The ego that fed fitness fever
DC
"MR. AMERICA - How Muscular Millionaire Bernarr Macfadden
Transformed the Nation Through Sex, Salad, and the Ultimate
Starvation Diet" by Mark Adams (Amazon.com:
http://xrl.us/MrAmer1 )
He proposed to his third wife in the middle of a 20-mile
hike, and when she accepted, he celebrated by standing on
his head and asking his betrothed to time him. (Official
tally: 1 minute, 4 seconds.) He then required her to swear
off caffeine and doctors, and he threw away the pajamas she
gave him on their wedding night because they would keep him
from propagating "a new race of human beings."
Welcome to the fine and not-so-fine madness of Bernarr
Macfadden: bodybuilder, health evangelist, tabloid king,
smut merchant, redbaiter, millionaire, aspiring president.
And, for all his contradictions, a figure so intensely
American that the title of Mark Adams's hilarious biography
seems almost like underkill...
Continued: http://xrl.us/MrAmer2