Long before there were personal trainers, gyms, and Pilates studios, there was the Charles Atlas Course. Begun in the 1920s, it was among the first modern mail-order businesses in the United States.
Who hasn’t seen the advertisement about the 97-pound weakling, getting sand kicked in his face? It still lives in publications like Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, and comic books, with Internet advertising a more recent addition. Today, requests come in to Charles Atlas, Ltd. from countries all over the world.
The man we know as Charles Atlas was born in Italy in 1892 as Angelo Siciliano. He immigrated to the United States with his family when he was 11, speaking no English. There is truth in the “97-pound weakling†ad for Siciliano himself was humiliated at Coney Island as a teenager and vowed it would never happen again. Exercises with homemade barbells didn’t satisfy him. On a visit to the Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn, he watched a muscular lion pacing. From his observations, he came up with his own exercises, pitting one set of muscles against another, an innovative idea for its day. He was 17.
By 19, he was supporting himself by modeling his new and admirable physique for noted sculptors in New York City and performing feats of strength in vaudeville and circuses. Friends began to playfully call him “Atlas†and in 1922, he changed his name legally.
In 1921, and again in 1922, he was the winner of the “World’s Most Perfectly Developed Man†contest. He used his prize money to begin a mail-order business selling the fitness course he created. No equipment was required and the exercises were easily-understood, with photos of Atlas demonstrating each one. Also, there were tips on personal grooming, nutrition, manners, and moral values, aimed at improving both physical health and social skills.
Atlas was amiable and good-natured but not a businessman, so he hired the Benjamin Landsman ad agency to improve sales. When young Charles Roman joined the agency in 1928, he was assigned the Atlas account.
Atlas and Roman became friends and Atlas offered him a partnership if he would take over the marketing. Atlas would be the visible icon and spokesman. On February 14, 1929, the business was incorporated. Atlas bent steel rods and pulled railroad engines. Roman coined the term “Dynamic-Tension†to describe the exercises and wrote the famous “sand in the face†ad and many others, equally successful.
In 1970, Atlas sold his half to Roman and retired. (Charles Atlas died in 1972.) Roman headed the company until 1997 when he sold it to Jeffrey C. Hogue. Hogue was a “graduate†of the Atlas course, ordered when he was a teenager at a Tennessee military school. It was a never-forgotten experience. He inquired whether the company was for sale and Roman (then 90) agreed to meet him. Over lunch in New York City, Roman set a price and Hogue said yes, without haggling. Roman said he agreed to sell because Hogue understood the value of the company.
February 2009 marks the 80th anniversary of Charles Atlas, Ltd. Sales are still up for this unique fitness program. As ever, it offers not just exercises but encouragement and guidance. For individuals with few resources, struggling to break free, move up to a better place…it is a lifeline. The exercises are isotonic, isokinetic, and isometric, and Charles Atlas photos still grace the pages. An estimated 30 million courses have been sold, many to famous names you would easily recognize now but wouldn’t have when they paid their money and began their road to better fitness and often a better life.
