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September 09, 2007
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere # 133: Plus Olive Thomas
Olive Thomas
For the past few days Americans have been talking about a certain unfortunate Hollywood star who, it seems, made a suicide attempt.
“But he was a movie star,” people say in shock. “He had it all. It doesn't make any sense.”
Ah, little do they know.
Hollywood stars have been killing themselves since Hollywood first invented the illusion known as the movie star.
Let me tell you about Hollywood's first suicide.
She is buried in the Bronx.
Not one of my Hollywood friends knows that she ever existed. Nor are they familiar with any of her once hugely popular films. But her funeral was attended by thousands of devoted fans; women wept and fainted dead away.
Her death was Hollywood's first great scandal.
Olive Thomas (1894-1920) was the first Hollywood star to crash and burn.
I've only seen one of her films, The Flapper, and she is just luminous, adorable, a bundle of sizzling energy. You can't take your eyes off Olive. She has that alchemy where ordinary beauty and charisma are transformed into that indefinable something we call star quality.
Olive was a poverty-stricken child from a small mill town in Pennsylvania. There was an early marriage at 16 and divorce at 20. On to New York, where she rose from shop girl, to Condé Nast model, to Ziegfeld Follies headliner. Thomas traveled to the West Coast where she became a bit player in the rough and tumble world of the emerging film industry.
And then, like magic, Olive Thomas was a movie star.
She married Jack Pickford, a dashing male star. But Jack was a deeply troubled man, an alcoholic, a drug addict, a womanizer, and soon enough Olive discovered that Jack had syphilis.
Jack Pickford
Their marriage was a tsumani. There was booze and fights and some say both were heroin addicts. But there is absolutely no evidence that Olive took drugs. This seems to be guilt only through marriage. Olive smashed up three expensive cars and miraculously walked away unscathed. Thought it does appear that Olive was drunk each and every time. They gave each other lavish gifts. But there was no real communication. Emotionally, Jack and Olive were children.
Olive Thomas was no angel. She drank, obviously. She had a potty mouth. And there's an anti-Semitic quote on record which is just sickening. But, let's face it, this was probably standard for the small town America which spawned Thomas.
Olive committed suicide in Paris by drinking a dose of mercury bichloride with alcohol and died four days later. The drug was being used as a topical medication for Jack's syphilis. It was an excruciatingly painful death and Jack sat by her side the entire time watching her die.
Her death was ruled accidental. They say Olive was drunk and ingested Jack's medicine by mistake. This seems highly unlikely as Olive and Jack had been together for years. She knew exactly what his medicine bottles looked like.
Jack's sister, Mary Pickford was the biggest star in Hollywood and it was she and the studio who probably made sure that the cause of death was listed as accidental. In those days, the studios wielded near absolute power.
In truth, Olive's death is still a mystery.
Ping!
Ping!
Ping!
My Powerbook beckons.
Look what's just arrived in my e-mail account.
The latest round-up of the Best of the Jewish Blogosphere. Ah, my day is made.
Check it out:
We'd like to thank Rubicon3 for including Seraphic Secret's Towards Catastrophe in this week's excellent round-up.
Afterwards, you can return to these Olive Thomas links:
The Olive Thomas Home Page.
Here's the most thorough and scholarly article about Olive Thomas that I've seen.
You can purchase the Olive Thomas DVD Collection
Another bio of Olive with even more information.
The Complete Olive Thomas Filmography
The only book about Olive Thomas. Olive Thomas: The Life and Death of a Silent Film Beauty, by Michelle Vogel
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at September 9, 2007 02:25 PM
Comments
Seraphic Secret is private property, that's right, it's an extension of our home, and as such, Karen and I have instituted two Seraphic Rules and we ask commentors to act respectfully.
1. No profanity.2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism. That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.
It was probably a typo, but I love the phrase "heroine addict" and can only imagine it as a line in, or title of, a sad poem.
Posted by: Juggling Frogs at September 9, 2007 03:51 PM
Juggling:
No, not a typo. I'm just dumb as a rock, can't spell. Thanks, fixed it. But feel free to write the sad pome:)
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.seraphicpress.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at September 9, 2007 04:04 PM
Robert,
You may be spelling-challenged but you are way smarter than a post.
