Katherine Grant Headstone Dedication by Silent Film Quarterly

The Silent Film Quarterly・!1

Katherine Grant May 1, 1904 - April 2, 1937

The Silent Film Quarterly・!2

The Silent Film Quarterly ——————————————————————————

Katherine Grant Headstone Dedication Ceremony

Table of Contents Editor’s Message

They’re All Stars To Me:

Katherine Grant’s Childhood Home:

An Interview with Jessica Wahl

Future Projects?:

Classic Features: Beauty Charges Plot in Posing for Photos Los Angeles Times, February 26, 1923

Katherine Grant is Awarded 5-Year Contract by Roach Moving Picture World, July 4, 1925

The Dismal End of Her Fight Against Fat Syndicated nationally, June 13, 1926

The Silent Film Quarterly・!3

Editor’s Message

This special edition of Silent Film Quarterly is particularly important to me. It has been a goal of mine since I founded the magazine last year to give back to the silent film community as much as possible, and Jessica Wahl’s endeavor to place a headstone at the grave of the beloved Hal Roach actress Katherine Grant seemed like a perfect cause for the magazine to get behind. Jessica first contacted me on Facebook asking if I might simply post a link to the GoFundMe page where she was trying to raise money for the marker. Immediately I realized that I had to do more for her cause than merely post a link. I asked Jessica, a Southern California transplant, if she might be interested in grabbing a cup of coffee so that I could interview her for a future issue of the magazine. She quickly accepted, enthusiastic to spread the word about her labor of love. When I saw how passionate Jessica was about this project, I knew that a simple article wouldn’t suffice. Hearing her speak about why she started the campaign to have a headstone placed at Katherine Grant’s grave deeply impacted me. “This is our way of saying, ‘Thank you for all you’ve done,’” she said. “It’s the least we can do in the grand scheme of things.” I couldn’t agree more. Jessica and I immediately began planning an unveiling ceremony for the gravestone—a celebration of Katherine’s life and career, a way of highlighting her cinematic successes and understanding her ultimate downfall. Grant’s story is both triumphant and tragic. Grant rose quickly in the ranks of Hollywood before her mental health issues and physical ailments brought it all to an immediate halt. While today represents the conclusion of Jessica’s campaign for Katherine Grant, I know it is also a beginning for similar projects. Grant is far from the only actor or actress from the silent era without a gravestone. Countless others are at risk of being forgotten for similar reasons, and I believe that now is the time to create a worldwide campaign to mark the final resting places of these pioneering men and women. Included in this special edition are an interview with Jessica Wahl, information on upcoming projects, and three contemporary articles about the career and ultimate demise of Katherine Grant. May it serve as a fitting tribute to the fleeting life of this beautiful actress who left this earth much too young. Your editor, Charles Epting

The Silent Film Quarterly・!4

They’re All Stars To Me: An Interview with Jessica Wahl The entire process of getting a headstone placed for Katherine Grant was undertaken solely by Jessica Wahl. From the idea’s inception to the actual design of the stone itself, Wahl’s work has been nothing short of remarkable, and she provides silent film fans around the globe with a perfect model of how to manage such a noble project. Silent Film Quarterly editor Charles Epting met Jessica Wahl for breakfast one morning as the project was nearing completion. It was at this meeting that the idea of an unveiling ceremony was conceived. Here, in her own words, is the story of how this remarkable testament to Katherine Grant’s legacy came to be. ・・・ Can you give a little bit of background on Miss Grant’s life and career? Katherine Grant won the Miss Los Angeles beauty contest, and like most people in the silent era that of course led to film work. She mostly acted in comedies, including with Stan Laurel, Charley Chase. There was a scandal involving some risque photos, and she filed a lawsuit. What’s interesting is that when I talked to her great-niece, Kelly, she said that her family only referred to her as “that showgirl.” They thought, “She had some pretty risque pictures, so we don’t talk about ‘that showgirl.’” Grant had this wonderful career, she was in a lot of comedies, and a good amount of her work exists—which is great. But she was involved in a hit-and-run accident. A teenage boy, I believe, hit her with a car, and she wasn’t physically injured, but it shook her up. That led to her being institutionalized in a sanitarium. There’s a lot of rumors that she had tuberculosis, that she was doing a lot of fad diets. Her mom went to the press saying,

