Many fitness club managers can still recall his presentation at the Club Industry show in Boston in the summer of 2000. He was a vibrant speaker to an incredulous audience.

LaLanne, who hosted his self-titled exercise show for 34 years, accepted the honor amid a group of admirers at a ceremony in front of the Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard, across from the historic Mann's Chinese Theater, on Thursday.

"I want to thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my athletic heart," LaLanne said. He did fingertip push-ups and then told the crowd he hoped to live to be 150 years old.

Jack La Lanne, known as the Godfather of Physical Fitness the world over, has been in the business since 1936, and he's still going strong as the millennium approaches. He and his company, Befit Enterprises, headed by his wife Elaine, are part of the new online medium.

Throughout his career, LaLanne, whose star is No. 2,204 on the Walk of Fame, preached exercise regimens and balanced nutrition as a way to keep healthy.

He opened his first health studio in 1936 in Oakland and became a national daytime TV fixture by the 1950s, advocating a red meat-free diet, calorie counting and weight training.

LaLanne often performed outrageous stunts to show off his physical prowess, such as towing boats while swimming handcuffed. In 1956, the then-42-year-old performed 1,033 push-ups in 23 minutes on the TV show "You Asked for It."