Obesity wasn’t exactly widespread during the Great Depression, and stories about dieting and weight-loss studies didn’t become common in American newspapers until decades later. But this one managed to crack the Minneapolis Star’s Page One lineup in 1934. Behold the 60-hour-black-coffee-tea-and-water diet. And a new word: thinningest.

There Is No Justice; Men Can Diet
Weight Away Easier Than Women

By scorning it as “mere brute strength,” the ladies have always been able to discount the athletic superiority of men over women.

But here is something that hurts.

Men naturally lose weight faster than women when on a diet.

	Back in 1935, folks in this weight class could aspire to be the fat man or fat lady at the Minnesota State Fair. In 2009, they’re just another hefty couple in line ahead of you at the Pronto Pup stand. (Photo courtesy mnhs.org)

Excess avoirdupois literally drops off the men when they confine their eating to water, black coffee and clear tea. But women? They struggle, but the stuff that curves are made of refuses to depart.

So reports Dr. Esther M. Greisheimer of the University of Minnesota, who has actually compared the records of 28 women and 26 men who agreed to quit eating for 60 hours in the interest of science.

The women lost 5.20 pounds, on the average, Dr. Greisheimer told the annual convention of the American Societies for Experimental Biology in New York Friday.

But the men lost an average of 6.43 pounds. And while the losingest woman dropped 10 pounds, the thinningest man lost 12.5.

And all this happened in [spite of] the plain fact that, while a dainty figure is an important consideration to a woman, nobody cares a hoot how much or how little a man weighs.

A Gluek’s Beer ad published in the Minneapolis Star touted the pilsener as “the beer with the REAL beer flavor!”

Check out the third photo in the ad: Just a few months after the end of Prohibition, a thirsty motorist could order a tall, cold Gluek’s without getting out of his car.

Ada L. Comstock, the University of Minnesota’s first dean of women, earned her high school degree in Moorhead, Minn., at age 15. At some point in her undergrad days at the U and at Smith College, she joined the Delta Gamma sorority. And although she defended sororities in the Minneapolis Tribune story below, she soon became a strong advocate for on-campus alternatives to sororities and rooming houses. Through her efforts, Sanford Hall, the U’s first women’s dormitory, was built in 1910. And Comstock Hall, dedicated in 1940, is named in her honor.

	Ada Comstock in about 1920

Snobbishness Denied
By Sorority Members

Charges Against Girls’ So-
cieties at State Univer-
sity Refuted.

Various “Greeks” Rally to
Defense, and State
Their Views.

“Sorority girls at the University of Minnesota are characterized by a sensible and broad-minded spirit,” said Miss Ada L. Comstock, dean of women at the university, when a charge of snobbishness made against the sororities was brought to her attention last night.

“A group of that sort is, from the nature of its organization, not democratic, but the girls of the sororities of our university are noteworthily free of snobbishness,” she added.

Dean Comstock’s refutation followed a statement said to have been made by a prominent university girl from Great Falls, Mont., to the effect that the sororities at the university are schools of snobbishness. The Montana girl was “rushed “ by many of the sororities following her arrival. When asked to join, she declined all invitations. To each sorority she was reported to have given the same reply:

“No, I do not believe it is wise to join sororities. I believe they foster snobbishness. I believe a girl can be more independent, more democratic, outside than inside of a sorority. I shall join none.”

Denials Are Entered

Prominent members of the different sororities promptly denied the implied accusation and the existence of any relationship between sororities and snobbishness.

Julia Thuet, a member of Kappa Alpha Theta and prominent, also, as president of the Woman’s league, spoke for her sorority, saying: “Our aim is to promote the highest and widest aims of womanhood. Theta knows nothing of such a relationship.”

Alpha Phi, voice by Mae Cutler, is distinctly indignant: “The whole matter is perfectly absurd,” said Miss Cutler.

Elizabeth Ware expressed thus the aim of Kappa Kappa Gamma: “A sisterhood to make the womanhood of the university more extensive in its influence. Kappa never thought of such an alliance.”

“I Should Say Not!”

Florence Winterer, when reached at the Delta Gamma house, said: “I should say not! A sorority means grand friendships in college, both in and out of the sorority – the very opposite of snobbishness. The whole story is a farce.”

Alta Dunlap of the Pi Beta Phi sorority was astonished. “Don’t you know that a sorority shows girls how to be better friends with every other girl in college?” she asked.

Agnes Malloy asserted that Gamma Phi Beta knows nothing of snobbishness developing from sorority life, and Marjory Sims of Delta Delta Delta said the same thing.

Lucy White, speaking for the Alpha Xi Delta sorority, expressed the idea of the Alpha Xi Delta girls as “allying yourself to one group in no way prevents you from making friends outside.”

Too good for the sidewalk? Sorority pledges at the University of Minnesota, about 1905. (Photo courtesy mnhs.org)

In this 1910 photo of University of Minnesota sorority sisters at play, I detect a whiff of snobbery in the expression of the pregnant-looking lass at left. (Photo courtesy )