Hello one and all!
Thelma Todd was a capable film actress and comedian, who made the transition from silent films to talkies, which was not an easy feat. She starred in films alongside stars such as the Marx Brothers, Buster Keaton and ZaSu Pitts. There was another aspect of her life, not as well known, which may have resulted in tragedy.
Thelma Todd's Tragedy
Before she was a film star, Thelma Todd was Miss Massachusetts. People still continued to obsess over her appearance after she became an actress. The chief of her movie studio, Hal Roach, invented a so-called potato clause for her contract, where if she gained more than five pounds she could be fired. As a result, her mother started her on diet pills, and she became addicted and started to drink alcohol as a coping mechanism. Todd finally swore off drink, but one night at the Coconut Grove the gangster Lucky Luciano poured a whole bottle of Dom Perignon down her throat, even though she protested. To maintain control over her Luciano also gave her amphetamines.
Thelma’s ex-husband Pat DiCicco had underworld connections (he was an associate of Lucky Luciano) and may have felt humiliated after she left him. It was also known that he had abused her while they were married. Roland West, a failed director who was an occasional lover of Thelma. Roland, his wife, Jewel Carmen, and Thelma were co-owners of Thelma Todd’s Sidewalk Café. The three also lived together in a duplex above the establishment, in an uncomfortable living arrangement.
In 1935 the film actress Thelma Todd’s body (29-year old) was found deceased at the wheel of her Lincoln Phaeton convertible, parked in the garage of her nightclub. The coroner suggested that Thelma returned from a party and had climbed the hill to her place, sometime after 2 AM on that Sunday morning. She found the doors to her duplex locked. Chilled by the night air, she went into the garage and started her car so that the heater could warm her up. Carbon monoxide quickly overwhelmed her and she died from asphyxiation. The engine cut out when the garage became filled with carbon monoxide. One thing that contradicts this theory is that Mrs. Wallace Ford said Thelma called her at 4 pm on Sunday, and an unnamed waiter of the Hollywood Boulevard café said that the deceased drove past the café at 2 PM on Sunday.
Thelma Todd was a capable film actress and comedian, who made the transition from silent films to talkies, which was not an easy feat. She starred in films alongside stars such as the Marx Brothers, Buster Keaton and ZaSu Pitts. There was another aspect of her life, not as well known, which may have resulted in tragedy.
Thelma Todd's Tragedy
Before she was a film star, Thelma Todd was Miss Massachusetts. People still continued to obsess over her appearance after she became an actress. The chief of her movie studio, Hal Roach, invented a so-called potato clause for her contract, where if she gained more than five pounds she could be fired. As a result, her mother started her on diet pills, and she became addicted and started to drink alcohol as a coping mechanism. Todd finally swore off drink, but one night at the Coconut Grove the gangster Lucky Luciano poured a whole bottle of Dom Perignon down her throat, even though she protested. To maintain control over her Luciano also gave her amphetamines.
 |
Groucho Marx and Thelma Todd in Monkey Business (1931).
|
Thelma’s ex-husband Pat DiCicco had underworld connections (he was an associate of Lucky Luciano) and may have felt humiliated after she left him. It was also known that he had abused her while they were married. Roland West, a failed director who was an occasional lover of Thelma. Roland, his wife, Jewel Carmen, and Thelma were co-owners of Thelma Todd’s Sidewalk Café. The three also lived together in a duplex above the establishment, in an uncomfortable living arrangement.
In 1935 the film actress Thelma Todd’s body (29-year old) was found deceased at the wheel of her Lincoln Phaeton convertible, parked in the garage of her nightclub. The coroner suggested that Thelma returned from a party and had climbed the hill to her place, sometime after 2 AM on that Sunday morning. She found the doors to her duplex locked. Chilled by the night air, she went into the garage and started her car so that the heater could warm her up. Carbon monoxide quickly overwhelmed her and she died from asphyxiation. The engine cut out when the garage became filled with carbon monoxide. One thing that contradicts this theory is that Mrs. Wallace Ford said Thelma called her at 4 pm on Sunday, and an unnamed waiter of the Hollywood Boulevard café said that the deceased drove past the café at 2 PM on Sunday.
 |
| Thelma Todd’s Sidewalk Café at the Pacific Coast Highway (1935) |
Miss Todd had also reportedly told her driver while they were en route to the Café that she had an important appointment that Sunday at 1:55 AM, which was just another mystery. There was no definite answer to all these questions, though the coroner ruled that it was accidental carbon monoxide poisoning that led to her death.
Thank you for reading!
Comments
Post a Comment