“My daughter’s just tired, that’s all it is.” But she spent the last years of her life in a sanitarium. And for some reason she was buried in an unmarked grave at Evergreen Cemetery. The family didn’t really talk about her, so we don’t really know why. Our best guess is that since she died in 1937, during the Great Depression, and she hadn’t been working for years, funds had just dwindled. The other interesting thing is that she’s buried under Katherine Kerr. I have no idea if she married, or where the name came from. We don’t know the first name of the man she may have married. So that’s another interesting thing. When I called the cemetery they said, “We don’t have a Katherine Grant, we have a Katherine Kerr.” But the dates and everything match, so we don’t know where that name came from. There’s all these question marks, and it’s sad that we might never know, because the people who did know are either dead or they didn’t want to talk about it.

How was the crowd-funding process for you? I had people interested right from the get go, I had people saying “Let me know, let me know!” I thought, “Great, this is going to be really quick.” I thought from all of the response it was going to be done in five seconds. It took a little over a month, which isn’t bad. It was little donations, but with $10 or $20, we got there. I ended up covering the rest, because GoFundMe takes out a percentage, so I covered that. I’ve gotten so many thank you notes. I had one woman donate on behalf of her 16 year old daughter, who had just gotten into silent films. I had a 10 year old boy donate who I knew from my last job. It’s been silent film fans around the world. The Charley Chase fan page got involved. But I’ve also had family and friends who know how important this is to me get involved. It’s been overwhelming seeing all of these people getting involved.

The Silent Film Quarterly・!5

The finished headstone, before it was placed.

I’ve been working with the headstone carver. I signed over the checks for the headstone itself and the placement fees. I’ll be receiving a picture of the grave soon, I’ve only seen mockups so far. [Note: A few days after the interview, Jessica received the first photograph of the completed gravestone.] Even they’re getting excited about this project, which is so great.

Lastly, why did you find it so important to do something like this for Katherine Grant? For me to get really deep, it’s because I’ve dealt with medical issues my entire life since I was five. I used to pass out, my heart would stop, I have seizures. That’s why I have a pacemaker. I think growing up with that, it’s always been in my head that I’m here for a reason. I want to leave something to be remembered by. That’s what I think about with these silent film

stars. To me they’re all stars. I don’t care if they made five films. They’re all stars to me. They should all have Jolson, Fairbanksesque monuments. It’s all about being remembered. It’s a drive to make sure that they are remembered. Not many people who aren’t fans of silent film know who these people are. A lot of people refer to them as “those dead people you like.” I don’t want them to be that. I don’t want people walking over the ground, not knowing that they’re stepping over Katherine Grant, who died without having enough funds, and now her whole memory has been erased. I don’t want that. This is our way of saying, “Thank you.” We can’t physically meet Katherine Grant or any of these people. But this is our way of saying, “Thank you for all you’ve done.” It’s the least we can do in the grand scheme of things.

The Silent Film Quarterly・!6

Future Projects?

