Above are two of the more famous death scene photos from Hollywood’s golden era, showing film star Thelma Todd inside her luxury convertible, where she was found today in 1935. She was only twenty-nine. Her car was parked in the garage of her friend Jewel Carmen, who was the estranged wife of Roland West, who was a friend, business partner, and paramour. Todd and West had opened, on the Pacific Coast Highway in the northwestern suburbs of Los Angeles between Santa Monica and Malibu, a hotspot known as Thelma Todd’s Sidewalk Café. The place was a smash success. Some websites claim it was a speakeasy, but it actually opened in 1934, after the repeal of Prohibition.
Todd was extravagantly famous at the time she died. She had the nicknames, “The Ice Cream Blonde” and “Hot Toddy,” and had accumulated more than one hundred film credits, including roles supporting the Marx Brothers, Charley Chase, Laurel and Hardy, and Zazu Pitts. The LAPD ruled her death accidental, caused by carbon monoxide poisoning from warming up her car to drive or, alternatively, using the heater to stay warm. A coroner and grand jury agreed, but the cops did leave open the possibility of suicide. Others demurred, and today on some websites you’ll see Todd’s death labeled an “unsolved murder.” Well, could be. But probably not. You can read an excellent account of the event here.
We’ve had the misfortune to learn early, and have had reinforced repeatedly, that questions around early deaths are the norm. You probably won’t have questions if you’re in the room as someone breathes their last in bed, but how often does that happen? We’ve dealt with a surprise suicide, a COVID-era death under circumstances the family still refuses to divulge, been stunned by an Asian tsunami drowning that’s a total black box, had a relative somehow go out a health clinic window, and more. Add a helping of fame and fortune to the normal unanswered questions around early deaths and you have the ingredients for many a Hollywood mystery. Todd. Murder? Could be. But probably not.
