Some of these Fitness Fads Through the Decades posts have proved somewhat difficult to research, with a lack of interesting sources and images. Not so the Seventies! A quick internet search instantly brought up numerous pages dedicated to the hilarious and puzzling exercise trends and equipment of that always-entertaining decade. (I was born in it, so I have at least half a leg to stand on, here.) With headlines like “Strange and Terrible Fitness Products from the 1970s” and tagged with handy keywords like “mind-blowing” and “FAIL”, these recent articles show that sauna suits, vibrating belts, and basic bicycles have not fared well the test of time. (Here are a few examples, minus the snark.)
The Eighties don’t score much better in today’s “OMG LOL”-minded view of the past, and I must admit that I am always amused by the earnestness and enthusiasm – which I myself never achieved in 9th grade gym class – displayed by the participants in, say, the 1988 National Aerobics Championships.
Burnt-orange exercise bikes, sparkly aqua spandex, and sweatbands for everyone might seem humorous today, but as always it’s important to remember that this was the real deal at the time. Yes, some people were in it to make money (and some did quite well), and yes, it seems unlikely that many people thought a vibrating belt thingy would be much practical use. And many of these trends we so closely associate with recent decades are in fact much older; aerobics, Jacki Sorenson’s “aerobic dancing,” and Jazzercize were all first developed in the 1960s, and the belt vibrator was invented in the 1850s. However, countless Americans were able to improve their health, strength, and endurance by following these fitness fads, however quaintly nostalgic they seem now. After all, those 1988 Aerobics Champions might look a trifle over-exuberant, but they’re also, obviously, extremely fit.
Much of the appeal – to both the entrepreneurs and the consumers – of these exercise styles and gadgets lay in the fact that you could do it at home. Buy yourself a stationary bike, a VCR, and some Jane Fonda’s Workout tapes, and you were good to go. Nevertheless gyms, fitness clubs, and rec center classes proliferated as well, offering the less motivated among us the chance to work out with friends, use the fancy equipment (without having to buy it) and learn from experts. As usual, our JCC collection provides us with some prime examples of Baltimoreans taking advantage of the Jewish Community Center’s equipment and instructors.
Featured Image Caption: Outdoor men’s fitness class at the JCC, 1975. Gift of the Jewish Community Center of Baltimore. JMM 2006.13.1941
Post by JMM Collections Manager Joanna Church.
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In 1956, in response to an alarming medical journal article on the state of fitness in America’s youth ,President Eisenhower established the President’s Council on Youth Fitness. Once again, U.S children had been compared to Europe’s, and found wanting. In the early 1960s President Kennedy changed “Youth” to “Physical,” hoping to address the health of all Americans regardless of age, and the Council launched a national advertising campaign.
Much of the focus of the Council was fitness programs in schools; perhaps you remember taking the Presidential Physical Fitness Test (if you dreaded it as much as I did, you may be relieved to know that you were not alone, and that the test has been substantially changed. Thanks to the internet, we can watch, or re-watch, some of the Kennedy-era instructional films like this 10 minute movie made for elementary schools. The message here – and it’s not subtle – is that a fit populace is necessary for a successful United States:
Enthusiastic student: “If we’re healthy and strong, wouldn’t our nation be strong?”
Miss Teacher: “Of course! You are the future of America…”
Maryland’s own Future of America was fortunate to have the JCC on its side, along with the school system and the Department of Parks and Recreation. Promotional material from the newly-built JCC facility on Park Heights Avenue in the early 1960s makes clear the connection between occupied, engaged, and active youth, and “healthy-bodied and healthy-minded adults.”
Feature Image Caption: Neal Grossman won the Edward “Pat” Berman Memorial Trophy For the Best, Most Versatile Athlete of the JCC, 1966. Gift of the Jewish Community Center of Baltimore. JMM 2006.13.95
Post by JMM Collections Manager Joanna Church.
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In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, interest grew in the physical, educational, and moral benefits of athleticism, particularly for children. Educators and reformers worked on to introduce gymnastics into school curricula, build playgrounds for children, and promote physical activity from a young age. By the 1920s, however, attention turned to the needs of adults.
In 1924, President Coolidge addressed the first National Conference on Outdoor Recreation, noting that as more and more American jobs turned to “purely clerical activities,” physical exercise must be supplemented through other opportunities for (as he stated several times) “both old and young.” Around the same time, the National Park Service and the National Education Association turned their attention to the organized sports, and spaces in which to play them. It was time for public parks to make room for ball fields and courts amongst the bucolic vistas and greenery.
Right: Eddie Schunick, Melvin Kerber, Stanley Berngartt (Stanford Reed), and Robert Blaney playing softball in Druid Hill Park, 1938. Gift of Stanford C. Reed. JMM 1987.19.5
Maryland was already in the game, so to speak; the Public Athletic League had been organizing sports games for Baltimore’s young adults since 1908. In 1922, it merged with the Children’s Playground Association of Baltimore City to form the Playground Athletic League, providing services in “the Playground Department, embracing the free play and motor activities of children under ten years of age; the Athletic Department, directing the organized, competitive athletic contests of adolescent boys and girls; and the Adult Recreation Department, handling the larger problems of community recreation and the intelligent use of leisure.”
As part of its mission, the PAL (as both the Public and Playground versions were known) organized athletic competitions and tests of “efficiency” for “school children, as well as the boys and girls who may not be attending school, and also the people at large.” A glance through the 1922 handbook shows that the group was very busy, with divisions in each county across the state, and a separate branch serving Baltimore’s African-American community. PAL employed a wide number of men and women, from coaches and “play leaders” to nurses and mucisians.
Both versions of the PAL provided opportunities for Jewish organizations like the Young Men’s and Women’s Hebrew Associations, the Jewish Educational Alliance, and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum – all of which are represented in the 1910s-1920s PAL listings – to participate in Baltimore’s recreation community. The JEA boys seem to have done particularly well in the institutional basketball competitions; for example, in the Fifteenth Annual Institutional Basket Ball Tournament of 1923 – in which “great interest and enthusiasm marked the season, which furnished an entry of 68 teams and 539 players” – there were six age/weight classes in competition, and the JEA won five of them.
True, this photo predates this week’s “Fitness Fad” time frame a bit, but it’s too good to pass up. These nine boys from the JEA posed while participating in a Public Athletic League event in 1914. Lee L. Dopkin (front row, second from left) won several PAL medals during the 1910s, including the linked set shown here attached to a general PAL badge. These rectangular medals were awarded to Dopkin (for his relevant age/weight class) in: (top to bottom) Broad Jump, 1910; Dodgeball, 1912; Potato Race, 1915; Dodgeball, 1910; Dodgeball, 1913; Basketball, 1914.
Despite economic setbacks during the Depression, the PAL continued to provide athletic and exercise options for the youth of Maryland. In 1940, the various private sports and recreation organizations in Baltimore – of which PAL was only one – were merged into a newly formed Baltimore City Department of Public Recreation, which in turn merged with the City’s Parks Department in the late 1940s; other county and municipal governments took up the slack in their own areas. Today, we may take our local Parks and Recreation Departments for granted, but it’s worth remembering the men and women, staff and participants, who worked to make sure that recreational sports were available to all, not only school children.
For more on the history of public recreation in Baltimore, see The Play Life of a City: Baltimore’s Recreation and Parks 1900-1955, by Barry Kessler and David Zang, 1989, or the other resources listed here.
Image at top: Young men practicing basketball drills in the Jewish Educational Alliance gymnasium, circa 1935. Gift of Jack Chandler. JMM 1992.231.146
Post by JMM Collections Manager Joanna Church.