Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Keeping Fit in the New Year 1959 Style


Since it's a new decade, I decided to finally act on the same resolution that I've been making for the last 10 or 15 years – that is, to get some exercise. So I joined the new coed Anytime Fitness on Oak Point Road in Amherst.

Now if it was 1959, I could have joined Dee's Shoreway Health Studio in the Shoreway Shopping Center a mile from my house in Sheffield Lake. (I first mentioned this business in my blog back here.)
The July 1959 ad (click on it for a larger view) is interesting because it indicates that there were different hours for men and women to use the facilities. Also, the women are being urged to get ready for the swimsuit season while the men are supposed to preparing for football season! ( I thought getting ready for football season meant you made sure you had plenty of potato chips on hand.)
As opposed to the 1959 phone book ad (at right) the newspaper ad features an actual model, probably from a stock photo collection. It kind of reminds me of the old black and white cheesecake postcards that used to be in the machines in the Arcade at Cedar Point.
Times sure have changed. My gym, Anytime Fitness, has a lot of great equipment, but unlike Dee's Shoreway Health Studio, no on site masseuse or masseur for us martini-swigging, grey-flannel-suited businessmen. (I'll have to bring that up with the owner!)


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