Fascinating tale of 500LB circus performer Celesta Geyer – who was dubbed the ‘world’s most beautiful fat lady’ – bewitching spectators with her size AND stunning looks… before near-fatal heart attack saw her shed 440LBS to become a diet guru

A new book has given a fascinating insight into the life of the 550lb circus performer dubbed the ‘World’s Most Beautiful Fat Lady’ – who lost a staggering 440lbs and rebranded herself as a diet guru after suffering a near-fatal heart attack.

Therese Oneill’s Unbecoming A Lady, released earlier this week, shares a glimpse into the whirlwind trajectory of Celesta Geyer, who left school at 16 after being relentlessly teased by her peers about her weight.

She bounced from job to job – including factory worker and beautician – before finally deciding to embrace her size and tour with the circus.

the practitioner, from Cincinnati, Ohio, assumed the stage name Dolly Dimple and made a fortune cashing in on her claim to be the world’s most beautiful fat lady.

She had such a passion for life that she soon embarked on new ventures and tried her hand at becoming a psychic before finally deciding to turn her life around.

At the age of 50, CElesta, who stood just 4ft11, weighed a staggering 555 pounds, but began to see firsthand the devastation that being so overweight could cause – losing her sister-in-law and mentor in quick succession due to weight-related health issues.

Consequently, she shed a whopping 440 pounds in just over a year, landing himself in the Guinness World Book of Records in the process.

Celesta was ultimately able to hold the weight and she became a weight loss guru – as well as a talk show celebrity – before she died in 1982 at the age of 81.

Celesta left school after being bullied by her peers and set out to find a steady job – but was even deemed too fat to work on a switchboard

Celesta had developed an unhealthy relationship with food from a young age after going to her father’s popular German pub almost every day where she was ‘rewarded with food for her cuteness’.

She started school at the age of six, but soon found out that it was not easy to be big in a classroom after getting ostracized both physically and emotionally.

Celesta, who was already overweight at the time, wwho was forced to endure humiliating special measures to accommodate her size – including having to sit at the front of each classroom with an extended desk.

This meant that she was constantly in everyone’s eyes, being tormented and ‘tortured all day’ by students and teachers alike.

At the age of 16, the youngster had had enough and decided to drop out of school in an attempt to find a permanent job instead.

She secured a low-level role in a factory, which was a common calling for young girls of the time. packaged products such as soaps and chocolates.

Celesta had tried to pick up working on a telephone switchboard but was turned away after being told that at 255kg she would not be able to handle the stool.

But despite the sharp feedback, she was undeterred and set out on his own venture in Miami.

It was there that she became a beautician and makeup model – with great success.

“Her face was very large but very beautiful, and the cosmetics salesmen believed that her dimensions highlighted how their products could flatter,” the book says.

It was during this time that she learned to let her hair down and tapped into her wild side – hanging out with prostitutes and ‘bad boys’, participating in costume balls and joyriding.

Celesta later met and fell in love with a man named Frank, and although she had initially been ‘suspicious’ of ‘why he married a 300 pound pariah’, the couple were happily married until his death in 1967.

During the Great Depression, and with the couple’s finances dwindling, they visited an almost empty carnival – and the day trip would change their lives forever.

The great performer made a fortune as the circus ‘Fat Lady’ after ballooning to 500 lbs

Celesta had been fighting in the outside world since: ‘Every time she left her house, she had to be prepared for an onslaught of laughs, stares and screamed insults.

‘It wasn’t worth it. She sat and grew bigger.’

But it was her trip to the circus with Frank that would revise her outlook completely.

A staff member in front of the existing ‘Fat Lady’ tent shouted at her as she walked by and Celesta wrote: ‘My courage dropped and my heart sank… but I pulled myself together and when we were inside a few feet from him I blurted out, “You want to see a real 338-pound fat lady? I bet I’m a lot fatter than the one you have.”

The pair went inside and were introduced to Jolly Pearl Stanley, who weighed 700 pounds, and she eventually became Celesta’s mentor.

Jolly Pearl said that if people were already laughing at her, Celesta might as well get paid for it – and that’s exactly what she did.

Celesta adopted the stage name Dolly Dimple and was labeled as the World’s Most Beautiful Fat Lady.

She danced and sang on stage in a series of eye-catching satin costumes – with her performances a gateway to a much more lavish lifestyle.

The couple’s finances had faltered amid the Great Depression, but her newfound fame at the center of the carnival community saw them touring Hawaii and driving around in private Pullman cars.

By the time Celesta, who was only 4ft11, was in her 40s, she weighed around 500 pounds – and she was looking for another new venture.

She and Frank bought a gas station in Florida before Celesta began working as a psychic – under Madame Celeste’s guidance.

“Celesta didn’t believe she was psychic. But she had honed a useful skill often found in people who live a life wary of harm from others. Empathy. The ability to read people,” the book revealed.

She was inundated with clients seeking answers to a wide range of problems – from help picking winning lottery numbers to healing sick children.

Celesta’s personal life was marked by tragedy when her ‘fat friends kept dying’ – giving her the push she needed to shed the pounds

‘Celesta had found herself thriving as a fat lady. But that didn’t change the fact that her fat friends kept dying. Even when you’re trying not to be fat,’ the book said.

The entrepreneur had started taking diet pills with his sister-in-law, which were described as ‘military-grade mail-order methamphetamine.’

Both women lost weight, but her sister-in-law, who was relatively slim at the time of her death, eventually suffered two ruptured heart valves as a result.

Celesta stopped taking them and narrowly survived kidney failure, which she had initially dismissed as fluid retention.

Elsewhere, mentor Jolly Pearl, unable to move without assistance, suffered a fatal heart attack during one of her performances.

And the circumstances surrounding her funeral were ‘degrading’.

Jolly Pearl was buried in a ‘rough wooden box’ – as no traditional coffin could comfortably accommodate her size – and she was driven to her grave on the back of a flatbed truck.

The trauma had already sent Celesta into a spin, but at age 50, weighing a staggering 555 pounds, she also suffered a heart attack.

She survived, but doctors told her ‘she could diet or she could die. It was her choice’.

Celesta immediately set out on a mission to completely overhaul her body shape and regain her health.

She lost a whopping 440 pounds in just over a year – and even earned a place in the Guinness World Book of Records for the feat.

She avoided the pills that she had previously dabbled with and instead rrestricted her diet to just 800 calories a day.

‘It was awful. She hurt, she felt starved, and she was depressed.

‘But she did. And the depression lessened, the cravings were controlled, and she didn’t put the weight back on. Ever,” the book said.

In light of her impressive makeover, Celesta donned yet another professional guise—this time as a diet guru and talk show celebrity, where she ditched her tried-and-true calorie-restriction diet.

She died aged 81 – weighing 121 pounds.