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MCFADDEN

                                             October 17, 2008

                                                MEN_OF_TOMORROW

    One of the virtues of Gerard Jones'
    "Men of Tomorrow" (2004), is the corners
    of history it digs into (page 53, hardback):

    "... [McFadden] moved to New York in the 1890s to
    found the first of his "physical culture"
    clubs. ... He grew his hair long like Heracles'
    and appeared in public in a leopard-skin
    loin-cloth over his flesh-colored tights.  In 1899
    he launched _Physical Culture_ magazine to promote
    his plan of diet, weight lifiting, and rational
    living, and when no established distributor would
    gamble on it, he used his network of physical
    culture clubs and sanitariums to build a
    distribution system of his own.  Soon he was
    penetrating drug stores, cigar stores, and other
    small magazine venues in citites across America."


    "In the name of honesty and health McFadden defied
    the decorum of his day.  He was convinced on an
    obscenity charge for a frank discussion of
    venereal disease in _Physical Culture_, then
    pardoned by President Taft himself.  He was
    harassed by police and churches for the pageants
    he organized to show off the bodies of his
    disciples in swimsuits and tights."



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