The news, published in the Culture section of the same newspaper, barely contains two paragraphs: “Karen Carpenter, who became famous in the world of song in the Seventies by forming the duo The Carpenters with her brother Richard, is yesterday died at that age.” of 32. “The death occurred half an hour after the singer was admitted to the medical center due to heart failure.” It was February 4, 1983, when Karen Carpenter’s mother left her daughter unconscious in her room in the house the family found. He arrived at the hospital alive, but his heart couldn’t take it much longer. For years she had been battling an illness that was still largely unknown at the time: anorexia nervosa, in addition to bulimia. According to the forensic report, the artist’s body contained large doses of Ipecac, a drug that causes vomiting in cases of poisoning but which is usually taken by people with these diseases. If abused chronically, Ipecac can cause cardiac arrhythmias, cardiomyopathy, shock, and ultimately death.
Karen and Richard Carpenter officially formed The Carpenters in 1969 when they signed to the A&M record label. A year later they reached number 1 on the Billboard charts with their second album “Close To You”. From then on they became a success and managed to reach the top of the sales charts with each new single. Two years later, in 1972, they were invited to perform at the White House by President Richard Nixon, an outspoken supporter of the group. Karen and Richard Carpenter, two serious and talented brothers raised in California, became the Children of America. A forceful (and somewhat conservative) establishment response to the music stars who performed in protest against the Vietnam War and the US government in the 1960s.
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Despite their success and immaculate image in front of the gallery, both brothers fought their own battles away from the spotlight: Richard had become addicted to sleeping pills and Karen was suffering from an illness that was not known to society at the time. I don’t understand it well. As their popularity increased, the group’s drummers and singers appeared in public increasingly exhausted. In 1975, at the peak of his career, he weighed 40 kilos. Now a new biography aims to reposition the artist in the pop imagination from a new perspective: that of a pioneer in an industry that is not kind to women and a sick woman who tried every means possible to overcome her illness to overcome.
The Carpenter brothers in a publicity photo in Tokyo, 1972. Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music (Getty Images)
In Lead Sister: The Story of Karen Carpenter, author Lucy O’Brien reveals new details about this battle. Perhaps one of the most heartbreaking, as The Hollywood Reporter goes on to write, is the excerpt showing how Karen Carpenter died just a year before she went into 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 the new biography. Karen placed herself in the hands of Steven Levenkron, a respected psychologist best known for his research into anorexia nervosa and self-harm. Her methods were somewhat controversial: during treatment she depended on Levenkron to gain independence from her illness until she could become self-sufficient. “In January 1982, Karen flew to New York and checked into a suite at the City Regency Hotel near Central Park. She took 22 suitcases full of clothes and shoes.” I had invested a lot in this therapy. Specifically, $6,000 per month for this hotel room and $100 for each session at Levenkron, which would total $2,000 per month.
Karen Carpenter’s treatment was a step toward healing, 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 journey, and in the office constantly moved from side to side instead of resting, with the same intention. But Levenkron was no newcomer, and he knew that all of these compulsive behaviors had their roots in the illness that he wanted to gradually deactivate: “In one of his first sessions [Levenkron] “He spoke to Karen about what she was taking to eliminate food and she confessed that she could swallow more than 90 laxatives at once.” He also admitted taking 10 tablets a day of Synthroid, a thyroid medication that speeds up his metabolism would. Levenkron was horrified. An overdose of thyroid medication can lead to coma, seizures, and heart attacks.
Over the next three months of intensive therapy, Karen began to recognize how her illness had become her way of dealing with her own problems, giving her a false sense of control over events that were beyond her control. She had a conflicted relationship with her family: a controlling mother and an overly perfectionistic 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 admitted that Burris had behaved abusively towards her and suggested that the businessman had an interest in her fortune. “This was a turning point for Karen as she realized how much of a friend and thoughtful daughter she had been, who, although good at caring for other people, was unable to care for herself. “He agreed with Levenkron that he would stop taking laxatives,” O’Brien writes.
“My heart does strange things”
After several months of intensive therapy and a determination to stay healthy, Karen Carpenter returned to her routine. He resumed a project he had begun in 1979: a solo album that he released around the time his brother was admitted to a detox clinic to kick his addiction. In 1982 he recorded his last song entitled Now. Soon things got worse again. It didn’t help that the people around her didn’t understand Karen’s illness and didn’t know what to do to help her. It was again Dr. Levenkron, who sounded the alarm. It happened after he went into his office and warned him of a new symptom: “My heart is doing strange things.” She weighed 34 kilos when she was admitted to the intensive care unit at Lennox Hill Hospital in New York on her doctor’s orders . Her digestive system was so damaged that she could only be fed intravenously. In October, she signed a divorce petition in the hospital. “It was his declaration of independence,” writes his biographer.
The Carpenter brothers appear on The Carol Burnett Show in Los Angeles, California on January 7, 1972. CBS Photo Archive (Getty Images)
Karen Carpenter was fired before Thanksgiving. She seemed to be doing better and declared herself cured. She left her doctor, but not before handing him a painting in which she herself had embroidered the message: “You win, I win.” In the last months of his life, he resumed his social life and his musical projects with his brother on. He had plans to return to New York. He never did that. On February 4, 1983, Karen got up but didn’t go downstairs for coffee. Her mother found her in her room and she was taken to a nearby hospital. He died at 9:41 a.m.
His brother Richard overcame his own addiction. On March 3, she paid tribute to her sister on her Instagram account: “Today marks the 73rd anniversary of the birth of my amazing sister Karen. Sometimes it seems as if time flies. This is not one of those moments. The 40 years that have passed since his death weigh here. At least it’s reassuring to know that her flawless voice has stood the test of time […] “The perfect gift for your special day.”