Roland Essmaker
Born March 24, 1916
Richmond, Indiana, USA
Between June 1939 and May 1940, three contests were held that have since sometimes been identified as the first-ever AAU Mr. America events. Thus, conjecture prevailed in defining who the first Mr. America was: Roland Essmaker, who won the title on July 4, 1939 in Chicago in a contest staged in connection with the National Weight-lifting championships.
Born in Richmond, Indiana, Essmaker began training in the ‘30s. At $10, a Milo barbell set was too expensive for him then, so he used window sash weights, lifting them up and down. He performed one-leg squats and did chin-ups on the back porch. Eventually, he had saved the 10 bucks to acquire a Milo set.
Essmaker toured America posing for various college art classes and gained well-rounded knowledge of different training techniques by visiting local gyms during his travels. One of those gyms was at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where John Grimek had also trained.
Roland Essmaker is a name largely unknown except to students of the iron game, and it is time to acknowledge his place in the early days of physique competition. Essmaker remains a genteel soul, whose employment at various radio stations has helped him handle the static interference that still plagues his place in the history of bodybuilding.
The bottom line is that he was the first Mr. America, and that makes him a bodybuilding immortal. Today he lives with his wife in San Marcos, California, and those who know him say he’s the sweetest guy in town.
Hall of Fame Inductees for 2002 |
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