Sylvia Ulback (6 April 1881 – 2 March 1975), known as Sylvia of Hollywood, was an early Hollywood fitness guru.Addison, Heather. Hollywood and the Rise of Physical Culture (2003) Routledge, New York & London, p 41. Between 1926 and 1932, "Madame Sylvia", as she was also known, specialized in keeping movie stars camera-readyYeaman, Elizabeth, "Sylvia's Clever Hands Aid Stars To Keep Slender", Hollywood Daily Citizen, 17 September 1930."With Movie Stars In Hollywood", Spartanburg Herald-Journal, 20 September 1930, p.5e.g. Shaffer, Rosalind. "Pola Negri Is Back With New Personality", Chicago Daily Tribune, 8 November 1931, p F12. through stringent massage, diet and exercise.
Early life Sylvia was born Synnøve Johanne Waaler (or Wilhelmsen)"Mme. Waaler a bride; Radio Broadcaster Wed In Berkshires to Edward Leiter, Actor." New York Times 6 July 1932."Sylvia, Beauty Advisor, Weds", Los Angeles Times, 6 July 1932. in Kristiania, Norway (now Oslo). Her mother, Amelia Wilhelmsen, was an opera singer,"Madame Sylvia of Hollywood Brings Spirit of Movieland to Manhattan", Bismarck Tribune, 2 February 1933. and her father, Oscar Waaler, was an artist.
Forbidden to be a doctor by her parents, Sylvia went into nursing at 16. Having studied massage, she opened an office in Bremen, Germany when she was 18 years old. Sylvia and her first husband Andrew Ulback, a lumber dealer, went to America (first New York then Chicago) in 1921 or 1922 after her husband lost his business in the war.
In 1926, Sylvia, her husband, and their two sons relocated to Hollywood, ostensibly for Andrew's health.Ober Peak, Mayme. "Famous Hollywood Masseuse Reveals Secrets of the Stars", The Hartford Courant, 7 June 1931, p D2. (She eschewed the use of her married name [Ulback or Ullback], hence its various spelling in contemporary references as Ulbeck,"Famous Masseuse Denies She Has Offended Stars", Photoplay, June 1932.Bird, Carol "Are American Women Becoming Gaunt Gazelles? Dieting Ruining Women's Health Declares Sylvia", Lodi News-Sentinel, 12 August 1936."Sylvia Gossips About Filmdom", Los Angeles Times, 1 November 1931, p B16. and Ulvert "Sylvia Weds Stage Actor", Reno Evening Gazette, 5 July 1932.).
Treatments Sylvia stated that in 1921 she weighed in at 157 lbs at 5 feet tall and looked like a dutiful Norwegian wife. Seeing her husband, Andrew, flirting with his slender stenographer caused Sylvia to study reducing methods. Getting her own weight down to 95 lbs,"Sylvia of Hollywood Gives Intimate Glimpse at Stars", The Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, 3 February 1932."Sylvia Sizes Up Stars She Has Reduced", The Hartford Courant, 2 February 1932, p. 6. Sylvia meshed dieting knowledge with her massage training.Stage and Screen: "No Worry Over Fat", The Lewiston Daily Sun, 15 July 1930, p 4. She applied those skills to a growing list of clientele, which included socialites and others in the public eye.
