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76-455: Shot during the 100 days leading up to the Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia competitions and during the competitions themselves, the filmmakers ran out of funds to finish production and it stalled for two years. Ultimately, Schwarzenegger and other bodybuilders featured in the film helped raise funds to complete production, and it was released in 1977. The film became a box office success, making Schwarzenegger

152-427: A French bodybuilder; however, following the film's release, claims surfaced that Schwarzenegger had in fact refused to attend the funeral. Butler additionally cast the relationship between Mike Katz and Ken Waller as a sinister rivalry, filming the "football scene" where Waller decides to steal Katz's shirt after the fact in order to fill in a narrative gap. Waller and Katz were in fact close friends, and Waller's theft of

228-453: A charismatic, powerful "villain" (Schwarzenegger). To this end, Butler intentionally avoided filming Ferrigno's training sequences with bright lighting and emphasized the open-air atmosphere of Gold's Gym and the sunlight at Muscle Beach for Schwarzenegger's training sequences. Schwarzenegger claims to have helped Butler in casting himself as a villain, citing his story about not returning home for his father's funeral as having been told to him by

304-580: A documentary about the world of female bodybuilding; David and Scott McVeigh's Raw Iron (2002), a documentary about the making of Pumping Iron and how the film affected the lives of those who appeared in it; and Vlad Yudin 's Generation Iron (2013), a documentary on which Pumping Iron producer Jerome Gary served as executive producer . In 1975, bodybuilders are preparing for the upcoming Mr. Universe amateur competition and Mr. Olympia professional competition in Pretoria , South Africa. The first part of

380-418: A high revolution rate, is necessary to enable the encoding of video signals with bandwidth of a few megahertz, compared to a maximum of 20 kilohertz for an audio-only signal—a difference of two orders of magnitude. Also, while the undulations in the bottom of the groove may be likened to pits, it is important to note that the spacing of vertical wave crests and troughs in a CED groove is continuously variable, as

456-493: A household name. The film also served to popularize the culture of bodybuilding, which was somewhat niche at the time, and helped inspire the fitness craze of the 1980s; following the film's release, there was a marked increase in the number of commercial gyms in the U.S. The film was released on CED and VHS , and then re-released on DVD in 2003 for the 25th anniversary of the theatrical debut. The film inspired three sequels: George Butler's Pumping Iron II: The Women (1985),

532-470: A major asset. Commercial aspects will depend on the interest in local markets in the sport itself. Certainly, after the first quarter hour of flexing muscles, they all begin to look alike to the non-athletic viewer." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "The film allows us to get to know two bodybuilders very well, and, as a result, 'Pumping Iron'

608-497: A mountain village in Sardinia (Franco Columbu's childhood home). The film began as a look at bodybuilding from the perspective of a newcomer to the sport; to this end, the production had hired slim actor Bud Cort , with the intention of following Cort's development from a physically slight man to a muscular, strong bodybuilder. Cort trained at Gold's Gym for a brief period, taking lessons from Schwarzenegger, but ultimately felt that he

684-452: A pause feature, though it blanked the screen rather than displaying a still image; many players featured a "page mode", during which the current block of four successive frames would be repeatedly displayed. Since CEDs were a disc-based system, they did not require rewinding. Early discs were available only in monophonic sound, but many later discs were issued in stereo sound. (Mono CED discs were packaged in white protective caddies, while

760-482: A rather exotic subculture with the utmost sophistication. Butler and Fiore regard the bodybuilders with neither compassion nor ridicule but rather a steadfast, cool detachment—even when they themselves are being nakedly manipulative—which makes for a slick, shrewdly calculated, highly amusing and thoroughly enjoyable experience." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it "an amusing, buoyant documentary about competitive body building," and observed that "Schwarzenegger

836-505: A special stylus and high-density groove system similar to phonograph records. First conceived in 1964, the CED system was widely seen as a technological success which was able to increase the density of a long-playing record by two orders of magnitude . Despite this achievement, the CED system fell victim to poor planning, various conflicts with RCA management, and several technical difficulties that slowed development and stalled production of

