A shrewd Texas blonde named Debbie Drake has fashioned a never-fail device to pare tallow off overweight Americans, using three proven methods: 1) exercise, 2) diet, and 3) matrimonial strife. The device is leggy, busty, 30-year-old Debbie Drake (38½-22½-36) herself. She does calisthenics. Loyal women viewers of 58 TV stations drag themselves out of bed early enough (7:30 a.m., E.D.T.) to puff along with Debbie as she does 15 minutes of sinuous stretches and stupefying deep breathing. While the women writhe, their husbands too are profiting by the sitting-up exercises (they do not exercise, naturally; it is hard to roll about on the floor and at the same time watch Debbie with the concentration she deserves).
Debbie's format demands attention; she twists rhythmically, counting one-and, two-and, giving encouragement in a pleasant, somewhat twangy voice. Then she calls for deep breathing. After one or two of the deepest breaths seen on TV since Dagmar left, the camera fades to a commercial.
Males, at least, are too weak to run or even walk to their neighborhood stores, but presumably viewers bite hard on the products hawked; stations have signed up avidly since Debbie's program was syndicated in September. Not long ago, Debbie, the divorced mother of a twelve-year-old boy, was part owner of a chain of unsuccessful reducing parlors and sole proprietor of a thoroughly successful figure (she says she had "a figure problem" once, after her son was born, but cured it with disciplined self-torture). She persuaded WHIO-TV in Dayton to pay her $20 each for a weekly antiflab ballet, then switched to Indianapolis' WISH-TV when the station offered her $150 a week.
That was early in 1960; her income this year will probably hit $80,000.
Debbie, like most physical culturists, believes deeply in breathing deeply. As a former physical wreck ("I was skinny and scared at 13"), she explains: "I wouldn't believe it myself if I hadn't done it." She spreads her anti-spread message earnestly to women's groups (but not men's groups, despite frequent invitations).
There is one thing, however, that Debbie will not do for the cause. She will not get up at 7:30 in the morning and do exercises. She tapes her shows at a sensible hour at night and then goes home to catch a full nine hours of sleep.