The reason for her disappearance from the movies is complicated and under debate. Vera-Ellen became alarmingly thin in her thirties. Her peculiar eating habits are well documented. Always a reclusive person, she started to withdraw from Hollywood as her alleged anorexia took its toll on her. This was also during a time when Hollywood simply stopped making many musicals. Although Vera-Ellen could act as well as dance, MGM didn't take her talents seriously enough to give her many non-dancing parts. She made appearances on TV and in Las Vegas for a few years before finally retiring.
One side effect of anorexia is rapid aging. Many people have asked why Vera-Ellen always covers her neck in "White Christmas" - it is assumed that her neck is where she started to visibly age. She also had a daughter, Victoria Ellen Rothschild, who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Understandably, this was a very traumatic event, and helps to understand why she withdrew from public life. She would divorce her second husband, Victor Rothschild a few years later in 1966. He died in 2008 at the age of 85. It should be stated that while Vera-Ellen did definitely age, as she dropped out of sight, she aged with grace. Her friend Bill Dennington supplied the following personal photos, which supply a rare and treasured look at how beautiful and spirited she remained:
Though retired from professional work, Vera-Ellen continued to take dancing lessons, partly to combat the arthritis she suffered later. Vera-Ellen died of cancer in Los Angeles, California, on August 30, 1981 at the age of 60. She was a recluse shut off from the rest of Hollywood, and her fans who continue to love and cherish her memory some thirty plus years after her death...
0 Yorumlar