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912-449: A spiral groove on both sides. The groove is 657 nm wide and has a length of up to 19 km (12 mi). The discs rotate at a constant angular speed during playback (450 rpm for NTSC , 375 rpm for PAL ) and each rotation contains eight interlaced fields, or four full frames of video. These appear as spokes on the disc surface, with the gap between each field clearly visible under certain light. This meant that freeze frame

988-446: A stylus (similar to a conventional phonograph record ). The two systems are mutually incompatible. RCA used the brand name " SelectaVision " for the CED system, a name also used for some early RCA brand VCRs , and other experimental projects at RCA. The Video High Density system is similar to that of CED. RCA began developing the videodisc system in 1964, in an attempt to produce a phonograph-like method of reproducing video under

1064-410: A ten-year veteran of bodybuilding, has won Mr. Olympia for five consecutive years and intends to retire after a final competition. Ferrigno, who at a height of 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) and 275 lb (125 kg) is the largest bodybuilder to date, is determined to be the man to finally dethrone Schwarzenegger. The film contrasts each man's personality, home environment, and training style: Schwarzenegger

1140-494: Is declared Mr. Olympia. In a post-victory speech, he announces his official retirement from professional bodybuilding. Later, at an after-party for the competitors, Schwarzenegger celebrates his victory by smoking marijuana and eating fried chicken . With the competition over, he wishes Ferrigno happy birthday and leads the other competitors in singing " Happy Birthday to You " as a cake is revealed. The film ends with Schwarzenegger, Ferrigno, and Ferrigno's parents riding together to

1216-493: Is extroverted, aggressive, and works out with other bodybuilders at Gold's Gym and Muscle Beach , whereas the quiet, reserved Ferrigno—who went partially deaf after a childhood ear infection—trains with his father in a dimly lit, private, basement gym. While Ferrigno surrounds himself with his family, Schwarzenegger is accompanied wherever he goes by other bodybuilders, reporters, and beautiful women. In between interviews and workout demonstrations with Ferrigno and Schwarzenegger,

1292-514: Is much more a story of human beings than it is a freak show. I actually ended up caring who won the contest." He ranked it #9 in his year-end list of the best films of 1977. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Directed by Butler and Robert Fiore, who is also the film's very adroit cinematographer, the witty and entertaining 'Pumping Iron' confronts what has been generally considered as

1368-400: Is the first personality since Bruce Lee who might become a unique and credible physical star, idolized in particular by kids but enjoyed and admired by a vast cross-section of the public." Louise Sweet of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that Schwarzenegger "inspires envy rather than disgust at ostentatious musculature, and lures even the reluctant viewer into his unusual world. Almost all

1444-520: The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City : Bodybuilders would become "living sculptures," posing on rotating platforms while art critics analyzed the aesthetics of the bodybuilding physique and compared and contrasted the men to Greek sculpture. To increase interest in the event, Butler arranged for Candice Bergen to be a celebrity commentator; Schwarzenegger also agreed to appear as one of

1520-427: The capacitance between the stylus and the conductive carbon-loaded PVC disc. This varying capacitance in turn alters the frequency of a resonant circuit , producing an FM electrical signal, which is then decoded into video and audio signals by the player's electronics. The capacitive stylus pickup system which gives the CED its name can be contrasted with the technology of the conventional phonograph . Whereas

1596-433: The "living sculptures", having received modest attention for his Golden Globe -winning appearance in the film Stay Hungry . The event proved to be a great success, generating more money than Butler had anticipated and allowing him to complete production on the film. Upon its release, Pumping Iron became a commercial and critical success. Schwarzenegger's popularity grew beyond that afforded him by Stay Hungry . Ferrigno

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1672-978: The 60+ division of the Masters Olympia twice. Corney was inducted in the International Federation of Bodybuilding Hall of Fame in 2004. Corney was born on November 9, 1933, in Honolulu , then in the Territory of Hawaii . After graduating from the Saint Louis School in 1952, he served four years in the United States Coast Guard . After his service, he worked first as an aviation radio mechanic in Oakland, California and then "a full-time bar owner and bouncer" in San Jose . Corney began bodybuilding at

