Nutty Bernarr Macfadden, also known as "Body Love Macfadden" here attempts to deal with a problem in one of his magazines, True Romances. It looks like some swindler was sending in true stories cribbed from OTHER true stories and Big Bernie didn't like it. Does Bernarr look like a fellow to fool with?
"Bernarr the Virile" is shown here modestly posing like Michelangelo's David. Macfadden was so strange it would take a book. In fact, there have been some!
First, he invented physical culture. I know, outside of second floor gyms where men toss medicine balls back and forth in posing straps, that term isn't too often heard anymore. It was a big deal though. Bernie was a big fan of fasting. A good portion of physical culture used to consist of fasting before posing, so your muscles would appear more prominent before they started to wither away from lack of nutrition.
Second, he tried to form a religion to be known as "Cosmotarianism" That my spell checker refuses to accept it should tell you how successful it was.
In publishing, however? He was a bigger than Spielberg. Bigger than Jay-Z. Bigger than God. A partial list: Photoplay, Liberty, True Detective, True Story and legendary piece of crap The New York Graphic. The Graphic was the first real cruddy tabloid to abandon all pretense of journalism (thus setting the high standards of today) and launched the career of stilted gossip mogul and no talent powerhouse Ed Sullivan (who gave us kiddies THE BEAT....ULS)
Crazy Bernarr also wrote books. Over a HUNDRED of them. A brief sample:
Virile Powers of Superb Manhood (never far from MY nightstand)
Marriage: a Lifelong Honeymoon
Physical Culture for Babies
Be Married and Like it.
Since 1900, Mcfadden Publications has gone through many hands and many changes. However, they still publish some notable titles! One, Pizza Today (no kidding) is a trade journal written for chains who hope to eliminate every mom and pop pie maker from the universe...and American Cheerleader!
"Be Married and Like It" sounds like a shotgun wedding.
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