#RachelMcLish #Chicago #1980s #Health #Racquetball #Club #commercial #WFLD #1986
1986 commercial for the Chicago Health and Racquetball Club featuring pioneering women's bodybuilder Rachel McLish; whose achievements included winning the inaugural International Federation of Bodybuilders Ms. Olympia title for 1980 and again in 1982 while never placing lower than 3rd in any event - all in a bodybuilding career that only lasted four years.
This series of ads would often incorporate various celebrities (found one from the FuzzyMemories channel that aired a month later and featured Heather Locklear; with other celebrities in commercials for this chain or Holiday Fitness Spas including Cher {around the time of her "Mermaids" comeback} and SNL alum Joe Piscopo)
As for the chain and related Holiday Fitness Spas, it would later be absorbed into Bally's Total Fitness (whose roots go back to the health clubs started by bodybuilding pioneer Jack LaLanne); which ran into financial problems in the late 2000s before ultimately withering away in 2016.
