Olive Thomas (born Olive R. Duffy; October 20, 1894 – September 10, 1920) was an American silent-film actress, art model, and photo model. Her birth certificate appears to list her name as Oliva, but this is widely thought to be an error. In the 1900 census, she is listed as Olive R. Duffy.

Thomas began her career as an illustrator's model in 1914, and moved on to the Ziegfeld Follies the following year. During her time as a Ziegfeld girl, she also appeared in the more risqué show The Midnight Frolic. In 1916, she began a successful career in silent films and would appear in more than 20 features over the course of her four-year film career. That year, she married actor Jack Pickford, the younger brother of fellow silent-film star Mary Pickford.

On September 10, 1920 at 11:00 AM, Thomas died in Paris five days after ingesting mercury bichloride, which brought on acute nephritis. She was the middle child of three born to Lourena ("Rena") and Michael Duffy, both of whom were of Irish descent. She had two brothers, James (born 1898) and Michael (born 1893).

While most sources claim her father's name was James Duffy, that he was a steelworker, and that he died in a work-related accident, Olive's birth certificate (as presented in the documentary Everybody's Sweetheart) states that his name was Michael. The record of his death in the City of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, also shows his name as Michael, indicates that his occupation was "bricklayer," and states that his cause of death was pneumonia.

After her father's death, the family moved to McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, a small mill town. Olive and her brothers often stayed with their grandparents while their mother Rena worked in a local factory. Rena Duffy later married Harry M. Van Kirk, a worker on the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad. Their only child together, daughter Harriet, was born in 1914 and died in a car crash in 1931.

Olive left school at 15 to help support her siblings. She got a job selling gingham at Joseph Horne's department store for per week (). At 16 in April 1911, she married Bernard Krug Thomas in McKees Rocks. During the two-year marriage, she reportedly worked as a clerk in Kaufmann's, a major department store in Pittsburgh. After their separation in 1913, Olive moved to New York City and lived with a family member. She later found work in a Harlem department store.

Stage

Fisher wrote a letter of recommendation to Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., resulting in Thomas' being hired for the Ziegfeld Follies. However, Thomas later disputed this, claiming she "walked right up and asked for the job".

During her time in The Follies, Thomas began an affair with Florenz Ziegfeld. Ziegfeld, who was married to actress Billie Burke, had affairs with other Ziegfeld girls, including Lillian Lorraine and Marilyn Miller (who later married Thomas' widower Jack Pickford). Thomas ended the affair with Ziegfeld after he refused to leave Burke to marry her.

Thomas continued modeling while appearing in the Follies. Alberto Vargas, Florenz Ziegfeld’s artist-in-residence who painted many stars of the Ziegfeld stage, immortalized Thomas in the portrait he painted of her from memory after her death and titled it Memory of Olive Thomas or The Lotus Eater (as noted on the label he placed on the back of the completed work). "Lotus Eater" was a reference to Lotus-eaters of Greek mythology. The portrait depicts Thomas nude from the waist up, covering her left breast with her left hand while holding a rose with her right above her upraised face. The painting remained in his personal collection until his death in 1982 and was sold by his estate to a private collector in 1986. Vargas called Thomas "one of the most beautiful brunettes that Ziegfeld ever glorified."

Silent films

In July 1916, Thomas signed with the International Film Company. She made her on-screen debut in Episode 10 of Beatrice Fairfax, a film serial, which was shot in Ithaca, New York. In 1917, she made her full-length feature debut in A Girl Like That for Paramount Pictures.

left|thumb|Thomas in Out Yonder, 1919

That same year, she signed with Triangle Pictures. Shortly after, news broke of her engagement to actor Jack Pickford, whom she had married a year prior. Thomas and Pickford, who was the younger brother of Mary Pickford, kept the marriage secret because Thomas did not want people to think her success in film was due to her association with the Pickfords. Her first film for Triangle, Madcap Madge, was released in June 1917. Thomas's popularity at Triangle grew with performances in Indiscreet Corrine (1917) and Limousine Life (1918). In 1919, she portrayed a French girl who poses as a boy in Toton the Apache. Thomas later said that she felt her work in Toton was "the first real thing I've ever done." In 1920's The Flapper, Thomas played a teenage schoolgirl who yearns for excitement beyond her small Florida town. Thomas was the first actress to portray a lead character who was a flapper, and the film was the first of its kind to portray the flapper lifestyle. Frances Marion, who wrote the scenario, was responsible for bringing the term into the American vernacular. The Flapper proved to be popular and became one of Thomas's most successful films. In 1913, the couple separated and Olive moved to New York City to pursue a career as a model. She was granted a divorce on September 25, 1915, on the grounds of desertion and cruelty. In 1931, Bernard Krug Thomas gave an interview to The Pittsburg Press, detailing his marriage to Olive, implying that a cause of the demise of their marriage was her ambition and a desire to both obtain a life of "luxury" and "improve her station". Thomas eloped with Pickford on October 25, 1916, in New Jersey. None of their family was present, with actor Thomas Meighan as their only witness. Although the couple never had their own children, in 1920 they adopted Thomas's six-year-old nephew, the son of one of her brothers, after his mother died.</blockquote>

Death

For several years, Thomas and Pickford had intended to vacation together. Both were constantly traveling and had little time to spend together. With their marriage on the rocks, the couple decided to take a second honeymoon. An intoxicated and tired Thomas ingested a mercury bichloride solution, which may have been prescribed to Pickford as a topical medication to treat sores caused by syphilis. While accounts vary, authorities speculated that Thomas thought the flask contained either drinking water or a sleeping tonic. The medication's label was in French, which may have added to her confusion. After drinking the liquid she screamed, "Oh, my God!" and Pickford rushed to assist her. She was taken to the American Hospital in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, where Pickford and his former brother-in-law Owen Moore remained at her side until she died five days later at 11:00 AM. Owen Moore, who accompanied Pickford and Thomas in Paris, denied the rumors, saying that Thomas was not suicidal and that she and Pickford had not fought that evening. Jack Pickford also denied the rumors, stating, "Olive and I were the greatest pals on Earth. Her death is a ghastly mistake." On September 13, 1920, her death was ruled accidental by the Paris physician who conducted her autopsy.

