Eric Pederson

In 1947, Eric Pederson became Mr. California at the age of eighteen.

He lost the Mr. America title to Steve Reeves, but continued to body build and pose for physique photographers. In time, he became a popular wrestler and even appeared in the 1951 movie, The Fighting Coast Guard, as the man who dared anyone to wrestle him.

The series of four photographs of him posing with the column were taken by Spartan of Hollywood.

Ebersol took the image of Eric looking down at his flexing arm, while Earl Forbes took the one of Eric in bathing trunks, with his arms reaching overhead to hug the column behind him. This is an unusual image for Forbes, who used a Kodak Brownie camera that cost him $2.95 and took almost exclusively nudes of his models.

I especially like the image of Eric as an older wrestler, still very muscular and now rather hirsute.