Gym Will Stay a Place for Hulks of Sterner Stuff

For 42 years, Stern’s Gym in North Park has been a beacon to the biceps-possessed.

Jack LaLanne and Vic Tanny came and went, but Stern’s endured, even when the business downstairs was a chicken slaughterhouse and the summertime stench could knock a man to his knees.

Now a Chinese laundry is downstairs and Stern’s is a legend: the only remaining male-only, no-nonsense weightlifting parlor in San Diego County--no aerobics, no dancercize, no MTV, no family discounts, nothing but weights and large-muscled men dedicated to their use.

Think of “Rocky I.” The wooden-slat floor shakes when the weights go bang.

Stern’s idea of air conditioning is opening the fire-escape door. The showers dribble a brown something; the air is thick with sweat socks.

A newcomer to Stern’s is someone who’s only been coming a decade. Bill Pearl, a former Mr. Universe, pumped at Stern’s. So did Lou Ferrigno (“The Incredible Hulk”), Arnold Schwarzenegger and numerous Chargers and Aztecs.

“Modern weight-lifting in Southern California started at Stern’s,” said Ron Flisher, 44, a UC San Diego custodial supervisor who has been coming to Stern’s since he was a tight end for the Aztecs in the 1960s. “Everybody came here.”

The boss of the place was Leo Stern, a gruff former Army drill instructor to whom “whaddyawant?” was a term of endearment. His motto: Pay up or get out.

In June, the 68-year-old Stern sold the place on Granada Avenue just off University, although he retains a weightlifting equipment store nearby and a women’s gym around the block.

His youngest son, who helped him run the gym, died this spring of cancer. Leo Stern wants to devote more time to raising American pit bull terriers.

Will Stern’s go modern? With ladies’ nights, social events and classes on proper grooming?

Stuff it, says the new owner, Timothy S. Mauricio, 30. Stern’s will stay Stern’s.

“I’m not going to ruin the place with a lot of chrome and new carpet,” said Mauricio. “There are plenty of places where you can go and lift some weights and try to party with the girls wearing tights. Stern’s is strictly for gladiators.”

Runway as Road to Glory

Take heart, married women of California. Caryn Levitt of Vista is in Dallas as your standard bearer.

Levitt, 26, mother of one, stepmother of two more, a graduate of a high school in Escondido and a fashion academy in San Diego, is Mrs.

California International. By week’s end, she hopes to be Mrs. U.S. International.

After winning the state pageant in Los Angeles, she’s up against 47 other state winners in the weeklong beauty-and-talent pageant at the Dallas Convention Center. Television actor Don Galloway (late of “General Hospital”) will crown the winner Saturday night.

Levitt is a competitor. She was Miss Valley Center 1981, Miss Greater San Diego 1985 and second runner-up Miss California USA 1986. She loves it.

“It takes a lot of courage to get up there in front of people and be judged,” she said. “I grew up in Valley Center by showing horses at horse shows. This is an extension of that, except that I’m showing myself rather than a horse.”

She gained 70 pounds before the birth of her son, Robert, eight months ago. Now she’s back to runway trim. Her husband, Art, is manager of the meat market at Alpha Beta in Vista.

The prizes in Dallas are not skimpy: round-trip air fare anywhere, five days at a Sheraton, a suntan bed, a gold and diamond necklace, a $10,000 fur coat, and a 21-piece set of Saladmaster cookware.

Except for the crowns, beauty titles have not gone to her head. She still thinks of herself as “a bow-legged tomboy.” She doesn’t want to hear any blah-blah about pageants exploiting women.

“I wasn’t a basketball star or class valedictorian in school,” she said. “You go with what you’re given in this world. That’s what I’m doing. I’m going for it.”