Jules S. Bacon, 89; champion bodybuilder operated health clubs

Jules S. Bacon, 89, who won the Mr. America bodybuilding competition in 1943, died Saturday at his home in York, Pa., the John W. Keffer Funeral Home and Crematory said.

When Bacon won the Amateur Athletic Union’s Mr. America title at the downtown Los Angeles YMCA, he worked for York Barbell Co., which employed many bodybuilders. He was featured on the covers of several magazines in the 1940s and 1950s and regularly wrote for the magazine Strength & Health.

He later worked at York International, a manufacturer of heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration units, and gyms called the Jules Bacon Health Clubs.

“My lifestyle changed,” Bacon told the York Sunday News in 1999, recalling the end of his competitive career. “I had to go back to work. When you’re Mr. America, who are you going to compete against?”

A native of Philadelphia, Bacon was inducted into the International Federation of Bodybuilding & Fitness Hall of Fame last year.