Jack LaLanne 1914-2011

Back in 2005 I got an assignment to shoot a Jack LaLanne fitness presentation for the city of Chattanooga, TN. I found out on arriving at the event that Jack had just celebrated his 91st birthday. I knew that Jack was a fitness celebrity from a time long before I was born, so while I was intrigued I didn't expect that I would have any trouble covering the event. I was wrong. From the moment Jack's wife Elaine announced him on stage he had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand. He walked onto the stage in a one-piece black power-suit with one hand on his hip, hunched over & hobbling, dragging one foot behind him. The audience began to whisper, I looked around trying to figure out what the big deal was with this elderly guy, I couldn't see him having any useful fitness information to pass along if he could barely walk.



Suddenly Jack dropped face first, the audience gasped and I raised my camera anticipating the worst. What I saw in my viewfinder completely dumbfounded me. Jack caught himself, arms-locked, inches from he floor and began pounding out push-ups with ease while grinning at the audience with a smile that would put Jack Nicholson to shame. For the next half-hour Jack never stopped moving, he had everyone in attendance out of breath trying to keep up with him - myself included. I didn't know how much more this guy could have left, he went through his entire daily routine plus he had already given out additional fitness routines to a group of pregnant ladies, an office party, a high-school football team and a hoard of other elderly attendees.

As the program winded down Jack was enthusiastically taking questions from the audience in-between doing jumping-jacks and squat thrusts. I moved to the back of the crowd to try to get some wide-angle shots and noticed an elderly lady in a wheel chair on the back row trying to raise her arm above her head to ask a question. I knew no one could see her so I stood behind her and waved at the stage hoping they could see me. Jack squinted in my direction and waved back, I pointed down and the crowd turned and parted to see who I was pointing at. Jack's wife Elaine bolted from the stage and brought a microphone to the woman so she could ask a question. A hush fell over the audience as the woman's frail voice asked if it was too late for her and if there was anything she could do to exercise. Jack stopped his entire presentation, walked out to the woman and delivered his trade-mark line of "It's never too late to start exercising" with the sincerity of a true believer. He then returned to the stage and on-the-spot created a workout routine for the woman as if she were the only person in attendance.

Jack passed away today at the age of 96 at his home in Morro Bay, California. Jack came from a period in America when the actions and accomplishments of a person spoke much louder than the empty words that fill up newspaper articles and page-six tabloids. If there was ever an example of someone who truly talked the talk and walked the walk it was Jack. How many other people do you know who celebrated their 70th birthday by swimming 1.5 miles in hand-cuffs while towing 70 boats with 70 people in them? Whenever I feel a lack of motivation to exercise and take care of myself all I have to do is think about Jack, I know he would kick my ass if I even thought about giving up. Today we didn't lose some mindless over-hyped media-created celebrity. We lost a true American icon.

Check out some of Jack's incredible career accomplishments on his website below:

http://www.jacklalanne.com/jacks-adventures/feats-and-honors.php

Check out Jack's career overview on his Wikipedia page below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_LaLanne

Check out a great interview with Jack from Outside magazine Below:

http://outsideonline.com/magazine/1195/11f_jack.html