1748-655: The 60+ division of the Masters Olympia. He won again in 1995, he was placed 11th overall in 1996, and he took second in the 60+ division in 1997. He also competed in 1998 in the only Masters event ever to be held at the Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic . Corney remained active in bodybuilding up until his death. He was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 2004. In 1999, Corney suffered a heart attack while undergoing shoulder surgery, and subsequently suffered two strokes as an after-effect of his heart attack. Despite

1824-419: The CED is an analog medium . Usually, the term "pits", when used in the context of information media, refers to features with sharply defined edges and discrete lengths and depths, such as the pits on digital optical media such as CDs and DVDs . In order to maintain an extremely light tracking force, the stylus arm is surrounded by coils, which sense deflection, and a circuit in the player responds to

1900-415: The CED stylus enables the use of a fine groove pitch (i.e. fine spacing of adjacent revolutions of the spiral), necessary to provide a long playing time at the required high rotational speed, while also limiting the rate of disc and stylus wear. The disc is stored inside a caddy, from which the player extracts it when it is loaded. The disc itself is surrounded by a "spine", a plastic ring (actually square on

1976-496: The CED system in March 1981, 50 titles were initially available; along with RCA (which included the company's partnership with Columbia Pictures plus Paramount and Disney releases), CBS Video Enterprises (later CBS/FOX Video ) produced the first 50 titles. Eventually, Disney , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , Paramount Pictures , MCA , Vestron Video , and other labels began to produce CED discs under their own home video labels, and did so until

2052-477: The Jedi had to be released on two CED discs. All three of these examples were typically available on one VHS/Betamax cassette. RCA had projected that by 1985, CED players would be in nearly 50% of American homes, but the sales of players continued to drop. RCA cut the prices of CED players and offered incentives to consumers such as rebates and free discs, but sales only slightly improved. RCA management realized that

2128-538: The RCA CED videodisc system long before it was even announced. The introduction of VCRs and home videotape in the mid 1970s—with their longer storage capacity and recording capabilities—posed a major threat to the system. However, development of CED continued. When the forthcoming system was formally announced in late 1979, RCA had projected annual sales of between five and six million players and 200 to 500 million videodiscs. The company had expected to sell 200,000 players by

2204-471: The Videodiscs in a composite analog signal which is encoded into vertical undulations in the bottom of the groove, somewhat like pits. These undulations have a shorter wavelength than the length of the stylus tip in the groove, and the stylus rides over them; the varying distance between the stylus tip and the conductive surface due to the depth of the undulations in the groove under the stylus directly controls

2280-440: The abandonment of the "SelectaVision" brand on all RCA video products. Ed Corney Edward Charles Corney (November 9, 1933 – January 1, 2019) was an American professional bodybuilder . He won many prizes in his 30s, including Mr. Universe in 1972, and was featured in the 1977 bodybuilding docudrama Pumping Iron . Known for his excellent posing routines, he continued competitive bodybuilding into his 60s, winning

2356-404: The age of 27 after being impressed with the physiques of an opposing volleyball team made up of bodybuilders. Standing at 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m), Corney won the first contest he competed in, Mr. Fremont 1967, at the age of 33. In 1968, he added Mr. Heart of California, Mr. Northern California, Mr. Westerner, and Mr. Golden West to his titles. In the 1970s, Corney continued to climb

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2432-648: The airport, with Schwarzenegger saying he is returning back home to Austria to celebrate with his family. George Butler asked approximately 3000 people to help finance his bodybuilding documentary, showing them 10 minutes of footage of Schwarzenegger that Butler shot at an amusement park. He eventually raised $ 400,000. Schwarzenegger was focused on acting and reluctant to compete in another Mr. Olympia, but he said yes after Butler agreed to pay him $ 50,000. Filming took place over 14 weeks in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Montreal, Paris, South Africa, and

2508-454: The body-builders here are likable, but Schwarzenegger's articulateness and humour make the film cohere and convince." For the film's 25th anniversary, filmmakers David and Scott McVeigh tracked down the participants in Pumping Iron to follow up on their lives and see how the film's success had affected them personally and professionally. The resultant film, Raw Iron , also served to document

