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Angelo
Sicilano
was not what most people would consider a physically
beautiful person. He was a skinny Italian immigrant
who was pushed around by other boys - a veritable 97-pound
weakling.
One day he decided to change his life and
transformed himself into Charles Atlas.
One
day while at Coney Island, New York, accompanied by
a young lady, Angelo was accosted by a bully who literally
kicked sand in his face. A few days later the humiliated
Sicilano found solitude in watching the animals at the
local zoo. He curiously watched the lions as they stretched
and noticed that as they stretched, their muscles bulged
and rippled. After thinking for a while he surmised
that imitating the lions motions might help him add
muscle and strength to his own body. After developing
a series of exercises, Sicilano was walking around Coney
Island again and saw a statue of Atlas, the Greek god.
He decided to take on a new name to match his new body
and became Charles Atlas.
 Atlas'
strengthening methods were based upon the concept of
pitting one muscle against another or against an inanimate
object. What he observed with the lions was them performing
isometric exercises and he decided to label his methods
dynamic tension - this would soon make him famous.
In
1922 Atlas entered a competition at Madison Square Garden
and was awarded the title "World's Most Perfectly
Developed Man." He soon found himself in demand
as a model for artists and sculptors. So popular was
he that his physique was depicted in statues of George
Washington in New York's Washington Square, Alexander
Hamilton in front of the United States Treasury Building
in Washington, D.C. and the Archer in the Brooklyn Museum
as well as more than 75 others around the world. After
fielding question after question about how he revamped
his body, Atlas decided to market his techniques to
others. He teamed up with another young entrepreneur
named Charles Roman and the two soon found a pot of
gold. They came up with a marketing campaign revolving
around a character named Mac (who, not surprisingly,
was based on Atlas.)  After a bully kicks sand in Mac's
face, Mac swears revenge, purchases the Charles Atlas
program kit, becomes muscle-bound and defeats his adversary.
Over
the next fifty years, Atlas and Roman would sell millions
of units of the course, receiving positive responses
from clients and the medical and health and fitness
communities. Atlas continued to appear and perform for
the public, demonstrating feats of strength well into
his sixties (including one stunt in which he pulled
a 145,000 pound railroad car more than 120 feet with
a rope. He taught students around the world including
Joe DiMaggio, Rocky Marciano and Robert Ripley and impacted
the health of generations to come. Atlas died in 1972
at the age of 79 and is still considered "the World's
Most Perfectly Developed Man." |
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