Today mark’s the 117th birthday of Miss Olive Thomas.
I can remember the first time I was introduced to Olive Thomas–it was May 2008. Honestly, I don’t know why I remember that Sunday morning like it was yesterday….
One of the forgotten beauties of the 1920′s is Olive Thomas. First off I must say, she bares a striking resemblance to Keri Russell, doesn’t she?! I’m not going to write some long drawn out bio on her life but I simply wanted to share my thoughts about Miss Olive Thomas. Olive was a Ziegfeld Follies girl and she quickly rose to stardom. She posed nude for Alberto Vargas. I actually had a recreation of this photo hanging in my bedroom. It’s one of the most beautiful artistic nude photos that I have ever seen.
I’ve only seen one movie she did called “The Flapper” and I really loved it,
on the DVD, there was a biography about her life. I found myself in awe of
her existence, beauty & life. Olive was the first actress to be described as
a “flapper”-many people think that Louise Brook or Clara Bow started the
whole “flapper” trend but it’s simply not true.
It’s so odd because when I look at photos of Olive, I see a young lady who
looks so prim and proper but in actuality, (from what I’ve read about her
life) she was quite the party gal who like to drink- a lot. The drinking and
partying got even more wild once Olive met and fell in love with Jack
Pickford. From the photos I’ve see, they were a beautiful couple who looked
like they had everything in the world going for them. It’s almost as though
they were invincible.
Sadly, Olive’s life was tragically cut short. There is so much we will never
know about what really happened. On September 5th, 1920, Olive & her
husband, Jack were in Paris, France. On that a night, Olive was intoxicated,
she went into the bathroom and accidentally ingested a large dose of
a mercury bichloride liquid solution (this medication was prescribed for her
husband Jack’s chronic Syphilis). I can’t imiagine what a sight this must
have been. To be aware that she ingested posion. According to reports, Jack
rushed to her side and they were able to get immediate medical
attention.
Amazingly she lived for several days…until eventually sucumbing to the kidney failure. Olive had so much potential…who knows what the decade of the 1920′s could have brought for her. I imagine it would have been loads of fame & success. I often wonder, if Olive’s life wasn’t cut so short, would more people remember who she was?
Left to right: Dorothy Sebastian, Joan Crawford, and Anita Page