When I returned from South Carolina at the end of December, I had a lot of mail awaiting me.
One piece was a letter from my gym -- the Norman Marks Fitness Center. The letter was from Marks' daughter, Rhonda, informing me that after 65 years, the gym was closing its doors on January 7. Three weeks ago, I was in that gym for the last time. His daughter Wendie, who ran the gym with Rhonda for the past several years, told me they were in communication with Jack LaLanne who wanted some of his prototype gym equipment returned to him for his museum. I expressed some surprise and asked Wendie which equipment had been LaLanne's prototypes...and she walked me through the gym. Every single piece of equipment I had been training on the past two years -- as part of a program set up for me by one of the trainers there -- was on LaLanne's prototype equipment.
Norman Marks was a contemporary of LaLanne's. They both got their start here in Oakland. Both were close friends and competitors. Marks lived an extraordinary life, but not on LaLanne's level. When LaLanne moved south to begin his television career, Marks was the only game in town with an active gym owned and operated by an all-natural bodybuilder with world-class credentials. Marks died in November 2009. The gym had lost many customers when he became unable to be in the gym every day. This happened several years ago. After his death, his daughters hoped business would return, but it never picked up substantially enough to be profitable for them. They own the building and can lease it out or sell it, but Oakland has lost a landmark gym that was in operation longer than I've been alive.
It's sad to see these people pass, but it is inevitable. All things must pass, as they say.
Damn it!
