"While working as a waiter, Richard Simmons saved up a year-and-a-half worth of tips to open his first aerobics studio in Beverly Hills in 1974. Ever since then, he has been planting himself in America’s pop-culture psyche with dozens of infomercials and best-selling books, myriad parodies of his over-the-top persona, and seemingly endless TV and film appearances. Imagine my excitement at a dinner party last spring, when a friend of a friend told me about Simmons’ Beverly Hills aerobics classes. Turns out, whenever Simmons is in town, he leads the courses himself, in that same studio. The classes are open to the public, cost only $12, and they have a cult following in Los Angeles. I knew I had to go, and record it. So, I convinced Simmons’ team to let me shadow him one Saturday afternoon in May, traipsing behind the dynamo — with a big fuzzy shotgun mic in hand."
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