Atlas, Charles

(born Oct. 30, 1892, Acri, Italy—died Dec. 24, 1972, Long Beach, N.Y., U.S.) Italian-born U.S. bodybuilder. Atlas immigrated to the U.S. in 1904. Skinny and weak as a child, he devised a system (later called Dynamic-Tension) that used isotonic exercise to build muscle. Assisted by the English naturopath Frederick Tinley, he later employed these principles to develop a mail-order course that became the basis for a multimillion-dollar bodybuilding business. In 1928 he and the advertiser Charles P. Roman launched one of the most celebrated advertising campaigns in American history. Their standard ad, a common feature in comic books and men's magazines, depicted scenes in which a skinny boy loses his girlfriend to a well-built lifeguard (who kicks sand in his face) and regains her after taking the Atlas course.