SLIMMING CLUBS IN U.S.

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28606, 7 June 1958, Page 2

SLIMMING CLUBS IN U.S.

Croup-Reducing Popular

Mrs Manz, national president of the 150 “Tops” clubs in the United States, sisns all her letters with a cheery “See you lighter.” The , meaning of the pun becomes clear when it is learned that “Tops” signifies take off pounds safely, the slogan of the 1000 members of the clubs. According to “Today’s Health,” a journal published by the American Medical Association, this method of group-reducing has become ponular. Club meetings begin with weighings. Losses are rewarded, but gains are punished with a fne of five cents a pound. The member who loses the most weight in 12 months becomes national Tops queen for the year. Once members reach the poundage prescribed by their doctor they graduate to Kops—“Keep off pounds sensibly.” Backsliders are demoted to Tops until they get their appetites and weight under control again.

So far, the movement has been confined to women, with no men admitted. But there are “Teen Tops” and “Junior Tops” for “budding fatties.” Once a Tops member, it must be difficult not to lose weight. “A whole club might join in the fight of one member. Members might drop in unexpectedly on the backsliding sister, or cal] her on the telephone, or send her a card to remind her of her struggle against blubber.” the journal says. “It might £e very good for the figure, but it sounds very hard on the nerves.” says the Department of Health’s Nutrition Newsletter. “What would be more shattering to one’s self-respect than to receive in the mail, after a little surreptitious mid-morning nibbling, a post card making insinuations about one’s ‘blubber.’