Jack LaLanne

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Jack LaLanne

Born September 26, 1914 (1914-09-26) (age 94)
San Francisco, California, United States
Occupation Fitness expert
Spouse(s) Irma Navarre (m. 1942–1948) «start: (1942)–end+1: (1949)»"Marriage: Irma Navarre to Jack LaLanne" Location: (linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_LaLanne)
Elaine Doyle (m: 1959 – present)
Website
www.jacklalanne.com

Jack LaLanne (born September 26, 1914) is an American fitness, exercise and nutritional expert, celebrity, lecturer, and motivational speaker who has been referred to as "the godfather of fitness."[1][2] He has published fitness books as well as hosting a long-running fitness television show between 1951 and 1985.

LaLanne gained worldwide renown for his success as a bodybuilder, as well as his prodigious feats of strength. He has won numerous awards, including the Horatio Alger Award from the Association of Distinguished Americans and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Hall of Fame.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Born in San Francisco, California, the son of French immigrants, Jennie Garaig La Lanne (b: 10/28/1884; d: 12/14/1973) and John/Jean La Lanne (b: 5/19/1881; d: 9/17/1939). Jack also had an older brother, Norman LaLanne (b: 8/31/1908; d: 9/24/2005).[3]

LaLanne says that as a child he was addicted to sugar and junk food. At age 15, he heard Paul Bragg give a talk on health and nutrition. Bragg's message was very simple but had a powerful influence on LaLanne, who subsequently decided to focus on his diet and exercise habits. He studied Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body and concentrated on bodybuilding and weightlifting. In 1935, LaLanne graduated from Berkeley High School.

[edit] Fitness career

[edit] Health clubs

LaLanne attended Oakland Chiropractic College in San Francisco (which eventually merged with Los Angeles Chiropractic College), but, in 1936 decided to open his own health spa (gym) in Oakland, California and encourage clients to better themselves through weight-training. LaLanne designed the first leg extension machines, pulley machines using cables, and weight selectors which are now standard in the fitness industry. He was the original inventor of the Smith machine. LaLanne also encouraged women to lift weights (in spite of the fact that at the time it was thought this would make women look masculine and unattractive). By the 1980s, there were more than 200 health clubs bearing his name. LaLanne eventually licensed all his health clubs to the Bally company, and they became known as Bally Total Fitness. Today he is no longer associated with any gym but still actively lifts weights.

[edit] Books, television and other media

Between 1951 and 1985, LaLanne presented fitness and exercise advice on television. "The Jack LaLanne Show" was the longest running television exercise program.[4] It began as a local program on San Francisco's ABC television station, KGO-TV, and was eventually carried on the ABC network nationwide. Critics said the show would last less than six weeks, but it ended up lasting 34 years. In 1959, LaLanne recorded Glamour Stretcher Time, a workout album which provided phonograph-based instruction for exercising with an elastic cord called the Glamour Stretcher.[5]

LaLanne has also published books and videos on fitness and nutrition, appeared in films, recorded a song with Connie Haines and marketed exercise equipment, a range of vitamin supplements, as well as two models of electric juicers. These included the "Juice Tiger", as seen on Amazing Discoveries with Mike Levey and "Jack LaLanne's Power Juicer".[6] It was on this show that LaLanne introduced the phrase "That's the power of the juice!"

70,000 Juice Tiger juicers were recalled in March 1996 after "14 incidents resulting in at least eight lacerations to the hands, face, arms, and chest and one permanent eye injury were reported to the CPSC and National Media Corporation of The USA."[7] However, this is about 9 percent of the Juice Tiger models. Another 600,000 units were not recalled. The Power Juicer is still actively marketed.[8]

[edit] Later life

At the age of 94, Jack LaLanne continues to work out every morning for two hours, spending 1 ½ hours in the weight room and ½ hour swimming or walking. LaLanne and his wife Elaine (83) live in Morro Bay, California. [9]

When interviewed by Katie Couric on NBC's Today show, LaLanne declared that his two simple rules of nutrition are "if man made it, don't eat it", and "if it tastes good, spit it out." He often says, "I cannot afford to die, it will ruin my image." Interviewed on his 93rd birthday, he said his feat of strength was going to be "towing my wife across the bathtub." In a June 2007 interview, he said that for his 95th birthday, he'd like to swim to Santa Catalina Island from the coast of California, a distance of approximately 20 miles (32 km).[10]

Jack was an Inaugural Inductee into the National Fitness Hall of Fame in 2005.[11]

On December 15, 2008, in a ceremony presided over by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, LaLanne was inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts alongside 11 other legendary Californians.[12][13] Jack LaLanne's exhibit at the museum features his original work-out equipment and videos of his TV appearances and is on display through 31 October 2009.[14]

[edit] Timeline: Jack LaLanne's feats

As reported on Jack LaLanne's website, and as documented contemporaneously when they happened:

