[SIZE=3]OLIVE THOMAS[/SIZE] had been born (OLIVETTA DUFFY) in working class Charleroi, Pennsylvania which is south of Pittsburgh in 1894. Her childhood was not pleasant and consisted of the harsh realitites of industrial mills and paycheck to paycheck living. At 16 she quit school and married (a) BERNIE THOMAS but the marriage was not to last and they divorced within 2 years.
A very pretty girl, OLIVE as her family and friends called her decided to try her luck in New York City. She found a position working in a department store. Some of her co-workers to enter a beauty contest for New York City's Most Beautiful Girl which she did. OLIVE won the contest ! This lucky turn and the coverage that followed brought her to the attention of the great FLORENZ ZIEGFELD who cast her in his 'Follies'. Men were mesmerized by her dazzling beauty. Illustrator VARGAS did an infamous nude of the lovely young woman.
After several years with ZIEGFELD, with whom she was rumored to have been his mistress, she was signed to a motion picture studio contract with the long since defunct TRIANGLE PICTURES. Once in Hollywood OLIVE' new career in film took off fast. She married actor JACK PICKFORD 5 days after her 22 birthday. JACK, whose sister was the famous MARY PICKFORD, was a bigger name than his young bride, but within the next few years, hers would surpass his. OLIVE made 24 movies between 1916 & 1920.
In late August of 1920 she sailed to Europe. Accounts vary as to whether her husband sailed with her or was to meet her later in Paris. She was staying at the extremely chic HOTEL CRILLON. (The hotel is (now) near 200 years old & rooms start at about $ 800. a night for their most modest accommodations.) Rumors say that she was frequenting some very rough areas. The purported reason ? OLIVE, so the rumor goes was trying to score heroin for her husband JACK.
On September 5th, a hotel employee entered her suite and found her naked body lying on a sable cape. She had swallowed a bottle of mercury bichloride. Rushed to the hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine where she died on September 10, 1920. Everything, as far as the public knew was going well for the couple which is why her death came as such a tragedy. The family tried to claim that her death had been an accident; that OLIVE had gone into her darkened bathroom and mistakenly consumed the mercury. (What was she doing with mercury bichloride anyway ? One story is that it was JACK' prescribed medicine for veneral disease. ). Sister in law MARY PICKFORD used her considerable power to squelch any & all possible stories on the rumor mill, particularly where her brother's character was concerned. OLIVE was interred in the PICKFORD masoleum in the Bronx, New York. JACK would marry two more times; his 2nd marriage to the equally tragic MARILYN MILLER. Only a dozen years later, JACK would die in Janurary 1933 at the age of 36.
At an auction consisting of OLIVE' personal effects, a majority were bid on (& won) by her friend, actress MABEL NORMAND. They say that OLIVE'S ghost haunts the great NEW AMSTERDAM THEATER on New York' Great White Way...................
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Originally Posted by Kareika
