By now you've probably heard of the passing of fitness and t.v. legend, Jack LaLanne, at age 96. He died yesterday at his home in California.
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LaLanne's biography is familiar to most of us. He grew up eating lots of sugar and junk food and felt tired and angry all the time. Then at 15 he heard a lecture by health food pioneer Jack Bragg, and from that moment on, there was no looking back. LaLanne cleaned up his diet, started lifting weights and began a pioneering career as a fitness guru.
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In 1937 he opened his first gym which later became a string of gyms, eventually selling them to the Bally's Company, which still operates a chain of health clubs today. In the course of running his gyms, LaLanne also invented several fitness machines which are still in use today, including leg extension machines, pulley machines which used cables, weight selectors and the original model of what is now the Smith Machine.
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"The Jack LaLanne Show" started on local San Francisco television in 1951, and ABC took it national in 1959. LaLanne's t.v. show ran in various forms for 34 years, becoming the longest running exercise program in television history. LaLanne was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2002.
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We've been trying to find out if LaLanne ever competed in the "Mr. America" or "Mr. Universe" bodybuilding competitions, but so far, we have't find any evidence that he did. LaLanne did, however, complete several stunts of physical stamina over the years, including swimming across San Fransisco Bay in handcuffs at age 41, completing 1,033 push-ups in 23 minutes at age 42, and at age 70, he swam handcuffed while pulling 70 people in 70 rowboats.
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What you won't hear today on "The Today Show" about Jack LaLanne's life, or anywhere else for that matter, is the fact that he once posed nude for some of the "fitness magazines" of the 1940's and 1950's. We're not disputing that these magazines were sometimes read by men who were seriously interested in fitness, but many of them were just barely disguised gay porn for closeted gay men who had no other way to view naked male models. After LaLanne became famous, he tried to intervene legally to have the photographs destroyed, but was unsuccessful. One commenter today remarked that it was interesting that LaLanne feared that the photographs would ruin his career, whereas today nude photographs would only enhance a celebrity's career. How far we've come.
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gay "muscle magazines" on the 1940's-1960's.
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