Given the success of this crowd-funding attempt, Silent Film Quarterly asked Jessica Wahl what future projects she had in mind. Here’s what she had to say:

Margaret Gibson

Lita Grey

Joe Keaton

Alice Lake

One I’ve been kind of on the fence about is Margaret Gibson, the woman that reportedly made the deathbed confession that she killed William Desmond Taylor. Lita Grey came up, she was scattered in a rose garden, but she doesn’t have a little plaque or anything. Buster Keaton’s father doesn’t have one. Alice Lake doesn’t have one. Hers really sticks with me because towards the end of her life she’d say, “I’m just waiting for the phone call that somebody has a job for me.” A lot of people know her as appearing with Buster Keaton in a lot of comedies, and I would love to help make her remembered. May McAvoy is at Holy Cross. Corliss Palmer is one that recently came to mind. She was called “the most beautiful girl in the world,” and she ended up dying in a mental institution. She was in multiple divorce suits as “the other woman.” One of the others who I don’t know a lot about was named Page Peters. He was reported to be one of the first actors to be buried at Hollywood Forever. He drowned in 1916. He was supposed to have a great career, and he was one of the first actors to be buried there, and he’s not marked. Marion Fairfax was married to Tully Marshall, she wrote the film The Lost World from 1925 with Bessie Love. Tully is marked, she’s not. And there’s a lot of early pioneers at Hollywood Forever who aren’t marked.

May McAvoy

Corliss Palmer

Page Peters

Marion Fairfax

The Silent Film Quarterly・!7

Katherine Grant’s Childhood Home 1432 Albany St. Los Angeles, CA 90015

The Grant family in the 1910 census.

A 1906 map of the 1400 block of Albany St. The Grant household is circled.

The home as it appears today.

The Silent Film Quarterly・!8

Beauty Charges Plot in Posing for Photos SEEKS AID OF AUTHORITIES “Miss Los Angeles” Says She Was Victim of Ruse; Declares Blackmail was Threatened Originally published in the Los Angeles Times, February 26, 1923 ・・・ Miss Katherine Grant, famous for her beauty throughout the nation as “Miss Los Angeles,” has sought the aid of the District Attorney in a fight against an asserted case of fraud and blackmail, it became known yesterday. Three young men are involved in the case, she says. Two of them operate a Hollywood photographic studio. Miss Grant charges they obtained her signature to a document permitting them to sell a series of art studies of her in the altogether, although she believed it to be merely a receipt. The third, she asserts, seeks an extortionate fee for the plates the other men made. Otherwise. Thomas Lipps, Miss Grant’s attorney, says, he has threatened to cause a motion-picture producer to break the cinema contract which he has recently signed with Miss Grant. Although the pictures are considered entirely artistic, Mr. Lipps says Miss Grant has been led to believe the displaying of them will ruin her screenland future unless she buys the plates. Miss Grant, who was born and reared in Los Angeles, began to attain prominence on the silver screen when she was a dancer here. Her face and figure were pronounced perfect by artists who

adjudged her Los Angeles’s fairest daughter. It was as a dancer that she was approached by a well-known model, the asserted agent for the Hollywood photographers, to pose for a series of photographic studies to be used by a sculptor in the execution of a fountain, Miss Grant says. After the pictures were made and the was given her modeling fee, Miss Grant says, one of the young men handed her a paper with the instruction that she sign it, saying it was merely a receipt for the fee she had received. Without reading it, she declares, she signed what later proved to be a release for the pictures. “We, the undersigned, give our consent to the publication and sale of p h o t o s t a k e n Ju l y 9 , 1 9 2 2 , a n d acknowledge full value received. In case of

One of the photographs in question.

The Silent Film Quarterly・!9 national recognition undersigned shall receive full credit,” is the contents of the asserted receipt which Miss Grant and two other young women, Lulu Hardeman and Irene Howard, signed. Before the pictures were placed on the market, Miss Grant had entered and won the “Miss Los Angeles” beauty contest staged by a local newspaper. It was while she was at Atlantic City striving with the beauties of the Nation for the coveted title of “Miss America” that Miss Grant saw copies of the pictures she believed she had made for a sculptor. S.H. Wershon of 2210 Sunset Boulevard, distributor of the prints, says 25,000 copies of the pictures were sold in the East. He denies that he knows anything of Mist Grant’s contract with the young men whom she accuses of obtaining her signature through a misunderstanding. Before she was aware her pictures were being circulated, Miss Grant signed a contract calling for her appearance as a dancer for twelve weeks at an exclusive resort in New York. As soon as her contract was fulfilled, she hurried back to Los Angeles to plead with the makers of the pictures to stop their sale. Then, she says, she was confronted with the release she had signed. Soon after her ineffectual appeal with the Hollywood photographers, Miss Grant says the third man in the case called her on the phone and told her the prints would be shown to a motion-picture magnate by whom she is employed unless she bought the plates and made good the funds expended in getting the pictures ready for the market. Mr. Wershon asserts the third main is acting without any authority from him and without the permission of the photographers, who supply him with the prints. Mr. Wershon says the third man is a former motion-picture extra who is now a cigarette salesman and who saw Miss Grant’s pictures in Wershon’s store and

