orig. Bernard Adolphus McFadden
born Aug. 16, 1868, Mill Spring, Mo., U.S.
died Oct. 12, 1955, Jersey City, N.J.
U.S. publisher and champion of physical health.
A sickly orphan by age 11, McFadden began in his teens to increase his strength as an act of defiance. In 1899 he began publishing Physical Culture magazine, in which he promoted his ideas of exercise, diet, and fasting. He was unique in encouraging the fitness of women, and he was opposed to corsets, high-heeled shoes, and restrictive clothing. In later decades he built up a publishing empire, bringing out the first confession magazine, True Story (1919), followed by True Romances (1923), True Detective Mystery Magazine (1925), and other periodicals. His bids for the presidency, U.S. Senate, and governorship of Florida all failed. Physically fit into old age, he parachuted into Paris on his 84th birthday.