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The elegant Natalie Schafer revealed her beauty secrets in the '60s
A quart of ice cream a day will keep the doctor away. Or at least that's how Natalie Schafer saw it.
Natalie Schafer is known for two things: her role as Lovey Howell in Gilligan's Island and for being one of the most elegant women in Hollywood in the '60s.
Schafer was in 99 episodes of Gilligan's Island, and during her time on the series she went through many challenges while trying to keep up her glam appearance.
As successful as she was, it wasn't without following strict, and sometimes not-so-strict guidelines.
In a 1965 interview with Carlsbad Current-Argus, Schafer gave a few of her personal beauty tips. She always had an answer for how to look your best, even while stranded on an island.
"I adore cooking and eating, and haven't the character to abstain," she said. "So I just induldge myself, and then go on a diet if my weight goes above 124."
Although Schafer would diet, she didn't seem too concerned about what people thought of her. So much so, that this next beauty tip is the exact opposite of what most doctors would tell you to do.
"I think I've tried every diet there is, but my favorite I invented myself. The ice cream diet," she said. "I eat a quart of ice cream a day: a bowl of vanilla with my coffee in the morning, two bowls of different flavors at lunch, a bowl of any flavor as an afternoon snack, and two bowls for dinner. I can lose three pounds in five days."
We'd really like to know exactly how many choices of ice cream flavors Schafer had in her freezer! The ice cream diet is an interesting one, but somehow seemed to work for Schafer, who lived to be 90 and passed away in 1991.
According to the interview, Schafer learned to love the casual California lifestyle, which also helped her with her health journey. So what does one do for exercise after eating a quart of ice cream?
"I have a swimming pool now," she said. "It's very small, but no matter. It's large enough for exercise. I swim every day, au naturel, before I go to work and when I come home. I can't bear to do exercises regularly, but in the water it's fun. It's also more beneficial because the water offers resistance."
Schafer swore by the diet. However, she said there was one downside.
"Of course, it doesn't make you very popular in restaraunts," she said. "I remember going to Romanoffs in Beverly Hills for dinner once when I was following the diet. I had chocolate ice cream... the waiter thought I was insane!"
Schafer's secret to having energy: a teaspoon of honey in coffee or preferred drink of choice. And her favorite glam beauty tip: false eyelashes. Her last beauty tip:
"Wear clothes and hair styles of the time, not those you wore in your twenties," she said.
A quart of ice cream a day will keep the doctor away.
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11 Comments
I Love Lucy (1954), The Beverly Hillbillies (1964), Mayberry RFD (1970), Mannix (1972),
The Brady Bunch (1974), Three's Company, The Love Boat, and Phyllis (1976), as well as others. She certainly was an accomplished actress.
