The Very Strong Man
Eugenie Gershoy's humorous artwork spotlights the 1893 birth of Charles Atlas, or Angelo Siciliano, as he was known in his native Italy.
He arrived in the United States in 1904 with his mother. Believe it or not, as he grew up in Brooklyn, he was a skinny and sickly child! That was an inauspicious beginning for a bodybuilder who would be dubbed the "most perfectly developed man" in 1922. In his commitment to fitness, he developed a program of isometric exercises and sold lessons by subscription. Thus, he became a trailblazer in the profitable physical fitness business and a household name.
Pictured: Eugenie Gershoy, 1901 Russia–1986 USA, The Very Strong Man, 1936–1940, polychromed dextrine, 23 x 13 7/8 x 9 5/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Erwin P. Vollmer.
Eugenie Gershoy's humorous artwork spotlights the 1893 birth of Charles Atlas, or Angelo Siciliano, as he was known in his native Italy.
He arrived in the United States in 1904 with his mother. Believe it or not, as he grew up in Brooklyn, he was a skinny and sickly child! That was an inauspicious beginning for a bodybuilder who would be dubbed the "most perfectly developed man" in 1922. In his commitment to fitness, he developed a program of isometric exercises and sold lessons by subscription. Thus, he became a trailblazer in the profitable physical fitness business and a household name.