Speaking of Beautiful Women: Olive Thomas.

Big Silent Fan · Post by **Big Silent Fan** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 9:34 am

Speaking of beautiful women, I've just watched the Doco, "Olive Thomas: Everybody's Sweetheart."

I had never even heard of her since most the films made in her short life (she died at age 25), are gone.

The wife of Mary Pickford's brother, she died mysteriously of poison while she and Jack Pickford were in France. Their releationship was often troubled.

The documentary also suggested that the 'O' in David O. Selzneck was added after her death to his name? It suggested that it was her work at Selzneck's newly formed studio that quickly made him successful. The 'O' in David O. Selzneck never appeared before Olive's death.

barafan · Post by **barafan** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 10:26 am

Don't know about the "O," but you can also see Olive on YouTube, in the "Play Ball" episode of the Wharton serial Beatrice Fairfax. And the serial itself is available for purchase at www.serialsquadron.com.

rudyfan · Post by **rudyfan** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 11:32 am

Big Silent Fan wrote: The documentary also suggested that the 'O' in David O. Selzneck was added after her death to his name? It suggested that it was her work at Selzneck's newly formed studio that quickly made him successful. The 'O' in David O. Selzneck never appeared before Olive's death.

From what I recall the O in O. Selznick meant nothing. MissDupont might be able to elaborate further on this.

missdupont · Post by **missdupont** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 12:20 pm

The "O" was not added to Selznick's name to honor Olive Thomas, it was to differentiate him from an uncle who was also David Selznick.

missdupont · Post by **missdupont** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 12:21 pm

And it wasn't David Selznick (correct spelling)'s studio. It was his father (Lewis J. Selznick)'s studio, Selznick and Select Pictures, run by Myron Selznick, his brother.

Big Silent Fan · Post by **Big Silent Fan** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 12:40 pm

missdupont wrote:The "O" was not added to Selznick's name to honor Olive Thomas, it was to differentiate him from an uncle who was also David Selznick.

Well, I'm glad the I included the words "was suggested" in quoting the Olive Thomas Documentary.

So...apparently the letter 'O' has no actual meaning itself?

rollot24 · Post by **rollot24** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 12:47 pm

Correct me if I'm wrong (and I know you will), didn't Selznick just run through the alphabet "David A, David B, David C....." until he found a letter he liked? Or was that someone else?

missdupont · Post by **missdupont** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 3:09 pm

No, he picked the O because he felt it had the best ring to it.

Post by **silentfilm** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 4:30 pm

I just finished reading Michelle Vogel's Olive Thomas biography last week. If you are interested in Olive I can recommend it. Ms. Vogel investigates Ms. Thomas' death, and comes up with a pretty plausible explanation.

Big Silent Fan · Post by **Big Silent Fan** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 6:41 pm

silentfilm wrote:I just finished reading Michelle Vogel's Olive Thomas biography last week. If you are interested in Olive I can recommend it. Ms. Vogel investigates Ms. Thomas' death, and comes up with a pretty plausible explanation.

The video documentary offers many different, yet each very plausible explanations (everthing from murder to suicide, as well as the possibility that it was simply an accident). The background about her relationship with Jack Pickford in the doc. seems to support them all. In the end,the 'official' police report said, accidental poisoning.

I still need to watch the feature, "The Flapper" (1920) (it's part of the same DVD). For some reason, while the projection speed seems fine, the intertitles are projected long enough to easily read them at least three times.

Gagman 66 · Post by **Gagman 66** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 6:48 pm

I believe that Olive was number 3 on my list of top 10 Silent Screen Beauties. But that list is about 4 years old, and might need revising.

I'd like to know why the Documentary never aired on TCM? It was produced by the same folks as the Louise Brooks, Clara Bow, and Marion Davies ones. All that originated on TCM. "EVERYBODY'S SWEETHEART" not only was never shown, but now the DVD is out of print as well.

Big Silent Fan · Post by **Big Silent Fan** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 7:09 pm

Gagman 66 wrote:I believe that Olive was number 3 on my list of top 10 Silent Screen Beauties. But that list is about 4 years old, and might need revising.

Beauty as they say, "is in the eye of the beholder." In most all of the stills or films in the DVD, I didn't find that she was anything special to look at. But, there were some, where she was adorable.
Netflix has some copies of this available. The copy I received here in Detroit, will be sent back to Pittsburgh, PA.

Gagman 66 · Post by **Gagman 66** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 7:19 pm

Olive had lavender or violet eyes like Liz Taylor. She must have been some sight to see. I'm still looking for my list, but I know I had Dorothy Janis at Number 2.

misspickford9 · Post by **misspickford9** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 7:33 pm

The documentary was made quite awhile ago, and what was special about it was before the docu, like NO research had been done on Olive. Via their research they found out a lot, and also found instead of only one surviving film (Love's Prisoner) she had something like 12: http://www.forgetthetalkies.com/2009/05 ... homas.html

Grapevine released Love's Prisoner on VHS in I think 1999. If you watch it they note its her 'only' surviving film...until this documentary was done. I think twos films were found in 2009 and the Nederlands Film Institute was in the process of restoring them.

Vogel's book is...meh. Bless her, she is probably a very sweet lady, but her books...meh. Its almost like a copy and paste job out of the Taylorology newsletter, because its just constant newspaper clippings quoted at length, etc.

I think no one has done enough work on Olive so far. Her death seems pretty straight up to me, and if I remember right that's the two Ollie historians I know concluded as well. The 'scandal' is much like Mabel Normand and William Desmond Taylor: highly improbable the star (Mabel/Jack) did anything, but they were there or nearby, and thus...'maybe'.

Olive lived for a few days after she drank the poison. Her vocal chords were burned clean through but investigators did talk to her (I assume using some means to write or communicate 'yes' vs 'no') and found no foul play, she was stroking Jack's hand and such.

Since Vogel's book and the documentary some really interesting things have been found. Such as there were a lot of people who knew her in her hometown and they spoke of her well till the 70s, she and Jack didn't really marry until 1918 (someone found the certificate), and she tried to adopt her nephew and succeeded about a year before she died.

Murder strikes me as unlikely, Jack was whatever but everyone who knew him said in his later years he really missed Ollie (even calling his next two wives her name...'accidentally'.) Suicide strikes me as unlikely because whether you believe Jack or not she had just adopted her young nephew and was doting on him in interviews, and she sounded happy. Even if she was coked out of her mind or about to divorce Jack, she loved her new ''son'' and was close to her niece (Lottie's daughter). Seems there wasn't much motivation to off herself there.

Accident seems to be. I think she was drunk/high and mistook the bottle. They did use mercury bichloride for syphilis treatment, but as a paste usually. They used the powder to clean bathrooms...which makes a hell of a lot of sense as to why it was in there. Also it was an exceedingly painful way to go...even ant paste strikes me as kinder. Whatever, people will always 'guess'.

The link up there has 'where to buy' and right now Flapper is really the only commercially available film of hers. I hope this changes, she's very cute in film! I also wish the documentary could be updated, though given the economy that's a hell of a pipe dream.

Have you ever seen Elaina Archer's Jack Pickford documentary (even harder to locate, you can contact her and watch a clip here: http://www.aandfproductions.com/jackpickford.html). It too could use some updating, but I enjoyed it.

One day I was wearing my Olive Thomas necklace, which bumped my ipod while a Marilyn Miller song was playing. It was a little awkward. Jack's wives were interesting, talented, and stunning...I'll give him that.

Speaking of Beautiful Women: Olive Thomas.

Speaking of Beautiful Women: Olive Thomas.

Re: Speaking of Beautiful Women: Olive Thomas.