The Untold Story of Olive Thomas: Hollywood's First Scandalous Death
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- Опубликовано: 15 сен 2024
- Olive Thomas was a rising American actress and model in the early 20th century, known for her beauty and roles in silent films. Born in 1894, she gained fame as a Ziegfeld Follies girl before transitioning to Hollywood. Her promising career was tragically cut short in 1920 when she ingested mercury bichloride in Paris, possibly mistaking it for a headache remedy or sleeping tonic. She died shortly after, at just 25. Her death shocked the public and became one of Hollywood's earliest scandals. Despite her brief career, Thomas remains a symbol of the silent film era, remembered for her vibrant life and tragic end.
My grandmother used to play piano and or organ (depending on the theater) for the silent movies. She would tell me how you had to be able to change the tone of the music to the tone of the movie, dramatic, happy, sad, scary, etc.
She was an amazing pianist.
Thank you for sharing. This era fascinates me. My maternal grandmother was on the drapery construction team! She was very young, an immigrant from Belgium ~1910. They’d do repairs in the theaters and they may have designed and sewn them in the theater too. Anyway, this is how she met my grandfather. He and his brother worked for the same company in repairs. She’d purposefully kick the belt off the sewing machine ( treadle) to get his attention so he could fix it. Her friend Hilma, born in Sweden was in on the act too. Both of the brothers married the girls. That’s my favorite family story.
My grandmother did the same, although I don't think she played the organ.
@@The_momur This is an adorable story.
Olive was a beautiful woman and talented actor. It is a shame most people don't know about her. Thank you so much for telling her story.
She looks kind of dopey in a bluecollar kind of way.
@@Tugela60
I agree that she does not at all look like a predator+
This series is so well done. The presenter is a total pro.
She was innocently gorgeous...
I could listen to this man forever...I love his accent and proper speech!!
I love this guy! What a beautiful voice. You just cant make new stories fast enough for me
An impressive telling of Olive's tragic ending and the still mysterious story from the Silent Era
i always found this story interesting. and never believed jacks story about it.
its way too hard to believe anyone would drink that - it is increbily painful- from just one sip.
thanks for doing a piece on it
Can you imagine going from $2.50 a week to $2500.00 in those days?
$2500 a week is plenty acceptable today.
@@kmos1948Agreed 😂
That would be just under $40K/week today.
Roughly $80ish a week in today's money
I'd be happy as a pig in swill with 2500.00 a week.
Some of the earliest screen stars died in awful ways . One actress burned to death when a stage hand carelessly discarded a still lit cigarette butt.Her dress caught on fire 😢
Another actor accidentally shot himself with a gun he didn't know was loaded. He took it on a trip because he didn't want his younger brother hurt himself.
@99fruitbat, that was Martha Mansfield, who died of those burns in 1924
99fruitbat, yes, True! Like the man who played Lillian and Dorothy Gish's brother in movie "Unseen Enemy" and was the lead bad guy in "Musketeers of pig alley-" Elmer Booth-he died when he was passenger of car driven by director Tod Browning hit a streetcar in 1915. Plus, Dorothy Gish real life boyfriend Robert Harron also in movie "Unseen Enemy" accidently shot himself with his own gun in 1920.
I love these stories, and the content and delivery is top notch. I was today years old when I learned that Paul was a film actor and also the front man for a band when he was younger. Good stuff!
Thank you for honoring Ollie.
Another gem❤
I knew about Mary Pickford (and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and their house Pickfair!), but did not know that she had two Hollywood siblings. I learn something new every day.
Excellent story and one I have never heard.
I've always been so intrigued by this; I've read everything I could on it. To be honest, I'd never known Jack Pickford was so prominent until I learned about his marriage to Olive. Such a sad story. Thank you for covering this!
Indeed, a real starlet! ✨️
Thank you, Paul, for another absorbing tale
Great video! I have always been drawn to Olive’s life story & tragic end. She was a beautiful woman who lived too fast & died young. One of the first Hollywood scandals.
She was a beauty, what a shame. Thank you for the video.
