| | For the Non-Fiction Five reading challenge I read the excellent biography Weakness is a Crime: The Life of Bernarr Macfadden by Robert Ernst. Like P.T. Barnum, publishing mogul Bernarr Macfadden (1868 - 1955) was a quintessential American showman. His father died young of drinking, his mother couldn’t be bothered with him, and the relatives abused and exploited him as a dogsbody.
His wounded but not broken spirit drove him to develop his own physical fitness. It also drove him to promote the cause of physical culture and social betterment. His magazines extolled the virtues of exercise and the evils of quackery and prudery.
The magazines tapped into the American spirit of self-improvement. At his most influential and popular in the 1920s , Macfadden published magazine powerhouses such as Liberty, True Romance and Physical Culture, along with 20 other hobby and specialty pubs, with a combined circulation of 16 million a month. He was right about diet, exercise, positive attitude, comfortable shoes and clothes. He should be credited with innovations in advertising and publishing, especially of pulp magazines and tabloid newspapers. However, he had an unrelenting distrust of doctors and the AMA. His first son died because Macfadden refused to summon medical help.He was half-baked at best about fasting as a cure for serious diseases (he died because he treated a urinary infection with a three-day fast).
Like a lot of genius types, he simply wasn't a normal person. His managerial style was slapdash. He saved money by burying it in ammunition boxes. His infidelity made him a bad husband. His despotism made him tyrannize his five unhappy daughters. While reading this biography, one thinks Macfadden would mellow by his early 80s, only to find him celebrating his birthday parachuting (see newsreel video: gawd, I love the web!).
Ernst has organized the bio by topic, not chronologically, and tells plenty of entertaining anecdotes. this is for those interested in the history of fitness, fads and faddists, and American pop culture
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| | Posted 7/8/2009 8:04 AM - 5 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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