Olive Thomas
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"The sedate, renowned Hotel Crillon, on the Place de la Concorde, was a most unlikely setting for Hollywood’s first scandal."--Hollywood Babylon (1959) by Kenneth Anger |
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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. She is best remembered for her marriage to Jack Pickford and her death. As part of her sudden fame, she posed nude for Peruvian artist Alberto Vargas.
Death
In August 1920, the pair traveled to Paris, hoping to combine a vacation with some film preparations. On the night of September 5, 1920, the couple went out for a night of entertainment and partying at the famous bistros in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris. They returned to their room in the Hôtel Ritz around 3:00 a.m. It was rumored Thomas may have taken cocaine that night, though it was never proven. She was intoxicated and tired, and took a large dose of mercury bichloride, a common item for bathroom cleaning. She was taken to the American Hospital in the Paris suburb of Neuilly, where Pickford, together with his former brother-in-law Owen Moore, remained at her side until she succumbed to the poison a few days later. Rumors arose that she had either tried to die by suicide or had been murdered. A police investigation followed, as well as an autopsy, and Thomas's death was ruled accidental.
