– Javier Pérez Pont

WHAT HAPPENED TO JOE’S LEGACY? (From October 9th 1967 to 1977)
Dedicated to Sari Mejia, for doing such a big job for so long

INTRODUCTION

I think that knowledge of the documented history guides, defines and completes us a instructors, while also doing justice to the people who took part in it and to the truth.

Today I would like to talk about a very important point, and that is respect for Joe’s legacy. Still today many people, some for personal and/or professional interests and other for different reasons, do not know or recognize the truth documented in my book “Hubertus Joseph Pilates, The Biography.”

In this short lecture, I would like to contribute to helping all of use in the Romana’s Pilates community better know our history and defend it with pride.

The subject of this speech, in very condensed form, is: Did Joe leave a will? The answer is yes.

On the one hand, we will obviously analyze his material legacy. And, on the other, the legacy of Contrology know-how, legally “inherited” by The Pilates Foundation for Physical Fitness created in 1964 with his legal consent.

FACTS

With regard to the first part, the material legacy of Joe Pilates:

Joe Pilates signed a will before a notary designating his wife Clara as the executor of his material possessions, which included his country house and the business of the Studio, along with all of the contents of same, in addition to his personal possessions, naturally.

After Joe died in October of 1967, following a couple of weeks of mourning in the original studio, things continued as before. Romana continued helping Clara manage the business while working part-time in the Studio along with the rest of the team of instructors, Hanna and John Winters.

Two years go by until John H. Steel, a client of the Studio and Clara’s lawyer, on September 19, 1969, after meeting Clara Pilates to discuss her retirement, and also with the aim of restarting the Pilates Foundation, sends, together with Julie Clayburgh and Arthur Steel, a letter to clients and friends of Joe who might be interested in a joint investment to buy the business from Clara.

Clara Pilates’ wise intention was to retire and ensure the studio’s continuity in order to guarantee Joe’s legacy and her own, and at the same time obtain a financial return. Clara had estimated the transfer at $25,000. This would include the training equipment, and the use of the method, premises, books, documents and films. Clara intended to continue collaborating in the studio, but not under a contractual obligation.

An interim committee is formed by John Steel, Julie Clayburgh, Frank Milton, Dan Reed, Arthur Steel and James Limpton. The purpose of the Interim Committee was to raise enough money from followers to fulfill Clara’s wishes.

Three months later, on December 16, 1969, the members of the Interim Committee meet potential investors and make important decisions regarding the future. In the meeting it is decided that, after exploring several alternatives, Romana Kryzanowska undoubtedly “would be an ideal individual to take charge of the studio,” and that “it is her intention to carry on Joe’s work in its strictest form.” Besides, “she has past experience in running the studio and feels that she can rebuild the business and train additional teachers.”

The Committee arranged the following for Clara: the new company will continue to pay for her apartment for as long as she wants to remain in it and Clara will be hired as a consultant with no obligations to the studio and paid a salary.

The new company offers Romana, after the unanimous vote of the entire Committee, the opportunity to start managing the Studio immediately if she accepts. Romana is forced to negotiate a temporary arrangement due to her other professional obligations. As a result, from the following January to August 1970, she will work from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., and from September on she will work in the studio full time. She will be in charge of everything related to the studio, except accounting, payment of invoices and bank deposits. In return she is to receive a fixed salary plus a percentage of the annual profits of the business, if any.

Despite the new company being founded on March 3, 1970, it does not begin to operate legally until late August when all the partners are committed, Clara has signed all necessary documents and Romana Kryzanowska is free to dedicate herself full-time to the studio. The name of the new company is “939 Studio Corporation,” better known as “Studio 939.”

On June 4, 1973, the 939 Studio Corporation, up to then the owner of the original Studio, changes its name, becoming known as Pilates Studio Inc. Here we see the first attempt of the corporation to use and protect the Pilates name. In the same operation, Romana Kryzanowska becomes the major shareholder of the group with 40% of the company’s shares.

Later in this speech, we will go back to this point to learn how seven years later, before the death of Clara Pilates, Romana finally becomes the owner of the entire business and of the contents of the Studio.

With regard to the “know-how” of the method, “the other legacy of Joe,” we must remember that in 1965 Joe signed some documents to the Pilates Foundation by which he gave irrevocable consent to the use of his name and an irrevocable license to use his exercise system and his devices, thus giving the name of Pilates to the method, the exercises and the equipment.

Once again, we see John Steel trying to revitalize the Pilates Foundation and, in a letter dated March 1, 1971, he admits that no meetings of The Pilates Foundation for Physical Fitness Inc. have taken place since Joe s death and, therefore, it has become dormant. The last meeting of the Foundation for which we have documentation is on February 2, 1967, seven months after Joe’s death.

Now they want to reactivate the Foundation and, for this reason, they request a meeting to select the Board members. It is voted at this meeting that Catherine di Montezemolo and Ruth Bocour, James Trosch, Arthur J. Steel, Hugo Beville Jr., and Julia Clayburgh will be the new directors of the Pilates Foundation for a period of one year, until new elections are held.

The immediate objective of the foundation is to “be able to contribute to the perpetuation of the work of Joseph Pilates by supplementing the activity of the Studio in the education and training of qualified instructors in the Pilates system.”

In 1976 John Steel, who until then had been Clara’s right-hand man and one of the driving forces of the Studio in past years, announced in a letter to the members of the Pilates Studio Inc. that, after more than five years dedicated to the Studio as a director, he was resigning due to lack of time.Before announcing his decision, he spoke at length with Romana Kryzanowska about the new responsibilities she would have to assume.

The ENTIRE board of directors of the Foundation supported the idea that Romana should become the person in full charge of the business from then on.We may recall that for some years Romana had already held the position of director of the Studio but not of the Foundation.John Steel transferred his shares to her with the result that she then held 66 per cent. Romana called a new board meeting to discuss the new situation, since she did not want to be the new director of the company and she suggested for the meeting other people who could fill the vacant post.Those nominated by Romana were Cathy di Montezemolo, Gloria Milliken, Dan Reed, Emre J. Rosenthal, Lari Staton, Arthur J. Steel and Robert Sweet.

Very shortly afterward, Romana would come to own the entire business and hold the reins of the Foundation, just before the death of Clara on May 13th, 1977. The lovely and humble summary of all of the above, and that is how I remember it and probably many of you, is marvelously described in the following paragraph in Romana’s own words.

Romana did not even think about spending the rest of her life teaching Contrology which she loved so much,since “I did not have time to think about the future, I was too busy working and trying to ensure that things carried on as always.”

Every artist is the creator of her work, and the case of Romana with Contrology is no exception. She became, and over time we see this more clearly, the creator of her own interpretation of the work bequeathed by Joe. Contrology is the masterpiece created by Joe and legally and rightfully inherited by Romana, who passed it on to all of us, and most especially to her beloved daughter Sari Mejía.

Without a shadow of a doubt, I venture to say that without Romana Kryzanowska and her enormous dedication and work over the decades, the word “Pilates” would not exist today.

Eternally grateful.

Barcelona, 25 September 2018