It took less than a month for readers to begin submitting letters to their favorite columnists reporting of weight-loss successes that had been achieved on a diet that might have provided its adherents with between 500 and 600 calories on a good day. “In order to follow the diet at luncheons, I had to resign from the Rotary Club, but it was worth it,” wrote one. “In 18 days, I not only lost a dozen pounds, but missed three after-dinner speeches.”
It was also around this time that the tale of the diet’s true origin became public. The Boston Globe’s Hollywood reporter, Mayme Ober Peak, revealed how actress Ethel Barrymore had reportedly marched into the Mayo Clinic, frantically complaining that she needed to quickly lose weight for a film role, and pleaded, “I’ve got to eat, but I’ve got to reduce, too. Help me!”
From there, Mayo Clinic doctors allegedly devised a diet that would enable Barrymore to restore her famously slender figure. The diet was apparently sufficient to satisfy the actress who was famous for spurning encore calls with her iconic catchphrase (which could also have ironically described the 18-Day Diet): “That’s all there is! There isn’t any more!” Barrymore reportedly passed the diet along to other actresses in need of rapid weight reduction. From there, it spread like wildfire through Hollywood, and subsequently, the rest of the world.
But in the midst of the 18-Day Diet’s popularity, tragedy struck. Famous actress Marietta Millner was reported dead in Vienna as the result of a bout of tuberculosis following a voluntary starvation diet that had been deemed necessary to get her beneath the weight ceiling established by her studio contract. While Millner’s death may not have been specifically linked to the 18-Day Diet, it did open the door to criticism. “The 18-Day Diet is the worst fad this country has ever known,” snorted Dr. J.J. Carter to the Los Angeles Evening Post. “People who follow the diet are dying. The diet brings on tuberculosis and heart trouble as well.”
This was a bit of a reach, as tuberculosis is caused by bacteria and not by weight loss. But it’s conceivable that Millner’s post-starvation condition left her body ill-suited to fend off the illness. Regardless, several other leading Hollywood actresses were already convinced that the 18-Day Diet was bad news. In an Eagle Rock Sentinel column titled “18-Day Diet Denounced by Screen Stars,” actress Evelyn Brent was joined by numerous fellow starlets in declaring the diet to be harmful. “Girls, women and even men whom I know have suffered ill results from following the so-called ‘Hollywood 18-Day Diet,’” said Brent. “It is too radical — as all the diets are too radical unless a physician who knows his patients has outlined them. It is unreasonable to believe that all systems can absorb the extraordinary amount of acid that the 18-Day Diet prescribes.”