2584-667: The bodybuilding ladder with wins at the 1970 Iron Man, the 1971 AAU Mr. California, the 1971 IFBB Mr. USA, and the 1972 IFBB Mr. America. His best career win came in 1972, capturing the IFBB Mr. Universe title in Baghdad, Iraq. He also won the IFBB Mr. America in 1972, and Mr. World in 1973 and 1974. Corney appeared in the 1977 bodybuilding documentary Pumping Iron . In one scene, he collapses in exhaustion after an intense squat workout with training partner Arnold Schwarzenegger . Later in

2660-594: The caddies for stereo discs were blue.) Other discs could be switched between two separate mono audio tracks, providing features such as bilingual audio capability. Like the LaserDisc and DVD, some CEDs feature random access, allowing users to quickly move to certain parts of the movie. Each side of a CED disc could be split into up to 63 "chapters", or bands. Two late RCA players (the SJT400 and SKT400) could access these bands in any given order. Unlike its laser-based counterparts,

2736-435: The chapters in a CED are based on minutes of the film, not scenes. Novelty discs and CED-based games were produced whereby accessing the chapters in a specified order would string together a different story each time. However, only a few were produced before the halt of CED player manufacturing, and CEDs are much more prone to wear and tear compared to LaserDisc. In comparison with LaserDisc technology, CEDs suffered from

2812-407: The competition. Waller wins Mr. Universe and Katz comes in fourth. Fighting back tears, Katz cheerfully appraises the situation before calling home to check on his wife and children. He then congratulates Waller. The film then switches focus to the rivalry between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno , professional bodybuilders competing for the title of Mr. Olympia. Schwarzenegger, at this point

2888-435: The course of almost all films as only sixty minutes of video could be stored per side (75 mins on UK PAL discs due to the slower rotation speed); if a feature ran over two hours, it would be necessary to spread the feature over two discs. In some cases, if a movie's theatrical running time was only slightly longer than two hours, studios would often trim short scenes throughout the movie and/or employ time compression (speeding

2964-454: The disc as it is extracted. Once the caddy has been withdrawn by the person, the player loads the disc onto the turntable, either manually with all SFT and most SGT prefix RCA players or automatically with the RCA SGT-250 and all other models and brands of players. When playback has been started, the player spins the disc up to speed while moving the pickup arm over the disc surface and lowering

3040-425: The disc. However, playing the disc several times would generally solve this problem. Unlike VHS tapes, CEDs (along with LaserDisc) required a disc flip (however, some LaserDisc players were able to read both sides of the disc without physically flipping the disc, achieved by moving the laser from one side of the disc to the other, but this still resulted in a pause of playback during the change) at some point during

3116-599: The discontinuation of players. Less than a year after this announcement, the sale of discs began to decline, prompting RCA to abandon videodisc production in 1986, after only two years. The last titles released were The Jewel of the Nile by CBS/Fox Video , and Memories of VideoDisc , a commemorative CED given to many RCA employees involved with the CED project, both in 1986. CEDs are conductive vinyl platters that are 30.0 cm (11.8 in) in diameter. To avoid metric names they are usually called "12 inch discs". A CED has

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3192-484: The end of 1981, but only about half that number had been sold, and there was little improvement in sales throughout 1982 and 1983. The extremely long period of development—caused in part by political turmoil and a great deal of turnover in the high management of RCA—also contributed to the demise of the CED system. RCA had originally slated 1977 as the release date for the videodisc system; at that point, discs were not able to hold more than 30 minutes of video per side and

3268-533: The end of disc manufacturing in 1986. Capacitance Electronic Disc's competitors, Philips/Magnavox and Pioneer, instead manufactured optical discs, read with lasers. On April 4, 1984, after sales of only 550,000 players, RCA announced the discontinuation of CED videodisc players. RCA's losses since the product's introduction were eventually estimated at $ 650 million. The huge financial losses partially resulted in General Electric 's acquisition of RCA in 1986, and

3344-617: The extra run time out of the film) in order to avoid the expense of issuing two discs. This problem was not unique to CEDs: LaserDiscs presented the same difficulty, and some longer features, such as The Ten Commandments (1956), still required more than one tape or disc in the VHS, Beta, and LaserDisc formats. There were no two-disc UK PAL releases. Less significant disadvantages include lack of support for freeze-frame during pause, since CEDs scanned four frames in one rotation versus one frame per rotation on CAV LaserDisc, while computer technology

