A Body of Text: Physical Culture and the Marketing of Mobility
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
A BODY OF TEXT: PHYSICAL CULTURE AND THE MARKETING OF MOBILITY by Andrea Dale Lapin B.A., Douglass College at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 1994 M.A., University of Pittsburgh 1998 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2013 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH THE KENNETH P. DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Andrea Dale Lapin It was defended on April 15, 2013 and approved by Jonathan Arac, PhD, Andrew W Mellon Professor, Department of English William Scott, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of English Brenton Malin, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Thesis Director: Nancy Glazener, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of English ii Copyright © by Andrea Dale Lapin 2013 iii A BODY OF TEXT: PHYSICAL CULTURE AND THE MARKETING OF MOBILITY Andrea Dale Lapin, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2013 Drawing on Althusserian notions of ideology and Bourdieu’s understanding of bodily hexis, A Body of Text seeks to reframe Physical Culture as an artifact worthy of serious study, more complex and less reactionary than its beefcake-and-sentiment reputation might suggest. This dissertation addresses the story of Physical Culture magazine from three different perspectives, reading the magazine through lenses of media history, medical history and social context, in order to understand the ways in which class operated on and through the body. In contrast to nearly every other publication in the early twentieth century, Physical Culture suggested that class mobility was possible, and that success would naturally follow improvement of body and health. Whereas the idea of “fitness” in the eugenics movement very clearly indicated an essential condition, consequent to the quality of the germline, Physical Culture initiated the idea that fitness was obtainable – and commodifiable – through diet, exercise and “lifestyle.” Much of this argument is constructed by contrasting Physical Culture with Hygeia, the health magazine created by the American Medical Association for a lay audience, and by contrasting Physical Culture impresario Bernarr Macfadden with his counterpart at the AMA, Morris Fishbein. Whereas Macfadden’s story has been told, Fishbein’s story has yet to be the subject of a responsible biography. First gestures in that direction open the door to further work on Fishbein as a subject, and to deeper studies of the relationship between medicine, marketing and modern consumerism. Far from suggesting that Macfadden is ipso facto a liberatory force or a sophisticated theorist, the likeliest explanation for the complex, unstable and evolving iv constructions of body politics in Physical Culture are twofold: first, coming himself from “unfit” germlines, Macfadden needs to enrich contemporary thinking about the body to make sense of (and room for) his own success; second, and more importantly: you can’t sell a bloodline. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... XI 1.0 INTRODUCTION VAUDEVILLE ARCHAEOLOGY: READING PHYSICAL CULTURE IN THREE ACTS AND SEVERAL VIGNETTES .................................................................................................... 1 1.1 PICKING THROUGH THE DUSTBIN OF HISTORY .................................. 3 1.2 A TABLE OF CONTEXTS: PHYSICAL CULTURE AND MEDIA HISTORY .............................................................................................................................. 8 1.3 WELL, WELL, WELL – PHYSICAL CULTURE AND MEDICINE........... 9 1.4 ORANGUTANS AND INDIAN CLUBS: PHYSICAL CULTURE AND SOCIAL SCIENCE ............................................................................................................ 12 1.5 FROM “THE NATIONS ATTIC” TO JSTOR: HOW DO WE DISCOVER, USE, AND READ EPHEMERA? ..................................................................................... 14 1.6 GETTING ON WITH IT .................................................................................. 18 2.0 I WRITE FOR THE FELLOW WHO WORKS FOR A WAGE: MAKING A MARKET OF THE WORKING CLASS ........................................................... 21 2.1 A TRIP TO THE NEWSTAND........................................................................ 21 2.2 READING MAGAZINES ................................................................................. 24 vi 2.3 MASS CULTURE TAKES SHAPE ................................................................. 31 2.4 HOW TO LIVE.................................................................................................. 38 2.5 THE FELLOW WHO WORKS FOR A WAGE ............................................ 41 2.6 DISCOVERING WHAT WOMEN WANT – A TRUE STORY .................... 45 2.7 WEAKNESS IS A CRIME ............................................................................... 51 2.8 “DAMAGED GOODS:” SYPHILIS CRIPPLES PHYSICAL CULTURE ... 54 2.9 THE EVERYMAN AND THE UBERMENSCH ............................................ 57 2.10 (RE-)WRITTEN ON THE BODY ................................................................... 62 3.0 DREAMS OF UNLIKABLE MEN: PHYSICAL CULTURE, HYGEIA AND THE BATTLE FOR HEARTS AND MINDS ................................................................................... 77 3.1 LOOKING BACKWARD ................................................................................. 79 3.2 MORRIS FISHBEIN ......................................................................................... 92 3.3 HYGEIA AND PHYSICAL CULTURE: POPULAR HEALTH AT CROSS PURPOSES ....................................................................................................................... 101 3.4 BERNARR MACFADDEN ............................................................................ 115 3.5 “HE STARTED IT!” ....................................................................................... 122 4.0 BATTLE OF THE HEXIS: STRONG BODIES AND WEAK ARGUMENTS IN THE STRUGGLE FOR AGENCY ......................................................................................... 132 4.1 REMEMBER THE MIDWAY ....................................................................... 132 4.2 REWRITING THE BODY ............................................................................. 136 4.3 RESHAPING FITNESS .................................................................................. 139 4.4 COMMODIFYING HEALTH ....................................................................... 143 4.5 WHAT WAS HE THINKING? ...................................................................... 148 vii 4.6 THE INSULT THAT MADE A MAN ........................................................... 153 4.7 IT’S ALL ABOUT EU..................................................................................... 157 4.8 HAVING A FIT ............................................................................................... 168 5.0 ENCORE ................................................................................................................... 178 6.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................... 183 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Physical Culture, June 1931 ............................................................................................ 4 Figure 2: From the Smithsonian Collection: The Ruby Slippers; shoes worn in the 1965 Freedom March; an eighteenth-century apothecary that had been displayed at the 1933 World's Fair. ..... 14 Figure 3: Berenice Abbott, New York City Newsstand, 1935 ..................................................... 22 Figure 4: Physical Culture, June 1919 .......................................................................................... 29 Figure 5: Thomas Hart Benton, Steel, 1928 .................................................................................. 44 Figure 6: True Story, August 1935 ............................................................................................... 49 Figure 7: Infamous “Composographs” from the Evening Graphic: Valentino and Caruso together in heaven; dramatic moment from the 1925 Rhinelander divorce trial in which the spurned bride, accused of “passing,” was ordered to show her breasts to the jury as proof of her race. ............. 51 Figure 8: January 1907 Physical Culture cover: “His crime consists of an attempt to dispel the ignorance of evils that sap the vigor and blight the lives of millions of human beings. Read the particulars in this issue.” ............................................................................................................... 56 Figure 9: Physical Culture, June 1930 .......................................................................................... 63 Figure 10: Physical Culture cover art from 1905 is nearly replicated in 1927 on Hygeia. ........ 104 Figure 11: ….but the January 1927 issue of Physical Culture looks vastly different from the Hygeia of the same month: not only is the artwork more attractive and sophisticated, the layout ix more modern and visually interesting – but the heavy saturation of ink in the brightly covered painting indicates much higher production values (and costs) than its genteel rival. Note headline lower left: “The Medical Trust Has You by the Throat.” ........................................................... 105 Figure 12: