Physcultopathist

THE TRUE STORY OF BERNARR MACFADDEN--Fulton Oursler--Lewis Copeland ($2.50).

BERNARR MACFADDEN, A STUDY IN SUCCESS--Clement Wood--Lewis Copeland ($3).

CHATS WITH THE MACFADDEN FAMILY --Grace Perkins--Lewis Copeland ($2.50).

Bernarr Macfadden, publisher, editor, physical culturist extraordinary, is to many in the U. S. a hissing and a byword; to many more he is a hero-prophet. Behold three books, issued by the same publisher on the same day, dedicated to him and his works. These books tell a good deal about Publisher-Editor-Physical Culturist Bernarr ("Body Love") Macfadden.

Facts. His father was a drunkard, his mother a consumptive. But he was a rugged babe when born near Mill Springs, Mo., in 1868. Delirium tremens and Death. as they must to all such drinkers, soon came to his father; his mother sent him away to relatives. When soon after, she died also, the boy overheard the reason, heard that he too was probably marked as a victim. He determined to cheat untimely death by making himself strong. In St. Louis, in the midst of struggles to earn his living, he joined a gymnasium. Soon his muscles began to bulge. He became an adept gymnast, an expert Greco-Roman wrestler. He entered the lightweight national tournament, won it; challenged Chicago's welterweight champion, flattened him in four minutes; challenged Chicago's Heavyweight Champion Frank Whitmore, downed him in 91 minutes. After unsuccessful tries as acrobat and laundryman, Macfadden announced himself as a "kinistherapist, teacher of higher physical culture." He wrote a novel, The Athlete's Conquest, was shocked to learn that it was "poorly expressed, crude and ungrammatical." (He afterwards published it, revised, in his Physical Culture Magazine.)

He went to Manhattan with $50 in his pocket, set up a physical culture studio, invented a mechanical exerciser. With his profits he started Physical Culture Magazine. His first marriage turned out badly, but left him with a daughter, Helen. His Manhattan office was raided by the late great Anthony Comstock, but nothing came of it. He founded Physical Culture City at Helmetta, N. J., as a health resort and a base for his publishing campaigns; but before things were properly under way he was arrested, charged with sending lewd & obscene matter through the mails. The offending mote was Wild Oats, a serial dime-novel of syphilis, appearing in Physical Culture. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, $2,000 fine. After he vainly appealed the case to the U. S. Supreme Court. Attorney General Wickersham remitted the prison sentence, but not the fine.

In 1912, on a visit to England, Macfadden organized a prize contest for the "most perfect specimen of English womanhood." He married the winner, Yorkshirewoman Mary Williamson, champion swimmer and runner. On their honeymoon in France, Macfadden conceived the idea of True Story Magazine, in which all the stories were to be anonymous real confessions, picked by a board of amateur readers; the editor's only function would be to see that the magazine appeared on time. True Story proved to be such a tremendous success (present circulation: 2,167,051) that Macfadden soon started others along similar lines. In 1924 he bought the New York Evening Mail and started his famed Evening Graphic, pink daily tabloid devoted to things physical. Today Millionaire Macfadden owns eleven magazines, ten newspapers, three institutions.

Theories. Says Macfadden: "My politics, my religion, my life are devoted to the gospel of making everybody healthy." Though he has been accused of pornographic tendencies, Editor Macfadden is no radical in sex matters. Says Author Wood: "On one occasion I asked him. 'Do you to any extent, believe in liberalism in sex conduct?'

"He studied this problem thoughtfully. 'Let nature be the guide,' he said at last."

The Macfaddens had five daughters, no sons; Macfadden learned of a German theory of sex determination--"if the conception occur within five days after the end of the mother's menstrual period the child will be a girl, and ... if conception take place later than the fifth day, the child will probably be a boy. . . . They decided with a holy sincerity to make one supreme effort to produce a male heir." When the theory worked, not once but three times, Macfadden refused to let his wife name a son after him, because "he didn't want a child handicapped by being Bernarr Macfadden, the second. ... He is positive that each one will have a better chance if he isn't compelled to live up to his father's reputation."

With Macfadden's general criticism of modern health (that everybody eats too much and the wrong food, exercises too little) most laymen, most doctors, agree. With his anti-medical theories (cure of syphilis, pneumonia, asthma, rheumatism, scarlet fever, colds, etc., by diet, fasting, sweating) few laymen, fewer doctors, have any sympathy. Macfadden is antivaccination, antimedicine, anti-doctor. To doctors he is a dangerous quack; to his followers he is a wizard of drugless healing; to others (including Biographer Wood) he is a fanatic, with the fanatic's sincerity and ability to get things done. After reading his Graphic editorial on the death of his son, in which he said parents are always to blame for the death of their children, one cannot doubt the essential honesty of his faith. After reading such editorials as "Americans Know Nothing About Love-Making" or one of his challenges to the medical profession, it is hard to forget he is crude, limited, blatant. Egoist, exhibitionist ("within healthy limits," says Biographer Wood), vulgarian, millionaire Physcultopathist Macfadden is a body-lover rather than a money-lover; in his own loud, shallow way, a U. S. prophet.

The Authors. Clement Wood, 41, great & good friend of Physcultopathist Macfadden, onetime supervising editor of Macfadden Publications, was born at Tuscaloosa, Ala., educated at the University of Alabama, Yale. Poet, novelist, omniscient historian, he has written: Glad of Earth, Jehovah, Nigger, Mountain, Folly, Amy Lowell, A Slang Dictionary, The Smithy of God, Outline of Man's Knowledge, more than 50 Haldemann-Julius "Little Blue Books."

Charles Fulton Oursler, 36, great & good friend of Physcultopathist Macfadden, has been connected with Macfadden Publications for some time in an advisory capacity. His life of Macfadden originally appeared as a serial in Physical Culture. Born in Baltimore, he has been a newspaperman, short-story writer, editor, novelist, playwright (Behold This Dreamer, The Spider). Other books: Sandalwood, Stepchild of the Moon.

Grace Perkins is Fulton Oursler's second wife.

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