Chapter 21

The article in the Peterborough Standard led to an increasing interest in Ethel’s story by the newspapers and magazines.
Usually, William did most of the interviews and sent information and photographs to several magazines.
Thus, one could read in the Monday’s Daily Sketch: “Woman, age 52, has a waist of 14 inch”. ”Mrs Ethel Granger, age 52, claims to have the world’s smallest waist: -14 inch-. Her sizes are: 34 - 14 - 36 inch”.

Yesterday, she told us, in her house, located at the Priory Road in Petersborough: “I drive a motorcycle and do a lot of gardening. It helps me keep my figure”. The Grangers have been married for 30 years, and have a 26 year old daughter”.
A photographer presented himself, saying he worked for the ‘Advertiser’ and wanted to take pictures of Ethel. William asked him to return the next day. As it happened, a new corset for Ethel had been delivered, with a waist of 13 inches (33 cm). The corset was made of black satin, and cut high on the hips. In the front, it had a very sturdy busk.
William immediately started to put it on Ethel, and with little trouble, it closed until there was a space of about 2 inch left in the back. The next morning, it was closed further, leaving a gap of only an inch.
Ethel said she didn’t want to go any further, as she was afraid she would faint during the photo shoot. There was knocking on the door, and William thought that it would be the photographer. He opened the door, and discovered a young lady in the door opening. It turned out to be Miss Shirley Flack, reporter for the Woman’s Sunday Mirror. Her newspaper had sent her to try and get some photographs of Ethel.

When she saw Ethel, she was shocked and said: “So it is true. I would not have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. I can even see her waist and touch it.” She said she had written an article on small waists, and that she had not been able to find a waist smaller than 22 inch (56 cm). She just couldn’t believe there were waists even smaller than 17 inch. According to her, a 17 inch waist was a myth, something that didn’t exist, and never had.
She was so impressed that she said: “If you will excuse me now please, I will return to my chief editor to tell him that it is true, and I will order a photographer to come over and take some pictures of Ethel”.
William was still waiting for the other photographer to arrive. In the meantime, Miss Shirley Black had already been able to arrange for a photographer. In their garden, pictures were taken of Ethel. One of the pictures taken, was with a measuring tape around Ethel’s waist. Miss Shirley overlooked the large garden and said she just could not believe that Ethel, in her corset, was able to maintain such a large garden. Ethel looked eminently and the photographer was astounded. He said: “Even with these photographs, people are not going to believe me”.

 

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