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Jack LaLanne – September 26, 1914

“An apostle for fitness” – Arnold Schwarzenegger

Photographer-Cliff Riddle, Hollywood., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Born Francois Henri LaLanne in San Francisco, California, to Jean LaLanne and Jennie LaLanne (Garaig), he declared himself to be a “sugarholic” and “junk food junkie” until the age of 15. After that, he came to believe that physical culture and nutrition were the “salvation of America.”

1920 us census lalanne
Click on the census for a larger version

LaLanne and his family are living on Union Avenue in Kern, California, on the 1920 census on lines 1-7. The household consists of young Henri, his brother Norman (who nicknamed him Jack} and their parents, Jean and Jennie. The family was living with Jennie’s father Frank, a widower, and his son Henry. There was also a boarder present, Emil LaLanne, who was probably Jack’s uncle.

Jean and Emil were both electricians. Frank was a “sheep man” and Henry was a farmer. The occupation of almost everyone else on the page was farmer.

Frank, Henry, Jean, and Jennie were all immigrants from France. Around half the entries on the page are people born in California but other states such as Iowa, Indiana, Tennessee, Missouri, and Ohio are represented, as well as immigrants from Germany, Austria, and Wales

Later Life:

LaLanne had a long fitness career. He opened a chain of 200 health clubs called Jack LaLanne’s European Health Spas.  He invented fitness equipment, wrote fitness books, sold fitness videos, vitamin supplements, and electric juicers. He was even briefly a professional wrestler. His exercise TV show ran for 34 years.

The feats of Jack LaLanne (As reported on Jack LaLanne’s website):

  • 1954 (age 40) – Swam the entire 8,981-foot (1.7 mi; 2.7 km) length of the Golden Gate in San Francisco, underwater, with 140 lb. (64 kg; 10 st) of air tanks and other equipment strapped to his body; a world record.
  • 1955 (age 41) – Swam from Alcatraz Island to Pier 43 in San Francisco while handcuffed.[36][37] When interviewed afterward, he was quoted as saying that the worst thing about the ordeal was being handcuffed, which significantly reduced his ability to do a jumping jack.
  • 1956 (age 42) – Set what was claimed as a world record of 1,033 push-ups in 23 minutes on You Asked For It, a television program hosted by Art Baker.
  • 1957 (age 43) – Swam the Golden Gate channel while towing a 2,500 lb (1,130 kg; 180 st) 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) – 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) – Did 1,000 push-ups and 1,000 chin-ups in 1 hour, and 22 minutes, to promote The Jack LaLanne Show going nationwide. LaLanne said this was the most difficult of his stunts, but only because the skin on his hands started ripping off during the chin-ups. He felt he couldn’t stop, because it would be seen as a public failure.
  • 1974 (age 60) – For the second time, he swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman’s Wharf. Again, he was handcuffed, but this time he was also shackled and towed a 1,000 lb. (450 kg; 71 st) boat, according to his obituary in the Los Angeles Times in 2011 and his website. However, according to an account of this event published in the Los Angles times the day after it occurred, written by Philip Hager, a Times staff writer, LaLanne was neither handcuffed nor shackled if each of those terms has the conventional meaning of “tightly binding the wrists or ankles together with a pair of metal fasteners.” Hager says that LaLanne “had his hands and feet bound with cords that allowed minimal freedom.” But “minimal” clearly did not mean “no” freedom, since elsewhere in the article Hager describes LaLanne’s method of propulsion through the water as “half-breast-stroke, half-dog paddle” which is how you swim with your hands tied.
  • 1975 (age 61) – Repeating his performance of 21 years earlier, he again swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge, underwater and handcuffed, but this time he was shackled and towed a 1,000 lb (450 kg; 71 st) boat.
  • 1976 (age 62) – To commemorate the “Spirit of ’76,” United States Bicentennial, he 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) – Towed 65 boats in Lake Ashinoko, near Tokyo, Japan. He was handcuffed and shackled, and the boats were filled with 6,500 lb. (2,950 kg; 460 st) of Louisiana Pacific wood pulp.
  • 1980 (age 66) – 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) – He towed 70 rowboats, one with several guests, from the Queen’s Way Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary, 1 mile.

LaLanne died of respiratory failure due to pneumonia at age 96.

For more on the life of Jack LaLanne:

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

Other happenings on September 26, 1914

Tomorrow – A flying mammal from Hades

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Sources

  • Wikipedia.org
  • Ancestry.com
  • Onthisday.com
  • Picryl.com
  • Youtube.com

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