Olive Thomas
Ranked #13,934 in Entertainment, #170,072 overall
"The Most Beautiful Girl in New York City"
OLIVE THOMAS
B. October 20, 1894
D. September 10, 1920
was an American
silent film actress
and socialite.
She was a
Ziegfeld girl and
an original flapper.
She is best
remembered
for her marriage
to Jack Pickford
and her untimely
death.
B. October 20, 1894
D. September 10, 1920
was an American
silent film actress
and socialite.
She was a
Ziegfeld girl and
an original flapper.
She is best
remembered
for her marriage
to Jack Pickford
and her untimely
death.
Biography
~by Justin Dowdy
Olive Thomas was born into a working class family in Charlerio, Pennsylvania (near Pittsburg), to the name Oliva R. Duffy. At an early age, her father died and since he was the main bread winner, Thomas had to quit school and go to work in order to help support her now working mother and her two younger brothers. To loosen even more of the financial strain, Thomas married Bernard Krugh at age 16 where she started to work as a clerk in Kaufmann's department store.After a two years marriage to Krugh, Thomas became distraught with Krugh and dec ided to divorce him on grounds of physical abuse. She started to recreate her life by moving to New York City (where Krugh reportedly went back to Thomas in New York and begged for her to come back but accounts are very vague), even though she came during one of New York city's biggest blizzards in history. She very quickly got a job, once again, as a clerk at Kaufmann's department store.
"The Most Beautiful Girl in New York City"
In 1914, there was a newspaper ad titled
"The Most Beautiful Girl in New York City"
in which informed women of an incredible
opportunity to audition for a chance to be
painted by the famous portrait artist named
Howard Christy.
Thomas unanimously won the contest.
After landing this opportunity, she was
famed as being the most sought for model
in the portrait painter's industry.
Ziegfeld Follies
One of these artists named Harrison Fisher, recommended Thomas to Flo Ziegfeld in which resulted in her getting hired for the Ziegfeld Follies.Thomas later concluded that Fisher had in no way helped her into the Follies but rather she walked right up and asked for the job.
Thomas, being only an amateur in the Follies, was hired to be in the Midnight Frolic which was held after hours on a roof.
This scandalous show was performed by women who were scarcely dressed and had an all male audience.
In fact, some women wore only balloons while on stage while men popped them with cigars.
Being in the Midnight frolic afforded her a wealthy audience too in which gave her many expensive gifts.
Jack Pickford and A Girl Like That
The first film company that Olive Thomas signed with was the International Film Company in which she appeared in her first movie A Girl Like That. In October 1916, Thomas moved to Triangle Pictures where she made the most of her movies at. There, she met Jack Pickford and was soon after announced that they were engaged. In fact, it is said that Thomas was actually married to Jack a year prior to the announcement. Thomas later revealed that the reason why she didn't tell people of her marriage was because she didn't want to become famous just for the Pickford name.In 1918, Olive Thomas wanted more serious roles in her motion picture career so she was persuaded by Myron Selznick to join Selznick Pictures. Signing with this company helped to promote her "baby vamp" image. One of Olive Thomas' most famous films was called The Flapper. This is only one of the few motion pictures that she starred as a teenager. This movie was in fact the first movie to have a flapper in it.
Scandal! Suicide? Murder??
Through 1918 and 1919, Jack Pickford and Olive Thomas were at their height of popularity in the film industry so they were traveling many places.
They barley saw each other and were always on the run.
Thinking that the deserved a break from their work and also needing a re-take on their relationship, they took a second honeymoon to Paris, France.
There, they went to many, many scandalous clubs where drugs and alcohol were consumed copiously.
On the night of September 9, 1920, the Pickfords went to the scandalous club in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris. When they got to their hotel, the Ritz, at 3:00 am they fell asleep intoxicated and stoned. Supposedly Thomas woke up and went to the restroom and ingested some mercury bichloride on accident. This solution was not supposed to be swallowed but rather was a topical substance that was medicine for Jack Pickford's syphilis.
