Jack LaLanne - Early Life

Early Life

LaLanne was born in San Francisco, California, to Jennie (née Garaig) (1884–1973) and Jean/John LaLanne (1881–1939). His parents were immigrants from Oloron-Sainte-Marie in southwest France, who each entered the US as a young child via the Port of New Orleans, LA in the 1880s. LaLanne had two older brothers, Ervil, who died in childhood (1906–1911), and Norman (1908–2005), who nicknamed him "Jack."

He grew up in Bakersfield, California and later moved to Berkeley when he was still a child. His father died at the age of 58 of a heart attack, caused in part by poor nutrition. LaLanne wrote that as a boy he was addicted to sugar and junk food. He had violent episodes directed against himself and others, describing himself as "a miserable goddamn kid...it was like hell." Besides having a bad temper, he also suffered from headaches and bulimia, and temporarily dropped out of high school at age 14. The following year, at age 15, he heard health food pioneer Paul Bragg give a talk on health and nutrition, focusing on the "evils of meat and sugar."

Bragg's message had a powerful influence on LaLanne, who then changed his life and started focusing on his diet and exercise. In his own words, he was "born again," and besides his new focus on nutrition, he began working out daily. He went back to school, where he made the high school football team, and later went on to college in San Francisco where he earned a Doctor of Chiropractic degree. He studied Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body and concentrated on bodybuilding and weightlifting.