Atlas, Charles

1894–1972

Bodybuilder

As early-twentieth-century industrialization brought more women into areas that were traditionally male, men began to depend on physical development to maintain a sense of power and manliness. Mechanized production, decreases in the need for skilled labor, and the mass influx of immigrants all challenged traditional notions of masculinity. During this period, the bodybuilder Charles Atlas preached that the road to economic and social success began with physical improvement. Atlas's popular fitness and health program offered a way for millions of young men in factory and office jobs to achieve this new masculinity through exercise.

Born Angelo Siciliano in Acri, Italy, Atlas immigrated to the United States in 1904 with his mother after his parents separated. A physically weak young boy, Angelo worked in a women's pocketbook factory and was prone to sickness. After enduring taunts and regular beatings by Brooklyn neighborhood bullies, he decided to transform his physique and developed an idea for isometric exercises that he would later trademark as Dynamic Tension. Through a regular workout routine he was able to sculpt his body into the award-winning shape that became his ticket to achieving the American dream.

Atlas adopted his new name after spotting a poster of the Greek god Atlas holding the world, and he went on to win the World's Most Beautiful Man contest in 1921. He then won a national muscle building contest the next two years in a row, earning him the title of World's Most Perfectly Developed Man. At 5′ 10″, 180 pounds, with a 47-inch chest, his physical measurements were judged by experts to be masculine perfection. Atlas modeled for artists, and parts of his body have been reproduced for more than seventy-five statues around the world.

In 1927, Atlas published his total fitness and health program and created a correspondence course that promised to help other “weaklings” transform their bodies. Ads were placed in boy's magazines and comic books with headlines such as “Are You a Red-blooded Man?” and “Yes! I turn Weaklings into He-Men, “ suggesting that young boys could become self-dependent, powerful, and attractive to women just like their favorite superheroes.

It was also in 1927 that Atlas built his first gymnasium, in New York, and in 1929 he teamed up with marketing whiz Charles Roman to form Charles Atlas, Ltd. Together they attracted thousands of customers by suggesting that physical stamina would help men compete successfully in the harsh and strenuous conditions of industrial society. Program materials, which were translated into seven languages and Braille, used effective advertising techniques, including cartoons, to promote the company. Atlas also performed amazing public feats: he pulled a 731.5-ton railroad car and towed six linked automobiles for a mile. By the 1950s, his company had [Page 42]recruited nearly a million pupils all over the world, including Gandhi, Joe DiMaggio, Rocky Marciano, and Robert Ripley.

By promoting self-discipline and a health-conscious routine, Atlas symbolized the ideal masculine physique and inspired other men to achieve the same results. He preached that physical transformation alone, without intellectual or emotional development, was enough to achieve success as a man, presenting himself as living proof that through hard work and self-discipline the average man could become superior if he developed his body's potential.

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