She loved life, she loved making films and being successful, her career was going very well, she was so young. And beautiful, even her sister-in-law Mary Pickford, who was probably not her biggest fan, said of her that Olive had beautiful deep blue, almost violet eyes under long dark lashes. In reality she must have been even more beautiful than in photos. How could someone so hungry for life do something like that to herself? I can't believe it, never. She didn't even take the name Pickford because she was proud of her own career, it's not nice that she is buried in a grave that bears the name Pickford. Because her husband later remarried, she lies there all alone, under a name she didn't want.
When I look at her photos, she seems incredibly alive to me, as if she wants to talk to us.
From my home town. What a sad story What a beautiful girl. Everything old is new again.
From Paris ❤thank you so much dear it was great ❤
I like Lilyan Trashman's assessment of Jack Pickford. Unfortunately, I can't repeat it here.
i cannot find what she said anywhere can you tell me the video or the article headline please?
You can tell he was a bad boy, so to speak.
A very well presented segment of the early days of Hollywood. In many ways, from the history I have read it was a cut throat world. Poor Olive didn't see what was coming. Thanks again for an entertaining and informative video!
She was so beautiful!
Thanks for the upload, Paul.
OMG, Paul!!!!! I LOVE the new channel!!! Yessssssssssssssssssssss!!!!! STARS 🌟🤩⭐️🌠
A new 'Well I Never' channel.....yay!!
Well, I never! Fascinating.
Truly a timeless beauty; she'd be considered stunning even if she came along today.
Love your channel. New subscriber❤
What a great storey have not been i touch with u for a while always love ur stories cant wait for more and so so well told 👍🥂
Well, I Never, I love your channel, and I subscribed. I am an old Hollywood History Buff. I have heard about Olive Thomas before. Olive looked even younger than she was in my opinion! Olive Thomas and her sisters in law The Pickford sisters were all very lovely Lassies indeed!! I read that the handsome Jack Pickford took Mercury pills for his syphilis, which was pretty common back then. Thanks for talking about this tragic and beautiful Hollywood star Olive Thomas.! And thanks for the fabulous scenes & old photos! Olive Thomas & Jack Pickford both died way too young! SAD! Other beauties in this era would include Lillian & Dorothy Gish, Corinne Griffith, Colleen Moore, Clara Bow and Louis Brooks among others. Thanks for the upload.
Chrissy-Your fan from America! ❤❤❤❤
My girlfriend and I saw her ghost at the New Amsterdam Theater back in 2006. We were backstage on our way to see one of my gf's friends who was performing that night when we saw Olive's ghost. She didn't look what you might call "spectral' at all, she appeared as substantial as any person might, just standing there. And she was quite beautiful.
She was the second ghost I've ever had contact with (My first was at a place in Fredericksburg, Virginia called the Kenmore Inn, a small tavern with rooms for guests that dates back to colonial times. The ghost there didn't manifest physically, however. Just spectral sounds, cold drafts, and psychic phenomenon).
Thank you.
Jack was Canadian as was his sister, Mary Pickford.
Enjoyed This! Just Subscribed!
I’m not buying the husbands story. Even if she was inebriated, it doesn’t make sense that she would’ve downed the whole bottle. And why delay getting her to the hospital? Very suspicious.
Not sure about now but it use to be that most people were treated on the scene in France then transported to a hospital. The same was done when Princess Diana crashed in Paris.
When does it say he delayed? He called for a doctor right away, and tried to help induce vomiting.
Sensational job Paul you guys rock always know how to make your fans wanting more
Great presentation sir! Subbed. Looking forward to more.
At 4:27, the actress at center is Betty Bronson, not Lottie Pickford. A blogger made this error and it's been picked up by others a few times.
It's quite possible she mixed up bottles if intoxicated enough. I think a seance should be held in the theatre.
I don't know how fluent she was in the French language, but if she was anything like me when I went to Germany many years ago, I needed to purchase an item at a drug store. It was in a small town south of Stuttgart, but nothing looked like in the states! I finally found a store, but the items are all packaged differently... and although I studied German for a few weeks, I had NO clue what I was reading!!!! 🤔
Thank you ❤
Great video!
You need to do a Well I Never Stars video about actor, George Reeves.
She was very pretty
Enjoyed the story and pictures. Interesting Hollywood history of one of its stars.
