Legends from 'the Golden Age', from days of surreptitious purchases in local newsagent's and of hiding your stash of muscle magazines where no one else could find them... the first (of two, it is, after all, 241 all week) sisters of iron featured on FMS this week are, according to one forum poster, the best bodybuilding sister duo in the history of the sport: Janice Graser and Charla Sedacca.
Originally from Chicora, a small town in Pennsylvania, Janice and Charla achieved something absolutely unique in the history of female bodybuilding at the 1987 NPC Nationals: they both won their respective classes. Janice won her class (heavyweight) and Charla hers (lightweight). Then they posed down against middleweight winner Rene Casella, with the younger and lighter Charla taking the overall crown.
Janice went on to win the World Amateur Championships the same year, and in 1988 they competed together again, this time as pros, at the World Pro Championships. That was Charla's last contest, but Janice competed once more, at the 1990 Olympia. Quite rightly, Charla is always mentioned whenever female muscle heads discuss the 'best biceps ever', and is therefore probably the better-known of the two. But there was, as you can see from the pics, little to choose between the two in terms of overall physique, and I can't help thinking that had they been competing in any other decade, they would have had a lot more professional success.
Charla, FMS believes, became a pharmaceutical rep in Texas. Janice, after a very brief foray into Hollywood (you can see her in the 1989 Van Damme vehicle Cyborg) probably continued to be the Newport, Virginia wife and mother she had been throughout her bodybuilding career.
Charla and Janice more recently
And you can see them (and their peaks) at their peak(s) on Daily Motion.
As always with posts like this that feature images from before (in this case, long before) the age of the internet, a special thank you to those of you who scan. You're wonderful!
Enjoy!
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