Hollywoodland

December 16 2024

TODD CIRCUMSTANCES

Early deaths usually leave unanswered questions.

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 premature 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.

Los Angeles, Thelma Todd, Roland West, Jewel Carmen, Marx Brothers, Charley Chase, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Zazu Pitts, suicide, murder, deaths

Femmes Fatales

December 16 2019

BEDTIME FOR THELMA

The nap that turned into an unsolved mystery.

This 1931 photo is probably the most famous image of actress Thelma Todd, who appeared in more than fifty films between 1926 and 1936, before meeting an early demise in her car thanks to carbon monoxide poisoning. While her death was ruled an accident—said by police to have occurred as she waited in her car, ran the engine in order to use the heater, and fell asleep either before or while succumbing to noxious fumes—others claim she was murdered. The official police report also suggested suicide, which means Todd’s demise came about for three possible reasons, none of them conclusive. It’s an eternal Hollywood mystery, one of hundreds. She died today in 1935 when she was twenty-nine.

Thelma Todd, suicide, murder

Hollywoodland

October 30 2019

POLICE BEAT

America's oldest tabloid continues its appointed rounds.

Today we have the cover and some interior scans from an October 1971 issue of the National Police Gazette, which dutifully explores its usual realms of sports, crime, and Hollywood. The magazine was founded in 1845, which is always astounding to consider. We bought a pile of these ages ago. In fact, they were the first bulk purchase of tabloids we ever made for the website. These ’70s issues of Gazette tend to be very cheap, but, as late stage editions, don’t hold much intrigue, which is why we hadn’t scanned one since 2014.

But we have to clear some space in our Pulp cave, so we scanned this one and immediately sailed it into the recycling bin. On the cover you have Samantha Marsh, and inside you get Joe Louis and Max Schmeling, Australian model Deanne Soutar, speculations on how old men can be and still have sex, hashish smugglers from India, and a story on the mysterious death of actress Thelma Todd. More from Police Gazette coming soon.

India, Police Gazette, Thelma Todd, Samantha Marsh, Erica Green, Deanne Soutar, Deanna Soutar, Susie Hithcock, Max Schmeling, Joe Louis, Hayley Mills, Ray Boulting, boxing, tabloid

Hollywoodland

May 11 2018

REWARD OFFERED

Crime magazine gives readers the gifts of death and mayhem.

Produced by the J.B. Publishing Corp. of New York City, Reward was a true crime magazine, another imprint designed to slake the American public’s thirst for death and mayhem. Inside this May 1954 issue the editors offer up mafia hits, Hollywood suicides, domestic murder, plus some cheesecake to soothe readers’ frazzled nerves, and more. The cover features a posed photo of actress Lili Dawn, who was starring at the time in a film noir called Violated. It turned out to be her only film. In fact, it turned out to be the only film ever acted in by top billed co-star William Holland, as well as supporting cast members Vicki Carlson, Fred Lambert, William Mishkin, and Jason Niles. It must have been some kind of spectacularly bad movie to cut short all those careers, but we haven’t watched it. It’s available for the moment on YouTube, though, and we may just take a gander later. Because Reward is a pocket sized magazine the page scans are easily readable, so rather than comment further we’ll let you have a look yourself.

New York City, Reward True Crime Cases, Violated, Maxwell Bodenheim, Ruth Fagen, Dutch Schultz, Arthur Flegenhiemer, Frances Farmer, Thelma Todd, Vivien Leigh, Carole Landis, Ruth Snyder, Jeanne O'Connor, Xavier Cugat, Abbe Lane, Lili Dawn, mafia, true crime magazine

Femmes Fatales

March 30 2015

MARY TO THE MOB

With husbands like these who needs enemies?

Mary Jo Tarola was born in Portland, Oregon in 1928 and by 1952 had established herself in Hollywood, first under the milquetoast moniker Linda Douglas, then under her own far more interesting name. Just two years into her career she married producer Pasquale “Pat” DiCicco. Not well known now, DiCicco was a bootlegger and pimp who became mafia boss Lucky Luciano’s lieutenant in Tinseltown. He was infamously abusive toward women—one dust-up with his first wife Thelma Todd led to her having an emergency appendectomy, and another with his second wife Gloria Vanderbilt involved him slamming her head into a wall. Tarola’s promising film career ended with her marriage to DiCicco, but at least she left behind a few choice artifacts like the above photo by photographer Ernest Bachrach. It dates from 1952 or 1953.

