Macfadden, Bernarr (1868-1955) Revolutionary Magazine Publisher and internationally famous as The Father of Physical Culture. Nicknamed, Body Love Macfadden by Time Magazine, he was a flamboyant millionaire and a lifelong advocate of physical fitness, natural foods, outdoor exercise and the natural treatment of disease. Often considered a Kook in his own time, he was arrested on obscenity charges, hated by the medical establishment and a constant battler against ¿pill pushers,¿ processed foods and prudes. A very sickly child, born to an abusive alcoholic father and a frail mother, both who died before he was 11, Macfadden grew up shunted among family members and in an orphanage. When he overheard a relative say that he was so sickly he would probably die young, this made a huge impression on him. After several years of hard physical work on a farm, he became an office boy, but regretted that he did not have the physical exercise, and again grew sickly. He bought his first set of dumbbells and began a daily exercise routine that lasted throughout his life. His favorite of all exercises was walking, and he walked three to six miles a day for the rest of his life. Although only 5'6 and 145 pounds, he built up a huge upper body that made him seem larger than he was. The exercise routine also gave him a take-charge personality, self-confidence and mental strength and determination. As a teen he also began to work out at a gym, became a skilled gymnast, and learned wrestling from George Baptiste, a championship wrestler. In exhibition matches he beat heavyweights and developed a style of showmanship that would be a trademark throughout his life. At 19, he founded his first Physical Culture studio and came up with the motto he would use all his life Weakness is a crime, don't be a criminal. Because of his scant education, he traded work as a coach and trainer at a military school, for a chance to gain an education. Macfadden coached football and wrestling, promoted boxing and wrestling matches on the side, and began to develop his ideas on health, which included special diets, fasts, exercises, hydrotherapy and massage. While at the Chicago Worlds Fair he demonstrated exercise and became influenced by the great Sandow, who used lighting to help accent his poses. He also studied ancient sculpture that showed off the physique of the male body. He then wrote and sold his first book, the 800,000-word novel, The Athlete¿s Quest. In 1894, with $50 in his pocket he moved to New York, changed his name from Bernard McFadden to Bernarr Macfadden (it sounded like a stronger name), and quickly gained a clientele as a trainer and physical therapist. He also developed an exercise machine, wrestled in public bouts and began regularly writing pamphlets on health and physical training. For two years he traveled across Europe, teaching, lecturing and posing for bodybuilding shots. At this time he also began to loose his hair and eyesight, but through his own routine of care, died with a full head of hair and had 20/20 vision most of his life. After returning to New York in 1899, he went on a streak of almost superhuman productivity in which he founded ¿Physical Culture¿ clubs around the country, wrote twelve books, and started Physical Culture Magazine, that would run for the next 50 years! When he found it hard to get his work published he formed his own publishing company that within a few years was highly successful. Physical Culture, had a circulation of 100,000 copies a month in less than four years, and he also founded, Beauty and Health, for women. In both magazines he used photographs and drawings, often of himself and others in very scantily clad outfits. In 1904 he began to promote women¿s fitness, against the standards of the time, and campaigned against corsets, swimwear, high-heeled shoes, make up, hair preparations and any sort of clothing that constricted the body. He also began to promote physical culture competitions for both men and women. Among the early winners of such competitions was Charles Atlas, and almost all bodybuilders of the first half of the 20th Century were influenced by him. In 1905, self-appointed American smut exterminator, Anthony Comstock, sought legal action when Macfadden went to put on his second exhibition at Madison Square Garden. Comstock claimed it was a lewd display of carnality, but Macfadden was given a suspended sentence and the Madison Square Garden show was sold out. In 1906, he wrote a highly popular book, Muscular Power and Beauty in which he advocated the use of tension and resistance exercises that were later to be put into course form by his student, Charles Atlas. He founded the Bernarr Macfadden Institute in Chicago, in which he created the curriculum, wrote the books, and taught. The graduates became trainers, coaches, therapists and advocates of natural foods and medicine, many of whom became famous in their own right. He also opened a successful chain of restaurants to show that natural food was better than junk food. In 1907, he was arrested and convicted of running a story in Physical Culture that was considered obscene. The Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal, but after a national campaign, President Taft pardoned him, in 1909. An advocate of the theory that sex was naturally good, he seriously challenged the issue of free speech and broadened the countries view on sexual issues. The expense of his battles against the government almost ruined him and his books and pamphlets were banned from the U. S. mails. One of his main issues was for education about venereal diseases, and how to combat them, a topic the country preferred to not think about. In 1911 he published the first edition of this monumental, Macfadden¿s Encyclopedia of Physical Culture, but his legal problems destroyed almost all that he acquired and he was forced to sell everything and to put his publishing company into a trust. He left for England and immediately promoted a contest to select ¿the most perfect specimen of English womanhood.¿ She was 19-year-old Mary Williamson, who the 45-year-old Macfadden married. Together they toured Europe as the ¿world¿s healthiest man and woman.¿ In 1915, they returned to the U.S., a popular couple. By 1925 the couple had 9 children, one of whom died in infancy, and he immediately moved the family into the business of physical culture. In later years, Mary, then his ex-wife would write that he was authoritarian to she and the children, and that they had grown up unhappy touring the country. In 1915, he had returned to publishing and over the years had been deluged by people writing him of their own stories. In 1919, he adapted these tales, including romance, love and heartache into the magazine, True Stories. The concept of real people writing the stories went over well and by 1923, it had become the most popular magazine on the newsstand: two years later its circulation was an incredible 2 million! True Story was followed by numerous other pulp magazines including, True Romances, Dream World, True Ghost Stories, Midnight, Dance, Photoplay, Master Detective, etc. He also founded the tabloid newspaper, The New York Evening Graphic (dubbed the Evening Pornographic) that employed Walter Winchell, Ed Sullivan, and the like, but that eventually cost him a large sum in losses. These made him the most successful American publisher with his success attributed to the fact that he showed people as they were and wrote stories about issues the common reader was interested in. An expert at hiring the right people, most notably he employed Fulton Oursler, who was more highbrow, but was one of Macfadden¿s closest friends. Oursler went on to head Reader¿s Digest, Liberty etc. Another important employee was John Coryell, who had written numerous articles and became the creator of the Nick Carter series. Many well-known celebrities wrote for him and he was close to people such as Upton Sinclair. In the 1920 and 1930s he bought and ran sanitariums, schools and the like and also indulged in his lifelong passion for women that would lead to his divorce. He also became interested in politics and the celebrity world and donated large sums of money to various causes. He especially liked FDR, and Eleanor wrote for his magazines. His partners, who resented that he used the corporation¿s money to finance his forays, eventually sued him. Macfadden worked under the belief that it was his corporation, and he could use the money as he liked. In 1941, he was forced to turn over the leadership. He also thought that he had a place in politics and ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of New York, Governor of Florida, and President of the U.S. In the years that followed he was still involved in some aspects of publishing, but was never again a success. He was also unsuccessful in the major folly of trying to start his own religion, known as ¿Cosmotarianism.¿ One of the most interesting men of the American 20th Century, many of his ideas have been vindicated by modern health and exercise movements. V. Signature

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