THE CHICAGO SEMINAR ON SPORT AND CULTURE
We are pleased to invite you to the next session of the Chicago Seminar on Sport and Culture at the Newberry Library, May 16, 2008, at 3:30 PM, co-sponsored by Northeastern Illinois University and North Central College.. The lectures are open to the public at no charge. The Newberry Library is located at 80 W. Walton, Chicago, IL.
“Charles Atlas’ Italian Nose: Photography and Ethnicity On Trial at the Federal Trade Commission, 1936”
Dr. Dominique Padurano will examine Charles Atlas' appearance in front of the Federal Trade Commission in 1936 as a "snapshot" which illuminates issues of ethnicity, masculinity, and consumption during the Great Depression. As the plaintiff in the hearing, Atlas was unprepared for the extent to which his own credibility as a businessman, bodybuilder, and American would be questioned. Central to his opponent's case were photographs of Atlas' body and his unauthorized name change from "Angelo Siciliano." Padurano will also discuss the history of bodybuilding in America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in an attempt to contextualize Atlas within a thriving community of ethnic entrepreneurs who exploited the ability of the camera to project their own definition of "manliness" to a wide American audience.
Padurano received She received her A.B. from Harvard College in 1993 with high honors and her Ph.D. from Rutgers in 2007. Her s dissertation, “Making American Men: Charles Atlas and the Business of Bodies, 1892-1945,” used the life and career of fitness icon Charles Atlas – ne Angelo Siciliano in Calabria – to explore changes in American culture, masculinity, sexuality and childhood during the first half of the twentieth century. She teaches at Horace Mann School, an independent day school in New York City.
For further information, contact Steve Riess, chair of the seminar, at 773 442 5631 or (preferred) s-riess@neiu.edu.
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