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Everybody knows Shawn Eiferman, a Vegas institution of a musician who seems to have performed at every venue that ever existed. But previous generations of Las Vegans were equally familiar with his late father, George Eiferman, a legendary bodybuilder who won Mr. America and Mr. Universe, hob-nobbed with Golden Era celebrities in Hollywood, toured the country as a pioneering fitness personality, and landed in Las Vegas to open a popular gym.
His incredible life story is told from his son’s perspective in the new book Mr. Everything, which Eiferman wrote with friend and longtime local educator Becky Davis. The singer, songwriter and guitar player originally got to work on a screenplay about his dad, encouraged by a chance meeting with a movie studio executive at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, then pivoted to the book while that project entered the developmental stage.
“I was at lunch with friends including Becky, who has written children’s books, and she was retiring from being a schoolteacher, and everybody at the table was like, you two are going to write this,” he says. “Then we got together every Monday for a year and just ate the elephant, one bite at a time. Couldn’t have done it without her.”
An inspiring story of an unlikely celebrity, a documentary of a complicated but loving father-son relationship, and a glimpse of another era of Las Vegas, Mr. Everything is available on Amazon and at everythingmreverything.com.
What inspired you to actually sit down and write this book?
Mr. Everything
My dad passed away 20-plus years ago but anytime I’m around, I might be at the gym wearing an Eiferman’s Gym T-shirt, and somebody will stop me and tell me a story about their time at the gym. Or how they met him a thousand years ago when he was dating Mae West, so many crazy, amazing stories. The ripples are interesting. And at the end of those conversations, they will always say, “This would make a great movie,” or, “Have you ever thought about writing a book?”
How did you decide which of those amazing stories to include?
The stuff he was famous for was inside this unique bubble. It wasn’t until [Arnold] Schwarzenegger that anyone elevated the bodybuilding world or capitalized on any kind of celebrity. My dad’s best friend was [actor and bodybuilder] Steve Reeves. There was this whole Hollywood scene at Muscle Beach [in Venice Beach, California] in the 1950s, and after he won Mr. America, he just kinda became this beach bum bodybuilder hanging out with these stars. The four big women in his life were Liz Taylor, Mae West, Debbie Reynolds and Marilyn Monroe.
But Becky really approached the book like a historian. She thought it was important to come at it with a point of view, that this needs to be a son sharing all these beautiful, funny, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes s**tty stories about his dad.
So he was running around with famous people well before coming to Las Vegas.
He didn’t get out here until 1958 and he opened the first 24-hour gym in the country on Boulder Highway near the old Showboat. Vegas wasn’t even close to Vegas as we know it. If there was a gym to be had, it was in somebody’s garage or in the basement of a casino. He saw an opportunity, and somebody recognized he was Mr. America and thought it would be cool to put his name on it. As soon as he opened, there was a flood of off-duty cops and firemen coming in at all hours, casino workers, mob guys.
So imagine me, this brat walking around, cleaning up, picking up towels, and my dad was very clear with me: “Do you know who that guy is?” I’d say no, and he’d say, “Neither do I. It could be a janitor, or a guy who owns the sandwich shop, or a mob boss.” The lesson was, treat everyone how you want to be treated, because my dad didn’t want his car to blow up because his sassy son said something to the wrong guy.
Did the gym change when he moved to Commercial Center?
That was where it got interesting. Sylvester Stallone came in to work out for the third Rocky film with Mr. T. There were a bunch of offseason athletes, like some of the Pittsburgh Steelers, that would come in to train. And we were right around the corner from the International [now Westgate], and that was during Elvis’ time. This is not really in the book, but they found out Mr. Universe was around the corner and called up George Eiferman to come get Elvis to work out. I got to meet him. He signed a red silk scarf for me.
Did that early exposure to the entertainment world set you on your path as a musician?
Oh yeah. My mom was an opera singer and there were a lot of musicals and operas from her side. Every lunch we ever had in the Commercial Deli growing up, there was some famous singer in there, somebody from the Rat Pack or Jerry Lewis or Ben Vereen or Debbie Reynolds, just eating a pastrami sandwich and hanging out. My parents put me in plays and musicals early on, so I caught the bug.
I think if I lived anywhere else, I wouldn’t have the career I’ve had. If I was in Nashville, I’d be a bartender. But growing up in the entertainment capital and being surrounded by all this, that’s how I got to this point. And I’m a little bit out to pasture with music right now, since I’ve been working on [other projects] and the book. … But I’ve been playing music for 40 years in this town and I still love doing it. Here, I’ve got a global audience in front of me every night. Vegas has been very good to me.
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