Five Hollywood Beauties Of The 1920s and 30s Who Met A Tragic Death

The movies were the main source of entertainment when I was young. Most theaters had three or four different programs during the week and I often went twice a week. I have been a movie buff ever since. I’ve often thought of how great it would have been to be a part of the film industry in its hayday from 1920 to 1960. No, I would not want to be a star but maybe a second string writer or find work in the production department. I would get to live in that glorious California climate and be part of all the creative energy that crackled from each sound stage. There would also be the stars to observe and all those stories about how stories and film come together. I picture myself in my tiny office working on part of a script and waving at F. Scott Fitzgerald as he walks by or having a tuna sandwich in the cafeteria and nodding at James Cagney or Clark Gable. But that’s all a dream.

Hollywood has often been referred to a land of dreams and it was a dream that brought so many innocents to Hollywood in pursuit of their star fantasy. Unfortunately, it became a nightmare to some who would almost (some did ) sell their souls to shine up there on the big screen. Values were forgotten, compromises had to be made, failures endured, and all those true casting couch stories along with the temptation to indulge in drugs and booze which were an important part of Hollywood from the beginning. For each success story of a hard nosed Bette Davis or Joan Crawford, there were hundreds of tales of those who wound up in a horror tale of their own based on a subplot of loneliness and despair.

Most of the ladies featured here were successful but the success was short-lived. The big curtain came down much, much too soon.

Jean was the original blonde bombshell, the bleached blonde who set the pace for the many who followed. She was one of those “ pretty women from Kansas City” . Daughter of a dentist, she enjoyed a comfortable upper middle class childhood. At sixteen, she married Charles McGrew who was only twenty at the time.Her interfering mother was of no help to the young couple and they were soon divorced. Jean became a film extra and got a break in Double Whoopee where, in her big scene, her skirt got caught in a door. Her wealthy grandfather was horrified. Howard Hughes was smitten and cast her in Hell’s Angels where she spoke the famous line, “ Would you mind if I changed into something more comfortable?” She would go on to co-star with Clark Gable in six films. Her second husband was the unfortunate Paul Bern, an executive at MGM. It was Bern who convinced MGM to buy her contract from Hughes.

In the fall of 1932, Bern’s body was discovered with a single bullet hole to the head. It became another of Hollywood’s unsolved mystery’s. It was labeled a suicide when physicians discovered Bern had a physical problem that left him “unfit for matrimony.” It was also rumored that Bern’s ex-wife had visited him the night he died. She would be found days later floating in the Sacramento River. Three days after her husband’s death Jean went back to work on Red Dust with Clark Gable who marveled at her courage.

Another short marriage followed and Jean then met the true love of her life, actor William Powell. She was great friends with Myrna Loy and appeared with Myrna and Powell in the comedy Libeled Lady (1936) but although Powell returned her love, he had already been married to another blonde, Carol Lombard, and wasn’t anxious to marry another.

Jean Harlow’s death at age 26, in 1937, was due to kidney failure, a result of a case of scarlet fever she suffered as a teenager. Her mother, a Christian Scientist, hired doctors and nurses to treat her but wanting to be in control of all that affected her daughter was reluctant to have her hospitalized. When she was finally admitted to Good Samaritan, the infection had spread and it was too late. Her mother died 21 years later on the same day and in the same hospital.

Mabel Normad would become the leading female comedian of the silent screen. She was know as the female Chaplin. She starred and directed for Mack Sennett at the Keystone Studios where she often appeared in “Cinderella” movies, playing the poor simple waif who always found love and happiness in the final reel. It would take a combination of drugs, booze ,two scandals, and tuberculous to bring her down in 1930 at the age of thirty-seven. Mabel was born in New York in 1893. She dreamed of becoming a musician, practicing the piano willingly for hours. Hard times caused her to quite school and, for a time, work in a garment factory. Pushed by her controlling mother, she was soon posing for head shots for magazine covers. Among the artists who painted her were James Montgomery Flagg and Charles Dana Gibson, originator of the Gibson Girl. Mabel’s film career started with the D.W. Griffith Studio in New York. When they moved to California, she found more film work with the Vitograph film company.

It was at the Mack Sennett Studios where she found her greatest success. She and Sennett fell in live but never married. During those heady years she appeared with such silent screen giants as Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle. In 1918, she scored her big hit with Mickey. Another smash hit was Tillie’s Punctured Romance, starring Mabel along with Chaplin and Marie Dressler. She often directed movies and had input in most of the story lines of those films. She fit in with the rough and tumble boys of early Hollywood. Mabel loved to drink, dance, and tell bawdy stories.

Mabel’s career began its downward spiral with the murder of Hollywood director William Desmond Taylor. She saw him only moments before his death and some gossiped she had a hand in the deed. This was never proven and she would eventually be taken off the suspect list. Two years later her chauffer shot and wounded millionaire tennis player Courtland Dines who was courting Mabel’s good friend Edna Purviance, a famous actress in her own right and a co-star of many Chaplin movies. This did it. The public wanted her films banned. The beauty who competed with Mary Pickford for the title of America’s Sweetheart had few defenders in the press or on radio.

