Atlas, Charles

Atlas, Charles Charles Atlas was the assumed name of Angelo Siciliano (1893–1972), an Italian born in Acri who emigrated to the US with his parents when he was 10 years old. Somewhat small and underdeveloped as a young man, a 97-lb weakling' according to later publicity, he decided to take up body-building and in 1922 won a national contest as ‘America's most perfectly developed man’.

Capitalizing on his fame as a strong-man, Atlas produced and marketed, with his business partner Charles Roman, an advertising man, a correspondence course for body-building. He publicized the course in a variety of popular press outlets: comic books were particularly well used. He made frequent reference to his own history, describing the now famous story of having sand kicked in his face on a beach at Coney Island by a life-guard, who then stole his girlfriend. This experience determined him to build up his strength and physique. To do so, he perfected his own methods of ‘dynamic tension’ — ‘secret’ exercises that would naturally enhance muscle development and tone. The method used no apparatus or equipment. In addition to these series of isotonic exercises he offered nutritional advice. In his advertising techniques and claims he was following a long tradition of quacks and charlatans, from fairground to the tabloid press, claiming secret knowledge that could lead to an enhanced life, knowledge that could be bought for ready money. There was also a homo-erotic edge to some of his publicity, all those who enrolled in his course being offered ‘beautiful photographs of myself in statuary poses’.

E. M. Tansey

See also body building; exercise; isometrics; isotonics.