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==Scott==
Wouldn't that be cool to own one of the machines with the giant cams!
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entsminger wrote:
==Scott==
Wouldn't that be cool to own one of the machines with the giant cams!
===============================
Quite cool indeed. Those things might be worth a lot of money these days - maybe like collectors' items.
Jesse Lee
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entsminger wrote:
==Scott==
Wouldn't that be cool to own one of the machines with the giant cams!
I am surprised you don't own one, lol
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Jesse Lee Otis wrote:
entsminger wrote:
==Scott==
Wouldn't that be cool to own one of the machines with the giant cams!
===============================
Quite cool indeed. Those things might be worth a lot of money these days - maybe like collectors' items.
Jesse Lee
==Scott==
If I remember correctly at one time Nautilus took truck loads of old machines to the dump or somewhere to be buried. I'll bet those type machines bit the dust.
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extremeone wrote:
http://arthurjonesexercise.com/...Ads.pdf
A short time later Arthur was selling distributorships covering certain protected geographical areas. Starting price was $14 K which included a full line of existing machines.
I had just turned 16 when the ad appeared.
I went to everyone I knew and tried hard to talk them into lending me the money.
Friends,relatives, my high school football coach ( who told me that " bands " were the future of exercise ) and they all turned me down flat. I was just a kid, what did I know about investing in anything?
So I called Arthur Jones and tried to convince him to " front " me the distributorship and the line of machines and I would pay him with monthly payments.
He turned me down but after that he talked to me for at least an hour. I was disappointed but thrilled that Arthur Jones would talk to me like an adult to a much less experienced adult.
From that point on I would call and talk to him every year or so and we covered a vast array of subjects but mostly about exercise ,of course.
In 1995 , about 21 years later I flew out to Fla and spent 2 full 10 or 12 hour days with Arthur.
The following year Arthur and Inge had driven from Lake Helen to San Diego to attend the last MedX symposium. Everyone sat inside the auditorium listening to MDs and PHDs while I sat with Arthur drinking coffee and talking about everything while he smoked his Pall Malls.
When a session ended everyone came out and wanted to meet Arthur and shake his hand and then go back in the auditorium for the next session of several hours. Arthur and I were walking down the hall talking and he put his arm around my shoulder like a dad would to his son and we discussed the importance of aspect ratio while filming for measurement.
The world is much less interesting now that Arthur isn't here.
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Bill,
You are so right: "much less interesting."
Ellington
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I don't remember some of those machines ever being produced, like the 5 station torso machine. Anybody familiar with that machine? I there's one out there it must be worth a few greenbacks...
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A short time later Arthur was selling distributorships covering certain protected geographical areas. Starting price was $14 K which included a full line of existing machines.
I had just turned 16 when the ad appeared.
I went to everyone I knew and tried hard to talk them into lending me the money.
==Scott==
I remember when nautilus first came to my area in Va to a Fun and Fitness gym. I had been desperate to work out on them but their membership cost was too high. A friend worked there as an instructor and would tell me that they didn't get used much as most people didn't have a clue about what Nautilus was. I worked for the local school system and years later when many high schools got full sets of the machines I'd pass by the gym and see the machines sitting idle while the kids mostly used free weights and racks.Then 20 or more years ago I remember seeing a few machines sitting out near the dumpsters waiting to be scrapped.I went nuts and brought a few home but couldn't get them all before the trucks came and got them to take to the dump. As good as the machines were for some reason it didn't seem that they got used as much as I thought they should have.They got replaced with more racks, benches and Cybex type crap.
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I enjoyed your story Bill.
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Bill Sekerak wrote:
A short time later Arthur was selling distributorships...
The world is much less interesting now that Arthur isn't here.
=================================
Very interesting story; thanks for posting it, Bill. It is to your credit that you were bold enough to make contact (telephone & personal) with Jones.
Jesse Lee
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entsminger wrote:
==Scott==
I remember when nautilus first came to my area in Va to a Fun and Fitness gym...benches and Cybex type crap.
=================================
Wow. An incredible shame that those Nautilus machines got 'wasted'. If I knew where all of them that were buried are I would get a few shovels and dig them up!
Scott, do you live anywhere near where the Nautilus plant in Virginia is/was?
Jesse Lee
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Jesse Lee Otis wrote:
entsminger wrote:
==Scott==
I remember when nautilus first came to my area in Va to a Fun and Fitness gym...benches and Cybex type crap.
=================================
Wow. An incredible shame that those Nautilus machines got 'wasted'. If I knew where all of them that were buried are I would get a few shovels and dig them up!
Scott, do you live anywhere near where the Nautilus plant in Virginia is/was?
Jesse Lee
== Scott ==
I live in Virginia but never knew of the Va plant until much later and it?s not close by. There?s some pictures in a publication showing a room full of experimental machines/junk. Had I known of the Va plant I probably would have tried to get a job there just to be near the machines. Years ago I got a job at Heartline Fitness in the shop where they built their machines. I thought I was in heaven until I realized there was no air circulation/ venting in the welding / painting area so I quit. I briefly worked with this Romanian refugee welder who swam away/escaped from Romania and his first job was building fitness machines. He was so good he could just eyeball how the machine went together, weld it and it would be perfect !
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== Scott==
It?s really funny how some nuts like myself became obsessed with Nautilus Machines. I know several ?nuts? like myself who have or have had just about every Nautilus machine made. I?ve always dreamed of finding an old farm with a 200 foot long barn to convert to my own Nautilus gym. Even if I could get those machines I?m too old to even move all those machines now but it is fun to dream. Imagine going down a circuit of some 40 or more machines! Ha ha !
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Scott --
Sounds like that Heartline place was a real 'sweatshop' for sure; good thing you got outta there when you did.
Regarding your fondness for Nautilus machines and your 'dream barn', both sound great. If Jay Leno can have a collection of all kinds of cars then you should have a collection of all the Nautilus machines in your barn. I hope you live your dream (I would go to Virginia to help you move the machines into the barn).
Jesse Lee
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Jesse Lee Otis wrote:
Scott --
Sounds like that Heartline place was a real 'sweatshop' for sure; good thing you got outta there when you did.
Regarding your fondness for Nautilus machines and your 'dream barn', both sound great. If Jay Leno can have a collection of all kinds of cars then you should have a collection of all the Nautilus machines in your barn. I hope you live your dream (I would go to Virginia to help you move the machines into the barn).
Jesse Lee
==Scott==
It would have been great but they just didn't see the need for a system to blow out the toxic air and after a few weeks of coming home with black yuk in my nose I tried to convince them to do something but they wouldn't. They even had a show room that was half full of Nautilus machines that gyms had traded in. I could have got huge discounts for working there and they said I could build whatever I wanted in my spare time and keep it.Their machines were typical stuff/junk like Cybex and gyms were practically giving away Nautilus to get them.
It's to late for that barn dream now as I've gotten to old and got rid of so many machines but it was fun when I had them.
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