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.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1954—First Church of Scientology Established

The first Scientology church, based on the writings of science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard, is established in Los Angeles, California. Since then, the city has become home to the largest concentration of Scientologists in the world, and its ranks include high-profile adherents such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

1933—Blaine Act Passes

The Blaine Act, a congressional bill sponsored by Wisconsin senator John J. Blaine, is passed by the U.S. Senate and officially repeals the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, aka the Volstead Act, aka Prohibition. The repeal is formally adopted as the 21st Amendment to the Constitution on December 5, 1933.

1947—Voice of America Begins Broadcasting into U.S.S.R.

The state radio channel known as Voice of America and controlled by the U.S. State Department, begins broadcasting into the Soviet Union in Russian with the intent of countering Soviet radio programming directed against American leaders and policies. The Soviet Union responds by initiating electronic jamming of VOA broadcasts.

1937—Carothers Patents Nylon

Wallace H. Carothers, an American chemist, inventor and the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont Corporation, receives a patent for a silk substitute fabric called nylon. Carothers was a depressive who for years carried a cyanide capsule on a watch chain in case he wanted to commit suicide, but his genius helped produce other polymers such as neoprene and polyester. He eventually did take cyanide—not in pill form, but dissolved in lemon juice—resulting in his death in late 1937.

1933—Franklin Roosevelt Survives Assassination Attempt

In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to shoot President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but is restrained by a crowd and, in the course of firing five wild shots, hits five people, including Chicago, Illinois Mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds three weeks later. Zangara is quickly tried and sentenced to eighty years in jail for attempted murder, but is later convicted of murder when Cermak dies. Zangara is sentenced to death and executed in Florida’s electric chair.

Unknown artist produces lurid cover for Indian true crime magazine Nutan Kahaniyan.
Cover art by Roswell Keller for the 1948 Pocket Books edition of Ramona Stewart's Desert Town.

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