Mr. America

About this book

"For most of the twentieth century the 'Mr America' image epitomized muscular manhood. From humble beginnings in 1939 at a small gym in Schenectady, New York, the Mr America Contest became the world's premier bodybuilding event over the next thirty years ... Interviewing nearly one hundred major figures in the physical culture movement (including twenty-five Mr Americas) ... [this] captures the event's path to idealism and its slow descent into obscurity ... As the 1960s marked a turbulent transition in American society ... Mr America changed as well. Exploring the influence of other bodily displays, such as the Mr Universe and Mr Olympia contests and the Miss America pageant, Fair focuses on commercialism, size obsession and drugs that corrupted the competition's original intent"--Publisher's description.