Anita Colby & the Vintage Slant Board

 

A few years ago I stumbled upon a gem of a vintage publication from the 1950s – Anita Colby’s Beauty Book.  I devoured the contents in one sitting. The best concept in the entire book is called the “Hollywood Slant” or “Vintage Slant Board” and was reported to have numerous health & beauty benefits which were known to Hollywood’s best actresses from the 1940s and 50s. Today, it’s still used by the medical community under the name “low angle inversion therapy”.  (So please don’t turn this into a Youtube video titled, “Hazardous Things People did in the 50s”!)

Anita Colby was already a bit of a legendary figure in America when her book was first published seventy odd years ago.  Raised in an established family in New York, Anita began her career as a highly successful model, enjoyed a short stint as an actress, was a widely read newspaper editor for several decades, and eventually starred on early television as a hostess for the Pepsi-Cola Playhouse, and a morning anchor for NBC in the 1960s.

Legend has it that she received marriage proposals from bachelors Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable, turned them both down, and instead introduced them to their future wives!  Anita Colby was also well known for hosting wonderful parties at her home in California, and struck up friendships with everyone from Winston Churchill to the Duchess of Windsor (Wallis Simpson).

But she is perhaps most famous for her role as beauty coach for Paramount Pictures where it was her responsibility to transform the new studio recruits into the best and loveliest versions of themselves.  She worked extensively with actresses such as Rita Hayworth, Jennifer Jones, a teenaged Shirley Temple, and many more.  Her comprehensive book focuses not just on external beauty tricks – how to choose the right shade of lipstick or the correct hairstyle for instance, but also encourages you to work on the inside and be the kindest person you can be.  “If you think about other people – really try to help other people – it will show in your face,” she urges. “Contentment is a woman’s best cosmetic.”

But while inner beauty was a quality she advocated for, she certainly knew all the beauty tricks in the industry!  An expert in matters of exercise, diet, body types, makeup, skin care, and much more, there was one main “Hollywood beauty secret” that Anita insisted on for health and staying youthful. It’s the concept of the vintage slant board. Or in her own words, “The Hollywood Slant”:

“When I first went to Hollywood, I was struck by the beautiful skins of many of the older actresses – clearer textured, softer, more radiant than skins of dozens of my youthful starlets.  The late Elsie Mendl…then in her ninenties… had amazing vitality…”
‘You have to help your heart circulate, blood flowing in to the brain, up into the neck and face… I’ve been doing it for fifty years,” Elsie had told Miss Colby.

While Elsie Mendl literally stood on her head for a few minutes a day to accomplish the task of getting blood to the brain, Anita adopted the habit in a far gentler way – using a padded slant board at a 45 degree angle to rest for 15 minutes a day.  Miss Colby became an expert on the subject and insisted that all actresses under her care at Paramount Studios take up the practice as well.

In her book, she rhapsodizes about the health benefits of daily slant board use:

“I came into Eve Arden’s portable dressing room on the set one day to find her resting between scenes with her feet propped way up on the wall. ‘After I’ve blushed downhill like this a while, my face is better for close-ups,’ she grinned.”

“I have seen Ginger Rogers drop off for a fifteen-minute nap with her heels hung up over the head of her bed…  Everybody does it – to freshen themselves in the short breathers on location, to relax after a long day’s shooting, to restore their looks and minds any time their batteries are running low.”

“The secret of it is, of course, the carrier function of blood.  It brings in food and fuel to each cell – takes away wastes and poisons.  But think how we’re made – by sheer force of gravity blood is naturally attracted down into our legs. (That’s why legs swell when you’re tired.) It has to fight uphill through smaller arteries to the head and neck, all the time we’re standing or sitting up.”

Now think of a water pump on the fourth floor of a six-floor building.  Big pipelines run down to the first floor, pipes less than a third their size go up to six.  Who gets better pressure, more water?  Naturally, the first floor.

NOW do you see why a woman starts aging from her head down?

There’s many a young body carrying around an old head. You must learn to give face, neck, and shoulders more circulation. [Yes! I couldn’t agree with her more. Why do you think we have so many neck creams and eye creams and facial creams for older ladies, but have a much smaller emphasis on foot lotions?]

She continues, “…Put your body on about a 30 to 45 degree up slant.  Start off with 10 minutes at a time, work up to 20, then to a half hour a day.  Lie this way to telephone, while polish dries on nails, while you give yourself a facial, or simply to think and rest.

“Look what happens to your face trouble when you try the Hollywood Slant on beauty. In the first place, blood flushes up into those myriad tiny arteries and suffuses face and neck.  Remember it carries oxygen to help cells burn up waster, throw off dead ones. It carries food and minerals to rebuild cell tissue…

There’s more good coming of your upside-downness.  All the delicate muscles of face and neck slide back up into positions that make a lovelier face… And you’ve fought off old age a bit.  See why you should do this every day, as often as possible?  Get into your Hollywood Slant, and feel yourself grown younger.”

[I can personally attest to this “face lift” feeling when slanting. It’s heavenly!]

She continued, “Feel what happens to your insides when you’re on the Hollywood Slant.  Relief, mostly.  All those organs your abdominal wall has been trying to keep stacked up can now slide downhill – in that opposite direction! It’s all sound medical practice, you know.  A doctor gets your head low when you faint – nurses tilt up beds of weak patients – you yourself have always known to “put your feet up” when you’re exhausted.  Now you know why.  “

~ “Get into your Hollywood Slant.  Relax here for 15 to 20 minutes, seeing black, and seeing blank.  Think of nothing except to count your blessings.”

