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Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. With the

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It's April 24th,

0:32

1982, and another remarkable event is about to be uncovered by... Aria,

0:42

Rebecca and Ali. The

0:45

Retrospecters! So

0:48

as today in history that the

0:50

model-turned-award-winning actor turned activist Jane Fonda

0:52

became a quadruple threat by releasing

0:54

her smash hit exercise video, Workout,

0:56

turning more than 20 million

0:58

Americans into aerobics enthusiasts pretty

1:01

much overnight, while simultaneously

1:03

helping to make sweatbands, leg warmers,

1:05

tights and neon leotards the look

1:07

of the decade. Yeah, in 1982,

1:09

fewer than 10% of households in

1:11

the United States had VCRs. So

1:13

25,000 copies of a

1:15

tape being sold would be considered a successful

1:17

release. After Jane Fonda's

1:19

Workout and this initial tape selling

1:21

17 million copies by

1:23

the end of its run, 30%

1:27

of American households had videotape

1:29

machines. Jane Fonda was the

1:31

first non-engineer inducted into the

1:33

Video Hall of Fame. Yeah,

1:36

and ironically, part of the reason she'd agreed to make

1:38

the video in the first place was that she had

1:40

assumed hardly anyone would see it. For the reasons you

1:43

mentioned here, she wasn't wild about the idea initially. The

1:45

first VCRs had only hit the market in 1977, and

1:47

so far the two main sectors outside of

1:50

theatrical releases seem to be DIY tutorials and

1:52

porn. And I mean, at this point, she

1:54

had won two Oscars. She was doing pretty

1:56

well. It wasn't necessarily the most attractive prospect,

1:58

but persuaded her to do it. With

2:00

a potential benefit to that political activism the

2:02

immense and dairy it's see. Other husband at

2:05

the Palm: Tom Hayden had founded a leftist

2:07

lobby group, the Campaign for Economic Democracy and

2:09

he was running for the California State Assembly

2:11

at the time, and she was deflated that

2:14

hey, a Vhs might throw in a couple

2:16

of extra bucks. The of the reason

2:18

she turned to being an aerobics instructor

2:20

in the first place was that in

2:23

Nineteen Seventy Eight when she was filming

2:25

The China Syndrome she suffered a broken

2:27

ankle which prompted her to hold her

2:30

ballet exercises and in search of a

2:32

weight loss solution that wouldn't strain her

2:34

foot, she turned to many tests and

2:37

who had crafted this extensive exercise routine

2:39

aimed at burning calories. Fonda enrolled intestines

2:41

classes and really just got into this

2:43

exercise style and reflecting on the limited

2:46

options for. Women's Fitness in Nineteen

2:48

Seventy Eight. Fonda basically said that

2:50

most teams were geared towards men

2:52

and emphasized the avoidance of sweating

2:54

and muscle development spicier with something

2:56

new and so well. Filming The

2:58

Electric Horseman in Utah in late

3:00

Nineteen Seventy Eight and Seventy Nine,

3:02

Fonda then said test and exercises

3:05

with her fellow actors and good

3:07

of really positive feedback and then

3:09

he may Seventy Nine at Fonda

3:11

and Terezin join forces to establish

3:13

Work Out which was an exercise

3:15

Ceos on Robertson Boulevard. In Beverly

3:17

Hills. known as Jane Fonda's Work

3:19

Out and basically it was replace

3:22

the even com and do classes

3:24

with this absolute Hollywood superstar. Yes,

3:26

but also. In a female space

3:28

as well, which was important. As he said,

3:30

you know she'd identified the one of the

3:32

things that made women feel awkward about working

3:34

out a tool is the gyms when mail

3:37

spaces for bodybuilder types. And you know as

3:39

a woman feeling about point in a lot

3:41

of a site that has as I do

3:43

with i'm Sexy because it shouldn't be about

3:45

that, you should be about feeling good but

3:47

actually ban A lot of these women that

3:49

were into it, were into they wanted to

3:51

look better as they felt they should be

3:53

perceived, didn't want to be sweating and working

3:55

out in front of man in those males

3:57

bases. And actually, if you look at

3:59

James. His own history of body image

4:01

see ultimately got into working out, partly

4:04

because of that injury that she'd had,

4:06

but also because she'd been at almost

4:08

lifelong polemic as she developer Lamia as

4:10

a teenager at boarding school She was

4:12

from a kind of Hollywood's Dynasty Nice.

4:15

His daughter and fab Henry Fonda using

4:17

the Grapes of Wrath and Twelve Angry

4:19

Men said she'd grown up partly in

4:21

the public eye with those kinds of

4:23

precious around her and happened is slightly

4:25

addictive personality which he can see in

4:28

every aspect of her career, including. The

4:30

political activism which is once you start something

4:32

she obviously gets very highly involved in and

4:34

completely christ in it and so it came

4:36

to be with Work Out. Of

4:39

the it wasn't a coincidence that she

4:41

had trained extensively about how long distance

4:43

was. One of those few acceptable outlet

4:45

for linux. get involved in Santa, stopping

4:47

for traders and a lot along something

4:50

is swimming and punish. It's nothing that

4:52

list deceived as maybe insects and it's

4:54

almost impossible to imagine that lead to

4:56

some air the it's precinct last three

4:58

black thumbs and hands freeze them but

5:00

the that it holds the wasn't much

5:02

left. recreational, great exercise and and not

5:05

team sports. that's that's your house live

5:07

on. Mother had the. Time necessarily to

5:09

commit to the team sport The know

5:11

they have an opponent's adult women to

5:14

be playing sports ice. it's exercise in

5:16

a group with a wasn't particularly available

5:18

to most people. The closest thing to

5:21

re that the for right axis Calisthenics

5:23

a bodyweight exercises to things and squats

5:25

that this was associated really with military

5:27

or school fitness drills. Not really fun

5:30

or accessible aerobics itself as he was

5:32

initially developed for the minutes is developed

5:34

for the Us Air Force by Dr.

