Before "Pilates" there was Joe Pilates.

I have been viewing a bunch of film clips that peek into the world of Joe Pilates back in 1936, 1944 and later. Joe was born in 1880, so he was 56 in this first one, which is a bit like a commercial for his then new Wunda Chair invention. Joe believed everyone should use his system and thus he tried making everday furniture out of the chair in order to help sell it to the masses. He used to demonstrate his equipment in the NY department stores (probably Gimbel's as Gimbel was an early Pilates client) on Saturdays.


Joe showing his wife Clara Pilates the handy dandy feature of turning a reading chair into a piece of gym equipment right in the middle of your apartment.

More of these to come, hope you enjoy Joe Pilates take on the wellness lifestyle going back to way back when. I'm 48 and this was the year my father was born, actually, to put it into perspective. I believe he was right when he said he was 50 years ahead of his time!