“I’m not God, I’m just one man,” Richard Simmons announced over a microphone, though you could see why there might be confusion. It was the start of one of his celebrated ‘Cruise To Lose’ vacations with three hundred of his followers, the overweight and despairing, applauding him as a deity and miracle maker. I was among the crowd, spending a week with him as we sailed around the Caribbean. It was an experience I shall never forget.
“Now we’re all here to try out best… Just a minute, what’s this?” Simmons was on stage, pointing at a woman in his audience. “I spend an hour on my damn hair and you turn up in rollers?” Screams of delight echoed around the ship. “Now every day I’m going to give you a word. Today’s word is ‘joy’. Tomorrow’s is Fetuccini Alfredo…. No, no, no I was just joking.”
Simmons jocular repartee was what had brought him fame. That, and his Deal A Meal diet cards, his books, his videos, his TV shows, his fat-free cookies, but perhaps most notable for all, his understanding of people. He was the boy from New Orleans who was teased at school for being too fat and then became a pop icon who outsold all other fitness gurus during the Nineties because he offered no judgement. His currency was encouragement, humor, sympathy and comprehension of internal pain for the seriously overweight.
His keep-fit competitors, the Cindy Crawfords and Elle McPhersons, could never offer what he did. He turned exercise into fun, and his motivational pep talks into joy for those who struggled with their weight. Most famously, he inspired one 525lb woman to lose over 200lb and become an aerobics instructor. I met her on the cruise. She called him her life saver.
“People feel they can relate to me because I’ve been through it all myself,” he told me. “They see I am not so perfect. I know what it’s like to experience the discrimination of being fat. This is a mission for me. I am the last hotel on Diet Boulevard.”
Simmons died July 13, age 76. I consider myself lucky to have met him. He was inspirational and kind, a noble patron saint for the overweight. The above photo is the work of Evan Hurd, one of the most excellent photographers on the planet, who it was a great privilege to work with on this and many other stories. www.evanhurd.com
