Bill Shapiro, Author at Texas Monthly

November 20, 2020

A Trove of Vintage Photos Reveals a Bygone Texas—and Beyond

A Houston exhibit of images scavenged from junk shops and flea markets offers a view of the past that anticipates the present.

By Bill Shapiro

Doug’s Gym was recognized, if at all, by its vintage sign with the out-of-step promise of “reducing & weight gaining.” It was this sign, in fact, that originally caught Diamond’s eye. But when he first walked up the gym’s sagging steps, the last thing on his mind was building muscle and losing weight. The truth is, Diamond was feeling a little lost. He’d recently retired from a career as a doctor specializing in interventional radiology and was, in his words, “still coming to grips” with thirty years of seeing people in terrible and often incurable situations. The gym’s peeling paint and dark corners spoke to him—about years passing by, about mortality, and our ability to change. And so three times a week for six months he photographed a gym tinged with cigar smoke and sheltered from time.

Books |

February 15, 2020

The Dallas Gym That Time Forgot

In 2018, the cavernous, old-school Doug's Gym closed after 55 years in business. A new book of photos recaptures the space in all its gritty, unchanging glory.

By Bill Shapiro