The news that was published in the Culture section of this same newspaper barely contains two paragraphs: “Karen Carpenter, who became famous in the world of songs during the seventies by forming the duo The Carpenters with her brother Richard, died. yesterday at the age of 32. “The death occurred half an hour after the singer was admitted to the medical center due to heart failure.” It was on February 4, 1983 when Karen Carpenter’s mother found her daughter passed out in her bedroom at her family home. She arrived at the hospital alive, but her heart couldn’t take much longer. She had been fighting for years against an illness that, at that time, was largely unknown: anorexia nervosa, in addition to bulimia. According to the forensic report, the artist’s body contained large doses of ipecac, a medication to induce vomiting in cases of poisoning, but which is usually used by people suffering from these diseases. In cases of chronic abuse, ipecac can cause arrhythmias, cardiomyopathy, shock and, finally, death.
Karen and Richard Carpenter formed The Carpenters, officially, in 1969, when they signed with the A&M record company. A year later, with his second album, Close To You, reached number 1 on the Billboard chart. From there, they became a success, managing to reach the top of the sales charts with each new single. Two years later, in 1972, they were invited by President Richard Nixon, a declared follower of the group, to play at the White House. Karen and Richard Carpenter, two brothers raised in California, serious and talented, became the children of America. A forceful (and somewhat conservative) response from the establishment to the musical stars who emerged in the sixties in protest of the Vietnam War and the American Government.
Despite their success and their pristine image in front of the gallery, both brothers were fighting, out of the spotlight, their own battles: Richard had become addicted to sleeping pills and Karen suffered from an illness that, at that time, society I didn’t understand well. As their fame increased, the group’s drummer and vocalist appeared in public more and more exhausted. In 1975, at the peak of her career, she weighed 40 kilos. Now, a new biography aims to reposition the artist in the pop imagination under a new prism: that of a pioneer in an industry that is not kind to women, and a sick woman who tried, by all means, to overcome her illness.
In Lead Sister: The Story of Karen Carpenter, author Lucy O’Brien reveals new details about this fightperhaps one of the most heartbreaking is, as anticipated The Hollywood Reporter, the excerpt that shows how, just a year before she died, Karen Carpenter entered treatment. “Anorexia had become a tyrannical force in Karen’s psyche, telling her that food was an enemy she must fight,” O’Brien writes in her new biography. Karen put herself in the hands of Steven Levenkron, an eminent psychologist known for his research on anorexia nervosa and self-harm. Her methods were somewhat controversial: during treatment, she would be dependent on Levenkron, with the intention of becoming independent of her illness, until she could establish herself on her own. “In January 1982, Karen flew to New York and moved to a suite room at the City Regency hotel near Central Park, taking 22 suitcases with clothes and shoes.” She had invested a lot in that therapy. Specifically, $6,000 a month for that hotel room, and $100 for each session with Levenkron, which would mean a total of $2,000 a month.
Karen Carpenter undergoing treatment was a step toward a cure, but the singer remained ill. As her biographer reveals, the artist walked to the doctor’s office every day, with the intention of burning calories during the trip and, in the office, she constantly moved from one side to the other, instead of being at rest, with the same intentions. But Levenkron was not a novice, and he knew that all those compulsive behaviors had their reason in the disease, which he intended to deactivate little by little: “In one of his first sessions, [Levenkron] “He talked to Karen about what she took to expel food, and she confessed that she could swallow more than 90 laxatives in one sitting.” She also admitted taking 10 pills a day of Synthroid, a thyroid medication, which would have the effect of speeding up her metabolism. Levenkron was horrified. Overdose of thyroid medications could cause coma, seizures, and heart attacks.
Over the next three months of intensive therapy, Karen began to realize how her illness had become her way of dealing with her own problems, giving her a false sense of control over events that were out of her control. About her He had a conflictive relationship with her family: a controlling mother and an excessively perfectionist brother who put pressure on her. She also had an unhappy marriage: she married real estate developer Tom Burris in 1981, and divorced just 14 months later. Friends close to the artist acknowledged that Burris had abusive behavior toward her, and implied that the businessman had an interest in her fortune. “This was a turning point for Karen, when she recognized how much she had been a friend and attentive daughter, skilled at caring for other people, but unable to care for herself. “She agreed with Levenkron that she would stop taking laxatives,” O’Brien writes.
“My heart does strange things”
After a few months of intensive therapy and a firm determination to stay healthy, Karen Carpenter returned to her routine. She returned to a project that she had started in 1979: a solo album that she launched at the time when her brother had been admitted to a detoxification clinic to get rid of her addictions. In 1982 she would record her last song, titled now. Soon, it got worse again. It didn’t help that the people in her circle didn’t understand Karen’s illness, and didn’t know what to do to help her. It was again Dr. Levenkron who raised the alarm. It was after he went to her consultation, warning her of a new symptom: “My heart does strange things.” She weighed 34 kilos when, by order of her doctor, she was admitted to the intensive care unit of Lennox Hill Hospital in New York. Her digestive system was so damaged that she could only be fed intravenously. In October, during her hospital stay, she signed a divorce petition. “It was her declaration of independence,” writes her biographer.
Karen Carpenter was discharged before Thanksgiving. She seemed to be better and declared herself cured. She left her doctor, but not before giving her a painting in which she herself had embroidered a message: “You win, I win.” In the last months of her life, she resumed her social life, and her musical projects with her brother. She had plans to return to New York. She never did. On February 4, 1983, Karen got up, but did not go down for coffee. Her mother found her in her room and she was taken to a nearby hospital. She died at 9:41 in the morning.
His brother, Richard, overcame his own addiction. On March 3, she shared a tribute to her sister through her Instagram account: “Today marks 73 years since the birth of my amazing sister Karen. At some moments, it seems that time flies. This is not one of those times. The 40 years that have passed since she died weigh here. It is comforting, at least, to know that her impeccable voice has proven to be […] “the perfect gift for your special day.”
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