Vintage Pilates

November 28, 2001

Ever wonder what it would be like to take a Pilates class from Joe himself? Grueling. In 1962, Sports Illustrated took readers inside the Joseph H. Pilates Universal Gymnasium, and captured a great portrait of the exercise icon:

 

     “Where are you going—like an elephant?”

 

     “Oh, Joe,” wails a ballerina, “now you’re calling me an elephant.”

 

     “I wouldn’t insult the elephant. An elephant could walk through this room, and you wouldn’t hear it. An elephant walks delicately. But you—clump, clump, clump!”

 

Read the whole brilliant thing in the SI vault.