How Did Hanoi Jane Become Exercise Jane?
How Jane Fonda created an industry.
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In part two of our special two-part episode, we return to the 1982 VHS tape that created the at-home video industry: Jane Fonda's Workout . On this episode, originally released in 2020, we deconstruct the tape itself, how it was made, and why anyone thought it was a good idea in the first place. Then we'll explore how it was possible for an extremely polarizing political activist, despised by some for her activism during the Vietnam War, to become America's first exercise guru. It's a story that involves one enterprising home video visionary, dozens of ridiculous celebrity workout tapes, Tricky Dick Nixon, and one very full life.
Some of the voices you'll hear on this episode include Jane Fonda ; Court Shannon, former Karl Video employee; and Mary Hershberger, author of Jane Fonda's War .
This episode was written by Willa Paskin. It was edited and produced by Benjamin Frisch. We had research assistance from Cleo Levin. Decoder Ring is produced by Katie Shepherd, Max Freedman, and Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director.
If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at [email protected] , or leave a message on the Decoder Ring hotline at 347-460-7281. We love to hear any and all of your ideas for the show.
Sources for This Episode
Burke, Carol. Camp All-American, Hanoi Jane, and the High-and-Tight , Beacon Press, 2005.
Fonda, Jane. My Life So Far , Random House, 2005.
Hershberger, Mary. Jane Fonda's War: A Political Biography of an Antiwar Icon , The New Press, 2005.
Lembcke, Jerry. Hanoi Jane: War, Sex, and Fantasies of Betrayal , University of Massachusetts Press, 2010.
McKenzie, Shelly. Getting Physical: The Rise of Fitness Culture in America , University Press of Kansas, 2013.
Perlstein, Rick. Nixonland , Scribner, 2009.
Rafferty, James Michael. “ Politicizing Stardom: Jane Fonda, IPC Films and Hollywood, 1977-1982 ,” Queen Mary University of London Dissertation, 2010.
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