Bodybuilder Evangelist Dick Dubois, Mr. America 1954, Pentecostal, Mae West Show
$
65
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Description
Bodybuilder / Evangelist Richard "Dick" Dubois
Mr. America, 1954
Voice Records International #1, Houston, Texas, ca. 1960
Produced by Neil Eskelin and Andy Sorelle III
Condition of jacket: No jacket, just the record in a new paper sleeve.
Condition of record: Good to very good with some scuffing. Record remains rather glossy, but there is considerable popping when played and sound quality is not great. Some slight warp to record, it appears to have maybe been stored flat in a stack for some time,
About this record:
This is the recorded testimony of bodybuilder Dick Dubois, who won the Mr. America contest in 1954 - apparently one of his many bodybuilding awards (he was also the runner up in 1953). There's not much info on the label, so I had to listen to the record to get much of an idea of what it's about - the sound quality is not all that great (microphone too far away), and there is quite a bit of popping and hiss, but you can still understand what he's saying pretty easily.
His sermon was given in Houston, Texas to the Full Gospel Businessman's Fellowship Dinner, but the church at which he spoke is not identified. From statements in the speech I gather that it is a Pentecostal / Assembly of God congregation. He talks of visions of the devil he has seen, and of speaking in tongues.
He recounts how he grew up in Harlem in a poor Catholic family that couldn't support him. He wound up eventually going into bodybuilding and the contest circuit, where he succeeded, and this opened doors for him. He starred for several years on the Mae West Show (making $500 a week, he says), and appeared in the MGM movies Athena (1954, with Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds) and Dangerous When Wet (1953, starring Esther Williams), as well as the Paramount Studios movie Houdini (1953, starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh). He gave up his Hollywood career, though, to focus on ministry, including a year in Hawaii. Later, he says he was offered the role of Hercules (1958) but turned it down to continue ministering the gospel on skid row - the role wound up going to Steve Reeves.
