Footage of the old-school MacLevy Slenderizing Salon health-club chain for women. An excerpt from “Machines Attack the Solid Flesh,” a deeply insulting 1940 Life article about the gyms:

“These pictures were not taken in the torture chamber of a medieval dungeon. They were taken in one of the 200 MacLevy ‘slenderizing salons’ in the U.S. Here massive machines of steel, heavy coil springs and wooden rollers now replace masseuse’s hands in rubbing the fat from lazy female bodies.

To demonstrate these reducing machines Life picked pretty model Pat Ogden, who is placidly letting herself be electrically rolled in the Slendro Massager. With many other New York models, Pat goes to a salon occasionally to keep her figure trim.

Along with Pat, Life sent its fattest researcher to play guinea pig for fat Life readers. She found the machines pleasant and generally painless. The Slendro Massager made her fell ‘like a piece of dough being rolled,’ but like a biscuit she felt no pain. ‘This is like a silent movie where you see yourself being spanked and await with dread the stinging of pain which never arrives,’ she reported.”