3420-409: The fact that they were a phonograph-style contact medium: RCA estimated that the number of times a CED videodisc could be played back, under ideal conditions, was 500. By comparison, a clean, laser rot -free LaserDisc could, in theory, be played an unlimited number of times (although repeated or careless handling could still result in damage). Since the CED system used a stylus to read the discs, it

3496-475: The film documents the life of Mike Katz , a hopeful for the title of Mr. Universe. Katz was bullied in his youth for being Jewish and wearing glasses, which spurred him to become a pro football player; when his career with the New York Jets was ended by a leg injury, he became a bodybuilder. His psychological balance is thrown off by a prank by fellow contender Ken Waller , who steals Katz's lucky shirt before

3572-522: The film, Schwarzenegger is enthralled watching Corney's disciplined posing routine, saying, "Can you believe that? I mean, that— that's what I call posing!" Corney was also featured on the cover of the film's book companion, Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding by Charles Gaines and George Butler. Corney continued to compete in the 1980s. In a 1985 interview, he acknowledged using steroids , though he attributed his success to "97 percent training and three percent steroids." In 1994, Corney won

3648-589: The first CED player (model SFT100W) went on sale on March 22, 1981. A catalog of approximately 50 videodisc titles was released at the same time. The first title to be manufactured was Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown . Fifteen months later, RCA released the SGT200 and SGT250 players, both with stereo sound while the SGT-250 was also the first CED player model to include a wireless remote control . Models with random access were introduced in 1983. Several problems doomed

3724-504: The judging for the under-200 lb class to scope out who his competition will be for the overall Mr. Olympia title, jokingly disparaging Columbu. The appearance of Ed Corney stuns Schwarzenegger, who praises another bodybuilder for the only time in the film, openly admiring Corney's physique and posing prowess. Columbu places first and he moves on to compete against the winner of the over-200 lb category. Schwarzenegger, Ferrigno, and Serge Nubret prepare to go onstage and compete for

3800-404: The laser lens for fine tracking, both guided by an optical sensing device, which is the analogue of CED stylus-deflection sensing coils. For the CED player, this tracking arrangement has the additional benefit that the stylus drag angle remains uniformly tangent to the groove, unlike the case for a phonograph tonearm , in which the stylus drag angle and consequently the stylus side force varies with

3876-434: The latter explains the basic concepts behind bodybuilding. Although he emphasizes the importance of physique in bodybuilding, Schwarzenegger also stresses the psychological aspects of competition, crediting his use of psychological warfare for his numerous victories. The film briefly looks at Schwarzenegger's training partner, Franco Columbu , a favorite to win the under-200 lb division at Mr. Olympia. A former boxer from

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3952-461: The making of Pumping Iron , exploring the difficulties that Butler had in producing the film and the narrative choices he made. Raw Iron also debunked a lot of the dramatics that played out in Pumping Iron , such as a cold comment by Schwarzenegger about why he did not return to Austria for his father's funeral. It exposes the drama but reassures the genuineness of the hard work these men put into bodybuilding. The film originally aired on Starz , and

4028-562: The name 'Discpix'. Research and development was slow in the early years, as the RCA CED team originally consisted of only four men, but by 1972, the CED team had produced a disc capable of holding ten minutes of color video (a portion of the Get Smart episode "A Tale of Two Tails", re-titled "Lum Fong"). The first CED prototype discs were multi-layered, consisting of a vinyl substrate, nickel conductive layer, glow-discharge insulating layer and silicone lubricant top layer. Failure to fully solve

4104-511: The nickel-like compound used for manufacturing the discs was not sturdy enough. Signal degradation was also a problem, as handling the discs was causing them to deteriorate more rapidly than expected, baffling engineers. 60 minutes per side rendered it impossible for most movies over 120 minutes to be released on one CED disc. Many popular films such as some of the James Bond series, Mary Poppins , Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Return of

