Alvin Roy’s Strength and Health Studios became the go-to place in the mid-1950s for athletes looking to overpower the other team. “My father was cutting-edge in so many aspects of the physical fitness revolution,” says daughter Astrid Clements, “and this was the incubator for all this, right there on Oklahoma Street.”
Though the handsome, witty Roy was called “the father of the steroid in the NFL” by Pittsburgh Steeler Steve Courson (1978-83), his supporters believe he should be remembered as a pioneer who grasped the benefits of weight training before anyone else.
Clements and her younger sister are committed to organizing a book about their father and commemorating the life of the man who promoted “Slenderizing Salon and Turkish Baths,” another victim of urban renewal. Read the 225 magazine profile of Roy here.