On this night, accounts vary of what REALLY happened.
Some people said that Jack murdered Thomas but that is unusual because that would be out of Jack's character. Some people could also argue that Thomas committed suicide because she thought she caught syphilis from Jack. Autopsy reports only conclude that Thomas had ingested the mercury bichloride and that she had died from it.
curated content from YouTube
After You've Gone...
Pickford brought Thomas' body back to the states to buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx New York.
Even when Jack Pickford died in 1933, Thomas was never buried with the Pickford family.
This only showed how much the Pickfords resented Thomas.
All of Thomas' belongings were sold off and netted an estimated $26, 931.
YouTube
Further Reading
Olive Thomas: The Life and Death of a Silent Film Beauty
Amazon Price: $39.95 (as of 05/27/2012)
List Price: $39.95
Used Price: $33.07
Further Viewing
The Olive Thomas Collection: The Flapper/Olive Thomas - Everybody's Sweetheart
Amazon Price: $109.99 (as of 05/27/2012)
List Price: $29.99
Used Price: $75.00
eBay
Guestbook
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poddys
May 23, 2011 @ 2:55 pm | delete
- Such a shame that the life of a beautiful woman like her was cut short. I guess the lifestyle back then the same as now was one that led to disaster. Very enjoyable lens.
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Coe
Apr 24, 2011 @ 6:18 pm | delete
- Excellent lens on a beautiful and tragic star.
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Tine Gybel
Apr 27, 2009 @ 3:19 pm | in reply to R4e4a4d4i4n4g | delete
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R4e4a4d4i4n4g
Apr 17, 2009 @ 11:55 pm | delete
- I LOVE the way you set up this page!!!
The pictures flow wonderfully and everything
Seems fit.
Where did you get the picture of her in the blanket?
~Justin
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Links
- Olive Thomas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Olive Thomas (October 20, 1894 - September 10, 1920) was an American silent film actress and socialite. She was a Ziegfeld girl and the original flapper. ...
- "Memories of Olive"
- The model was Olive Thomas. In 1920 she was a household name, a movie star. ... The beauty of Olive Thomas is legendary. The girl had the loveliest ...
- Olive Thomas Homepage
- Olive Thomas's MySpace page (Courtesy of Allison Anders). Original artwork by Jayna Wallach. Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. ...
- Olive Thomas
- Silent Ladies photo gallery of silent film star Olive Thomas.
- The Life and Death of Olive Thomas
- A recounting of "the movie industry's first real scandal."
- Bright Lights Film Journal | Olive Thomas
- Discussion of Olive Thomas. ... The new Image/Milestone DVD release, The Olive Thomas Collection, turns out to be less an Olive Thomas collection than an ...
- Olive Thomas
- Filmography and biography from the Internet Movie Database.
- Olive Thomas Pictures - Olive Thomas Photo Gallery
- 07 April 2009... 123 pictures of Olive Thomas. Recent images. View the latest Olive Thomas photos. Large gallery of Olive Thomas pics. Check out these Olive ...
- Ollive Thomas death
- Until 2005, the one and only Olive Thomas feature that was available on video was "Love's Prisoner" (1919), and it is missing the final reel. ...
- OLIVE THOMAS (1894-1920), THE MARILYN MONROE OF THE EARLY ...
- Nov 29, 2002 ... Biography of Olive Thomas (1894-1920), whose show business career closely paralleled that of the legendary Marilyn Monroe.
- Olive Thomas: The Life and Death of a Silent Film Beauty
- Olive Thomas was one of Hollywood's first true movie stars. She landed a job as one of Ziegfeld's famous
- Olive Thomas Filmography
- Olive Thomas made 22 films during her film career, which lasted from 1916 until her death in 1920. Of these 22 films, 10 survive in archives around the ...
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