Olive Thomas (20 October 1894, Charleroi, Pennsylvania – 10 September 1920 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) was an American silent film actress and socialite. October 20 is the 293rd day of the year (294th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1894 (MDCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Charleroi is a borough in Washington County, Pennsylvania, along the Monongahela River, 25 miles south of Pittsburgh. ... is the 253rd day of the year (254th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... Neuilly-sur-Seine is a commune in the Hauts-de-Seine département in France. ... A silent film is a film which has no accompanying soundtrack. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Image File history File links OliveThomas. ...

Early life

Born Oliveretta Elaine Duffy into a working class family in the Pittsburgh area town of Charleroi, her father died when she was young and she had to leave school to help support her mother and two younger brothers. In April 1911, at the age of 16, she married Bernard Thomas but the marriage lasted only two years. A beautiful and ambitious teenager, she went to stay with an aunt in New York City where she worked in a department store. Nickname: Motto: Benigno Numine (With the Benevolent Deity) Location in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Coordinates: , Country United States Commonwealth Pennsylvania County Allegheny Founded November 25, 1758 Incorporated April 22, 1794 (borough)   March 18, 1816 (city) Government  - Mayor Luke Ravenstahl (D) Area  - City 151. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ...

In 1914 she won "The Most Beautiful Girl in New York City" contest run by the celebrated commercial artist, Howard Chandler Christy. She then modeled for well-known artist Harrison Fisher and eventually wound up on the cover of "Saturday Evening Post." Hired by the Ziegfeld Follies, she subsequently worked for the much racier revue of the Ziegfeld Follies called the Midnight Frolic, a show staged after hours in the roof garden of the New Amsterdam Theatre (it was primarily for famous male patrons with plenty of money to bestow on the young and beautiful female performers). Before long, the gorgeous Olive Thomas was the center of attention of the in-crowd associated with Condé Nast and she was being pursued by a number of very wealthy and powerful men. She was absolutely outstanding and men went wild over her beauty. She also posed nude for famed Peruvian artist 'Alberto Vargas' . As a result of her sudden fame, she was signed to a contract with Triangle Pictures.^[1] In 1916 she made her motion picture debut using her married name. She went on to appear in more than twenty Hollywood films over the next four years. Howard Chandler Christy (January 10, 1873—March 3, 1952) was an American artist. ... Harrison Fisher illustration, from Hearts and Masks by Harold MacGrath, from the Project Gutenberg collection Harrison Fisher illustration, from The Princess Elopes by Harold MacGrath Harrison Fisher The Father of a Thousand Girls, was an American commercial artist. ... There have been many publications called the Saturday Evening Post; several were/are local British newspapers. ... The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. ... Condé Montrose Nast, born March 26, 1873 in New York City, United States, died there on September 19, 1942, was the founder of Condé Nast Publications, a major American magazine publisher. ... ...

Rise to Stardom and Personal Problems

Nigel Barrie and Olive Thomas in the 1916 film serial Beatrice Fairfax

Thomas met actor Jack Pickford (1896-1933) at a dance at Nat Goodwin's on the Santa Monica pier. In her autobiography (Off With Their Heads, The MacMillan Company, 1972), screenwriter Frances Marion remarked, " . . . I had seen her often at the Pickford home, for she was engaged to Mary's brother, Jack. Two innocent-looking children, they were the gayest, wildest brats who ever stirred the stardust on Broadway. Both were talented, but they were much more interested in playing the roulette of life than in concentrating on their careers."^[2] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... John Charles Smith (August 18, 1896 - January 3, 1933) was a Canadian-born American actor. ... Year 1896 (MDCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display calendar). ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... Frances Marion Frances Marion (November 18, 1888 - May 12, 1973) was an American journalist, author, and screenwriter often cited as the most renowned female screenwriter of the twentieth century. ...

A year after they met, Thomas commented in an interview, "Jack is a beautiful dancer. He danced his way into my heart. We knew each other for eight months before our marriage, and most of that time we gave to dancing. We got along so well on the dance floor that we just naturally decided that we would be able to get along together for the rest of our lives." Thomas married Pickford in October 1916, and although she was the love of his life, the marriage was stormy and filled with highly-charged conflict, followed by lavish making up through the exchange of expensive gifts. Alcohol began playing an exponentially large role in Thomas's life: in a short span, she crashed her automobile on three occasions. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ...

In 1918, film mogul and master promoter Lewis J. Selznick signed her for Selznick Pictures Company. The following year, gossip columnists such as Louella Parsons were gushing over her, while magazines were filled with stories and photos of her soaring career, and the name "Olive Thomas" was emblazoned in electric lights on Broadway. 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... Lewis J. Selznick (May 2, 1870 - January 25, 1933) was a film producer. ... Louella Parsons (August 6, 1881 – December 9, 1972) was an American gossip columnist. ... A view of Broadway in 1909 Broadway, as the name implies, is a wide avenue in New York City. ...

