Dr. Alvenia Fulton’s Clients
Standing are Lola Falana, Gwen Gordy Fuqua, & Butch Tavares (seated person unknown man) at Berry Gordy's party in Los Angeles circa 1975, Courtesy of University of California Northridge Library
By the 1970s, Dr. Alvenia Fulton’s Chicago store, Fultonia’s, had lots of celebrities passing through it to eat lunch, purchase products, or consult with Fulton. This happened in large to part to Dick Gregory praising her knowledge of nutrition and fasting as he used fasting to protest against the Vietnam War. Among those who would beat a path to Fultonia’s were a list of “who’s who”: actors like Billy Dee Williams, Michael Caine, Cicely Tyson; athletes Bill Walton, Ernie Banks, and Muhammad Ali; comedians Redd Foxx and Dick Gregory; singers Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack; and other notables such as Oprah Winfrey, Stan Getz, and members of the band Earth Wind and Fire and the James Brown band. A reader of her columns wrote, “Please send me Roberta Flack’s diet. I am 25 and 20 pounds overweight. Enclosed is a check. Send me one of Dick Gregory’s organic diet and exercise programs.” Fulton responded, I can’t do that because “one’s own digestive system” determines what’s the best diet for you. The diet I create for someone else won’t be right for you and in addition, the diet I create for you a 25 will need revising when you turn 30 and revised again when you are 40.
