"We know that many people eat enough, so that they should be giants of strength, if quantity of food made energy. We know many who eat steaks daily who can scarcely lift their weight. We know that many exercise enough so that they should have bulging, powerful muscles, if exercise alone made these. We know that many are lying about almost all of the twenty-four hours of every day; these should have unlimited strength and energy, if rest made these qualities. You perhaps know of some who have great vitality, and yet who are not powerful, their muscles are not particularly pleasing in contour. You perhaps know many who have superb sex health, and yet they could not run a marathon nor shoulder a sack of wheat. Something else must be necessary before one can have the combination of great energy, large muscles, enormous strength. What is it? It isn't any one factor. It is a combination of conditions that produce these desirable qualities. We shall take up but the most prominent few of them." - Earle Liederman This is a restored and re-formatted edition of Liederman's original 1926 booklet. The text remains exactly as written in 1926. A must have in your collection.
About the Author: "Few athletes have had lives as filled with variety as Earle E. Liederman. He began as a vaudeville strongman and in the mid-1920s became the undisputed king of the mail-order musclemen. After that he turned to radio broadcasting and then to journalism. Finally, in the 1940s Liederman came to California and, because of his seductive descriptions of sun, sand and sea, helped draw hundreds of bodybuilders to the West Coast. Despite his many accomplishments, the details of Liederman's biography are difficult to pin down because he was so reluctant to recount his personal life. Not even his birthdate is known for certain. Apparently, he was born around 1886 in Brooklyn, New York, to poor Swedish immigrant parents, graduated from high school in Jamaica, New York, and pursued a degree in physical education at the state normal school. Soon after earning his diploma, he was hired by the New York Board of Education as a physical culture specialist. ... While Liederman was working for the Board of Education, he was also trying his hand as a boxer. It took him only a short time to determine that he had little talent for the ring, however, so he switched to wrestling, which also proved not to be his strong suit. He was saved from further embarrassment in this effort by a talent scout from a vaudeville chain, who convinced the young man to try his hand at a strongman act. This was more to Earle's taste, and in 1910 he quit his job and embarked on a career as a professional athlete. Liederman was a savv marketer, and he knew how to tap into the public's worries and insecurities. The copy in one typical ad from 1924 compared a tiny body to a wart on the nose--but with one difference. "If you had a wart on your nose, you would worry yourself sick--you would pay most any price to get rid of it. . . . Wake up! Come to your senses! Everyone despises the weakling." Worrisome thoughts like these kept more and more customers clamoring for the course, and before long his ads were appearing in several magazines at once, often in lavish six-page spreads. Earle raked in a great deal of money with the mail-order business. One visitor to his posh New York headquarters reported that there were 60 secretaries ... pounding out advice and encouragement to the many correspondents. ... He kept a fleet of fancy cars and lived the high life. At some point he married a former Miss Alaska beauty queen, and the two cut a glamorous swath through New York society". - David Chapman