recognized her as a girl whom he had seen on a local motion-picture lot. CHASED FROM HOME Mr. Wershon asserts the former extra man intimated to him that the pictures could be utilized in a blackmail plot, but that he thereupon chased him from his home. Miss Grant, accompanied by a friend, visited the District Attorney’s office Saturday to file a formal complaint. There the two young women were to meet Mr. Lipps, Miss Grant’s attorney, but the press of other business detained him until the office closed at noon. Mr. Lipps last night declared action will be taken tomorrow, when he will seek a warrant charging fraud and the former extra man with attempted extortion, he said. “I realize now that I made a fearful mistake in signing the paper which I understood was a receipt for the money the photographers paid me for posing,” Miss Grant said yesterday. “I know I should have read it over before signing, but I believed and trusted the girl who got me to pose for the pictures so implicitly that I never dreamed that she would turn against me in this way. MISS GRANT ONLY 18 “Since I have been a little girl I have always danced and have been taught the precept of ‘Art for Art’s sake,’ so hence I thought nothing of posing for a sculptor, but I never would, have consented to do so for any art studies. “Naturally, I greatly object to having pictures obtained through fraud circulated against my wishes, and I feel that the authorities will help me in my fight.” Miss Grant is now 23 years old. She was born May 1, 1904, the daughter of John Edward Grant and Nina Whiteman Grant. Her grandfather was William Lonzelle, a prominent Southland actor and a participant for years in the Mission Play.

The Silent Film Quarterly・!10

Katherine Grant is Awarded 5-Year Contract by Roach Originally published in the Moving Picture World, July 4, 1925 ・・・ Hal Roach has just notified the Pathe Home Office that he has awarded Katherine Grant a five-year contract because of her exceptional performances in the Hal Roach comedies distributed by Pathe. Roach is very enthusiastic over his discovery of this blonde beauty of the screen and stated: “Miss Grant’s exceptional work before the camera has won her this long-term

contract. Not only has she proved herself a comedienne of the first rank with a keen appreciation of comedy values but she possesses that subtle charm known as personality, and it gets over most effectively on the screen. In addition to her proved histrionic ability, she is one of the most attractive beauties appearing in motion pictures. I am sure that the theatre-going public will be glad to learn that we are assured of Miss Grant’s appearance in our comedies for at least five years.” Pathe officials second Hal Roach’s appreciation of Miss Grant’s ability and the potency of her screen personality and are delighted over the signing of the contract which assures the appearances of this charming player in comedies on the

1925 advertisement listing Katherine Grant amongst Roach’s cast of players.

