Peeling off their shirts and undershirts in a hearing room in Washington one day last week, a prime collection of mighty-muscled weightlifters offered their prowess and appearance as evidence in Federal Trade Commission proceedings against Robert Collins Hoffman, a strapping York, Pa. body-lover who sells male muscle in the form of lessons, bar bells and a magazine called Strength & Health. Mr. Hoffman had been cited by the Com-mission for unfair competition with his rivals in the muscle-making industry. But the case boiled down to a quarrel between Mr. Hoffman and Charles Atlas, who does business at No. 115 East 23rd St., Manhattan, as THE WORLD'S MOST PERFECTLY DEVELOPED MAN.
A swart Italian who was born Angelo Siciliano 44 years ago and brought to Brooklyn by his parents at 11, Mr. Atlas by his own advertised account was originally a puny "no-account runt," a "sickly, skinny, run-down weakling weighing only 97 pounds." His inspiration came on a visit to the Brooklyn Institute of Arts & Sciences, where he was so impressed by the plaster-cast Greek heroes that he thenceforth devoted his life to his body. His present title dates from the early 19203 when Publisher Bernarr Macfadden was running beautiful body contests. Charles Atlas won so regularly that Mr. Macfadden finally abandoned the contest entirely. The inspiration for his name came not from the Brooklyn Institute of Arts & Sciences, but from a wooden statue of Atlas in front of a Far Rockaway, N. Y. hotel.
For a time Mr. Atlas was a popular sculptor's model, his clients including James Earle Fraser and Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney. But his real commercial success dates from 1922 when he started to offer mail-order courses in physiculture. Today he has an office in London as well as Manhattan, claims he has started a total of 500,000 puny people on the road to potent health. Mr. Atlas' formula is "Dynamic Tension" which means pitting one set of muscles against another for exercise instead of using weights, bars, bells, springs.
To competitors like Mr. Hoffman who have athletic paraphernalia as well as courses to sell, Mr. Atlas' dynamic tension is a continual thorn, particularly when used, as it always is, with the phrase "the world's most perfectly developed man." Mr. Atlas talks about the beauty of his body with the impersonal pride of a steelmaster describing the finest rolling mill in existence. What his competitors question is how much of Mr. Atlas' physical assets was acquired by dynamic tension.