THE child star who preceded singing sensation Lena Zavaroni has revealed he was encouraged to lose weight by managers who told him he would be ‘paid a pound for every pound he lost.’
Neil Reid, from Motherwell, who shot to fame after appearing on Opportunity Knocks in 1971, said Phil and Dorothy Solomon – managers he shared with Lena – suggested he needed to slim down for TV.
The singer said although, being told to shed weight did not have a detrimental affect on him, it obviously had a bigger impact on Zavaroni who struggled with an eating disorder right up to her untimely death in 1999 aged 35.
Neil, who holds the record for the youngest person to reach number one in the UK album charts, said: “When I was doing Opportunity Knocks in 1971 I was a 12-year-old chubby little boy so my managers Phil and Dorothy gave me an incentive that for every pound I lost I was paid a pound.
“There was the saying back then that the camera added 10 pounds therefore if you wanted to look normal weight you had to look a bit lighter and although, I lost a few pounds on the back of their suggestion, I didn’t embark on a weight control regime.
“In the context of what happened to Lena it carried a much greater significance and if I was to reflect back on that period was it right and would it considered right today? – no it wouldn’t. Did it damage me – no it didn’t.”
Dad-of-one Neil, 64, features in a powerful new BBC Scotland documentary about Lena – the little girl with the huge voice from the Isle of Bute who captured the nation’s heart.
Lena Zavaroni: The Forgotten Child Star recalls the troubled life of the child star who won Opportunity Knocks in 1974 and went on to become the youngest singer to have a top ten album in the UK.
From sharing a Hollywood stage with Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball, performing at the White House for American President Gerald Ford and singing at the Royal Variety Performance – little Lena had the world at her feet.
But despite being given her own TV series with the BBC, she had retired from performing by the end of the 1980s after continued struggles with anorexia and depression.
Lena, who was discovered singing in a pub in Rothesay by Scottish record producer, songwriter and singer Tommy Scott, died in 1999 of pneumonia several weeks after a brain operation she hoped would help relieve her depression.
Neil, who is now a financial advisor living in Blackpool, said although, he didn’t suffer from an eating disorder, his life in many ways mirrored hers and he understood the pressure she was under.
For as well as encouraging weight loss, the Solomons liked to have total control of their young proteges careers and Neil admitted they hated it when his parents intervened which made them even more determined to keep Lena’s at a distance.
He said: “After appearing on Opportunity Knocks I went on tour without a family member being present. I hated it and when I told my parents they swore it would never happen again.
“They applied to Bow Street magistrates for a chaperones’ licences which meant they could accompany me everywhere and this did not go down to well with the Solomons and the relationship became fractured.
“Their involvement became an obstacle in what they wanted to do with my career so my parents decided I should move on. By this stage they had Lena and had lost interest in me anyway.”
Neil added: “Years later when I met Phil Solomon again he told me he liked to breed horses because when the horse has a foal its mum and dad don’t come and tell me what to do with it. This sums up why they didn’t like it when their client’s parents decided to intervene.”
Neil, whose version of Mother of Mine sold 2.5 million copies, said he was really sad when he heard about Lena’s death. He said: “We were not close friends but when we did a summer season in the same town one year we used to meet up for dinner on a Wednesday night. Lena was lovely but she was also childlike. She was 17 at the time but it was like talking to a 12 or 13 year old. She was not mature in her thinking and her behaviour was not as you might have expected for someone her age.
“Over the years I witnessed her illness and troubles from afar. I did reach out and try and get in touch while she was in hospital at one point but I was unsuccessful which was really disappointing.
“I don’t think I would have changed the outcome but I just wanted to get a chance to talk to her – let her know I cared. I genuinely felt I understood. I didn’t understand the anorexia as I had not gone through that but I did understand the other aspects of her life as mine had been a mirror image of that and the pressures it entailed.”
He added: “It’s so very sad and tragic that someone with as much potential as Lena had their life just snuffed out. She should have been another Liza Minnelli or Shirley McLean with a career that spanned decades.”
The documentary features emotional recollections from Lena’s 84-year-old father Victor, her cousin Margaret Zavaroni, record producer Tommy Scott and her stage school classmates Bonnie Langford and Lisa Maxwell.
In the hour-long programme Victor, whose family ran a fish and chip shop in Rothesay, recalls Lena’s last words. He said: “After the operation I honestly thought she was going to start eating but we will never know. Her last words to me were, ‘Dad keep your pecker up!’
“Doing the documentary I see it all coming back to me and you realise in yourself it was such a disaster. It all ended in disaster and there is nothing you can do to put it right.”
Westend star Bonnie, who partnered up with Lena for ITV special Lena and Bonnie, recalls her Italia Conti classmate’s funeral. She said: “This little coffin came in white and child size. As it was being carried high down the aisle a black butterfly flew off.
“I said to myself, ‘That’s Lena. She is free.’”
* Lena Zavaroni: The Forgotten Child Star is on BBC on Sunday, October 6th
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