Pioneer of female fitness and bodybuilding. She had the most gorgeous body of the 1950s. Her name is Betty Brosmer. She was born in 1935 in Pasadena, California. As a child, she played sports with her father and was actually a tomboy. She stood out when she was just a teenager because of her figure and beauty. At 13, Betty first appeared in the Sears & Roebuck catalog. The next year a photo of her was sold for commercial advertising. It was published in several magazines including Time and Life. In 1950, she moved to New York and entered George Washington High School. In her spare time, Brosmer pursued her modeling career. She worked with famous pin-up artists, Alberto Vargas, and Earl Moran. Her pictures graced the covers of crime and romance books and journals. Despite her young age, she posed wearing pretty revealing outfits. Betty won more than 50 beauty contests before she was 20. She was Miss Television, Miss Potato Chips, and Summer Queen. After graduation, she left for Los Angeles to study psychology. In 1954, she modeled for legendary Christian Dior. She later signed a contract with photographer Keith Bernard. He had worked with Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe. But it was Betty who became his best selling pin-up model. She made 100-200 dollars a day while other girls got only 50-75 dollars. Brosmer was the first model to have rights on all her photos. She got a percentage whenever her pictures were published. Betty appeared on over 300 covers, featuring in “virtually every men's magazine”. Her images decorated milk cartons, billboards, and calendars. Because of her hourglass body shape, people called her “the girl with impossible waist”. And it was the absolute truth: her measurements were 94-46-91 cm. Playboy tried to get an exclusive photo shoot with Brosmer once. But since she refused to pose naked, the resulting pictures were sold to another magazine. In 1961, she married Canadian bodybuilder Joe Weider and gave up pin-up modeling. Betty became a role model instead, appearing in fitness and bodybuilding periodicals. Soon she began writing articles for her husband’s magazine “Muscle and Fitness”. She eventually got her own monthly columns, “Health by Betty” and “Body by Betty”. They say it was Betty who recognized young Arnold Schwarzenegger’s talent. She suggested Joe take a closer look at him, and Weider became Arnold’s mentor. In 1981, she co-founded women’s health and fitness magazine “Shape”. During the 1980s, she co-authored several fitness guides with her husband. Though they never had common children, they were happily married until Joe’s death in 2013. In 2014, Betty was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame. She spent a lifetime telling the truth about nutrition and exercise and inspiring women. Subscribe to The Story Behind https://is.gd/hixAAr Music by Epidemic Sound: https://www.epidemicsound.com/