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OLIVE THOMAS (1894-1920), THE MARILYN MONROE OF THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY - Page 2

© Joyce E. Eberly

Like Marilyn, Olive was always tormented by criticism that her success in films was the result of her beauty and not her talent. Until 1919, when she became a Seznick star, she had played a variety of roles, mainly ingenues. With Selznick, her "innocent sexuality" was exploited, and she was cast as a "baby vamp," a sophisticated flapper, and a tomboy.

While her career was making her a true star, her marriage to Pickford was uneven. They rarely worked on the same coast, and rarely saw each other. Pickford, even before their marriage, was known as a womanizer, or "philanderer," as he was called in the twenties. Although he seemed to be deeply in love with Olive, he never gave up his philandering ways. Their marriage was marked by dramatic battles followed by "lavish apologies" and expensive gifts. Pickford was also known as a procurer. He was once involved in a scandal in which he allegedly procured young starlets for officers. Another story says he procured them for "bluebloods." Nevertheless, he remained a womanizer until Olive's tragic death.

In September 1920, Olive and Jack were in Paris at the Hotel Ritz for what they planned to be a second honeymoon. Jack was widely rumored to be infected with syphillis and was undergoing treatment for the disease with mercury bichloride and had infected his young wife. On 5 September, in their hotel room, Olive (by one account) swallowed a large amount of the mercury bichloride, mistakenly believing it to be a sleeping potion. Other accounts say she intended to commit suicide. Mercury bichloride, when taken internally, is incredibly corrosive and its deadly effects are irreversible.. As with Marilyn, no one will ever know if her death was suicide or accident.

Olive died at the age of twenty-six in Paris of "acute nephritic inflammation." Her body was returned to New York, where her funeral was held at St. Thomas Episcopal Church on Fifth Avenue. It was the first "Hollywood funeral" and was attended by huge hysterical grieving crowds. She is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx. Unlike Marilyn, Olive Thomas is virtually forgotten today, and her films are mostly lost.

Pickford continued making movies until 1932. He was married two more times, once to the former Ziegfeld star, Marilyn Miller, from 1922 to 1927, and to another Ziegfeld girl, Mary Mulhern, from 1930 to 1932. In 1933, Pickford died. The reported causes of his death ranged from a nervous breakdown to exhaustion. Or,as one biographer puts it, quoting the words of his neice, Gwynne Pickford, " he died of too much of all the right things, women, drink and riotous living."

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