Promoting a three-pronged approach of massage, exercise and diet, Sylvia's techniques- said to "squeeze off fat," were infamous within the ranks of Hollywood."Social Butterfly of Screen A Different Person at Home", The Hartford Courant, 10 January 1932, p D31. Her name became popularly associated "Beauty Is More Than Skin Deep", The Argus, Melbourne, Victoria, 18 June 1935, p 12.Shaffer, George. "Movie Gossip From Hollywood", Chicago Daily Tribune, 24 September 1931, p 18. with Hollywood slenderising, particularly in regard to massageProfessional Classified Ads, Massage Section, The Miami News, 23 August 1938, p. 13. which was then seen as a way to lose weight. Her overall methods would now be considered ineffective,Bernard, Jami, "Stopped Cold and Hot Tempered",Daily News (New York), 7 November 2004, p 38.Sugarman, Carole "The History of Thinking Thin", The Washington Post, 16 June 1987, p Z15/cover story. yet her suggestions to stay active, be disciplined and eat wisely are still reasonable weight-loss advice even by modern standards.Donnelly, Antoinette. "Here's The Way Hollywood Beauties Keep Their Slimness", Chicago Daily Tribune, 23 December 1931, p 16."Sylvia Ulbeck's methods of food preparation were controversial at the time: vegetables lightly steamed with their cooking broth preserved; potato skins; plenty of fresh fruit; lean meat. Her one rule about frying was: "DON'T! This is a rule not only of dietary, but of all sane cooking. Fried foods are certainly the origin of the chronic digestive troubles which identify the American (by his belch!) to doctors all over the world. There is nothing that should be fried." Rivera, Rebecca A. Syracuse Herald-Journal, 3 June 1984.
Sylvia's first client in Chicago was Julius Rosenwald (or in fact Rosenwald's grandmother)Yeaman, Elizabeth, Sylvia's Clever Hands Aid Stars To Keep Slender, Hollywood Daily Citizen, 17 September 1930. who introduced her to other wealthy clients.
Her first Hollywood client was Marie Dressler in 1925.Hollywood Undressed: Observations of Sylvia As Noted by Her Secretary (1931) Brentano's, p 12. By 1930, Sylvia was working at Pathe studioParsons, Louella. "Movie Activities Proving Numerous", The Palm Beach Post, 31 May 1930 page 18. at $750 a week.Whitaker, Alma. "Sugar and Spice" Los Angeles Times 29 November 1931, p. B15.
In that same year, she was hired by Joseph Kennedy for his mistress Gloria Swanson, who enthused over the miracles Sylvia worked on her body.Beauchamp, Cari (2009) Joseph Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years p 263-5, Knopf, New York. Beauchamp, Cari (2009) "Over the course of a year, Gloria was billed $6190.80 for massages", Joseph Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years, note to page 265. This is approximately equivalent to $79800.00 in 2008 value.
Hollywood Undressed In 1932, Sylvia exposed the foibles of the Hollywood system and her illustrious clientele in the book Hollywood Undressed: Observations of Sylvia as Noted by Her Secretary (1931)."Hollywood writers are surely getting their names on the literary map. "Hollywood Undressed" is the provocative title of a book by Sylvia Ullback which shortly will go to press. Sylvia is the masseuse who is responsible for the exquisite figures of many of our most beautiful film stars, and she probably knows them more intimately than any person in the cinema capital. In this book she tells how the different stars preserve their beauty, giving not only their routines of exercise but of diet. And if you know Sylvia, you know that the book is dotted with that gay brand of humor which is so characteristically hers. Perhaps the volume will satisfy the thousands of women who flood her with correspondence, asking for beauty secrets. She tells them everything they want to know with a sound common sense born of authority." Yeaman, Elizabeth, Hollywood Daily Citizen columnist, 4 November 1930.Keavy, H. "Screen Life in Hollywood: A 'Sock' In Time", San Antonio Express, July 19, 1931. Although said to be penned by Sylvia's secretary, the playful book, full of gossip and contemporary vernacular, was ghostwritten by newspaper reporter and screenwriter James Whittaker,Yeaman, Elizabeth, Hollywood Daily Citizen, 5 March 1931. the first husband of Ina Claire.Shaffer, George. "Movie Gossip from Hollywood", Chicago Daily Tribune, 27 June 1931, p 19."Short Shavings", Waterloo Sunday Courier, 17 April 1932."Screen Life In Hollywood", The Hartford Courant, 19 July 1931, p D3.
