The freaky father of fitness.

• Author: Doherty, Brian
• Position: Briefly Noted - Bernarr Macfadden - Brief article

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He parachuted over the Seine on his 84th birthday; he nearly won a Senate seat in Florida in 1940; he had an obscenity conviction commuted by President Taft; and had the Federal Trade Commission order him to stop selling his book promoting hair growth through hair pulling. He was Bernarr Macfadden, and he has a fair claim to being the father of the modern manias for health food and bodybuilding--and also for gritty tabloid journalism and reality TV.

In Mark Adams' Mr. America: How Muscular Millionaire Bernarr Macfadden Transformed the Nation Through Sex, Salad, and the Ultimate Starvation Diet (Harper), the largely...