Celebrity diets were just as crazy in 1929: Vintage women's magazine warns against Joan Crawford's dangerous 'three spoonfuls of soup' diet

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

while Hollywood's food crazes are usually assumed to be a modern phenomenon, the January 1929 issue of American magazine Photoplay, unearthed by Jezebel.com, proves that there's nothing new about fad diets.

In an article entitled Diet - The Menace Of Hollywood, writer Katherine Albert explains why eating like Joan Crawford and other period stars could prove problematic.

On Hollywood's unappetising menu is a breakfast of hot water (0 calories) and eight tablespoons of consomme

Actress Joan Crawford looking svelte for the 1955 film Johnny Guitar

'Diet!,' Albert writes. 'It has put one world famous star in her grave, has caused the illness of many others, has wrecked careers and has become, largely through its practice in Hollywood, the Great American Menace!'

 

Albert then goes on to compare the 'star diet' to a correct diet compiled by one Dr Willis 'from works of the most famous authorities on diet'.
On Hollywood's unappetising menu is a breakfast of hot water (000 calories, says Dr Willis) and eight tablespoons of consomme [clear soup], two saltine crackers and a quarter of a pound of tomatoes for lunch - total calorific intake, a meagre 138.
For supper, the 1929 A-list diet consists of cottage cheese, two ounces of pineapple and a glass of buttermilk, which together bring the total day's calories to a skinny 305.
By contrast, the diet recommended by Dr Willis, which, he says, will have you dropping between two and three pounds per week, includes roast beef lunches and a breakfast of scalloped cod and stewed tomatoes.

Albert alleges that actress Pola Negri 'took 10 pounds off' with a 'spinach and egg' diet

The writer blames Hollywood's diet demands for the death of actress Barbara LaMarr, who died aged 29

THE HOLLYWOOD STAR DIET*

Breakfast:
Cup of hot water (calories - 0)
Luncheon:
8 tablespoons of consomme (13Kcal)
Two saltine crackers (100Kcal)
1/4lb tomatoes (25Kcal)
Dinner:
Cottage cheese (50Kcal)
2oz pineapple (50Kcal)
1 glass buttermilk (67Kcal)
Total: 305
* Don't try this at home'

Albert goes on to fulminate against 'Shylock' producers who when they demand a pound of flesh from their actresses, also 'demand a part of the lifespan of the star'.
What's more she adds, the Hollywood diet craze is responsible for increasing numbers of tuberculosis cases and will 'produce a race of anaemic tubercular weaklings' if allowed to continue.
She also blames Hollywood's diet demands for the death of actress Barbara LaMarr, who died aged 29 of tuberculosis in 1926.
Another anecdote concerns Joan Crawford, who, the writer claims, she saw having a lunch composed of just 'a few tablespoonfuls of cold consomme, a dish of rhubarb and half a dozen crackers thickly spread with mustard.'
Albert also alleges that actress Pola Negri 'took 10 pounds off' with a 'spinach and egg' diet, comprised of six ounces of spinach and a hardboiled egg for breakfast, lunch and supper.
Interestingly, another part of the article deals with camera trickery - blamed for promoting an unrealistic image long before Photoshop was invented.
'A skillful cameraman may arrange his lights so this condition is helped,' she complains.
She even writes of a primitive version of liposuction undergone by actress Molly O' Day, who, says Albert, 'suffered acutely' in the aftermath of the operation.
Modern Hollywood and its madcap diet crazes might appear to be a chilling modern phenomenon, but as Albert's article shows, celebrity diets have a long and inglorious history.

The diet recommended to have you dropping two to three pounds per week, includes roast beef