A Unique American Hero

He was one of a rare breed—a native, lifelong Californian. He was a prodigious author and celebrity known around the world. As a kid he was a junk food addict and prone to violent outbursts targeted at himself as well as others. "A miserable, goddam kid" was how he described himself.

When he was a teenager he happened to hear a talk on healthy lifestyles. It would become a seminal moment in his life. He picked up a copy of Gray's Anatomy and started reading. His goal was to live better and live longer. He swore off the junk food and started exercising. He felt better about himself. He finished high school and studied to be a chiropractor.

In the 1930s, after receiving his chiropractic license he opened a gym in Oakland, Ca. and began preaching what was up till that time the unheard gospel of weight training. It was he who designed the device that would become known as the "Smith machine." The Smith was device that held a barbell in a fixed position, allowing only vertical movement and isolating the muscles used to raise and lower the bar. Today it is a staple of any gym worthy of the name.

Some 50 years after he opened that first gym and 200 gyms later, he sold his operation to Bally's, which renamed them Bally Total Fitness.

His accomplishments were stuff of Superman. At age 40 he swam the length of the Golden Gate Bridge. Underwater. Three years later he swam it above the surface, but towing a cabin cruiser. Twenty years later he did it again, this time underwater, handcuffed and towing another boat. At the age of 70 he towed 70 boats, one for each year, while swimming across Long Beach Harbor—a distance of one mile. He was shackled and handcuffed at the time.

Maybe his most enduring accomplishment was teaching a generation of women that lifting weights was OK for them. That it was more that OK—it would help them look and feel better about themselves. In doing so he explodedthe popular myth that weight-lifting women would end up looking like mustached wrestlers. He did this on the down low—meeting with them every morning over the television airwaves. He had the rare gift that most broadcasters can only hope for: He engaged each member of his audience and made them believe they were having a one-on-one conversation. For nearly 35 years his fitness television show provided an outlet for stay-at-home moms (most of the moms at the time) to exercise daily in the privacy of their own homes. Most of the husbands never knew.

Today their daughters and granddaughters can be found by the millions in health clubs, gyms, bike and road races and dance and yoga classes across the U.S. He taught them it was OK to sweat and that looking and feeling good about themselves was a good thing.

The California kid who gave up junk food and decided he wanted to live a good and long life died yesterday. He was 96. His name was Jack LaLanne and he's left an indelible mark on America.

Just thought you might like to know.