A SAD STORY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 108, 9 May 1930, Page 13

A SAD STORY

TRAGEDY OF ALLYN KING

(From "The Post's" Representative.) -LONDON, 4th April.

The fate of Miss Allyn King, who was one of tho. most famous beauties in Mr. Florenz Ziegfeld's "Follies," has provoked discussion on the subject of " slimming. "N Miss King, who jumped from the fifth story of an apartment house in Now York, admitted before she died that her act was .due to her inability to follow the dictates of her contract and keep her weight. la Miss King's contract with the Ziegf eld Follies was a clause that if at any time she should increase her weight by more than lGlb, or decreaso by more than 101b, or allow the dimensions of any part of her figure to vary more than half an inch from those stated, the contractor should have the right to cancel her contract. She started with the Ziegfeld Follies in 1916. Three years later she was leading lady : She was dieting strenuously all the time to ■keep to tho terms, of her contract. In 1926 she collapsed on the stage. For two years she was a patient in a sanatorium.

Before she fell ill Miss King's diet was: Breakfast —Thin butterless slices of toasted brown bread; glass of orange juice; cup of black coffee. Luncheon — Apple or pear. Supper—A few lettuce leaves and tomato, or _a mixture of celery and- spinach or olives." According to an authority on diotectics, this was a starvation diet, which would meau certain cfeath for the strongest person. The first inevitable result of following such a diet would be a nervous breakdown.

"I have always been against dieting," said Mr.. Charles B. Coehran, the theatrical manager, and insist that my artists shall follow a sane and normal diet. "Not one of the many contracts that pass through my hand each year contains a maximum weight clause. In any case, tho 'telegraph pole' figure is, to my mind, entirely' unnatural. Some time ago I found1 that several of- my girls did not appear to be sufficiently fit to withstand the hard work entailed on the stage. I also discovered one or two of them in aSfainting condition at tho end of a day's work. When I investigated the cause of this I found that it was due to the strict dieting which they had undertaken to keep a slim figure. I immediately gave instructions that this was to cease.- I contended that tho hard work necessitated by their profession was sufficient to keep their weight down without dieting." . ._■