Charles Atlas

Charles Atlas (October 30, 1892 – December 23, 1972) was the owner and figurehead of a bodybuilding method and its associated exercise program; he is most well-known for a landmark advertising campaign featuring his name and likeness, which has been described as one of the most lasting and memorable ad campaigns of all time. According to his description, he trained himself to develop his body from that of a "scrawny weakling", eventually becoming the most popular muscleman of his day. His company, Charles Atlas Ltd., was founded in 1929 and as of 2004 continues marketing a fitness program for the "97-pound weakling", it is now owned by Jeffrey C. Hogue.

History

Born Angelo Siciliano (also called Angelino) in Acri, in Calabria, Italy, 1892 he moved to Brooklyn, New York, in 1905, took the name Charles, and became a leatherworker. Said by some to have been a small, weak child, Angelino by his own admission was not undersized when he started training. Siciliano worked hard to develop his physique, he tried many forms of exercise initially, using weights, pulley-style resistance and gymnastic style calisthenics. Atlas was inspired by other fitness and health advocates who preceded him. World-renowned strongman Eugene Sandow and creator of "Physical Culture" Bernarr Macfadden set the stage for Atlas. After being bullied as a child Charles Atlas joined the YMCA and began to do numerous exercise routines. He became obsessed with strength. One day he watched a tiger stretching in the zoo and asked himself, "How does Mr. Tiger keep in physical condition? Did you ever see a tiger with a barbell?" He concluded that lions and tigers became strong by pitting muscle against muscle. He took the name "Charles Atlas" after a friend told him he resembled the statue of Atlas on top of a hotel in Coney Island, New York, legally changing his name in 1922. (He later filed for and received trademark status for the name.)

In 1921, Bernarr Macfadden, the publisher of the magazine Physical Culture dubbed him "The World's Most Perfectly Developed Man" in a contest held in Madison Square Garden. He was chosen by a cross-disciplined group of health and medical experts, educators, anthropologists, scientists and medical doctors who viewed Atlas as the "perfect male body" and placed his physical measurements on file for posterity. Atlas's physical measurements are buried in the Crypt of Civilization, a time capsule at Oglethorpe University. He soon took the role of strongman in the Coney Island Circus Side Show.

His system was later dubbed "Dynamic-Tension" and turned him into a 180-pound man who was able to pull a 72-ton locomotive 112 feet along the tracks. There is a misconception that Charles Atlas used weights to gain his build. Charles Atlas used his own system of Dynamic-Tension to build his body after he tried other systems of exercise and found they did not work for him. Atlas began advertising his program in comic books. Atlas's "Dynamic-Tension" program consists of 12 lessons and one final perpetual lesson. His ad became iconic, presenting a scenario in which a boy is threatened on the beach by a sand-kicking bully while his date watches. Humiliated, he goes home and, after kicking a chair and gambling a ten-cent stamp, subscribes to Atlas's "Dynamic-Tension" program. Later, the boy, now muscular, goes to the beach again and beats up the bully, becoming the "hero of the beach". Girls marvel at how big his muscles are, and the ad is called "The Insult that Made a Man out of Mac".

The name "Dynamic-Tension" was coined by Mr. Charles P. Roman of Charles Atlas, Ltd. The Charles Atlas course "Dynamic-Tension" launched a major advertising campaigned aimed at young men between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five. His advertisements proclaimed the effectiveness of his program of turning "you into a new man." His most noticeable advertisement was the "Mac" advertisement in which Mac is transformed from a "scrawny boy" into Atlas's "muscular man." The "Mac" advertisement has been characterized as one of the single greatest advertisements of all time and launched Atlas into notoriety throughout the United States. "As is true of all the exercises in Atlas's course, you can do these exercises almost anywhere."

Likenesses

Charles Atlas's popularity grew throughout the 20th century. Atlas used his personal story as a marketing tool and had a strong following around the United States. His promises and personal anecdotes convinced the American people to follow his program. His " System of Health, Strength, and Physique Building" includes twelve lessons and one final "perpetual lesson". Each lesson is supplemented with photos of Atlas demonstrating the exercises. Beyond the physical aspect of his regiment his rhetoric and personal touch improved his likeness even more. He would add commentary that referred to the readers as his friends and gave them an open invitation to write him letters to update Atlas on their progress and stories. His products and lessons have sold millions and Atlas became the face of fitness.

Besides photographs, Atlas posed for many statues throughout his life, including, it has been said, the statue of George Washington in New York's Washington Square Park. Atlas was also an inspiration and a model for more recent body builders and fitness gurus including the current Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Atlas died of heart failure at age 80 after his daily jog on the beach (it should be noted that his family had a history of heart attacks). At the time, people were still writing to him.

Cultural References

• The song "Charles Atlas Song/I Can Make You a Man" from the rock and roll musical The Rocky Horror Show includes multiple references:
  • The title line exploits the grammatical ambiguity of Atlas's slogan "In just seven days, I can make you a man", between the meanings "... cause you to become a 'real' man" and "... create a man for you".
  • It mentions Charles Atlas and "Dynamic-Tension" by name.
  • It refers to a 98-pound weakling, a device that did not infringe Atlas's trademark on the phrase "97-pound weakling".
  • The mad-scientist character furthermore claims that his Frankensteinian creation "carries the Charles Atlas Seal of Approval".
• The song "I Can See For Miles" by The Who (on the album The Who Sell Out) is followed by a "commercial" for the Charles Atlas Course ("The Charles Atlas course with "Dynamic Tension" can turn you into a beast of a man.")
• The song "Mr Apollo" by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band on the album Tadpoles parodies Charles Atlas' advertising, with lead-singer/writer Vivian Stanshall affecting a gruff butch voice. The song involves members of the band singing the praises of fictional bodybuilder Mr Apollo, while Stanshall alternately sings and offers no-nonsense motivational advice, such as "no tiresome exercises / no tricks / no unpleasant bending / wrestle poodles and win!"
• The song "Sand In My Face" by 10cc, on their debut album, is a detailed description of Atlas' legendary ads.
• The song "I Will Not Fall" By Wiretrain/Wire quote is; "And Charles Atlas Stands, upon the beach, upon his head and says....I will not fall"
• The band A.F.I. have a song called "Charles Atlas" on their album "Very Proud Of Ya".
• The 1990 film Book of Love has Tom Platz playing a Charles Atlas-like character.
• Australian band The Fauves had a minor local hit with their song "The Charles Atlas Way".
• In the 1966 postmodern Canadian novel Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen, Charles Atlas is parodied as "Charles Axis"
• In Grant Morrison's run on the comic book series Doom Patrol, the character Flex Mentallo is the creation come to life of a little boy who wrote his own comic book based on the iconic "Insult that Made a Man out of Mac" advertisement.
• The novel Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut mentions Charles Atlas. When the narrator comes across the term 'Dynamic Tension' in a book about the mysterious cult leader Bokonon, he laughs because he imagines the author does not know "that the term was one vulgrised by Charles Atlas, a mail-order muscle-builder." However, as he reads on he finds that Bokonon is an alumnus of Atlas' training program, which has inspired his idea that "good societies could be built only by pitting good against evil, and by keeping the tension between the two high at all times".

See also

• Dynamic Tension

External links

• CharlesAtlas.com
• Sandow Plus
• Charles Atlas at Find-A-Grave