I met Jack Lalanne when he was much younger -- 82!
It was one of the thrills of my life to produce a television segment about him back in the '90s. Along with then-correspondent Bill Lagattuta and a camera crew, I headed out to Lalanne's home in Morro Bay, California, to watch his two-hour morning workout.
Lalanne began by jumping in his pool and swimming and doing special exercises. It was 5:30 a.m. and even in California, it was cold. While the cameraman videotaped Jack swimming his octogenarian head off, Lagattuta and I watched in amazement.
"This is one of the best things about this job," Lags said. "I grew up watching this guy on TV."
I agreed. It's not so often in life you can visit a legend in his home. After the swimming, Jack hit the gym. It was his own gym of course and it was fully outfitted and as big as any sports club.
Then it was time for breakfast. I think I had grabbed a coffee and roll on the drive up to Jack's home. That was not his breakfast of choice. He a power shake prepared by "Lala" Lalanne, his longtime wife. And then he headed to his vitamin cabinet where he popped vitamin after vitamin into his mouth so quickly that some fell to the floor.
When it came time for the interview, Jack was full of schtick. Lags told him that his mother used to watch him all the time during those early days of television. "I spent a lot of time on the floor with your mother," Jack said.
He had all his lines down pat but he was still a revelation. Aside from the gym where he worked out, Jack also had a museum gym filled with "original" equipment he had created with the help of a blacksmith back in the '30s, '40s and '50s. Back then, there weren't sports clubs on every corner. There were free weights and that's pretty much it. It was Jack who created things like the incline bench, and other sports equipment that are now ubiquitous. But he had not patented any of it.
The thing about Jack Lalanne that people don't know is that, yes, he did an insane amount of exercise every day but he also ate very little and restricted his calories. Not that he cared. I asked him if he ever felt like eating a cookie and he said no, he didn't. The thought never even popped into his head.
He believed in fresh food, vitamins and of course exercise. He lived to be 96 years old so he must've been doing something right. He was convinced he was right and had total belief in himself. It was not for nothing that he built a statue of himself at the entrance to his property.
After I produced the segment and it ran, I got a package from Jack. It was a little acrylic heart-shaped award to me and the crew. "Thank you from the bottom of our athletic hearts. Elaine & Jack Lalanne"
He was a class act.
I just remembered one other thing he said: "I'm never going to die. It's bad for business."
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