The event starred Bob Hope, Pearl Bailey, Ruth Buzzi, Roberta Peters and Charles Nelson Reilly
among others, and took place in Madison Square Garden but the main
attraction was a housewife named Jean, from Queens, NY, who went on the
New York City Obesity Clinic, invited a few friends to meet at her place
and help each other lose weight. Among them was a lady named Felice Lippert and in 1963 her husband, Al, saw the potential of the meetings and
they, along with Jean's husband, Marty, incorporated and Weight Watchers
was born.
I
joined WW in March 1967, lost my weight, became a lecturer in New York
and then 2 years later moved to Memphis to start Weight Watchers Of
Greater Memphis, Eastern Arkansas, Western Tennessee and Chattanooga. As
I mentioned in yesterday's post it had been 43 years since I first had
the WW milkshake and yesterday the first time in 20 years! There must
have been something in that shake because the best decade in my life,
1969-1979, came back to me almost as if I was living it again.
I quickly became a big fish in a small pond and I worked for every penny I made. Actually it was a lot of pennies but that's another story.
Bernie
and I worked 24/7, he behind the scenes running the business end and I
was the front man going radio, TV, newspapers and magazine interviews
not to forget meetings where I talked to hundreds of people.
For 6 years I worked and played hard, traveled all over the United States not to forget South America, Australia, New Zealand, Vancouver, Mexico, Canada and cruised the Caribbean and surrounding areas.
Through it all I weighed in officially with my lifetime membership book meeting my goal weight of 176. Ummmm, I wonder if that FREE membership is still good--oh I would have to pay a $2 late fee. LOL
We
went from working out of our homes to opening a center and a short 2
years later, in 1971, we had enough staff to hold our First Annual
Dinner Dance at the Holid
posted on Aug 19, 2010 7:01 PM ()
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