Hollyweird, expected outcome
May her soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the infinite mercy of God rest in peace+
Interesting stuff
loved it!
Fabulous Delighted to open this Frist time Historical insightful Intelligent Door to a private movie house .
Very sad story too young to die
I've never heard of her before.
I think that I'll have to search for some of Olive's films if possible. She looks every bit as pretty as Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish, the only two silent era ladies I know of
Donald, I am sure you have heard about a few other silent movie starlets like Greta Garbo. And Gloria Swanson from the movie "Sunset Boulevard". Among others.
@@Chrissy-j6v now that you mention it, yes, they do sound familiar 😊
@@donaldleroy6502 😊
What a lovely accent you have!
She is beautiful
Just dang 😮
They chose to rekindle their relationship between those personalities and behavior?? No matter what, It was not the maids doing, Mary Pickford, thank you very much, good try. Not being there who knows, but one of those drunken, possibly syphilitic idiots, probably did it by mistake. Very sad she could not get it together and capitalize on her chances and talent.
I love silent movies. I have to go find how many of her movies have survived. Thank you WIN, once again!
Thanks
She is a natural beauty. A rare gem.
Well! I never!
Such a shame she died so young, both were very attractive. Im drawn towards murder, rather than accident. Just don't think she would drink it even drunk. He couldn't keep it in his pants, so not so nice. She should have been much much bigger probably would have been, had she not died not impressed with her affair with Ziegfeld, like Billy Burke. they were quite immoral the film stars then. I would imagine the fans thought they were all very sweet and innocent
They are still quite immoral. And that's been true for pretty much the entire existence of actors from stage to screen.
@@markcarpenter6020 don't hide it now. did then
@@janstaz they did and didn't. Hollywood has always been pretty infamous for its behavior. Fatty Arbuckle ended up on trial accused of killing a lady by "violating her with a coke bottle", Eral Flynn (or however you spell his name) ended up arrested for underage girls, etc and some of those innocent looking starlets were known to have had numerous affairs with men and women.
@@janstaz not really. Look up people like fatty Arbuckle.
@@janstaz lol it won't let me reply to you and tell you what happened to some actors from the early days of cinema. You tube yeets it.
I'm dreaming of Paul doing episodes featuring lesser known actresses like Dorothy McGuire and of "A list" actresses who don't get enough limelight like Bette Davis ❤
Fascinating.
Wow !
The Pickford family were quite clearly all totally twisted 😢
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Very interesting
There is another famous starlit Jack Pickford was rumored to be with who also died tragically at the age of 14. Lucille Ricksen. Many think she may have been pregnant. It was a big scandal at the time of her death.
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Old Jack looks old. What was he, twenty or twenty-five?
Jack looks like he is about 16yrs old! I guess that’ll be good when he’s much older.
She was a party girl.
Terrible way to die. I can't imagine it was anything other than accidental.
New york looks dirty back then good story.
I have always the Glinda thenGood Witch 💖 Did she know about the affair?
Florenz Ziegfeld was a notorious womanizer. Billie knew of many affairs.
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She was very attractive. Why did her husband feel the need to cheat when he had such a beautiful woman beside him?
I think it was a mistake she drunk the poison how sad they were made for each other a wonderful lovely actress
It is my understanding that she was awake, alert and talking for several days after she drank the mercury. She apologized for taking it
There was a question whether they had an argument, and she took it on purpose, to either kill herself or just to be dramatic.
She may not have known it would be a slow, certain death. Jack was apparently devastated.
This has been debunked as there were chemical burns on her face and it burned her throat and vocal cords. After she arrived at the hospital they put her in a medically induced coma cause she was in so much pain. Eventually her kidneys failed and she died. Read her biography.
@@christinetanguay949mercury doesn’t cause chemical burns
@@fullercorp it happened when Jack made her drink milk and vomit . The mercury in the vomit caused the burns. In Michelle Vogels book about Olive she says that. That's where I got it from.
Who is Olive Thomas?
They were gay ? The gayest lifestyle in Hollywood ?
Hollywood royalty. Jewish?
Gr8 subject content off-putting host presence.
Olive Thomas had the morals of a yacht girl.
Oh McKee's huh, well that probably explains everything at only 2 minutes into the video!