"Live Clean, Think Clean, and Don't Go to Burlesque Shows": Charles Atlas as Health Advisor

Toon, Elizabeth

doi:10.1093/jhmas/57.1.39

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…At a time when unemployment was rising, and continued to rise for many years, sport and physical culture became an important means of self-fashioning, of gaining control in uncertain times and, as examined by Michael Kimmel (1996) in a different era, of returning to masculine archetypes defined by physical strength or power. The most successful fitness entrepreneur of the 1930s, Charles Atlas, echoed Liederman's advertisements from the 1920s in explicitly targeting fragile masculine tropes, especially among the middle-class (Toon & Golden, 2002). This, as Atlas's business partner Charles Roman later attested, was in direct response to the Great Depression.…”

Section: Building Husky Menmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Charles Atlas was another successful entrepreneur from this time who explicitly cultivated a male following. Previous work on Atlas, such as that conducted by Elizabeth Toon, and Janet Lynne Golden (2002), has noted Atlas and his business partner, Charles Romans' efforts to link strength and muscularity to one's success in marriage, business and life. It is arguable that Atlas proved the most adept in targeting young men.…”

Section: Rejecting the Husky Body? Dissent And Different Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Accordingly, advertisements for Atlas' courses appeared in comic books, physical culture magazines and general interest periodicals. His most famous advertisement entitled, "The Insult which made a man out of Mac", showed a young man who, bullied in front of his girlfriend at a local beach, transformed himself through Atlas' system, returned to the beach and defeated his tormenter (Toon & Golden, 2002). The comic strip ended with Mac's foe struggling in the sand while Mac left with his girlfriend.…”

Section: Rejecting the Husky Body? Dissent And Different Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Building husky men: Strenuous masculinity in post-depression America

Heffernan

2021

European Journal of American Culture

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Examining American fitness entrepreneurs from the 1930s, this article examines efforts to reform young, and white, masculine identities through new bodybuilding systems. Centred on Mark Berry, Bob Hoffman and Charles Atlas, three of the decade’s most successful entrepreneurs, the article examines the communities, methods and discourses used to attract customers and create a highly specified form of self-fashioning. In doing so, the article highlights the masculine communities and multiplicities of masculinities operating during this decade for American weight trainers. Importantly all three entrepreneurs focused on a very specific kind of American body, and stemming from this, American masculinity. For Berry, ‘husky’ men came to represent men of physical, moral and mental standing. The ability to withstand pain in exercise, to engage in strenuous activity and gain bodyweight was presented as a metric of one’s success in the world. Likewise, Bob Hoffman focused on the ‘weight lifter’, said to be an ambitious young man capable of succeeding in multiple terrains. Finally, there was Charles Atlas, who made ‘he men’ using his system of dynamic tension. In highlighting the lengths young, white, often affluent, American men went to in order to achieve these identities, the article contributes to the growing interest in American masculinities and the fitness systems they used during times of considerable upheaval.

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Section: Building Husky Menmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rejecting the Husky Body? Dissent And Different Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rejecting the Husky Body? Dissent And Different Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Building husky men: Strenuous masculinity in post-depression America

Heffernan

2021

European Journal of American Culture

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“…El Sistema de Tensión Dinámica (también llamado Sistema Atlas) reunía, a modo de los clásicos consejeros de salud, las prescripciones higienistas del siglo XIX y los consejos de salud del siglo XX, donde se cruzaron pericia médica y prácticas populares en materia de salud (Toon y Golden, 2002). Su famoso método comienza a gestarse en la década de 1920 vinculando dos tradiciones: el exhibicionismo muscular de los circos y ferias, y la educación física y el fitness.…”

Section: ) Cultura Física Y Sensibilidades Masculinas En Los '40: Alunclassified

“…Hacia fines de los 20 y en un contexto de escaso éxito, creó la publicidad y el sistema de envío por correo y le puso el nombre de "Tensión Dinámica" con su compañero Charles P. Roman. Algunos investigadores sostienen que la audiencia de estos consejos (teniendo en cuenta quiénes le escribían) estaba compuesta por muchachos jóvenes (Toon y Golden, 2002).…”

Section: ) Cultura Física Y Sensibilidades Masculinas En Los '40: Alunclassified