4180-419: The outside edge) with a thick, straight rim-like edge, which extends outside of, and latches into, the caddy. When a person inserts a caddy containing a disc into the player, the player captures the spine, and both the disc and the spine are left in the player as the person pulls the caddy out. The inner edges of the opening of the caddy have felt strips designed to catch any dust or other debris that could be on

4256-414: The over-200 lb category. In the locker room, Schwarzenegger engages in some last-minute intimidation of Ferrigno, who is visibly shaken onstage and subsequently ends up placing third behind Nubret and Schwarzenegger, who is declared the winner. Schwarzenegger and Columbu engage in a posedown for the title of Mr. Olympia. Schwarzenegger uses his stage presence and intimidating looks to unnerve Columbu, and

4332-432: The phonograph stylus physically vibrates with the variations in the record groove, and those vibrations are converted by a mechanical transducer (the phono pickup) to an electrical signal, the CED stylus normally does not vibrate and moves only to track the CED groove (and the disc surface—out-of-plane), while the signal from the stylus is natively obtained as an electrical signal. This more sophisticated system, combined with

4408-517: The process. RCA had initially intended to release the SKT425 CED player with their high end Dimensia system in late 1984, but cancelled CED player production prior to the Dimensia system's release. The format was commonly known as " videodisc ", leading to much confusion with the contemporaneous LaserDisc format. LaserDiscs are read optically with a laser beam, whereas CED discs are read physically with

4484-451: The shirt was simply a spur-of-the-moment prank not intended to upset Katz to the extent that it did. Waller was later regretful of the football sequence, claiming that audiences at bodybuilding competitions continued to boo him for years after the film's release. Following the Mr. Olympia contest, the production ran out of money and ended up in development hell for nearly two years. In an effort to raise funds, Butler arranged an exhibit with

4560-474: The signals from these coils by moving the stylus head carriage in steps as the groove pulls the stylus across the disc. Other coils are used to deflect the stylus, to finely adjust tracking. This system is very similar to—yet predates—the one used in Compact Disc players to follow the spiral optical track, where typically a servo motor moves the optical pickup in steps for coarse tracking and a set of coils shifts

4636-538: The stylus onto the beginning of the disc. When Stop is pressed, the stylus is lifted from the disc and returned to its parking location, and the disc and spine are lifted up again to align with the caddy slot. When ready, the slot is unlocked, and the caddy can be inserted and withdrawn by a person, now with the disc back inside. CED players, from an early point in their life, appealed to a lower-income market more than VHS , Betamax , and LaserDisc . The video quality (approximately 3 MHz of luma bandwidth for CED )

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4712-428: The stylus/disc wear and manufacturing complexity forced RCA to seek simpler construction of the disc. The final disc was crafted using PVC blended with carbon to make the disc conductive. To preserve stylus and groove life, a thin layer of silicone was applied to the disc as a lubricant. CED videodiscs were originally conceived as being housed in jackets and handled by hand similar to LP records, but during testing it

4788-445: The system for 17 years—until 1981, by which time it had already been made obsolete by laser videodisc ( DiscoVision , later called LaserVision and LaserDisc ) as well as Betamax and VHS video cassette formats. Sales for the system were nowhere near projected estimates. In the spring of 1984, RCA announced it was discontinuing player production, but continued the production of videodiscs until 1986, losing an estimated $ 650 million in

4864-478: The system would never be profitable and on April 4, 1984, announced the discontinuation of production of CED players. Remaining stocks of players were sold by dealers and liquidation retailers for as little as $ 20 each. Unexpectedly, demand for the videodiscs themselves suddenly became high immediately after the announcement; RCA alerted dealers and customers that videodiscs would continue to be manufactured and new titles released for at least another three years after

4940-577: The tiny village of Ollolai, Sardinia , Columbu returns home to celebrate a traditional dinner with his family, who still adhere to old world values and are skeptical of the overt aggression of boxing and bodybuilding. Nevertheless, Columbu impresses his family with a display of strength by lifting up the back end of a car and angling it so it can escape a tight parking spot. In South Africa, Schwarzenegger wages his psychological warfare on Ferrigno, befriending Ferrigno and then subtly insulting him over breakfast with Ferrigno's family. Schwarzenegger later attends