5:37

Kenneth. It's keep internal polling. Put so

5:39

trying to introduce some cards as into

5:41

that strength focus calisthenics exercise it doesn't

5:43

a similar to fitness they realized that

5:45

he didn't need is only the they

5:47

realize the seventieth is very strong. the

5:49

soldiers didn't have any seminal. It's other

5:51

because they want to encourage the i

5:53

say stay developed assumed that says it's

5:55

a quarter fried eggs but what President

5:57

did the situation stop soon as he

5:59

adopted. The that with i've instead of putting

6:01

it be sent to the screaming of the

6:03

drill sergeant see set it to upbeat music.

6:05

This made exercises feel more like dancing in

6:07

a kind of bruising that got something that

6:09

was fun on The herself later said I

6:12

entered my so good adult life at a

6:14

time when challenging Cisco exercise not offer to

6:16

win and we were supposed to sweat the

6:18

have muscles now and with force of the

6:20

women I saw myself moving nonstop for an

6:22

hour and a half an entirely new ways.

6:24

You in that sense of fun.

6:26

It is really inherent in all

6:28

of Jane Fonda's Workouts product. Starting

6:31

with her book, Jane Fonda's Workout.

6:35

Simon and Schuster And so two

6:37

million copies. And concurrently, Fonda launched

6:39

the vinyl Lp Jane Fonda's work

6:42

record to Columbia Records Or, and

6:44

that was certified double Platinum. A

6:46

tape version was also available, and

6:49

all of these really was building

6:51

up to the moment where she

6:53

was. Considering making videos was be torn, she

6:55

didn't know, she absolutely wanted to do it.

6:58

But in the and she was swayed by

7:00

the idea that all of the profits crude

7:02

as we've been saying go to this campaign

7:04

for Economic Democracy her pacts to See had

7:06

founded with her husband at the time, Tom

7:08

Hayden. Yeah, because she really was a fulltime

7:11

activist at this point. I would seem strange

7:13

to say when she'd had such varied career

7:15

in so many fingers in so many points.

7:17

but she was a full time activists. She

7:19

was fundraising for the Black Panthers, an anti

7:21

war campaigns. She was them camping on rent

7:23

control. And solar powered fighting nuclear power

7:26

old which then put into movies. labor

7:28

rights, women's rights as how you get

7:30

nine to five Eventually, all of her

7:33

creative work reflected a political views. And

7:35

it's funny because the oldest nothing could

7:37

be more apolitical than something like Jane

7:40

From does work out where he watches.

7:42

It is fun, isn't it? It's twenty

7:44

five minutes of escapist leg warmers and

7:47

eighties music in a way that must

7:49

have felt retro even at the time

7:51

is weird. Me is just so of.

7:54

his time and it is so just i

7:56

don't say brainless because so many people bonded

7:58

with it but it's certainly something that when

8:00

you're doing you're not thinking about politics at

8:03

all and yet the whole thing was being

8:05

done to raise money for this this left-wing

8:07

political campaign. Yeah and the budget for the

8:09

video was a lowly $50,000. Fonda herself recalled

8:13

later we did it in three days we

8:15

hardly had any rehearsal we had no hairdressers

8:18

when I look at how we do it

8:20

now compared to then it was funny this

8:22

is the thing is that it was being

8:24

shot in these 24-minute increments so if they

8:26

got something wrong they'd have to start the

8:29

whole increment again so this was three days

8:31

of non-stop aerobics it starred obviously Jane herself

8:33

at the forefront alongside instructors and favoured pupils

8:35

from her studio. Between 1982

8:38

and 1985 the video actually topped the chart for

8:40

a total of 41 weeks dipping

8:43

only to number two for 75 weeks

8:45

so this really was beyond anyone's wildest

8:47

dreams or hopes for what it could

8:49

become. And that's because once you'd heard

8:51

about it the only way you could

8:53

do the workout was to go and

8:55

buy your own cassette and the cassette

8:57

was priced at $59 in 1982 money so this

9:00

was making

9:04

a lot of money and

9:06

that's why Stuart Karl was right. Stuart

9:08

Karl was the founder of Karl Home

9:10

Video who'd distributed the thing and had

9:13

persuaded Jane Fonda this was the route

9:16

to go for his new label Midvid

9:18

and it was called Midvid because

9:21

it was the market that was

9:23

to exist between Hollywood films and

9:26

pornography or as he called it filled

9:28

the gap between jaws and deep throat.

9:31

Wow. Tomorrow.

9:36

This one's going to say, yeah baby, I won't. I'll

9:39

just left it a man of gold. Litch

9:43

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9:45

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9:48

patreon.com/Retrospectors.

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