Stuart Karl began his life as a competitive California surfer. He was very good looking and his blonde hair had been touched by the sun. Mr Karl had quite a few careers.
One was selling waterbeds. Once I was doing a personal appearance and they put me up in a big hotel that looked like a lodge. Did you see the movie The Shining with Jack Nicholson? This is what the hotel looked like. My room was very nice. I went and sat on the bed. It was a waterbed. And when I sat on this bed the water bounced up and hit me in the tushie . There were no other rooms available so I slept on the couch.
Mr Karl then dabbled in politics trying to get people into political offices. That did not go very well.
Back in the day, you could only buy video tapes from movies. And Mr Karl had a different idea…well quite a few ideas. He thought to himself, what about fitness videos? He produced some of mine and also Jane Fonda. This was a perfect match for Mr Karl.
One of the videos he co produced was Get Started. This is a video for people who are just beginning an exercise routine. We didn’t work together anymore. He kept doing his thing and I kept doing mine
My agent told me that a retirement community in Boca Raton, Florida, would like me to work out with the residents who lived in the community. When I flew down to Century Village I found out it was not a village….it was an entire city.
It was modern, clean, and the condos were very large. It was so nice I bought my mother Shirley a condo. I met such wonderful characters. My mother and I both shot several commercials for Century Village.
I went there once a month to teach classes for many years. I would hug and kiss the men…and the women. When the residents came to work out they had such a zest for life. I played the oldies and made all of my movements low impact.
I had a great idea. Why not do a video for seniors. I don’t care too much for the term seniors. I thought we should name the video Richard Simmons and the Silver Foxes. I told my idea to David Krieff and Carole Myers. They thought it was great.
Now….who is going to be in this besides me. I was not a silver fox yet. lol Again we went to my agent and put our feelers out for silver foxes to dance with me.
To be continued…
Love,
Richard
