LOS ANGELES — Bill Howard says he’s no 98-pound weakling sitting on the beach, waiting for a he-man to kick sand in his face. Joe Wheatley says he’s no biceps-bulging bully trying to muscle in on someone else’s place in the sun.

That’s the short version of the arm-wrestling drama taking place between a veteran weightlifting champion and a younger promoter as this year’s bodybuilding season nears at Venice’s Muscle Beach.

After more than four decades of staging summertime muscleman contests at the famed tourist attraction, the 73-year-old Mr. Howard has been banned from the weightlifting platform that stands beneath Muscle Beach’s symbolic oversize concrete barbells.

Los Angeles parks officials advised Mr. Howard that the city “has decided to change direction with regard to future bodybuilding events” at the Venice Beach boardwalk.

“You will no longer be asked to narrate the History of Muscle Beach at the show. The Bill Howard Award will no longer be given at the shows. The Medallion Ceremony will be completed by a representative from Recreation and Parks” and not by Mr. Howard, parks authorities advised him in writing in mid-March.

Mr. Howard was told he could attend the show “as a member of the public” but no longer would be allowed backstage or in participants’ or VIP areas.

His sudden ouster has roiled Muscle Beach, where Mr. Howard began pumping iron in the 1950s. He is credited with helping revive the beachside bodybuilding scene after lifters were kicked off Santa Monica’s original Muscle Beach.

“I’ve given my entire life to Muscle Beach Venice and they’re kicking me out the door,” Mr. Howard, who still works as a personal trainer, said. He vows he is not about to go down without a fight. “I’m in competition shape,” he said. “I’m going to be 74 and I’m damned proud of how I look. I live the Muscle Beach philosophy. The sanctions against me are vindictiveness.”

Mr. Howard stepped aside as the shows’ promoter and master of ceremonies in 2003 while recovering from throat cancer. That’s when Mr. Wheatley took over promotional duties. Since then, Mr. Wheatley’s backers say, he has expanded the shows’ scope, drawing more sponsors and participants. Mr. Wheatley created an award in Mr. Howard’s name to give to the show’s top male and female competitors and oversaw Mr. Howard’s induction into the Muscle Beach Hall of Fame in 2005.

Mr. Wheatley, 52, said that as Venice’s Muscle Beach grew, Mr. Howard simply wouldn’t change with the times. “I’ve said over and over that without Bill Howard, we wouldn’t be here today,” Mr. Wheatley said. “But it comes a time for everyone to step aside. The program is bigger than Bill. It’s evolved.”

But Mr. Wheatley also blamed “ego and narcissism” on Mr. Howard’s part.