Olive Thomas

Baker premiered her documentary on Olive Thomas' short life titled Olive Thomas: The Most Beautiful Girl in the World. She was posthumously recognized in 1984 by the Gospel Music Association where her name was placed in its Gospel Music Hall of Fame. In 2004, with funding from Timeline Films and with the help of Hugh Hefner and his film preservation organization, Sarah J. Waters was born in Chester, Pennsylvania and died in Los Angeles, California. Thomas Episcopal Church in New York and she was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York. Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896-September 1, 1977) was an African American vocalist who performed jazz, big band, gospel, and popular music, on Broadway and off. Olive Thomas' funeral service was held at St.

Jack Pickford brought her body home to the United States and on the return trip, family friend and film director Allan Dwan had to talk him out of committing suicide. A police investigation followed and her death was ruled accidental. She was taken to the American Hospital in the Paris suburb of Neuilly, where her husband and former in-law Owen Moore stayed by her side until she succumbed to the poison a few days later. Returning to their room in the Hotel Ritz at around 3:00 in the morning, an apparent drunken Olive Pickford accidentally ingested a large dose of mercury biochloride which had been prescribed for her husband's ongoing venereal disease.

While doing film preparations mixed with a vacation in Paris, France, she and her husband went out for a night of entertainment at the famous bistros in the Montparnasse Quarter. Florenz Ziegfeld hung the painting in his New Amsterdam Theatre office, much to the chagrin of his wife, actress Billie Burke. By 1920, she had become one of the brightest young stars in America and renowned artist Alberto Vargas painted another portrait of her, nude from the waist up. The following year, gossip columnists such as Louella Parsons were gushing about her career and the name Olive Thomas was emblazoned in electric lights on Broadway while magazines were filled with stories and photos of her soaring career.

In 1918, film mogul and master promoter, Myron Selznick signed her for Selznick Pictures Company. Alcohol began playing a larger and larger role in Thomas' life and in a short span crashed her automobile on three occasions. They married in October of 1916, and although Olive was the love of his life, the marriage was a stormy one sometimes filled with highly charged conflict followed by lavish making up through expensive gifts. Through her work she met actor Jack Pickford (1896-1933), an alcoholic, drug-using, womanizer who lived extravagantly off the wealth and fame of his sister, Mary Pickford.

She went on to appear in more than twenty Hollywood films over the next four years. Approached by an executive from Triangle Pictures, she was put under contract and in 1916 made her motion picture debut using her married name, Thomas. Before long, the gorgeous Olive Thomas was the center of attention of the in-crowd such as those associated with Conde Nast and she was being pursued by a number of very wealthy and powerful men. She then modeled for another famous artist Harrison Fisher and eventually wound up on the cover of "Saturday Evening Post." She was hired by the Ziegfeld Follies and then worked for the much racier revue, the Ziegfeld Frolics," a show staged after hours in the roof garden of the New Amsterdam Theatre for mainly male patrons with plenty of money to bestow on the young and beautiful lady performers.

In 1914 she entered and won "The Most Beautiful Girl in New York City" contest run by the celebrated commercial artist, Howard Chandler Christy. A beautiful and ambitious girl, she went to stay with an aunt in New York City where she worked in a department store. At the age of 16, she married Bernard Thomas but the marriage lasted only a short time. Born Oliva Elaine Duffy into a working class family in a Pittsburgh suburb, her father died when she was young and she had to leave school to help support her mother and siblings.

Olive Thomas, born October 20, 1894 in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, United States – died September 10, 1920 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, was an actress.