Blind Item #8-Old Hollywood Blind
This actress was probably B list back in the day but she married into an A++ list Hollywood family. Traces of that A list family are everywhere still today throughout Beverly Hills and portions of their life are tour stops for the buses. Anyway, this actress caught her husband cheating on her for the millionth time and already had a life threatening STD she caught from him. They got into a fight and he poisoned her. He paid off police and walked away with nothing but his infected peen and a new girlfriend a few days later.
47 comments:
Barrymore.
...poisoned her and she died?
Nevermind, they all divorced their wives.
Olive Thomas. Married Mary Pickford's brother, died of an "overdose"
I was wondering the same thing, Karen.
Jack Pickford is said to have poisoned his wife Olive Thomas. She died of mercury poisoning.
Lionel Barrymore/Irene Fenwick
Vera, I was just coming to post this about Jack Pickford and Olive Thomas. However, this conflicts with accounts that he was devastated by her death. Of course, if he killed her, I suppose that's how he was supposed to act! This is REALLY old Hollywood - 1920!
Interesting blind!
I'm loving these Old Hollywood blinds Enty!
If you want to read more -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_Thomas
Ooh, @Rangersgirl, I like your guess better! Lionel Barrymore was hospitalized after his wife's death because he was so distraught which doesn't sound like the man in this blind.
@Vera Got it!
Marlon Brando's dad was a producer and his mom an actress that died while still married, alchohal I think, but I can't find when she died.
Way more exciting and salacious than thd current group of coke snorting unfaithful prostitute using celeb gossip.
I am too!
Prior to Aids, what STDs were Fatal?
If left untreated, syphilis and gonnorhea could kill you back in the day.
Cooties, she had the Coots.
WOW! I would like more old blinds please.
Cleodacat - syphilis was the big one and it still is fatal if untreated (easily cured w a shot or two of penicillin). It's symptoms don't always show, it spreads easily, is not condom proof and after a few years It winds up in the brain. A few others can eventually be fatal as well but all take many, many years. (more years than HIV)
Don't forget pencillin and antibiotics only came out widely in the 40s and 50s.
I'd always heard this story as a Hollywood lore, never thought it might be true that Pickford actually poisoned Thomas. Plus, never heard it told w the STD part. Interesting! Love these tales.
Good work Vera! Dayum...Beat VIP.
~ao proud~
WORD! These are the blinds that got me hooked on the site when it started.
If it's supposed to be about Olive Thomas, it's just a rehashed old rumor. Everybody knows she died from a poisoning and Pickford was suspected. They both were drug addicts and drunks, so nobody knows whether it was accident, suicide or murder. Really don't think Enty has any insider information of an almost 100 years old case.
I'm curious about "Traces of that A list family are everywhere still today throughout Beverly Hills
Olive Thomas lived for 5 days in the hospital. If he had forced it on her or tricked her into drinking it. She would of said so, she was lucid and even asked a nurse to comeback to the states to help her recover not expecting to die.
She willingly drank it not knowing what it was as the label was in french. They were both party people. Sad to die at 25 but she seemed like she had a lot of fun in her short life.
I found this author Anne Helen Peterson, she writes very detailed articles about old school Hollywood scandals. I think I read one about this there. She is a good writer, nothing new, but great reminders of the details you forget. Here is the web site that has several of her pieces (not clicky) http://thehairpin.com/tag/scandals-of-classic-hollywood/
A kid I went to high school with died from Syphilis. I guess he got a bad infection or something and never got it treated. He died in his twenties … that would've been in the late 90s/early 2000s.
Whoa! Never get away with that now with forensics being what it is.
Syphilis was really dangerous back then.
Al Capone died of tertiary syphilis along with the dementia it caused.
Definitely Jack Pickford and Olive Thomas. Olive died from "accidentally" drinking bi-chlorid of mercury from a french labled bottle in a darkened bathroom. The death was ruled an accident. Oh please...what BS. He murdered her. Jack has Syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease.
Me too!
Very scandalous!
The Pickfords are still all over Beverly Hills?
Early on Mercury was used to treat syphilis, penicillin wasn't in actual use until WWII…
@Carol, the remanents of Pickfair, Mary Pickford's famous home with Douglas Fairbanks, can still be seen in Beverly Hills today, although the main home was torn down by Pia Zadora and her husband in the 1980s.
Per Wikipedia: The only remaining artifacts from the original Pickfair are the gates to the estate, the kidney-shaped pool and pool house, remnants of the living room, as well as the two-bedroom guest wing that played host to visiting royalty and notable film celebrities for over half a century. The guest wing was once used as a honeymoon suite for Lord Louis and Lady Mountbatten.
If I remember correctly...pia had it torn down due to ghosts terrorizing her and her children?
Me too!
My guess is Olive Thomas/Jack Pickford, but someone else is already on it.
Nice link, missbunny. thanks!
Does anyone know anything about the old money Hiltons? ? I'm thinking Beverly Hills Hiltons hotels , signs everywhere. Back in Elizabeth Taylor day the family was A++++
I don't know about the old Hollywood Hiltons though. Pre Paris virus.
Nice link! Thanks for sharing it.
Old Hollywood blinds are always jaw dropping.
Defo Olive Thomas. The story is fairly well known.
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