The Silent Film Quarterly・!11 Pathe release schedule for a long period of time. Branch managers and exhibitors have also recognized Miss Grant as an exceptional comedienne, and many complimentary words have been written about her in communications received by the Pathe Home Office in the past. The Roach player has been declared to be the most perfect type of blond beauty for the screen. She is tall and athletic and is the possessor of very expressive blue eyes. Her acting ability is no doubt to a degree inherited as both her parents, Anita Lonzelle and J. E. Grant were on the stage. One of her famous relatives of the profession is William Lonzelle, who shone in “The Mission Play.” Miss Grant was born and educated in Los Angeles, attending the high school in that city. She paid particular attention to dramatics and it is a strange coincidence that she was in the same dramatic class at high school as Glenn Tryon, with whom she is now associated in Hal Roach Comedies. Her stage debut was made in 1914 with Gus Edwards, famous discoverer of juvenile talent, at the Orpheum Theatre in Brooklyn. She later appeared at the head of her own company in “Midnight Frolics.” It was in 1921 that Miss Grant began her screen career as an extra in one of the “Our Gang” comedies at the Hal Roach studio. She played in Fox and Universal pictures and soon returned to the Roach lot. For some time she has been appearing in the supporting casts of the various Roach producing units making Pathe comedies. Only recently, however, was it discovered that her screen talents were more than merely those of portraying leading roles and sympathetic parts. The discovery was made in a “Spat Family” comedy entitled “Wild Papa.” Miss Grant gave such a striking performance in creating a new type of “vamp” that she almost “stole” the picture from her fellow players.

1925 advertisement for Glenn Tryon Comedies, starring Katherine Grant amongst other actresses.

Some of her recent appearances in Hal Roach comedies on the Pathe program include “Isn’t Life Terrible?” with Glenn Tryon and “What Price Goofy?” with Charley Chase, both two reelers. Miss Grant is one of the most enthusiastic dance devotees on the Pacific Coast and not only does she dance at every opportunity for her own enjoyment, but she conducts a dancing school which has won a reputation for its instruction in the art of terpsichore. She also devotes much time to swimming and diving which are her second-choice hobbies and is proficient in practically all forms of athletics. Undoubtedly, Miss Grant is unusually well qualified to carry out the ambitious plans that Hal Roach has for her in comedies and her work in new Pathe comedies will be watched with keen interest.

The Silent Film Quarterly・!12

The Dismal End of Her Fight Against Fat Too Rigorous Methods of Trying to Keep Slender Blamed for the Sad Mental and Physical Collapse Which Katherine Grant, Noted Film Beauty, Has Suffered Originally syndicated nationally, June 13, 1926 ・・・ A recent conference of eminent physicians in New York warned the women of America that thousands of them are doing themselves serious mental and physical harm by too rigorous methods of trying to gain or retain the slenderness of figure that is so fashionable. And now, to show what good reason there is for this warning, comes the news of the dismal end that has come to a celebrated film beauty’s fight against fat. The unfortunate screen favorite is Miss Katherine Grant, known to millions of moviegoers for her loveliness of face and figure as well as her promising ability as an actress. But now she may never be able to appear in the films again—certainly not for a long time. A pale, pathetic shadow of her former self, Miss Grant lies in a California sanitarium in a condition so serious that at times her life has been despaired of. The complete collapse she has suffered is mental as well as physical and the physicians lay the blame for it on the starvation diet and the strenuous exercises to which she subjected herself in her fight against fat. The crisis in Katherine Grant’s case— the inevitable penalty for her unwise reduction methods—was hastened by injuries she received several months ago when struck by an automobile. The injuries were trivial, ones that would have caused a perfectly healthy, vigorous young woman no more than a few hours’ annoyance.

Even these little hurts, however, proved too much for Miss Grant’s constitution to bear, undermined as it was by months of insufficient food and the strain of too arduous exercises. What little of her vitality and powers of resistance were left to her went tumbling like a house of cards and she was hurried to a sanitarium, a dangerously ill woman. Miss Grant sprang abruptly into prominence in 1922 when she was chosen from hundreds of other Souther n California contestants as “Miss Los Angeles.” With this title went the honor of being sent to Atlantic City to compete in the annual beauty parade. There she vied with more than a score of beauties selected from other leading cities of the country for the coveted title of “Miss America,” awarded each year at the Atlantic City pageant. Her beauty and the honor that had been bestowed upon her in being selected as “Miss Los Angeles,” attracted the attention of the film producers. So Miss Grant, quite unknown before then, suddenly found her services were in demand before the movie camera. Upon her return to Los Angeles from Atlantic City she signed a contract to make comedies and immediately succeeded Jobyna Ralston as leading woman in the Paul Parrott comedies. Thus auspiciously launched on a screen career, the joy of the heretofore unheard of beauty winner quite naturally rose high. She thought, with eager anticipation, of Gloria Swanson, Mabel Normand and other notables of filmdom who had started their ascent to fame in the ranks of the comedy girls. With her new work and her generous salary came luxuries that Miss Grant never before had tasted. Sumptuous dinners and extravagant luncheons and suppers, once so rare, now became commonplaces, and the beauty reveled in them without a thought of the consequences.

