Charles Atlas - "World's Most Perfectly Developed Man"
Charles Atlas was born Angelo Charles Siciliano in 1893 in Italy. He was a skinny ten year old boy when he arrived at Ellis Island in New York in 1903. Charles was often the target of bullies and was seen as a 97 pound weakling.
By the time Charles was a teenager he began working on his body with weight and fitness training. Charles has reported being inspired to attain physical perfection after seeing a statue of Hercules at the Brooklyn Museum. He began entering fitness competitions and in 1922 he won the "Most Perfectly Developed Man" contest at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was at that time that he changed his name to Charles Atlas. After he won this competition two years in a row, future competitions were immediately cancelled as the sponsor figured no one could ever compete with Charles Atlas. His measurements were taken and kept on file as the perfect human specimen.
In 1924, Charles published his total fitness and health course. In 1928 he met Charles Roman, an advertising executive and together they founded Charles Atlas Ltd. They developed a now famous ad campaign that featured a skinny boy getting sand kicked in his face. These ads promoted Charles Atlas fitness programs and became world famous.
From that point on and through the 1960's Charles appeared in countless magazines, newspapers and television shows. His world famous "Dynamic-Tension" was used by millions to improve themselves and was even endorsed by the American Medical Association.
Charles Atlas died in 1972, at the age of 79 and will always be remembered as the "World's Most Perfectly Developed Man".