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The constant round of recording and touring was
beginning to take its toll on Karen Carpenter. Slimming and health foods were
becoming fashionable in the early 1970s, particularly in image-conscious
California. So was the cachet of having a trainer visit private houses to
supervise exercises. Despite the myriad pressures on her body through travel,
erratic eating, her appetite for junk food, and a punishing work schedule, Karen
had maintained her weight of 120 pounds from the summer of 1967 all the way
through to early 1973.
When Karen saw pictures of herself in concert in
Lake Tahoe in August 1973 she was appalled. An unflattering dress revealed her
paunch, and she hired a “workout guru” to visit her home. She bought a “hip
cycle” and lay on her bed with it every morning and took it on tour. Her “guru”
advised her to go on a high carbohydrate intake, and she eliminated most of the
known calorie-packed foods from her diet, particularly ice cream which she
loved.
Then something happened to truly frighten her. As
she stepped up her exercises, instead of losing weight she became somewhat
muscular. “She definitely began to bulk up. She wasn’t too heavy,” Richard says,
“but the weight was coming on her.” This threw her into a muddle and could have
been the chrysalis of her problem.
On November 13, 1973, the Carpenters guested on a
Bob Hope TV special. When Karen saw the video of the show soon afterward, she
remarked to Richard about her appearance. Self-consciously unhappy about how she
appeared, she assured him she intended to “do something about it.” He agreed
that she looked heavier than she had previously. The conversation passed as
insignificant.
She stopped most of the exercises, which she
believed to be too muscle-building, and began what she considered to be a normal
diet, nothing remarkable or even noticeable by others. It was just sensible
enough, she assured Richard, to shed a few pounds which was necessary. With the
benefit of hindsight, he now thinks that the “bulking up” caused by the
exercises might have been the turning point that intensified her decision to
maintain a strict check on her weight.
Nobody can be certain of exactly when her anorexic
habits took root, Richard insists – chiefly because Karen had always been
conscious about her weight. She remarked often on how much she hated her
‘hourglass’ figure.
The year 1974 set no alarm bells ringing, as Karen
was seen as one of the many health-aware young women – and since she had a
historic reason for weight watching, why should anyone have been surprised?
Photographed for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine on May 22, 1974,
wearing a tank top, a cap, and the upbeat expression that was part of her
trademark appeal, she looked radiantly happy and healthy.
 Within
less than a year, however, Karen plunged into what Richard believes was the
period marking the start of the decline that was to prove deadly. By September
1975, due to the onset of anorexia nervosa, her weight had dropped to just 91
pounds, depleting Karen of her normal high energy and forcing her to take two
months off to recover.
Later that month, Richard flew to both Tokyo and
London for press conferences at which he explained that Karen was exhausted and
that sold-out tours in both Japan and the U.K. were being postponed to the
following year, a monstrous blow to the fans, the promoters involved, and to A&M
Records as well. It pained Richard and Karen, as both were raised to honor
commitments but, given Karen’s condition, there really could be no second
thoughts.
Had Karen been in perfect health, the touring
schedule set up by management for 1975 was not realistic, especially given the
fact that time for recording was supposed to be factored in to any year’s
schedule, and recording by a rested Karen and Richard. Richard maintained
what he felt was obvious, that the Carpenters were first and foremost a record
act and that all of their other successes had stemmed from the records. So much
touring had been scheduled in 1974 that not enough time had been set aside to
record an album, much to the record company’s dismay, as a Carpenters album
following the tremendous successes of “Now and Then” and “The Singles 1969-1973”
would have been a monumental seller; witness the success of “Horizon” two years
later. Clearly the time had come for a change in management and, in early 1976,
that is precisely what happened.
At about the same time, Karen and Richard were
working on their seventh studio album, “A Kind Of Hush.” Included were a remake
of There’s A Kind Of Hush (All Over The World), the 1967 Herman’s
Hermits’ hit, which did reach No.12 in the U.S., but was not an object of
Richard’s affection for very long, and a lovely Carpenter/ Bettis/ Hammond
ballad, I Need To Be In Love, that would reach No.24 in America, but
would vindicate Richard’s belief in its hit potential some years later.
As the album was being recorded, a deal was being
finalized which would procure for Karen and Richard a prime-time network
television special, an achievement that had eluded them since the “Make Your Own
Kind Of Music” chapter, five years before. Richard and Karen rightfully felt
that an act of their stature should have at least one special; after all, every
major record act from Barry Manilow to Olivia Newton-John had headlined theirs.
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