The Silent Film Quarterly・!13

The article as it originally appeared in print.

About a year ago came the first warning of the trouble that menaced all her happiness and success—and eventually her health and life! Miss Grant found to her dismay that she was—getting fat! Careful study of her features before the mirror revealed an even more tragic

fact—that the extra weight she was acquiring was showing first in her face, robbing her of the first attribute to film success. She had learned, as every screen actress does, that the movie camera is very cruel to those inclined to stoutness. Instead of recording their appearance faithfully the

The Silent Film Quarterly・!14 camera exaggerates the slightest amount of excess weight. Hence the fear of every actress that she will become overweight. Miss Grant also knew how the prevailing mode calls for slender, sylph-like figures. The stout, plump beauty of a few years ago is quite passed. The fear of fatness was the first disturbing factor that had crossed the beauty’s path since her advent into the films. Her work had been so successful that she had signed a contract with Hal Roach for five years and when this menace of overweight appeared she seemed well on her way to stardom. Her employer had nothing but praise for her. He described her as one of the most avid students of film technique that he had ever seen. “She screens perfectly,” he said, “and in my opinion, she will develop into one of the most proficient actresses in the profession. We expect great things of her.” Katherine Grant well knew that her bright future would become unattainable

unless she promptly halted her increasing weight. On her own initiative she started her fight to keep thin. She put in all her available time in a bathing suit or gym suit, crowding into each day all the exercise she possibly could. This routine took the form of vigorous exercise that many men would shun. Running, jumping and work on the horizontal bars were all a part of the actress’ campaign against fat. And with her strenuous exercise she instituted a most rigorous diet. Accordingly to her friends she lived on the smallest possible allowance of food and in her eagerness to keep slender neglected to eat food elements that are necessary to health. This went on for some months. Although tiring under her rigid course of dieting and vigorous exercise, Miss Grant was encouraged to find that she had been successful in halting the advance of fat and had gotten back to the weight at which her appearance before the camera was most satisfactory.

From the September 14, 1922 San Francisco Chronicle.

The Silent Film Quarterly・!15 The fact that she felt exhausted most of the time and a little nervous was accepted as a natural consequence of her work and strenuous exercise. Then came a day last December when she was struck by a motorist near the Roach studios. The driver speeded on without offering aid. When assistance reached Miss Grant she was found to be suffering much more severely than her slight bruises would seem to warrant. An examination failed to disclose any broken bones or other serious injury. However, Miss Grant failed to respond to the ordinary treatment. She was cared for in the Hollywood hospital for a time and later taken to the home of a friend where it was thought rest and quiet soon would restore the girl to her normal health. Then for a time she was lost from sight. Officials at the Roach studio stated that she still was convalescing from her accident and during that time had been released from her contract. They stated she was being cared for at the home of a friend. A few days ago the Hollywood film colony was startled with the news that a nerve-shattered girl, found in a suburban sanitarium near the mountain foothills and there known as “Miss Ruth Woods,” was in reality Katherine Grant, the former beauty contest winner and screen actress. Immediately an air of mystery was thrown around the girl’s condition and the circumstances surrounding her treatment at the newly-opened sanitarium. The atmosphere became even more clouded when it was announced that health authorities planned to start an investigation into the operation and management of the rest home where Miss Grant was found. Inquiry disclosed that the sanitarium is operated by Mrs. Donna Bell who, according to police records, is also known as Mrs. Etta Bell Heil, former wife of a Chicago millionaire. Mrs. Heil first came into the public eye several years ago when

