Anthony Sansone Photographed by Edwin Townsend

Edwin Townsend took this photograph of Anthony Sansone.

Anthony Sansone Photographed by Edwin Townsend

Edwin Townsend took this photograph of Anthony Sansone.

Anthony Sansone Photographed by Edwin Townsend

Edwin Townsend took this unique photograph of laughing Anthony Sansone.

Anthony Sansone

I do not know who took this photograph of Anthony Sansone.

Desha and Anthony Sansone Photographed by Nicholas Muray

Nicholas Muray makes his premiere on this blog with this photograph of Desha and Anthony Sansone.

Anthony Sansone

I do not know who took these photographs of Anthony Sansone.

Anthony Sansone

I do not know who took these photographs of Anthony Sansone.

Anthony Sansone Photographed by Earle Forbes

Earle Forbes took this photograph of Anthony Sansone.

Anthony Sansone

I do not know who took this photograph of Anthony Sansone.

Anthony Sansone

I do not know who took these photographs of Anthony Sansone.

Anthony Sansone

I do not know who took this photograph of Anthony Sansone.

Anthony Sansone Photographed by Edwin Townsend

Edwin Townsend took this photograph of Anthony Sansone.

Anthony Sansone

I do not know who took this photograph of Anthony Sansone.

Anthony Sansone

I think Edwin Townsend took these photographs of Anthony Sansone, but I'm still seeking confirmation.

Anthony Sansone

I do not know who took these photographs of Anthony Sansone.

When you jump to this post on the blog, you can read about his role in the birth of vintage beefcake.

Anthony Sansone

I do not know who took this nice photograph of Anthony Sansone.

Anthony Sansone Photographed by Edwin Townsend

In the 1930's, Edwin Townsend took these magnificent photographs of Anthony Sansone, one of the first nude models whose images were advertised for sale in such fitness magazines as Strength and Health.

When you jump to this post on the blog, you can read about the birth of Physique Pictorial magazine as a direct result of the United States Postal Service censoring these sort of images in bodybuilding magazines.

Anthony Sansone Photographed by Earle Forbes

Like the Ritter brothers, about whom you can learn more when you jump to this post on the blog, Anthony Sansone was one of the first to advertise for sale physique photographs of himself in men's fitness magazines.

Earle Forbes took these photographs.

Charles Atlas

The origin of vintage beefcake has its multifarious roots in Mae West's popular burlesque show in the 1950's and 60's all the way back to the strongmen of the late 1800's. These massive men were considered freaks of nature, were typically semi-nude circus and sideshow performers, and dazzled audiences with their physical prowess across the United States, Australia and Europe.

Charles Atlas was born in 1892 as Angelo Siciliano and, during the first half of the twentieth century, was certainly a direct heir to the allure of the strongmen performers.

He was a massive, powerful man best remembered for his print ad campaigns that featured his fitness training regiments, the most memorable one promising to turn a ninety-seven-pound weakling into a hulk of a man no beach bully would dare kick sand into the face of.

I've included two versions of the same image of him and Anthony Sansone taken in the 1930's by Grace Selon of Art, titled "The Slave."