Getting Aquainted with Your Editor-in-Chief Joseph E Weider

Leader of Men in Culture of Mind and Body

by Dr Frederick Tilney

Read the thrilling inside story of your publisher's rise to mental and physical prominence and to international fame

THIS is the fifth year of the publication of "YOUR PHYSIQUE" magazine under the capable leadership of Joseph E. Weider. At every turn all during that period he has been seriously handicapped. In the first place, he had no experience in the publishing business. He started "YOUR PHYSIQUE" with only twenty dollars! Imagine that! He was only seventeen years of age when he started the magazine! Everyone told him it would be a flop. Trying to start a new magazine under war-time conditions and restrictions was an almost impossible job. He has had extreme difficulty getting the necessary paper on which to print the magazine. In fact the obstacles he has had to encounter would have baffled an experienced publisher, adequately financed, under normal peace-time conditions. And yet, in spite of all these set-backs you've got to hand it to Joseph E. Weider for giving the world the best BODY-BUILDING magazine in the world today!

From a few copies of a few pages it has grown to 52 pages and tens of thousands of copies each issue, and the circulation would be at least three or four times what it is now,. if it were not for the drastic Government restrictions on paper. The distributing Company is demanding 25,000 additional copies but war-time restrictions make this temporarily impossible. However, it shows the ever increasing demand for this publication prepared for you through the genius of young Joseph E. Weider!

But that isn't all. Getting out each sparkling issue of "YOUR PHYSIQUE" magazine has been only a small part of Joe's activities. As you look through its pages you'll see he has published many books and courses. He has manufactured and designed the newest and latest barbells and dumbells and other bodybuilding equipment. How he has been able to get the necessary iron, castings and other supplies is almost a miracle, when government priorities on such supplies have been so rigid; but he has been able to influence the 'powers that be' as this equipment is so essential to civilian physical fitness.

Now is this all! In the beginning he has had to take care of all the vast correspondence, filling orders for books, courses, apparatus, taking care of subscriptions, proof-reading of manuscripts, making up the magazine, securing articles and photographs, plus a thousand and one other necessary details involved in a business of this type -- working 14 to 18 hours a day!

As Lord Chesterfield so aptly said: "It is very certain that no man is fit for everything; but it is equally certain, that there is scarcely one man who is not fit for something which Nature plainly points out to him by giving him a tendency and propensity to it."

Depend upon it, young Joe Weider found his place in life, and doing this interesting work which he likes so much serves as a great tonic, a stimulus which makes his work a joy instead of a grind. He feels he is the man made to fill this niche -- that it is the work he was born to do, that Nature seems to have fitted him for. And doing it has sharpened his faculties, put iron in his blood, increased his sense of well being. As truly as the key is made for the lock so the publication of this magazine is the groove Joseph E. Weider was destined to fill.

It was only recently that I had an opportunity to meet Joseph E. Weider personally. As soon as you meet him you realize he is an energetic, enthusiastic, bright young man. He has a great amount of perseverance and a tremendous capacity for hard work. He has ambition, determination, a definite plan for his life's aim. He KNOWS what he wants, goes after it and gets it.

As a youngster, he never dreamed of the possibilities latent within him until he was inspired by my teachings -- and Joe has written me a number of times, saying it was the stimulous of my writings which gave him the urge, the courage, the belief in himself to go ahead and start a magazine of world-wide influence with a paltry twenty dollars! He didn't wait till he had saved thousands of dollars, or until he was much older-but he BEGAN. . . he had the NERVE TO START right from the unfavorable place where he was and with what he had. The result was that the moment he began to exercise his faculties, a power which he little suspected he possessed, rapidly developed in him, and he has risen in his profession with almost unparalleled rapidity. The opportunity was all that was needed to develop what was in him.

I am proud of the fact that my writings and teachings served as the spark which set young Joe Weider's ambition on fire.

As a boy, Joe was weak and greatly underweight and to remain in such a condition didn't appeal to him. He longed to be husky and strong. He demanded for himself a well developed body and, that he has achieved this, you can see by the new photographs Earle Forbes, and photographer Lon, recently took of him. Here are a few of his achievements in weight lifting before he was 21 years of age, at a body weight of 164 Ibs. He has never specialized, but gone in for all-round lifting. He holds the Provincial and City Championship records for Quebec for his weight, and only one man in his class - Joe Sklar -- in all Canada could beat him.

Joe has accomplished the following:

But the demands on his publishing business involved so much time and attention that he hasn't been able to do justice to his lifting and in recent months has concentrated his exercising efforts on body building. According to Willoughby, Joe has an ideal physique for his weight and height. The accompanying photographs show Joseph E. Weider as he is today . Joseph has trained Ed. Theriault - one of the most sensational lifters and muscular men in all the world. He has trained thousands of others, too, giving his best to this important work --constantly -- building up the flower of Canadian and American Manhood.

Everyone is looking for the force that DOES things -- the power which moves business with vigor -- and Joe has what it takes. He has the energy, the enterprise, the freshness of mind and alertness for new ideas. He loves his work, he finds a prime joy in life, a steady pleasure from day to day in knowing he is helping tens of thousands of others to live a healthier, happier and more satisfying life. This very fact gives him an added zest, an 'ALIVENESS' so essential for going places.

Vigorous health and a rugged physique are among Joseph E. Weider's chief assets, his principal capital -- and he's taking no chances to do anything deliberately which will deplete his vitality, or in any way dwarf his physical powers or strangle his mental output. He follows the rules of health and right living and so has equipped himself for a successful and efficient career.

Darwin said that the eagle's wings developed in response to the eagle's desire to fly, to soar into the ether. So it could be said of Joseph that his longings, his yearnings for something higher and grander, called out his intellectual wings enabling him to rise above his mediocre environment and rise from poverty to power and world wide influence. Through the medium of his publication he is month by month showing thousands of readers how they, too, may climb upward -- where health, happiness, joy and success reign.

In Joseph E. Weider you see the evidences -- in what he has already accomplished -- of initiative, leadership, originality, resourcefulness. He has splendid executive ability and the faculty of putting things through to a finish. No wavering, waiting, hesitating; he acts with quick and firm decision which characterise men who do great things. He has trained himself and knows how to successfully train others.

As Ruskin truly said: If you want knowledge you must toil for it; and if pleasure, you must toil for it. Toil is the law. Pleasure comes through toil, and not by self-indulgence and indolence. When one gets to love work his life is a happy one." -- This can be said of your publisher -- Joseph E. Weider. His heart as well as his head is in his work, and it takes this combination to succeed.

More power to Joe in his crusade for health, happiness and strength for all.

PHOTO CAPTIONS

- So many readers of "YOUR PHYSIQUE" have asked to see how the Publisher looks TODAY. Lon took this study of me this summer-Joe Weider. Photo by Lon.

- Another photo by Lon of your Editor-in-Chief in a splendid muscular pose showing wide, powerful shoulders, a deep chest, well-muscled thighs. Yes, I take my own 'medicine' using the 'Iron Pills' - the Weider Barbells and Dumbells, of course!

- I've been so busy with my publishing work and barbell company I've had no time to practice 'posing' as many of the 'models' have. However, here's your Editor-in-Chief in an artistic study, caught by Lon.

- Willoughby says I have an ideal physique for my weight and height. Judge for yourself in this photo of me by Lon. Photo hy Lon.

- I have always advocated a well balanced physique. I believe you will agree I've achieved this in my own development, here portrayed for you by Lon, our Staff Photographer. Joe Weider.