American Adonis: The First Male Physique Model - Hardcover

John Massey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0789310724 ISBN 13: 9780789310729

Publisher: Universe Publishing (Incorporated, Div. of Rizzoli, 2004

Synopsis

Nowadays nearly everyone is a member of a gym, and perfecting the body beautiful is taken to the point of obsession. This phenomenon can be traced back to one man: Anthony Sansone (1905-1987), the first male physique icon and the most admired bodybuilder of his time. Like his contemporary Rudolph Valentino, Sansone was one of the first to make male beauty a desirable commodity.

Images of Sansone's body spurred the physical culture movement that would sweep the country. Through innumerable reproductions of his photographs, his fitness program publications, and the three gyms he founded, Sansone set and shaped the physical ideal that a whole generation of men would follow. A charismatic figure, Sansone moved within a number of worlds and interacted with some illustrious characters: art (Gertrude Whitney), bodybuilding (Charles Atlas), dance (Alexandre Gavrilov), Hollywood (Johnny Weissmuller), theater (David Belasco), and photography (Nickolas Muray). American Adonis uncovers the lost story of Sansone's life along with stunning reproductions of his sculpted, godlike body, many of which have not been seen in more than fifty years.

About this title

Synopsis:

American Adonis recovers the lost history of the first male nude physique idol of the twentieth century, Tony Sansone. Before Schwarzenegger, Travolta, Wahlberg, or Sabato, there was Sansone. He followed in the footsteps of Rudolph Valentino as a great male beauty, but he was the first to be renowned also for his physique, and is responsible for the early beginnings of the fitness revolution in his collaboration with Charles Atlas.

About the Author:

John Massey is an art historian who has lectured at the Birmingham Museum of Art and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

About this edition

• Publisher: Universe Publishing (Incorporated, Div. of Rizzoli
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0789310724
• ISBN 13: 9780789310729
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 144