Oregon, Portland, Mary Jo Tarola, Linda Douglas, Lucky Luciano, Charles Luciano, Pat DiCicco, Pasquale DiCicco, Thelma Todd, Gloria Vanderbilt, Ernest Bachrach, mafia, cinema

The Naked City

October 14 2011

DRAWING CONCLUSIONS

Photo diagrams were used as law enforcement and legal tools, but are almost an art form in themselves.

Researching the Hazel Glab case exposed us, as we mentioned in that post, to newspaper illustrations, which in turn led us to some crime scene photo diagrams. These images were used by police, lawyers and jurors to understand the geography of crime scenes and the physics of the events. We were fascinated by the images, and when an online forum pointed us toward the Los Angeles Public Library’s online collection, we headed over there and dug into the archive. We’ve shared our finds below, with details about each crime.

Body found in L.A. River, 1949.

Girl found stabbed to death 26 December, 1936, at 721 Turner Street, with an X marking the location of her body and arrows marking the direction a car arrived and departed.

Armed robbery, 11 August, 1930, on East Pico in Los Angeles.

Armed robbery at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, with $15,000 stolen and a police officer wounded, 16 July, 1929.

This shows the crime scene after the attempted killing of gangster Mickey Cohen, with bullet holes in a parked car across the street from where Cohen was standing, 20 July, 1949.

Photo of a boy pointing to where his friend was sucked into a storm drain. The friend drowned, 1953.

1936 photo diagram showing the last movements of actress Thelma Todd, who was found dead in her car in December 1935.

Unknown and undated crime scene photo with drawing of presumed positions of assailant and victim.

Los Angeles, Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Mickey Cohen, Thelma Todd, murder

Femmes Fatales

June 2 2009

THELMA AT EASE

Putting her on a pedestal.

Above is a United Artists promo image of American actress Thelma Todd, who appeared in many full length and short films beginning in 1926. In December 1936 she was found dead in her car, a victim of carbon monoxode poisoning. The death was ruled a suicide, but today many biographers believe she was murdered. This image dates from 1931.

United Artists, Thelma Todd, cinema, deaths

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

November 16

1938—Lysergic Acid Diethylamide Created

In Basel, Switzerland, at the Sandoz Laboratories, chemist Albert Hofmann creates the psychedelic compound Lysergic acid diethylamide, aka LSD, from a grain fungus.

November 16

1945—German Scientists Secretly Brought to U.S.

In a secret program codenamed Operation Paperclip, the United States Army admits 88 German scientists and engineers into the U.S. to help with the development of rocket technology. President Harry Truman ordered that Paperclip exclude members of the Nazi party, but in practice many Nazis who had been officially classified as dangerous were also brought to the U.S. after their backgrounds were whitewashed by Army officials.

November 15

1920—League of Nations Holds First Session

The first assembly of the League of Nations, the multi-governmental organization formed as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, is held in Geneva, Switzerland. The League begins to fall apart less than fifteen years later when Germany withdraws. By the onset of World War II it is clear that the League has failed completely.

November 15

1959—Clutter Murders Take Place

Four members of the Herbert Clutter Family are murdered at their farm outside Holcomb, Kansas by Richard “Dick” Hickock and Perry Smith. The events would be used by author Truman Capote for his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood, which is considered a pioneering work of true crime writing. The book is later adapted into a film starring Robert Blake.

November 13

1940—Fantasia Premieres

Walt Disney’s animated film Fantasia, which features eight animated segments set to classical music, is first seen by the public in New York City at the Broadway Theatre. Though appreciated by critics, the movie fails to make a profit due to World War II cutting off European revenues. However it remains popular and is re-released several times, including in 1963 when, with the approval of Walt Disney himself, certain racially insulting scenes were removed. Today Fantasia is considered one of Disney’s greatest achievements and an essential experience for movie lovers.