The quote on their website is simple but proud: "The Polar Bear Club of Coney Island is the oldest winter bathing organization in the United States." Nearly 300 people turned out for this year's annual January 1st dip, where swim time water temperature was 48 degrees. Across the nation and the world, winter weather bathers took the plunge in solidarity with the Coney Islanders this New Year's Day: there was a Polar Bear swim in Toronto and one in Barton Springs, Texas (swim time water temperature: 68 degrees); there were carefully-organized theme swims ("Ringing in the Nude Year" in British Columbia), and borderline free-for-alls (according to Boulder swim organizer Walter Goedecke, "the city doesn't seem to like the event too much.").

While it's their New Year's Day dip that makes the headlines, the hardy souls of the PBCCI swim every Sunday from October to April. In fact official membership in the club requires at least a dozen swims per year, stints of at least 90 seconds in the water, and continuous immersion over the shoulders. Current PBCCI president, Louie Scarcella, points out that this type of regular winter swimming helps keep him young and fit. He calls the icy waters of the January Atlantic Ocean "nature's anti-inflammatory."

Bernarr Macfadden founded the Coney Island Polar Bears in 1903. In many ways Bernarr appears to have been the original infomercial personality. Though snake oil salesmen and self-impressed entrepreneurs have been around forever, Macfadden was particularly vigorous: he published over a hundred books on the topics of physical fitness, healthy eating and sexuality during the early 1900s and eventually built a publishing empire that made him a millionaire.

According to a website dedicated to his memory he was "The Father of Physical Culture." Growing up orphaned and frail, Bernarr's interest in physical fitness began when placed as a foster child with a Missouri farm family. His daily chores enabled him to overcome his weak, sickly frame, and by the age of sixteen he was a champion boxer, wrestler and gymnast.



In 1887 he opened his first studio under the name "Bernard Mcfadden - Kinestherapist - Teacher of Higher Physical Culture;" the studio's slogan: "Weakness is a crime; don't be a criminal!" (exclamation point included). Seven years later he moved to New York City, changing his name to Bernarr (it sounded more like a lion's roar than his given Bernard) and opening a new physical fitness studio. His business grew quickly, and he soon began publishing magazines, books, and pamphlets on a range of physical health and beauty-related subjects. By 1903, the year he founded the Polar Bears, his Physical Culture was selling over 100,000 copies per month, and he was using the editorial page as a platform to promote consumption of natural foods, regular bodybuilding for both men and women, and avoidance of prescription medicines.

In 1904 he began promoting organized body building performances featuring both men and women. Bernarr's shows attracted significant attention and once they started selling out venues like Madison Square Garden, they became the subject of lawsuits citing their "lewd displays of carnality." Undaunted by legal actoins, Bernarr continued to expand his empire, eventually founding Physical Culture City, a 1500 acre communal living center in New Jersey dedicated to daily exercise, outdoor living, and "avoidance of restrictive clothing." He opened healthatoriums, restaurants, and academies across the nation. His fame grew to the point that, after being arrested for a second time for "lewd content" in one of his magazines (a discussion of venereal disease), he received a pardon from President Taft.

In the years after his pardon, things started to fall apart for Bernarr Macfadden. He was separated from his wife in 1932 on the grounds of his continual philandering (at the age of 64). Other publishing industry figures and health experts increasingly voiced their skepticism of his ideas and stories, most especially his claim that during his 20s he had managed to reverse his own hair loss and declining eyesight through physical exercise. His piece de resistance, though, was an attempt in the 1940s to start his own religion called Cosmotarianism.

Though his final years were marked by a business empire increasingly subject to lawsuits and chaos and several more failed marriages resulting from ongoing affairs, Macfadden never flagged in his dedication to physical exercise and natural health. Even into his eighties, his daily regimen included headstands and vigorous walking. He died in 1955 as a result of a urinary tract infection which he attempted to treat (by fasting) without medical intervention.

Given the typical resolutions made this time of year, it seems fitting that a man so maniacally dedicated to physical fitness would stand as the father to a New Year's Day tradition. Further, the fact that his dedication quite literally made him crazy seems apt in light of the main purpose of the tradition he founded. However, to his credit, this New Year's tradition continues to grab headlines to this day and has inspired more people than any month-old, unused gym membership could.

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