The Dungeon at Muscle Beach was small. There was barely room to move around. Located at the corner of Fourth and Broadway in Santa Monica, California, the Dungeon was a famous hideaway gym for some of bodybuilding's most powerful men. Dark and dirty, the Dungeon was also quite smelly since it was located in a basement below an old hotel that had a taproom.
During the hot California summers, the old beer taps would leak and the brew would eventually make its way through cracks in the floors to the Dungeon. In the winter, when it rained, the walls and floor would also leak and pretty soon, with the rank odors of stale beer and mildew mixing with smells of new and old sweat, the Dungeon had a most unusual aroma. No one who worked out there, though, seemed to mind.
The Dungeon had no fancy equipment. No Universal or Paramount machines and, of course, Nautilus was still nothing but a seashell since we're talking '60s here. There was no daylight in the Dungeon, either. Lighting was provided by four rows of overhead bulbs. Benches weren't padded. Splinters were picked out in the shower. Clothesline served as cables, there wasn't even a hack or leg press machine and most of the stuff teetered on rusty nails and bolts. But, oh, the bodies that came out of the Dungeon!
