Olive Thomas’s mysterious death
One hundred years ago today … Olive Thomas, called “the most beautiful woman on earth,” died in Paris under what are still considered mysterious circumstances. Thomas was a former Ziegfeld Follies star and was married to Jack Pickford, Mary Pickford’s brother.
The Evening World, 10 September 1920, p.1. Chronicling America.
Her death is considered one of the first Hollywood scandals. It was big news in NYC, as Thomas and Pickford had always been. Just a month earlier, the News had made a fuss over, and asked questions about, their departure for Europe.
Daily News, 13 August 1920, p. 9. Newspapers.com.
After news of the death, the News made an unusual choice, depicting the scene in a cartoon.
Daily News, 13 September 1920, p. 24. Newspapers.com.
To this day, it is unclear whether the death was an accident–as it was ruled–a suicide, or a murder by Pickford, as it was rumored.
WRITTEN BY JONATHAN GOLDMAN, SEPTEMBER 10, 2020.
TAGS: drugs, death, celebrity