BERNARR MACFADDEN - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 09/26/1928 - HFSID 18130

BERNARR MACFADDEN
Physical fitness advocate signs this letter, typed on his personalized stationery, to gossip columnist Walter Winchell in 1928. In it, he says that he's "glad to note the popularity of your column among showmen." Winchell got his start at Macfadden's newspaper the New York Graphic
Typed Letter Signed: "B Mc". Pencil notation in top right edge and on verso, both in unknown hand. 1 page, 8½x11, on stationery from Macfadden's private office at the Macfadden Building in Brooklyn, New York City. September 26, 1928. Addressed to Mr. Walter Winchell, The New York Evening Graphic, New York City. In full: "Dear Mr. Winchell: Your memorandum headed 'Winchell's Stuff Tips Showmen' has been received, and I assure you I am glad to note the popularity of your column among showmen. Memos of this kind from time to time would be appreciated. With kind personal regards, I am Sincerely".  The "father of the newspaper gossip column", which he pioneered in the 1920s, WALTER WINCHELL (1897-1972) got his start at the New York Graphic in 1924. The Graphic was part of Macfadden's publishing company Macfadden Publications. American athlete BERNARR MACFADDEN (1868-1955), born Bernard Adolphus McFadden, was an important and influential exponent of physical fitness and culture. Macfadden, whose parents died from ill health when he was 11, established a number of "healthatoriums" across the United States and staged the first bodybuilding contest in the United States in 1903. He also founded the muscle magazines Physical Development(1898) and Physical Culture(1899); these magazines were the beginning of a pulp magazine empire, Macfadden Publications, that included True Story, True Romances and True Detective Mystery Magazine, as well as celebrity magazines Photoplay and the tabloid magazine The New York Graphic, as well as SPORT, a sports magazine that was a forerunner to Sports Illustrated. Macfadden was also known for he sometimes peculiar and sometimes shocking ideas (to the Victorian mind, at least) on diet and sex. He advocated abstinence from alcohol, drugs, gluttony, corsets, coffee, tea and even white bread while advocating a mostly-vegetarian diet... as well as sex as a healthy activity (he even designed a vacuum-powered penis pump to assist in sex). Lightly toned, soiled and creased. Light tears in top, left and right edges. Missing corners. Folded in half horizontally and twice vertically. Otherwise, fine condition.