Hollywood Undressed revealed intimate details of Sylvia's famous Hollywood clientele which included Jean Harlow, Marie Dressler,Coons, R. "Marathons Common To Movies", The Olean Herald, 2 September 1931. Mae Murray, Alice White, Bebe Daniels, Mary Duncan, Ramón Novarro, Ruth Chatterton, Ann Harding, Norma Talmadge, Grace Moore, Constance Bennett, Gloria Swanson, Nella Webb, F.W. Murnau, Elsie Janis, Ernest Torrence, Lawrence Tibbett, Laura Hope Crews, Ronald Colman, Constance Cummings, Ina Claire, John Gilbert, Carmel Myers, Helen Twelvetrees, Carole Lombard, Ilka Chase, Dorothy Mackaill, Pepi Lederer, Marion Davies, Neil Hamilton, Alan Hale Sr and Vivienne Segal.Hollywood Undressed: Observations of Sylvia As Noted by Her Secretary (1931) Brentano's.
Of Hollywood Undressed, Louella Parsons wrote, "Perhaps no one has ever played Hollywood quite as mean a trick as the woman who came here and made her money taking care of the stars and then turned around and wrote the cruelest articles about them that have ever been written.Parsons, Louella. "Chatter in Hollywood", The San Antonio Light, 5 July 1932. (The book has since been republished by Kessinger Publishing, LLC with a softcover version on 1 March 2007 and a hardback edition published 13 June 2008.)
Despite the repercussions of Hollywood Undressed,Yeaman, Elizabeth, Hollywood Daily Citizen 31 July 1931."She is a curious psychological study. The dreadful urge to make herself noticed has egged her on to extremes." Whitaker, Alma. "Sugar and Spice" Los Angeles Times 29 November 1931, p B15. Sylvia continued to give her opinion on Hollywood and its denizens, with the confidence Merrick, Mollie, "Stars and Talkies of Hollywood", The Spokesman Review, 10 October 1931, p.10. that her clients needed her more than she needed them:'"Screen Life In Hollywood", The Hartford Courant, 19 July 1931, p D3.
I love them and I'm sorry for them. I'm never going back. There's too much clamor. You shrink up and get a false view of life. The only brainy people out there hide in their shells. Gloria Swanson—she's very childish. She has all the earmarks of a naughty little girl—and all the charm that goes with it. When I gave her treatments she'd yell and scream like a maniac. One time she crawled under the bed and wouldn't come out. She made nasty faces at me and I chased her around the house... Ann Harding is one of Hollywood's most intelligent. She has a brain like a man and works like man. Of course, she's a little careless about her appearance, like the great Maude Adams, but I love her. Norma Shearer and Marie Dressler are my favorites. Neither ever talks dirt. They're the squarest shooters of all. I never heard either criticize anyone.
On 23 May 1931, Sylvia headed east to New YorkYeaman, Elizabeth, Hollywood Daily Citizen 19 May 1931. with writer Ursula Parrott. By 1933, she had quit Hollywood entirely to concentrate on New York and a wider audience.San Francisco Chronicle Radio, 26 September 1933. From New York, where she pursued her publishing career, she was able to reach a wide audience that spanned from the east to the west coast and everywhere in between. Her articles as well as news about her reached local papers across the country.
Further books Sylvia wrote three books on health, appearance and beauty: No More Alibis (1934) Photoplay Publishing, Chicago, Pull Yourself Together Baby with cartoons by Paki (1936) Macfadden, New York."How to Develop Your Personality Is Subject of Sylvia's New Book", The Charleston Gazette, 25 October 1936.Kincaid Brockman, Z. "Unguarded Moments", The Gastonia Daily Gazette, 10 September 1937. and Streamline Your Figure (1939), Macfadden, New York."Sylvia Tells Women How to Attain Allure in Breezy New Book", The Charleston Gazette, 5 February 1939.
Priced at $1, No More Alibis was sixth on the non-fiction list"...[T]he earliest version of what would become its weekly best-seller list didn't appear in this newspaper until almost 40 years later, on Oct. 6, 1935...What was on that first Times best-seller list?...On the nonfiction side, there was a diet book -- in the middle of the Depression -- called No More Alibis! (McFadden, $1), by someone named Sylvia of Hollywood." Garner, Dwight "TBR: Inside The List", New York Times, 3 October 2004, p 32. of bestsellers from August 19 to September 17, 1936."Monthly List of Best-Selling Books", New York Times, 6 October 1935.
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