  I planned on picking it up in the spring of 88.  My parents were pretty disappointed, and that caused a lot of tension.  When I was in Arizona, I met Ed Connors, he’s one of the CEOs for Gold’s gym.  He offered me a job in California for Golds in Santa Barbara.

  1. Did you take it?

JOE:  You bet your ass I did!  I wasn’t going to school, and with all the tension at home, I felt like I didn’t have much choice.  New Jersey will always be there, and I can always go back, and this door might not be open for me again.  A friend and I drove cross country, because I didn’t want to fly.  I had $1,000 in my pocket.  Looking back, I didn’t know how I did it.  I’d never been out on my own.  This was about health insurance, car registration, and insurance, finding an apartment, the whole shebang.

  1. But you loved working there, I read.

JOE:  Oh, yeah, I did (laughs).  New Jersey and California are two different worlds. I love Santa Barbara in the summer.  It’s warm enough for the beach, and at night, it’s perfect sleeping weather.  In the winter, you can go out with shorts and a tee-shirt!  It’s paradise.  Quite a bit different from the boiling summers and icy cold winters I’d been accustomed to.  Right away, I made a lot of friends.  The gym was like my second home.

  1. You were planning on entering the 88 AAU North America when disaster struck. Tell us about it.

JOE:  That summer, I got a sinus infection that lead to toxic shock syndrome.  It was a Saturday night, I had a great workout and was feeling so strong.  I went out on a date, went to the movies, had a great time, took her home, and went home myself.  Through the night, I was getting up to go to the bathroom.  But I couldn’t wake up completely. I started feeling weaker and weaker.  At 6 AM, I could barely get out of bed.  I dragged myself to the gym.  At the time, I didn’t know what was going on.  I went home and tried to sleep it off.  My girlfriend showed up, and my whole body, everything was shutting down!  Right away, as soon as they took my vitals, they started freaking out.  I was in intensive care for 7 days!  My whole body hurt!  They loaded me up with antibiotics.  After I recovered, I went back to the gym to work out; this was three months before the North America.  They’d given me massive amount of anti-bodies until it was under control.  Antibiotics are catabolic.  My body wasn’t responding with the dieting.  I wasn’t losing fat easily, I’d lose muscle.

  1. And, amazingly, you still won the contest!

JOE:  I don’t know how I did it, but yeah, I won.  I held it together.

  1. What did you do after that precarious situation?

JOE:  Well, I took it easy and didn’t compete for all of 1989.  I came to the realization that I shouldn’t take life for granted.  Then, I got it into my head that I wanted to go into the 1990 Mr. USA.  Bob hadn’t seen me in a while.  And while he was encouraging me, I heard a tone of doubt in his voice.  He kept mentioning that this or that person was competing, etc., but when he saw me a month out, he got excited and thought I actually had a shot at taking the contest.

  1. And you won.

JOE:  I did! It was great, Rod.  All my friends and family were there, and I won.  The contest was held in Atlantic City, and it was fitting that a New Jersey boy would win.  The circumstances couldn’t have been better.  My life was perfect, stress levels were down, and all the positives fell into place.  Afterwards, Bob and I did photos for a long time.  Naturally, I wanted to go back and have a bite to eat–I was famished!  I was too wired up for sleep and ended up playing the slot machines and won two hundred and fifty dollars!  Wow, what a perfect night!

  1. Isn’t that incredible, when all the pieces fit?

JOE:  You said it, man. For me, it’s always been about the thrill of the chase.  Not so much after you get the gold.  It’s the training, dieting, making the changes, going to the finish line.  The first place trophy shows that you made the right choices, it validates the last several years.

  1. What about taking the America? Another milestone.

JOE:  That was a month later.  Bob felt sure I could win, but I didn’t share his enthusiasm. After a month of training, I headed back to NYC and the contest.  And I won.  I was extremely satisfied with my condition.  I had such a hard time, Rod, and if it had been a day later, I probably wouldn’t have made it.  I was really happy about winning the America.  When you look at the program and see all the past winners, it’s mind-blowing.

  1. And that was followed by, ta da, the Universe. Joe DeAngelis had arrived!

JOE:  A week passed, we’re at the Universe in the United Kingdom.  I was motivated and satisfied.  Still, it took great effort to hold it together for the next week.  The hotel wasn’t air-conditioned, on Friday, they had trouble with the plumbing, and we had no water.  We managed, but it was so humid.  I ended up winning my class that Saturday.  It was a close race for the overall, but I lost.  My body was tired by then.

  1. Were you burned out?

JOE:  Oh, yeah, completely.  I went back to Santa Barbara, broke and exhausted.  I needed to restructure my finances.  I did personal training, which began at 5 or 6 in the morning.  Personal training can be difficult, because there are a lot of misconceptions about it…especially if a Bodybuilder is doing the training.  They say, I don’t want to look like you, I just want to look good at the beach.

  1. But you were about to become a media star! How’d that come to pass, big guy?

JOE:  There was a show called The Best of Santa Barbara.  It was like an all around the town.  They did an interview with me, and we hit it off, and when a slot opened up for the host, I took it.  My on-screen demeanor wasn’t threatening, and it helped my personal training.  What a great experience!  They referred to me as Mr. America, Joe DeAngelis.  There were three other hosts, and we appealed to all the demographics: a girl, a more mature woman, a more mature guy.  A blast to do, but it very rarely had to do with building real muscle. I got to talk about other things.  We’d do a lot about the sites in the city, where to go and what to do, that kind of thing.  It started in 91 and went until 97.  I got a lot of TV exposure and enjoyed the people I worked with. It also gave me a certain notoriety around town (laughs).

  1. What about the competitive side of things?

JOE:  Honestly, I really didn’t think I’d ever compete again after the Universe, but one fateful day, Ed Connors came up to Santa Barbara and gave me a call.  We went out to dinner, and he said I was too young to hang it up.  A couple years later, I ended up in another show, the 93 NPC Border States classic.  I still worked out as hard as ever.  I love training and always will.  Mentally, I got a rest and competing again was a great time.  I won my class and the overall.  It was a National qualifier.  It was the best I ever looked.

  1. Here comes the Nationals!

JOE:  That was in Fort Lauderdale.  I went into the Heavyweight class and placed 15th.  Dude, what a harsh placing! Coming in so low was hard for me to handle; the first contest where I didn’t win my class.  When they were doing the call outs, I could see where I was standing.  I deflated on stage and didn’t go back for the evening show.

  1. But you didn’t give up. That’s the true mark of a champ.

JOE: No, I kept going, and Monday morning, I was right back in the gym. When I got into this game, I knew there’d be good days and bad days. That’s life, my man. Accepting it all.

  1. Have you ever sat for such an in-depth interview before? Be honest, now.

JOE: Always honest, Rod. I’d read your interviews in Iron Man and enjoyed them. They’re different than the usual surface stuff, like how much can you bench, yada-yada. And I also love the fact that you write for horror magazines, since I’m still such a big fan. If you lived around here, we’d be at the movies at least twice a week together. To answer your question, no, I’ve never had an interview like this. Thanks for keeping the comfort level strong and vibrant.

  1. My pleasure, big dawg. So, the adventure continues…

JOE: It does. Stay in touch and don’t be a stranger. This is too good to waste.

INTERVIEW CONDUCTED IN 2003

Joe DeAngelis : June 9th, 1966 – May 7th, 2015

Rod Labbe
Tel: (207) 859-3031
Email: yendor1152@yahoo.com