Three biographical tales linked loosely by a simple thesis This is quick and entertaining reading that has far more depth than at first appears. I kept seeing evidence of its truth when new magazines debuted to popularize products of dubious worth (i.e., cigar-smoking and tattoos). Now this for me was a bombshell, although I did not realize it at the time. Kasson casually notes that magazines were invented only to get people to look at advertising. The section dealing with Burroughs was the part of the book that I've thought about most, because it deals with the role of magazines in American culture. But he presents the material in such a way that the reader draws his own conclusions.

Kasson doesn't really draw much of a conclusion from all this. Enter Houdini, an exhibitionist like Sandow, who used his sex appeal to sell his illusion and escape act. But could a modern-day Tarzan survive in the urban jungle? He would need to be wilier. Tarzan caught fire with a generation of urban Americans nostalgic for a less sophisticated past. Then there's Tarzan, a fictional character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, who is not only physically perfect, but he is uncorrupted by modernity. Kasson traces the late 19th/early 20th century take on this idea by focusing on three men who represented different versions of a 'perfect man.' Early bodybuilder Eugene Sandow created a sensation in Vaudeville with his act in which he not only lifted huge weights, but also impersonated Greek statues come to life while wearing only a fig leaf. Greek statuary was admired and revered for its depiction of idealized youths. The concept of an ideal man is at least as old as the Greeks. There's more to this book than 'interesting light reading,' which is why I'm reviewing the book after several years. But since then I have thought about this book quite often.

At that time, it just struck me as interesting light reading. I read this book years ago when the hardbound edition first came out.

Houdini tarzan and the perfect man