Abbye Stockton

Abbye "Pudgy" Stockton (1917 to 2006), born Abbye Eville, was an American strongwoman and a forerunner of present-day female bodybuilders. She grew up in Santa Monica, California, and became a media favorite at Muscle Beach in the 1940s, where she and her husband Les Stockton performed acrobatic and hand-balancing feats; she appeared in magazine pictorials, newsreels and advertisements. From 1944 to 1954 she wrote the women's training column "Barbelles" for Strength & Health magazine, and in 1947 she helped organize the first Amateur Athletic Union-sanctioned weightlifting competition for women. Physique contests for women were almost unknown then, and her one such title was Miss Physical Culture Venus in 1948. She was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 2000.