:-)
Posted by: Dr. Carol at September 9, 2007 06:33 PM
Or a rock..
I, apparently, am "reading-challenged"!
Posted by: Dr. Carol at September 9, 2007 06:34 PM
Dr. Carol:
LOL! I needed that.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at September 9, 2007 06:54 PM
If I ever do make it onto Jeopardy I am going to be prepared for questions about old Hollywood stars, courtesy of this blog.
Posted by: Jack at September 9, 2007 06:59 PM
Jack:
You can count on Seraphic Secret for some truly useless and obscure Hollywood history.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at September 9, 2007 07:08 PM
Can't you just see it as the theme to a short story, then? A lonely guy who keeps putting potential partners on a pedestal, considering them heroines, until he discovers tidbits of human flaws and cowardice in ever one in sequence.
He stops enjoying the "high" of being with each woman, and becomes an addict, just looking for her to fail a test. The test becomes the goal, rather than finding someone compatible.
One by one, he kicks them off the pedestal and starts the frantic search anew.
Either that, or a historian, compelled to research Hannah Senesh, Henrietta Szold, Golda Meir...
Posted by: Juggling Frogs at September 9, 2007 07:28 PM
Juggling:
If you think about it you're describing Seinfeld:)
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at September 9, 2007 07:36 PM
Poor Olive seemed like she had the deck stacked against her from day one.
A sad tale that poignantly evidences Hollywood is indeed a land of smoke and mirrors and one shouldn't believe everything they see, especially if they live, work and play in its midst.
Posted by: Dana at September 9, 2007 09:08 PM
Dana:
Nothing has changed in Hollywood since Olive's rise and fall.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at September 9, 2007 09:35 PM
People who are driven hard to succeed often seem to have personality types in which that drive can be mixed with a tendency towards a tendency towards depression as well, I think. From the relatively little I know of him, and despite his sunny surfer dude on screen image, Owen Wilson strikes me as a pretty classic example of this personality type. (There doesn't seem any harm in naming him, given that the press has been doing so. I hope he is doing okay and makes many more good movies). Sometimes success and the money that goes with it can also provide an opportunity to behave dangerously as well. I am sure Hollywood provides ample opportunity on the last score, but in truth I doubt there is much Hollywood specific about this, other than that it is one of many environments that attracts this kind of person. Some people just tend this way.
Posted by: Michael Jennings at September 10, 2007 02:05 AM
It seems especially easy to go down the tubes given that there's an unbelievable variety of prescription drugs for 'anxiety' available to these people who are probably spending all day feeling anxious. Especially these young women who need to maintain a size zero body. Good grief.
Lindsey Lohan was such a little buttercup in ‘Parent Trap’. I hope she pulls through.
Posted by: Alice at September 10, 2007 04:48 AM
I've long known about Olive Thomas, but didn't know any movies survived. I've only seen still photographs and even in them she is radiant. During her brief heyday, I believe she was known as the most beautiful girl in the world. As Dennis Prager says, anyone who believes that fame and money equal happiness only needs to look at the troubled souls throughout Hollywood's history.
Posted by: Bookworm at September 10, 2007 02:41 PM
Michael:
Hollywood attracts a certain type of creative type, a narcissist. If you expect to achieve happiness through success in work, you are in for a rude shock.
I wrote about Olive to put Hollywood suicide, drugs, liquor, sex, etc. in perspective. Which is to say that we've been there before and we'll be there again.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at September 10, 2007 03:00 PM
Alice:
It's really easy to crash and burn when you don't have responsible parents.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at September 10, 2007 03:02 PM
Bookworm:
Glad I wrote about her. Now you can order the DVD and see her in motion. Olive was a natural. I understand that some of her films are in private hands, held close to the vest by collectors. That's how I saw The Flapper over 25 years ago in a cramped living room in West Hollywood. It was a very strange night.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at September 10, 2007 03:07 PM
She wouldn't have reached such a suicidal mood if narconon would have been in here time. Sometimes we have to face our darkest fears and some win, others don't.
Posted by: Cristian at April 10, 2008 12:53 AM