Re: Charles Atlas

[briancady@juno.com (Brian S Cady)]

Marco Daretti writes:
>Hi dear fans of the WHO,
>I'm an Italian boy and my name is Marco. I read in the recent
>messages that you're talkin' about the commercials recorded
>by the Who.  I would like to ask you something: in the Who's
>album "Sell Out", Townshend & Co. do a commercial for
>the Charles Atlas Course and say: "The Charles Atlas Course
>with dynamic tension can turn you in a beast of man".
>I would like to know what was this Charles Atlas Course.
>If you know it, please mail me.
>Thank you very much and good bye from Rome.

Hello from Atlanta,

For you Marco and anyone else too young to know, Charles Atlas ran ads
from about the 1930 until recently that showed a "98-pound weakling" at
the beach getting sand kicked in his face by some guy.  He then takes the
Charles Atlas course of "dynamic tension," builds up his body, and gets
his revenge and the girl the bully had taken from him.  John is dressed
as that successful he-man on the cover of "Sell Out."

"Dynamic Tension" was a technique in which one muscle group was pitted
against another to create resistance; the advantage being that you didn't
have to buy expensive exercise equipment to exercise.


                                     -Brian in Atlanta