Olive Thomas was a popular actress, model, and Ziegfeld girl in the early 20th century. She had a successful career in silent films and was married to Jack Pickford, the brother of Mary Pickford, one of the most famous stars of the era. However, her life was cut short by a tragic and mysterious incident that occurred in Paris in 1920. How did Olive Thomas die and what were the circumstances surrounding her death?
The Rise of Olive Thomas
Olive Thomas was born as Oliva R. Duffy in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, in 1894. She left school at 15 to help support her family and worked as a clerk in department stores. In 1911, she married Bernard Krug Thomas, but they separated two years later. She then moved to New York City and pursued a career as a model and actress.
She won a beauty contest in 1914 and became known as “The Most Beautiful Girl in New York City”. She also posed for several illustrators and magazines, including the famous artist Alberto Vargas. She caught the attention of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., the producer of the Ziegfeld Follies, a series of lavish Broadway revues that featured beautiful and talented women. She joined the Follies in 1915 and also appeared in the more risqué show The Midnight Frolic.
In 1916, she made her film debut in Beatrice Fairfax, a serial based on a newspaper advice column. She signed a contract with Triangle Film Corporation and starred in several comedies and dramas. She also met Jack Pickford, a fellow actor and the younger brother of Mary Pickford, the “America’s Sweetheart” of silent cinema. They fell in love and eloped in 1916, despite the disapproval of Mary and their families.
Olive Thomas continued to work in films and became one of the most popular and highest-paid actresses of the time. She was known for her beauty, charm, and versatility. She played a variety of roles, from innocent ingenues to seductive vamps. Some of her notable films include A Girl Like That (1917), The Glorious Lady (1919), and The Flapper (1920), which is considered one of the first films to portray the flapper lifestyle of the 1920s.
The Death of Olive Thomas
In 1920, Olive Thomas and Jack Pickford decided to take a second honeymoon in Paris. They had been married for four years, but their relationship was strained by their busy careers, their frequent separations, and their rumored infidelities. They hoped to rekindle their romance and enjoy the nightlife of the French capital.
On the night of September 5, they went to several nightclubs and returned to their hotel, the Ritz, around 3 a.m. According to Pickford, he went to bed while Thomas stayed up to read a magazine. He was awakened by her screams and found her in the bathroom, holding a bottle of mercury bichloride, a highly toxic substance that was used as a treatment for syphilis. She had apparently mistaken it for a sleeping potion or a tonic and swallowed some of it.
Pickford called for help and Thomas was rushed to the American Hospital in Paris. She suffered from severe pain, vomiting, and internal bleeding. She died five days later, on September 10, at the age of 25. Her death was ruled as accidental by the French authorities, who found no evidence of foul play or suicide.
However, the press and the public speculated about the cause and the motive of her death. Some suggested that she had committed suicide out of despair or guilt, as she was rumored to have an affair with Ziegfeld or other men. Some hinted that Pickford had poisoned her deliberately or negligently, as he was known to have contracted syphilis from a previous relationship and was jealous of her success. Some even claimed that Thomas was murdered by a rival or a fan.
The truth may never be known, as the details of the incident are unclear and contradictory. Pickford gave different versions of the story to the police, the press, and his family. He said that he had obtained the mercury bichloride from a doctor in New York and that he had kept it in a blue bottle labeled “poison” in his bathroom. He also said that Thomas had a habit of taking sleeping pills or tonics and that she had grabbed the wrong bottle in the dark. However, some witnesses said that the bottle was actually clear and that it had a French label that read “to be used externally only”. Some also said that Thomas had been drinking heavily that night and that she may have been confused or depressed.
The mystery of Olive Thomas’ death remains unsolved and has inspired several books, films, and documentaries. Her funeral was attended by thousands of fans and mourners in New York. She was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Her husband, Jack Pickford, never recovered from the loss and died of multiple illnesses in 1933, at the age of 36. He was buried next to her.
Olive Thomas was one of the first major Hollywood scandals and one of the earliest victims of the dark side of fame. She was a talented and beautiful starlet who had a promising future ahead of her, but her life was cut short by a tragic and mysterious incident that shocked the world. She is remembered as a symbol of the glamour and the tragedy of the silent film era.
