Melvin Wells
Melvin Wells (1919-1994) was born in Alabama, but his family moved to Buffalo, NY when he was 8. He served in the Army Air Force in World War II. After the war, he got into bodybuilding. Not having proper equipment or coaches, he was self-trained. He started entering competitions and began to be noticed, earning the nickname "the Buffalo Hercules." Above, he made the cover of Strength & Health in January 1949. Strength & Health columnist Charles A. Smith said Wells had the biggest biceps he had ever seen (they measured 18.5 inches).
He won the Mr. New York State competition in 1949, which automatically qualified him for the 1949 Mr. America contest, in which he won Most Muscular and 2nd place overall. In 1950 he again competed for Mr. America, and again he won Most Muscular and 2nd place overall (above). First place went to John Farbotnik, and Wells was bitter, because he thought he was clearly superior, but he was denied the win because Farbotnik was white and Wells was black. Many agreed with him. There was not a black Mr. America winner until 1970.
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In 1955, Melvin Wells posed nude for Lon of NY. The remaining photos are from that session.
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Posing by a column.
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This photo was not attributed to Lon of NY, but it looks like the column from the previous photo, so presumably from the same session.
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I don't know what happened to the color in this photo ...
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and this one.
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Finally, this photo was only dated "mid-1950s", but was presumably from that same 1955 photo session.
Melvin's interest in bodybuilding competitions waned after his 1950 Mr. America loss, and he stopped competing after 1951. However, he was not forgotten. He was inducted into the Mr. America Hall of Fame in 1985. He died in 1994 at age 74.
5 comments:
He was gorgeous and such a wonderful body.
Very good-looking man.
This is probably a link: https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/LT62-Y14
I like it when professional bodybuilders make a decision, at some point in their careers, to go full nude. A very generous gift to posterity.
The AAU which had the run of bodybuilding at that time, would never award a black man with the title of Mr America, as the AAU was very concerned about offending their Southern and Mid-Western affiliates and audiences.
Enrico Tomas had won Mr New York in 1954, unbeknownst to the AAU, he was a man of mix race (Anglo, black, Puerto Rican).They had assumed he was a white man with a great tan ! Afterwards Tomas was treated persona non grata by the AAU and didn’t compete for Mr America. He did go to England and won the NABBA 1954 Mr Universe title, NABBA was not concerned about race like the AAU as they welcomed competitors from around the world.
-Rj
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