At this time Mabel was addicted to cocaine and was also a heavy drinker. It’s said her drug addiction went back to 1915 when she was injured in a fight with Mae Busch, the new girlfriend of Mack Sennett. Mabel apparently was hit in the head with a vase and suffered terrific headaches. After a stay in the hospital, she turned to morphine and cocaine to be rid of the pain. In 1927 she was diagnosed with TB and sent to a sanitarium where she died a year later. A toughie to the end, her most famous quote became, “Say anything you like, but don’t say I love to work. That sounds like Mary Pickford, the prissy bitch.”

Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1905, Thelma Todd’s early ambition was to be a school teacher. But in her teens she entered local beauty contests and in 1925 was crowned Miss Massachusetts. This brought her to the attention of the Hollywood dream-makers and a series of bit parts in many silent films. Thelma did survive the move to talking films when many saw an accent or bad voice ruin their careers. Comedy soon became her forte. In 1931 she teamed up with Zasu Pitts in comedy films which was an effort to have the pair become the female version of Laurel and Hardy. Thelma made over 40 movies between 1926 and 1935. She was a big hit with the Marx Brothers in Monkey Business and Horse Feathers.

Heaving a head for business in the booming playland of Hollywood, Thelma opened Thelma’s Sidewalk Cafe at Pacific Palisades. It attracted the elite of Hollywood and became a great success.

It appeared things were going very well for Thelma but on December 15, 1935, she was found in a garage slumped over in her car dead of carbon monoxide poisoning. Was It murder or suicide? It was rumored she had been recently depressed and in trouble with the IRS but few believed she had killed herself. Tracing her steps, investigators found she had been at a party the night before and slightly intoxicated got into a fight with her ex-husband Pat DeCicco. But it was determined her death was probably accidental as they concluded she was in the car trying to warm it up when she passed out. It was also rumored that her boy friend director Roland West had locked her in the garage to prevent her from going out again. There were whispers that mobster Lucky Luciano wanted her killed because she refused to allow illegal gambling in her club.

In a History’s Mysteries segment on the History Channel it was claimed that Roland West confessed to taking part in her death. He supposedly confessed to actor Chester Morris that he did put a drunken Thelma in the garage which he locked. He didn't want her going out again in her state. She apparently got in the car, started it, and turned on the heater before passing out. The official cause of her death was given as accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. She was cremated and her remains placed in her mother’s casket when she died. They are buried together in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Lupe Velez was born in Mexico in 1918. After her soldier-father died she and her mother moved to Texas where she lived in a convent. She wasn’t happy with all the rules and restrictions and moved back to Mexico where she took up dancing lessons. This led to a desire to enter show business for the beautiful young lady. In 1924 she made her first appearance on stage. With her success she moved to Hollywood where she was signed to do bit parts by Hal Roach. After playing in Sailors Beware with Laurel and Hardy, Lupe got a big role in The Gaucho with Douglas Fairbanks. She would appear with many of the major stars of the period including Gary Cooper, Lon Chaney, Ramon Navarro, and Edward G. Robinson. Her role with Gary Cooper was the beginning of a love affair that went on for years--some say it never really ended. In 1939, she starred in The Girl From Mexico with Leon Errol. This led to other “Mexican Spitfire” movies and became the basis for her nickname.

In 1933, Lupe Velez married Tarzan or Johnny Weissmuller but Lupe was no “Jane.” Their fights were the talk of the town. With the conclusion of their five year marriage, Lupe dated young Harold Maresch. She became pregnant but Harold wanted no part of marriage to the high strung star. Depressed and not wanting to bear an illegitimate child, she committed suicide. Film researchers claim she was probably bipolar. In her suicide note she named Maresch as the father of the child but the rumor spread that Gary Cooper was probably the true father.

On December 14, 1944, she took to her bed after swallowing an overdose of sleeping pills. Her maid found her in full makeup, her bed surrounded by flowers. There was a claim that she actually drowned headfirst in a toilet bowl. It was said she awoke from all the pills with an upset stomach, struggled to the bathroom, and plunged into the toilet bowl. This story was refuted by her maid and the coroner’s office.

A quote from Lupe Velez:

“The first time you buy a house you think how pretty it is and sign the check. The second time you look to see if the basement has termites. it’s the same with men.”

Peg Entwistle is the young lady in the hat and coat in the above film clip. It’s from her last role, The 13 Women and was her first part after signing with RKO. Most of her part was cut from the film. This wasn’t unusual for Peg as bad luck plagued her throughout her short career. She was also in eight Broadway shows that flopped. In 1926 she appeared in Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck. As a youngster, Bette Davis saw her performance and said she wanted to be just like Peg Entwistle. When the play was made into a movie, her role was again substantially cut. All of this led to confusion and despair and eventually her suicide.

On Sunday, September 16, 1932, the young lady from Wales decided to end it all. She told her uncle (both parents were dead) she was going to the drug store and spend some time visiting friends. Instead she climbed to the top of the Hollywood sign and jumped from the letter H. A true Hollywood irony occurred when, a few days later, a letter arrived offering her the leading role in a play. More irony; she was married for a short time to actor Robert Keith who had a son named Brian. The lad grew up to be a successful actor and starred in the television series Family Affair. He committed suicide in 1997, two months after his daughter killed herself.

By the way, the tale of silent screen actress Marie Prevost dying alone in her room and being chewed on by her dog is not true. Marie, with her career in ruins, had taken to alcohol as her main food source in a frantic effort to loss weight. She died from malnutrition and was found dead in her room after being missing for several days. Officials concluded her pet had nipped at her in an effort to wake her up.