Word: heavin
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...Heavin spent nothing on advertising until this year, another way he has bucked the fitness industry's model. And even his franchisees have not spent much--a few hundred dollars a month typically--touting their locations. That's because Curves customers, generally ignored by the 1990s fitness frenzy that raced to reel in the prized 18-to-34 demographic, have spread the word almost evangelically. "What Curves has done is broken through the perception that you have to be fit, coordinated and thin to go to a gym," says Bill Howland, director of research for the International Health, Racquet...
...Without much fanfare, the 10-year-old, privately owned Curves has become the world's largest fitness franchise, measured by locations. It accounts for a quarter of U.S. gyms and pulls in about $750 million a year from almost 2 million members, according to founder and CEO Gary Heavin, 48, of Gatesville, Texas. Franchises are launching at a rate of nearly 200 a month...
...Heavin also made it convenient and cheap to set up and run a franchise, which has inspired thousands of first-time entrepreneurs, many of them women. Angie Holding, 56, of Wichita, Kans., had fought a lifelong battle with fat and watched her three daughters and granddaughter do the same. In 2000 a fit-looking friend pointed her to Curves. "I'd never exercised in my life," Holding says, but she found Curves' atmosphere--women in sweat pants rather than Spandex--appealing. She joined after her first visit. And at $29 a month (fees range from $29 to $49, based...
...such crafty old twirlers as Ring Lardner, James Thurber, Damon Runyon and P.G. Wodehouse spun tales about the sport. Usually they played it for laughs. Lardner's Alibi Ike dealt with a peculiar rookie, using comic vernacular: "I've heard infielders complain of a sore arm after heavin' one into the stand, and I've saw outfielders tooken sick with a dizzy spell when they've misjudged a fly ball. But this baby can't even go to bed without apologizin', and I bet he excuses himself to the razor when he gets...
...reclining figures, each on a huge base. "These was once together, 'Day and Night' or something'. Well, we had to cut them apart and spoil the story. I wonder how they ever got 'em in over there to begin with. Then, take this, its a bowler, or a walter heavin' dishes, I don't now." He pointed to the Discobulus with a slight welt on its chest...