5016-450: The tonearm angle, which in turn depends on the radial position on the record of the stylus. Whereas for a phonograph, where the stylus has a pinpoint tip, linear tracking is merely ideal to reduce wear of records and styli and to maximize tracking stability, for a CED player linear tracking is a necessity for the keel-shaped stylus, which must always stay tangent to the groove. Furthermore, the achievement of an extremely light tracking force on

5092-538: The world of future star/politician Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pumping Iron provides a witty and insightful overview of competitive bodybuilding." On Metacritic the film has a score of 72% based on reviews from 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Richard Eder of The New York Times called the film "an interesting, rather slick and excessively long documentary about the small but intensely competitive world of bodybuilding." Variety wrote, "Technical credits are generally excellent with Fiore's camerawork

5168-507: The years following the film's release, hundreds of commercial gyms began appearing across the United States as demand rose for access to weightlifting equipment. The film received positive reviews from critics. As of September 2022, Rotten Tomatoes reported 34 out 37 reviews were positive, giving the film an approval rating of 92%. The website summarized the critics consensus by saying, "In addition to offering an enlightening early look into

5244-514: Was comparable to or better than a VHS-SP or Betamax-II video, but sub-par compared to LaserDisc (about 5 MHz of luma bandwidth). CED players were intended to be "low-cost" because they cost around half as much to manufacture as a VCR and had fewer precision parts. The discs themselves could be inexpensively duplicated, stamped out on slightly-modified audio LP record presses. Like VCRs, CED videodisc players had features like rapid forward/reverse and visual search forward/reverse. They also had

5320-419: Was impossible on players without an expensive electronic frame store facility. A keel-shaped stylus with a titanium electrode layer rides in the groove with extremely light tracking force (65 mg) and an electronic circuit is formed through the disc and stylus. Like an audio turntable, the stylus reads the disc, starting at the outer edge and going towards the center. The video and audio signals are stored on

5396-453: Was later featured as an extra on the DVD of Pumping Iron . Arnold Schwarzenegger films bodybuilding training scene at The L gym on ave u Brooklyn N.Y. 11229 Capacitance Electronic Disc The Capacitance Electronic Disc ( CED ) is an analog video disc playback system developed by Radio Corporation of America (RCA), in which video and audio could be played back on a TV set using

5472-413: Was necessary to regularly change the stylus in the player to avoid damage to the videodiscs, while worn and damaged discs also caused problems for consumers. When a disc began to wear, video and audio quality would severely decline, and the disc would begin to skip. Several discs suffered from a condition called "video virus", where a CED would skip a great deal due to dust particles stuck in the grooves of

5548-516: Was not advanced enough at the time to outfit the player with a framebuffer affordably. However, a "page mode" was available on many players that would allow those four frames to be repeated in an endless loop. CEDs were also larger than VHS tapes, thicker than LaserDiscs, and considerably heavier due to the plastic caddies. CED players were manufactured by four companies—RCA, Hitachi , Sanyo , and Toshiba —but seven other companies marketed players manufactured by these companies. Upon release of

5624-399: Was shortly thereafter cast as The Incredible Hulk , a role he would continue to play in a variety of mediums into the 2010s. Although bodybuilding had been a subculture regarded by many as being on par with early 20th century freak shows prior to the film's release, the film normalized the idea to the point that interest in bodybuilding began spreading into mainstream American culture. In

5700-496: Was shown that exposure to dust caused skipped grooves. If dust was allowed to settle on the discs, the dust would absorb moisture from the air and cement the dust particle to the disc surface, causing the stylus to jump back in a locked groove situation. Thus, an idea was developed in which the disc would be stored and handled in a plastic caddy from which the CED would be extracted by the player so that exposure to dust would be minimized. After 17 years of research and development,

5776-405: Was wrong for the project; Cort and the producers amicably parted ways, and the documentary team began to focus more intently on the established bodybuilders at Gold's. In order to compensate for the loss of Cort's narrative arc, Butler decided to capitalize on Schwarzenegger and Ferrigno's contrasting personalities and cast the film as the story of a heroic but "sinister" underdog (Ferrigno) against

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