she was sought in Chicago on a grand larceny charge. Mrs. Bell was before the Los Angeles courts in 1922 when a burglary charge was filed against her. At that time she was paroled by Superior Judge Arthur Reeve to the custody of the county psychopathic department. The charges against her were dropped with the proviso that she be placed in an institution for “mental incompetents.” Subsequently, officials learned, Mrs. Bell opened an establishment on Santa Monica boulevard, Los Angeles, known as Sylvan Lodge, a maternity hospital and sanitarium where mental cases are treated. Discovery of Miss Grant as a patient in Mrs. Bell’s sanitarium was accidental. Investigating reports that a new sanitarium had been opened up in Los Angeles county without the sanction of the health department, officials paid a visit to the establishment, which at that time had no permit to operate. There Miss Grant, secluded as “Miss Woods,” was discovered, obviously both nervously and physically weak. Two other patients, both “mental cases,” a cook, a helper and a nurse were the only persons in the institution. Investigation disclosed that Miss Grant after failing to recover from the breakdown brought on by her accident had first been taken to Sylvan Lodge. When she failed to respond to treatment there she was removed to the foothill institution. According to persons living near the sanitarium Miss Grant tried twice to flee from the place, once managing to get past the attendants to an automobile parked in front of the establishment. In the car she fled nearly a mile down the road before she was overtaken. The screen beauty is said to be but a shadow, her captivating dimples gone, her face drawn, her complexion wan. Her nerves are said to be in such a state of exhaustion that she lies for hours without

The Silent Film Quarterly・!16

speaking or showing any interest in her The movie colony in Hollywood for a surroundings. time were mad on the subject of diet. Like Inquiry at the Roach studios brings the many society beauties they weighed explanation that Miss Grant’s condition, themselves every day and were horribly brought on by a strain she had placed on alarmed if an extra ounce was registered herself by the fight to avoid overweight, upon the scales. resulted in her doctors Some of the contracts ordering her removed to a required that the star place where she would remain at a certain have absolute rest and poundage while a picture quiet. For that reason, it is was being filmed. If she said, Mrs. Bell’s institution gained during that time was selected, and the she lost her job. Others actress entered there were required to reduce under an assumed name. immediately if they Dr. Victor Parkin, wished to portray certain who is now treating Miss roles that required the Grant, is hopeful that very thinnest of beauties. time and expert care may Miss Grant may possibly restore the beauty to have heard of the tomato normality, but he explains and hard boiled egg diet, that her physical and her friends believe, that nervous condition is such has ruined the health and that it is hard for her to wrecked the nerves of exert herself to recover hundreds of stage and her poise. society beauties. Following the furor This diet promises a about the sanitarium reduction of ten pounds conducted by Mrs. Bell, in three days. The one Miss Grant was removed dieting has to eat a raw to her mother’s home in tomato, one hard boiled Los Angeles. There the egg and one slice of rye fate of the beauty who crisp for three meals for risked health and life itself three days. in her fight against fat is Actresses who have tried still hanging in the this admit that though the balance. desired results are And all the obtained the nervous misfortunes of the lovely shock to the entire system Katherine Grant, is terrific. Sometimes it From the September 17, 1922 San physicians say, could have takes a year to recover if Francisco Chronicle. been avoided if she had t h e re g i m e h a s b e e n undertaken reduction in a continued to extremes. normal way—for instance, by a moderate Such conversations and discussions of amount of exercising. the never ending subject of diet are While Miss Grant was getting every probably directly responsible for the drastic day more and more overweight, she was measures by which poor Miss Grant hearing constantly conversations about attempted to restore her beauty, fame and dieting. wealth, it is believed.