Refresh my memory please, DR JRand. How and when did she die?
Thank you for asking, DRMATTH.
Miss Allison (Mary Jane) Hayes was enjoying a prolific if ordinary career in Hollywood in the early 1960's - many B movies and lots of episodic television. She wasn't a smoker or a drinker, but had some "female" complaints. Her mother's friend Gloria Swanson suggested that Allison see her own doctor, Henry Bieler. Dr. Bieler gave Allison a prescription for a calcium supplement and suggested she take it several times a week.
Not only didn't the original complaint get better - Allison began to exhibit MANY strange symptoms. Dr. Bieler suggested she double her dose of the supplement - and against the advice of her friend actress Sara Shane (friend of MBARNUM), Allison did just that.
She took the supplement regularly for about four years - in the meantime she eventually lost the use of her right hand, had to walk with a cane, and several other strange maladies. She underwent over 300 X Rays and went from one specialist to another - many of whom told her that her symptoms were psycho-somatic or worse - psychotic.
Eventually she began studying on her own, and discovered that she had lead poisoning. A technician asked for a sample of all medications she had taken and let her know that the supplement (not regulated by the FDA and imported from England) had nearly 1000 times the safe limit of lead in it.
It was a slow death sentence, and there was nothing she could do. Allison lived about four years longer after the diagnosis, and pleaded with the FDA to start regulating supplements - they said they were studying it...but it remains a gray area today....ask Sara Shane!
She died On February 27, 1977, a few days shy of her 47th birthday.
You can read my two-part bio of her here: (this is part two, with a link to part one).
http://www.horror-wood.com/allison.htmNow, aren't you glad you asked?