Funeral

thumb|Olive Thomas Pickford's [[mausoleum in New York]]

Jack Pickford brought Thomas's body back to the United States. Several accounts state that Pickford tried to commit suicide en route but was talked out of it. In her autobiography, Mary Pickford recalls her brother's disclosure that he had made such an attempt during the return trip:

On September 29, 1920, an Episcopal funeral service for Thomas was held at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New York City. According to The New York Times, police escorts were needed at the event, as the church was crowded with "hundreds" of fellow actors and other invited attendees, as well as a horde of curious onlookers. Several women were reported to have fainted during the ceremony, and several men had their hats crushed in the rush to view the casket. Thomas is interred in a crypt at the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.

Estate

Thomas did not leave a will upon her death. Her estate, which was later valued at $27,644, () was split between her mother, her two brothers, and husband Jack Pickford. Pickford later relinquished his right to a portion of the money, choosing instead to give his share to Thomas's mother.

On November 22, 1920, the bulk of Thomas's personal property was auctioned off in an estate sale, which netted approximately $30,000. Lewis Selznick bought Thomas's town car for an undisclosed sum. Mabel Normand bought a 20-piece toilet set, a 14-karat gold cigarette case, and three pieces of jewelry, including a sapphire pin.

Aftermath

thumb|right|Memory of Olive Thomas or The Lotus Eater by [[Alberto Vargas, 1920]]

The press coverage of Olive Thomas's death was one of the first examples of the media sensationalism related to a major Hollywood star. Her death has been cited as one of the first major Hollywood scandals.

Other scandals around the time—including the Fatty Arbuckle trial in 1921, the murder of William Desmond Taylor in 1922, and the drug-related death of Wallace Reid in 1923—caused many religious and morality groups to label Hollywood as "immoral".

  • A legend that Thomas’s ghost haunts the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York City arose in the years following her death.
  • 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's life, titled Olive Thomas: Everybody's Sweetheart.
  • In 2007, Michelle Vogel wrote a biography titled, Olive Thomas: The Life and Death of a Silent Film Beauty, published by McFarland Publishing Company.
  • Ghostlight, a musical about the life of Olive Thomas, was written by Matthew Martin and Tim Realbuto. Ghostlight opened in New York City at the Signature Theatre on September 26, 2011, and was presented by the New York Musical Theatre Festival. It starred Drama Desk Award winner Rachel York as Billie Burke, Tony nominee Michael Hayden as Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., Tony Award winner Daisy Eagan as Molly Cook, Kimberly Faye Greenberg as Fanny Brice, Matt Leisy as Jack Pickford, and newcomer Rachael Fogle in the leading role of Olive Thomas.
  • In 2015, novelist Laini Giles released a fictionalized biography of Olive titled The Forgotten Flapper. Based completely on factual information, it goes from her poor roots in Pennsylvania to her death, and is narrated by her ghost, now haunting the New Amsterdam Theatre.

Filmography

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|-

! Year

! Title

! Role

! class="unsortable" | Notes

|-

| 1916

| Beatrice Fairfax

| Rita Malone

| Episode 10: Play Ball

|-

| rowspan=6 | 1917

| A Girl Like That

| Fannie Brooks

| Lost film

|-

| Madcap Madge

| Betty

|

|-

| An Even Break

| Claire Curtis

|

|-

| Broadway Arizona

| Fritzi Carlyle

|

|-

| Indiscreet Corinne

| Corinne Chilvers

|

|-

| Tom Sawyer

| Choir Member

| Uncredited

|-

| rowspan=3 | 1918

| Betty Takes a Hand

| Betty Marshall

|

|-

| Limousine Life

| Minnie Wills

| Lost film

|-

| Heiress for a Day

| Helen Thurston

| Lost film

|-

| rowspan=8 | 1919

| Toton the Apache

| Toton/Yvonne

| Lost film

|-

| The Follies Girl

| Doll

|

|-

| Upstairs and Down

| Alice Chesterton

| Alternative title: Up-stairs and Down<br> Lost film

|-

| Love's Prisoner

| Nancy, later Lady Cleveland

| Incomplete film, missing final reel

|-

| Prudence on Broadway

| Prudence

| Lost film

|-

| The Spite Bride

| Tessa Doyle

|

|-

| The Glorious Lady

| Ivis Benson

|

|-

| Out Yonder

| Flotsam

|

|-

| rowspan=5 | 1920

| Footlights and Shadows

| Gloria Dawn

| Lost film

|-

| Youthful Folly

| Nancy Sherwin

| Writer<br>Lost film

|-

| The Flapper

| Ginger King

|

|-

| Darling Mine

| Kitty McCarthy

| Lost film

|-

| Everybody's Sweetheart

| Mary

| Released posthumously

|}

See also

  • Virginia Rappe

References

Works cited

  • Literature on Olive Thomas