與約瑟夫普拉提的一天
- Feb 2, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 22, 2022
A DAY WITH JOSEPH PILATES
I.C. RapoportMarch 14, 2016Joseph Pilates, Life Magazine, On Assignment, Sports Illustrated, Travelogue
PHOTOS OF JOSEPH H. PILATES
JOE PILATES – THE ASSIGNMENT THAT WOULD LAST A LIFETIME
(OCTOBER 4, 1961)
October First arrived. We counted the days. Only two more weeks together. I had already given up hope of some sort of reprieve. Besides, I had worked hard to make the transition from civilian to soldier as painless as possible. I always knew that as long as I was taking pictures, whatever situation I was in was tolerable. In some odd way, I was looking forward to being drafted, to shoot my own basic training, perhaps to finally get that big photo essay onto the pages of LIFE magazine. October 13th drew ever nearer and Mary and I spent a lot of time together those last days before induction.
Then, another call from Buddy Bloodgood of Sports Illustrated. “Have you been drafted yet?” he barked into the phone. “I’m not leaving until the 13th,” I answered. “So, then you have time for a one-day job? Tomorrow, all day. Right here in Manhattan.”
Of course I had the time. Anything to take my mind off the coming separation. I was happy to take any assignment, plus I desperately needed the money. “Okay,” he continued. “Go to 939 Eighth Avenue, by 56th Street, and meet our reporter. There’s an old guy there named Joe Pilates who has some sort of health gym. One of our freelance writers has been going to him for some kind of treatments, and he’s written an article about him. Go there and illustrate that article. The guy’s got these torture machines, with belts and pulleys and springs, and he connects them to people and stretches them out, or God knows what. Get some pictures of him looking wild. You know, crazy, too. Wild and crazy.”
So, I went to Joe Pilates’ gymnasium on 8th Avenue. It didn’t take long for me to see that I had stepped into a modern day, inquisition-like, torture chamber. While the S.I. reporter and I waited for our subject to appear in the entryway I watched a shapely young woman in black leotards hanging upside down, her feet “tied” onto the upper rails of a “rack,” her head and shoulder pressed down on a padded bed. She clutched at a wooden bar connected by steel springs to side posts and she held it over her head. Breathing heavily, she struggled with each agonizing pull on the bar. I was certain that after several more repetitions she would soon confess to anything.
“People pay for this,” I asked myself?
Before I could answer a curtain was pulled aside and a near-naked man stepped into the room, barefoot and wearing only black briefs, he dried his hands on a small white towel.
“Joe Pilates,” he said, smiling. I had been told he was 80 years old, but this guy, though looking way older than me (I knew what my grandpa looked like at age 80) didn’t look a day over 60. As far as .................................... http://icrapoport.com/a-day-with-joseph-pilates/
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