  • 1954 (age 40): Jack swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, underwater, with 140 pounds of equipment, including two air tanks. A world record.
  • 1955 (age 41): Jack swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco while handcuffed. When interviewed afterwards he was quoted as saying that the worst thing about the ordeal was being handcuffed, which reduced his chance to Star Jump significantly.
  • 1956 (age 42): Jack set a world record of 1,033 push-ups in 23 minutes on You Asked For It, a television program with Art Baker.
  • 1957 (age 43): Jack swam the Golden Gate channel while towing a 2,500-pound cabin cruiser. The swift ocean currents turned this one-mile (1.6 km) swim into a swimming distance of 6.5 miles (10.5 km).
  • 1958 (age 44): Jack maneuvered a paddleboard nonstop from Farallon Islands to the San Francisco shore. The 30-mile (48 km) trip took 9.5 hours.
  • 1959 (age 45): Jack did 1,000 star jumps and 1,000 chin-ups in 1 hour, 22 minutes and The Jack LaLanne Show went nationwide.
  • 1974 (age 60): For the second time, Jack swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf. Again, he was handcuffed, but this time he was also shackled and towed a 1,000-pound boat.
  • 1975 (age 61): Repeating his performance of 21 years earlier, Jack again swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge, underwater and handcuffed, but this time he was shackled and towed a 1,000-pound boat.
  • 1976 (age 62): To commemorate the "Spirit of '76", United States Bicentennial, Jack swam one mile (1.6 km) in Long Beach Harbor. He was handcuffed and shackled, and he towed 13 boats (representing the 13 original colonies) containing 76 people.
  • 1979 (age 65): Jack towed 65 boats in Lake Ashinoko, near Tokyo, Japan. He was handcuffed and shackled, and the boats were filled with 6,500 pounds of Louisiana Pacific wood pulp.[15]
  • 1980 (age 66): Jack towed 10 boats in North Miami, Florida. The boats carried 77 people, and he towed them for over one mile (1.6 km) in less than one hour.
  • 1984 (age 70): Once again handcuffed and shackled, Jack fought strong winds and currents as he swam 1.5 miles (2.4 km) while towing 70 boats with 70 people from the Queen's Way Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary.

[edit] Timeline: Jack LaLanne's awards

  • 1992 (age 78): Jack received the Academy of Body Building and Fitness Award.
  • 1994 (age 80): Jack received the State of California Governor's Council on Physical Fitness Lifetime Achievement Award.
  • 1996 (age 82): Jack received the Dwight D. Eisenhower Fitness Award.
  • 1999 (age 85): Jack received the Spirit of Muscle Beach Award.
  • 2002 (age 88): Jack received a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame.
  • 2004 (age 90): Jack celebrated his 90th birthday in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. ESPN Classic ran a 24-hour marathon of the original Jack LaLanne television shows.
  • 2004 (age 90): Jack became the official spokesperson for Covenant Reliance Producers, LLC, a Financial Marketing Organization based in Nashville, Tennessee
  • 2005 (age 91): Jack received the Jack Webb Award from the Los Angeles Police Department Historical Society, the Arnold Classic Lifetime Achievement Award, Interglobal's International Infomercial Award, the Freddie Award, and the Medical Media Public Service Award, and he was a Free Spirit honoree at Al Neuharth's Freedom Forum.

[edit] Filmography

LaLanne appeared as himself in the following films:

LaLanne also voiced himself in the 1999 Simpsons episode The Old Man and the C Student.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] References

  1. ^ Still Going Strong
  2. ^ "Godfather of Fitness" Still Going Strong at 91
  3. ^ Ancestry of Jack LaLanne
  4. ^ "The Jack LaLanne Show" at IMDB"
  5. ^ Jack LaLanne's Glamour Stretcher, NYTimes Exercise Product History
  6. ^ http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml96/96086.html
  7. ^ U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission CPSC, National Media Corporation Announced Juice Tiger Recall Program
  8. ^ [1]
  9. ^ "Jack LaLanne - About Jack". http://www.jacklalanne.com/jack.html. Retrieved on 2009-05-24. 
  10. ^ "A Fitness Icon Keeps His Juices Flowing, by Sally Squires, Washington Post, 12 June 2007". http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/11/AR2007061101919.html. 
  11. ^ National Fitness Hall of Fame Class of 2005. Retrieved on 2008-11-23.
  12. ^ "Jack LaLanne - 2008 Inductee of the California Hall of Fame". http://www.californiamuseum.org/exhibits/halloffame/inductee/jack-lalanne. Retrieved on 2009-04-18. 
  13. ^ "2008 California Hall of Fame Ceremony Information". http://www.californiamuseum.org/event/california-hall-fame-ceremony. Retrieved on 2008-11-23. 
  14. ^ "The California Hall of Fame 2008 Exhibits". The California Museum. http://www.californiamuseum.org/exhibits/california-hall-fame-2008. Retrieved on 2009-04-19. 
  15. ^ A Fitness Icon Keeps His Juices Flowing Washington Post. Published June 12, 2007. Accessed April 18, 2009.

[edit] External links

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