A Brief History of Mr. Universe

Muscle Man

Competitive bodybuilding dates to the beginning of the century, when sideshow and circus strongmen would stage contests to see who had the best physique.
Bettmann / Corbis

Muscle Man
Competitive bodybuilding dates to the beginning of the century, when sideshow and circus strongmen would stage contests to see who had the best physique. The most famous of the early winners was Angelo Siciliano, above, better known to the world as Charles Atlas, who as the winner of competitions held in New York in the early 1920s was declared the "World's Most Perfectly Developed Man."

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