January 24, 2011
Jack LaLanne (1914-2011)
“Billy Graham was for the hereafter. I’m for the here and now,” he told The [LA] Times when he was almost 92, employing his usual rapid-fire patter.
Once upon a time, Jack LaLanne was a figure of fun to me. Corny guy in a jumpsuit, host of a cheesy TV exercise show for housewives.
But I came around. In the face of disapproval from established medical authorities, he encouraged work-outs (including weight-bearing exercise) for women, old people, and people with disabilities. He advocated good nutrition (not dieting) — and friends who own his trademarked juicer swear it’s one of the best.
Jack LaLanne, dead at 96.
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Everyone who knows me knows that I’m an infomercial aficionado, and Mr. Lalanne’s were some of the best.
Those infomercials usually wash over me, but, I used to sit and watch his. Even I wanted one of those damn juicers, I might have even bought one in a drive thru if it had been an option!
In a sense, he was quite the evangelist! On the other hand, I think he understood the limits of evangelism.
I really like the quotation, buried within the LA Times obituary, in which he spoke of a good friend who weighed 300 pounds, drank a quart of booze a day, and smoked. LaLanne said, “I’ll light someone’s cigarette. You can’t change people. Accept ‘em!”
I remember watching Jack Lalanne when I was a little kid and TVs looked like furniture. He was great. When he talked with his hands, it was like he was picking up heavy shit with ease.
Also, I’m pretty sure Jack LaLanne was the inspiration for Martin Short’s character on Arrested Development, which is one of my favorite things ever.
Daryl, my memories of the guy date back to the TV-as-furniture era as well. There was just this brief time in the late 1960s and early 1970s when he seemed silly to me, but it was me who was silly.
Encouraging housewives to do push-ups! In the 1950s!
I remember watching Jack Lalanne when I was a little kid and TVs looked like furniture.
Daryl, what a wonderful line.
Within the photos I scavenged last year from my mother’s house is at least one of our family gazing, hypnotized, at my father’s father’s heavy-duty TV encased in dark varnished wood. There was a record player in the thing, too, I think.
It’s kind of funny that Jack LaLanne spread his message through the very medium that contributed so much to the fattening of America.
Jack Lalanne! He was a force and an evangelist. Too bad we (I) didn’t pay enough attention back then. Sheila? Those pieces of furniture, as I recall, had a name. They were called “entertainment centers.” My aunt and uncle had one. It must have been nine-feet long. I remember the sound of it. I was used to listening on my transistor. When they played records on this thing, it was like the world opened up. The floor rumbled. The high notes, crisp and clear.
Now we have “media rooms.” The cabinetry is no longer there.
My first component stereo, would rattle the windows at half-volume. The speakers were still in (separate) cabinets, back then. Fifteen-inch woofers hiding inside two-by-three-foot walnut boxes I turned on their sides. Used them as occasional tables at either end of the couch.
Friends who came over would ask where the speakers were. I’d say, “Your drink is sitting on it.”
The syntax isn’t correct. “Your drink is sitting on one of them.” Pro’ly more correct.
If I remember correctly, Jack was on Channel 11, our independent station here in the Dallas area which also showed reruns, Slam Bang Theater and Nightmare. Until JFK (and probably after, in some circles) exercise was just thought to be weird. I remember Bob Cummings (of Love That Bob!) being referred to, derisively, as a “health faddist.”
We were just looking at one of these juicers.
Those juicers are awesome.
As was the organ music on LaLanne’s early shows. (Thanks, Steve, for the YouTube clip.)
Ah, Renner, yes! That derogatory term health faddist! Those crackpots who ate fresh vegetables and whole-grain bread and practiced yoga.
The obese majority of the Heartland never let that California nonsense penetrate much beyond the college towns.
Organ music. That reminds me: the Liberace Show was often on just after the LaLane show. My mother would stand at the ironing board watching him sparkle as he did his piano fandango. She liked him because he was said to love his mother very much.
Iconic TV and radio figures beloved of American housewives: Jack LaLanne. Liberace. Arthur Godfrey.
It makes a person think.
We’ll always remember Jack LaLanne for changing the way we view fitness. He proved you can be healthy and happy at any age! He was such a great character, he cracks me up in this video.
Great clip, Chloe. Thank you.
“This is it. This moment controls the next moment.”