Vintage Slant Board Exercises

Some ladies went beyond merely relaxing on their slant boards, and actually did exercises on them as well.  All slant boards sold by the Sears company during the 50s came with a pamphlet demonstrating stretches and exercises that could be performed at an incline to speed up the “reducing” process. (Read my article here for terminology of vintage exercise – “reducing” meant slimming down or losing weight back in the day.)  Pictured below are some images from this pamphlet.

Many women had daily sit-up routines on these slant boards to keep trim and tiny waists, (a fellow pattern making friend – Jennie from Sense & Sensibility Patterns remembers her grandmother doing just this every day).  I prefer to use this slant board for relaxation though, and do exercises the usual way.

The Anita Colby Beauty Chair

In March 28, 1952, Anita applied for a patent for her own original slant board chair design which she called the “Anita Colby Beauty Chair”.  It was a regular piece of furniture which could be reclined at an angle to allow a woman to do her daily “slanting” in the comforts of her living room with very little inconvenience.  Her patent was granted and the chair went into production.  It was even advertised in Life Magazine.  This lady was a go-getter!

How nice would it have been to turn your living room chair into a slant board in the afternoon, then pop it back into place for company coming in the evening?

Dr. Bernard Jensen

But the concept of relaxing at an incline was not only practiced by actresses of the old Hollywood era.  Dr. Bernard Jensen discovered the practice in the late early 1930s after various health issues and was an advocate for “slanting” the rest of his life.  Dr. Jensen claimed to have seen tremendous improvements in his health and his patients’ health – reversal of prolapsed organs, relief from severe back pain, even the original color returning to hair which has gone grey prematurely due to a lack of proper vitamins and minerals.  I can’t attest to any of these things myself, but I do feel like my circulation is improved afterwards.

The Slant Board in the 21st Century

Today, slanting is still sometimes encouraged by doctors and chiropractors, but it’s known by the term “low angle inversion therapy”.  There are a number of recent articles (here for instance), that discuss the supposed health benefits.

When you search for “slant boards” online, you will likely have to wade through many non-related items.  There is a small slant board used only for stretching your feet, and another type of slant board that is used to teach penmanship to young children!

Standing Hollywood “Slant” Board

If you search for “Hollywood slant board”, you may see yet another distraction from what your intended search is!  There was a second type of slant board used for actresses during filming which helped them to stand in a slightly resting position so they didn’t have to sit down and wrinkle their gowns. This type of slant board was completely different in design from the type Anita Colby recommended. It could not be used for the same purpose.

Additionally, a search for the term “inversion board” or “inversion table” will likely result in expensive gym equipment that will literally invert the workout enthusiast 180 degrees – upside down!  For many people, being upside down is too much of a shock to the system, so I myself would never use this type of inversion board – I far prefer my vintage mid-century slant boards!

Which brings me to my own experience using these Old Hollywood beauty secrets!  The first slant board I purchased was powder blue from the 1950s.  It was made by Beacon Industries and I loved using it for a couple of years.  This one is now to the point where I feel I should save it for reference and use a newer model.  The more updated one I own was sold by Sears and is in much sturdier condition. I adore it!

If you’re interested in finding a true vintage slant board, I should warn you that it’s no easy task!  I would recommend searching at local estate sales or antique malls, though they are very hit and miss.  Of course, not all vintage boards are in stable enough condition to use, so you do have to be selective when shopping.

Where to Buy Vintage Slant Boards

So are there any slant boards being manufactured today?  The answer is, yes!  Please note I have not tried any of these brands and these are not sponsored links.  I can’t personally recommend them, I’m just sharing these resources.

~ “Gravity Pal” low angle inversion board – This is the closest in design to the original vintage slant boards. It folds in half just like the originals, and can store under a bed. Available on Amazon.  

– Inflatable slant air mattress by “Evolution Health” – It lacks the vintage charm and is not able to be easily folded and stored under a bed the way the old ones were.  However, it is a more cost-effective option. Available on Amazon.

~ Memory foam slant wedge by “Avana” – This looks like you could store it under your bed and use on the floor or on a mattress.  It appears to be a slightly lower angle than other options. Made in the USA and available on Amazon for $169 at the moment.

~ The “Juvo Board” looks like it could be used for low angle inversion slanting as well, and is available on their website.

 

But as Anita Colby’s Beauty Book suggests, you do not need one of these boards to do your Hollywood Slanting!  Lie down on either a couch or your bed, prop your feet up on the end, and stack a couple of pillows underneath for the same angle as a vintage slant board! Like me and so many ladies from the past, you might feel an immediate relaxation of your back muscles, a relief from stress, and a lovely “lifting” feel in your facial muscles as gravity works backwards.

Anita Colby would be proud of you. 😉  And if you’re looking for a copy of Anita Colby’s Beauty Book, Amazon sometimes has a copy or two here.

Wishing you a marvelous Christmas season!

Katrina Holte

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Disclaimer:  Please do not attempt any of this vintage exercise and health advice without first consulting your medical professional.  This article is not meant to treat, diagnose, or prevent any health issues.  It is written only for the purpose of sharing and preserving the vintage ideas from a day gone by. 

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