By 1920, she had become one of the brightest young stars in America. Renowned artist Alberto Vargas painted her portrait, nude from the waist up. Florenz Ziegfeld hung the painting in his New Amsterdam Theatre office, much to the chagrin of his wife, actress Billie Burke. 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... Alberto Vargas (1896–1982) was a noted painter of pin-up girls and erotica. ... 1928 Time cover featuring Ziegfeld Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. ... Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke (born August 7, 1884 in Washington D.C.; died May 14, 1970 in Los Angeles, California) was an actress primarily known to modern audiences for her role as Glinda, the Good Witch of the North in the musical The Wizard of Oz. ...

Untimely Death

While doing film preparations (combined with a vacation) in France, the Pickfords went out for a night of entertainment at the famous bistros in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris. Returning to their room in the Hotel Ritz around 3:00 in the morning, an apparently intoxicated Olive picked up what she thought was a flask of drinking water and accidentally ingested a large dose of mercury bichloride which had been prescribed for her husband's chronic syphilis. She was taken to the American Hospital in the Paris suburb of Neuilly, where Pickford, together with her former in-law Owen Moore, remained at her side until she succumbed to the poison a few days later. A police investigation followed, and Thomas' death was ruled accidental. The Montparnasse Tower, which at 209m was the tallest building in Western Europe when it was built. ... Hotel Ritz, Paris The Hôtel Ritz at 15 Place Vendôme in Paris, France is considered one of the best hotels in the world. ... Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by Treponema pallidum. ... Owen Moore (December 12, 1886 - June 9, 1939) was born in Fordstown Crossroads, County Meath, Ireland. ...

Jack Pickford brought her body back to the United States (family friend and film director Allan Dwan had to talk him out of committing suicide en route). Olive Thomas' funeral service was held at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New York. She was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York. Allan Dwan (April 3, 1885 – December 21, 1981) was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer and screenwriter. ... Located in The Bronx, Woodlawn Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in New York City. ... The Bronx is one of the five boroughs of United States. ...

In 2004, with funding from Timeline Films, and with the help of Hugh Hefner and his film preservation organization, Sarah J. Baker premiered her documentary on Olive Thomas' short life titled Olive Thomas: Everybody's Sweetheart. Hugh Marston Hefner (born April 9, 1926 in Chicago, Illinois), also referred to colloquially as Hef, is the founder and editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine. ...

In 2007 McFarland Publishing Company will release author Michelle Vogel's [http://www.michellevogel.com/OliveThomas.html biography of Olive Thomas to be titled "Olive Thomas: The Life and Death of a Silent Film Beauty". Michelle Vogel is a film historian and author of Hollywood Biographies. ...

Filmography

• Tom Sawyer, 1917 (uncredited)
• Indiscreet Corinne, 1917
• Broadway Arizona, 1917
• An Even Break, 1917
• Madcap Madge, 1917
• A Girl Like That, 1917
• Heiress for a Day, 1918
• Limousine Life, 1919
• Betty Takes a Hand, 1918
• Out Yonder, 1919
• The Glorious Lady, 1919
• The Spite Bride, 1919
• Prudence on Broadway, 1919
• Love's Prisoner, 1919
• Upstairs and Down, 1919
• The Follies Girl, 1919
• Toton the Apache, 1919
• Everybody's Sweetheart, 1920
• Darling Mine, 1920
• The Flapper, 1920
• Youthful Folly, 1920
• Footlights and Shadows, 1920

Tom Sawyer is a 1917 Paramount Pictures silent film starring Jack Pickford, Robert Gordon, and Clara Horton; it is based on Mark Twains novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. ... The Flapper is a 1920 film starring silent film star Olive Thomas // The title of The Flapper is ironic, as this movies heroine is an innocent ingenue who merely pretends to be a jazz-baby flapper. ...

References

1. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0859310/bio
2. ^ http://www.silentsaregolden.com/articles/lpolivethomasdeath.html

External links

• Olive Thomas at The Internet Movie Database
• Olive Thomas Homepage
• Silent Ladies - Olive Thomas
• New Coven of Olive Thomas
• "Memories of Olive"
• Hollywood's First Scandal: The Death of Olive Thomas (1920)
• Gone Too Soon - Olive Thomas
• Archive of Olive Thomas press clippings
• Michelle Vogel's page for her upcoming Olive Thomas biography
• Pictures of Olive Thomas