If you were a young woman in the 80s and 90s like I was —- you may remember reading the magazine Shape ←— it’s still going strong!
This magazine became regular reading for me and certainly had an influence on my self perception (for better or worse) as a young woman trying to find myself.
Having said that, I have recently discovered that Betty Weider – the wife of Joe Weider who’s company published Shape, is the same model who caused such a stir in the 1950s with her “impossible waist.”
Meet Betty Brosmer…
As An Aside…
Shape was a spin off magazine of Weider’s best known publication – Muscle and Fitness magazine – which Arnold Schwarzenegger was a regular feature in the during his bodybuilding days.
Frankly, Weider had a HUGE hand in helping catapult Schwarzenegger – you know, the poor, lonely, muscled-up immigrant – into the cultural iconic stratosphere.
Back To Betty…
Betty Brosmer was born on August 6, 1929 (or 1935 – there is a long standing discrepancy, but early census evidence indicate 1929) in Pasadena, California.
She spent her early childhood in Carmel before moving to Los Angeles around age 10. Betty was athletic and something of a tomboy.
With the encouragement of her father and aunt she began to value education, healthy eating and a life long interest in fitness.
In particular, Betty experimented with weight training while still very young.
These values would serve her well throughout her life.
First as a model and later, as the wife of the legendary Joe Weider of the health and fitness magazine empire founded by the Canadian-born brothers, Joe and Ben.
They married on April 24, 1961, and remained together until Joe’s death in 2013.
Additionally, Joe’s daughter Lydia was just young when they married and by all accounts, Betty was an active and involved stepmother.
Their marriage lasted more than 50 years.
Betty and Joe Below ( in 2001 and 2008 respectively)…
When They First Met…
Joe had encountered Betty’s photographs through photographer Keith Bernard, who supplied fitness and beauty models.
Betty’s first appearance in a Weider publication was a four-page layout in Figure & Beauty in December 1956. Joe subsequently requested her repeatedly. She became one of his favorite models.
However, they didn’t actually meet face-to-face until 1959.
Joe arranged a meeting with Betty when she was in New York and this is where their relationship gets interesting.
Joe was married.
At first, it was a working friendship.
Besides her beauty, Joe appreciated that Betty was intellectually curious and deeply interested in psychology, philosophy, religion, health and fitness. These were subjects that fascinated him as well.
They would often meet for lunch after a photo shoot she did for his magazine.
This is when Betty felt comfortable enough to begin offering Joe ideas and opinions about his magazines.
Instead of being put off, Joe was grateful. He later described Betty as someone he could actually talk to.
Then, sometime in 1959, after a 3 year friendship, the relationship changed.
They were having dinner at a Spanish restaurant in Greenwich Village in NYC.
At one point during the meal, Joe reached across the table and took Betty’s hand. That was the moment when the friendship turned romantic.
Now What?
Joe was still married.
He’d been married to Hedwiges “Vicky” Uzar, and they had a daughter. That marriage ended in divorce in 1960 after 14 years of marriage.
During the demise of his marriage and new life with Betty, Joe temporarily relocated to Las Vegas because Nevada’s divorce laws made it considerably easier to obtain a divorce at the time.
Once the divorce was finalized, Joe and Betty married in Las Vegas on April 24, 1961.
Betty was 31 and Joe was 40.
Marriage Gave Betty A 2nd Career
She had already been extraordinarily successful as a model.
However, after becoming Mrs. Betty Weider, she transitioned away from pinup modeling. Instead, she became a model and public figure in the emerging fitness movement and as a rep for the Weider empire.
Betty appeared extensively in Weider publications throughout the 1960s, ‘70s and beyond.
Not only that, Betty became an editorial contributor, writer, fitness advocate and spokesperson.
***I remember her appearances on the cover of Shape and Muscle and Fitness Magazine. She was indeed very, very fit — with the same small waist she had in her 20s.***
Betty Brought Shape Into Being
Betty was one of the women who helped bring bodybuilding and structured fitness into mainstream women’s culture in the late 20th century.
So, Betty, Joe Weider and Christine McIntyre launched Shape in 1981, which became one of the major women’s health and fitness publications in the United States.
Ironically, Joe Weider called his Muscle and Fitness magazine the “bible” of bodybuilding for the day.
Yet, it was Betty’s concept for Shape magazine that eventually surpassed Muscle and Fitness.
By the late 1990s/early 2000s, Shape had a larger circulation than Muscle & Fitness. With a readership of 1.5 million.
Weider says that Shape eventually became the company’s most widely read magazine.
A Fascinating Trajectory
20+ years into Joe Weider’s publishing career, Betty was the one (or one of the few) who helped convince him there was an enormous untapped women’s market.
We could almost divide the Weider publishing empire into two eras:
Joe + bodybuilding + Arnold + Muscle Builder/Muscle & Fitness
and then
Joe + Betty + women’s fitness + Shape.
It was Joe’s respect and appreciation for Betty’s opinion and intelligence that initially drew him to her.
It was also the aspect of her that allowed his company to expand and impact so many men and women over so many decades.
BUT… Betty wasn’t the editor
This is important to note. Betty had the vision, concept and was the inspiration behind Shape.
However, the person who actually turned the idea into the magazine and ran it was Christine MacIntyre.
As a writer and small independent publisher I know how difficult it is to turn ideas into a sought after publication.
It was MacIntyre who was a pioneer in women’s weight training and became Shape‘s founding editor.
Interestingly, Christine and Joe had somewhat different ideas about what the magazine should be.
Joe came from the commercial fitness-magazine world. MacIntyre had been a university professor of kinesiology. She wanted something considerably more medical and journalistic.
MacIntyre insisted on health-oriented photography rather than simply sexy models, and she wanted medical expertise behind the articles.
That combination turned out to be extraordinarily successful.
***Christine MacIntyre ran Shape magazine and gave it it’s distinctive flair for six years before she tragically died in a car accident. A runaway truck struck her car while driving in Malibu in September of 1987. She was only 48.***
Shape became HUGE
By the mid-1990s the mag had a circulation approaching one million, according to the Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times
In 1997, Shape had approximately 1.1 million subscribers and described it as Weider’s most popular publication.
Its 2011 circulation was reported at about 1.57 million.
Not only that, the magazine became profitable within its first year – an extremely fast result.
Shape Had Great Timing
In the 1950s and 60s active fitness routines were often participated in by men much more so than women.
During the 1970s, women however, were increasingly entering weight training and competitive bodybuilding and spending more time in competitive sports.
Then in 1980, the first Ms. Olympia competition took place.
In 1981, Shape arrived. Impeccable timing.
Whatever happened to Betty, Joe & Shape?
Weider Publications was acquired by American Media in 2002.
Later, Shape became part of the People Inc./IAC publishing group.
The magazine still exists today as a digital publication. Find it here – Shape.
Joe Weider died on March 23, 2013, at age 93, from heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Betty Weider, she is still alive and kicking. As of September 2026, she is 97 years old.
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