Charles Atlas

Did you pick up the reference to Charles Atlas? It’s on page 292, when Roger and Otto are in the Mojave Desert with ‘Ted and his mother.’ The old Ford breaks down and needs to be pushed by hand to the approaching gas station. I write, “It was a sweating, stinking affair. My back and legs practically buckled. Pushing uphill on the interchange ramp was a feat worthy of lifetime membership in the Charles Atlas He-Man’s Club.” A quick look at Wikipedia says, “Charles Atlas, born Angelo Siciliano (1893 – 1972), was the developer of a bodybuilding method and its associated exercise program that was best known for a landmark advertising campaign featuring Atlas’s name and likeness. It has been described as one of the longest-lasting and most memorable ad campaigns of all time.” I’m not sure if that included what I remember as the “He Man’s Club” —maybe that comes from my remembrance of the Little Rascals comedy reels which I accidentally mixed in. (True enough . . . what I was thinking of was from 1937, titled ‘The He Man’s Women Hater’s Club’). But whatever, the sentiment to superhuman strength is there. I certainly remember the Charles Atlas fitness program designed for the “97-pound weakling” who gets sand kicked in his face at the beach by a bully, decides to take action by signing up for the body building regimen, returns to the beach, and beats up the bully to the admiration of all. The point is, that’s the kind of strength it took to push that dead car through the desert.