Thelma Todd by Jeanette Meehan Part II

The second of two articles by Jeanette Meehan. This one is also from the Williamsport Gazette, from Dec. 27, 1935.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upton Sinclair Epic Movement:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_Poverty_in_California_movement



A

Death Of Thelma Todd LA Times Pt. 5

The investigation continues and so does the news coverage. But will it ever lead anywhere?

 

 Busby Berkely was in bad traffic accident not long before Thelma Todd died, and his wreck doesn't seem to have been all that far away from the Sidewalk Cafe. Here we see stories pertaining to the two tragedies run side by side.

 

 

 

December 24, 1935 at lower magnification.

 

                                                                                         December 24, 1935 at higher magnification.

 

Sid Grauman had the Chinese theater where movie stars left their footprints in the cement. The others were all involved in Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe. Rudy Schafer's son was the source of some of the information in Donati's book on Thelma Todd.

 

Thelma Todd's height had previously been stated to be five feet four inches, but this article gives a height of five feet three inches.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Czechoslavakia's invasion by Germany ( beginning in 1938 ) was another step that led to the second World War.

 

 

 

Dec. 25, 1935 pt. 2 at lower magnification.

                                                                      December 25, 1935 shown at higher magnification.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rudy Schafer ( who had the same name as his father, pictured in an above article ) told us details of  gambling that was going on at the Sidewalk Cafe. These details were not made public at the time.

 

 

 

December 26, 1935

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 27, 1935

 

 

 

 

 

January 4, 1935

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pat Di Cicco As Perseus In NIGHT LIFE OF THE GODS

After Thelma Todd played Venus in VAMPING VENUS, Pat Di Cicco got his chance to play a god. But somehow, the idea of Pat DiCicco as a god doesn't strike me as so hot. The way the part he had in this movie sounds doesn't help.



From http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/0%7C120665/Pat-De-Cicco/filmography-with-synopsis.html

Night Life of the Gods (1935) as Perseus
A scientist named Hunter Hawk invents a device that can turn flesh to stone. While celebrating his discovery he becomes involved with a half naked leprechaun. On a trip to New York, Hunter and Meg (the leprechaun) decide to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and turn all of the Statues of Greek Gods into people. What follows in a drunken romp around New York with Medusa's severed head still in Perseus' hand.



Pat DiCicco in this movie is Perseus. He's the one who carts Medusa's head all over Manhattan with him. What a riot.


We know this movie is funny. The titles at the start of the money tell us so. Sort of like the blurbs they used to have on Thorne Smith's books.

 

 

 

Cellophane was new at the time: this was a topical reference.

 

 

 

That looks like Pat DiCicco at left rear.

 

 

 

Irene Ware, Geneva Mitchell, and Marda Deering. Geneva Mitchell will be familiar to fans of the Three Stooges as the dance instructor from HOI POLLOI.

 

 

And here she is from HOI POLLOI.

 

 

 

Here are Thelma Todd and Pat DiCicco from back when they were married.

 

 

They were divorced by the time this movie was made, but Pat DiCicco was still around Thelma Todd after that.

 

As was mentioned in the top middle column of this PHOTOPLAY page from early 1935.

 

 

 

 DiCicco was also one of the last people to see Thelma Todd alive, later the same year and at the same place, the Trocadero. 

 

 

 

 

A little about Thorne Smith:

 

Thorne Smith

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    

James Thorne Smith, Jr. (March 27, 1892 – June 21, 1934) was an American writer of humorous supernatural fantasy fiction under the byline Thorne Smith. He is best known today for the two Topper novels, comic fantasy fiction involving sex, much drinking and supernatural transformations. With racy illustrations, these sold millions of copies in the 1930s and were equally popular in paperbacks of the 1950s.
Smith drank as steadily as his characters; his appearance in James Thurber's The Years with Ross involves an unexplained week-long disappearance.^[1] Smith was born in Annapolis, Maryland, the son of a Navy commodore and attended Dartmouth College. Following hungry years in Greenwich Village, working part-time as an advertising agent, Smith achieved meteoric success with the publication of Topper in 1926. He was an early resident of Free Acres, a social experimental community developed by Bolton Hall according to the economic principles of Henry George in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey.^[2] He died of a heart attack in 1934 while vacationing in Florida.


And a little about NIGHT LIFE OF THE GODS ( likewise from Wikipedia ):

The Night Life of the Gods (1931). Quirky inventor Hunter Hawk strikes gold when he invents a device that will enable him to turn living matter into stone and to reverse the process at will. After a chaotic field test he meets stunning 900-year-old Megaera who teaches him to turn stone into flesh. The two and a bunch of friends set their sights on New York City to bring the Roman gods of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to life. Among other incidents, Mercury shows himself to be an expert pickpocket, while Neptune causes chaos in the fish market.

                                                        *                        *                         *


Thorne Smith isn't one of my favorite authors. I read this book and several of the others, none of which I thought were any good. I actually prefer the "Toffee" stories by Charles Myers*, although that might be at least partly because it was an ongoing series about one character and I liked the character. Though Thorne Smith's books weren't supposed to be a continuing series about a particular character, he basically seemed to have one story that he told over and over again about a dirty old man and a sexy young girl, usually said to be a ghost, a witch, an elf, or some sort of other supernatural creature, which was supposed to be more interesting and made for a certain amount of variety. These books are supposed to be jolly fun, but somehow often aren't all that happy, as the old guy bemoans his fate and his sentiments are echoed by others. In NIGHT LIFE OF THE GODS, the story ends with the inventor turning himself and his lady love to stone statues, a not too happy ending for what was supposed to be a funny book.

 

 

Finally, here is a depiction of the mythological Perseus with the head of Medusa.

 

 

Not a lovely sight, but then, I also tend to think of Pat DiCicco as unlovely. If it wasn't for the pretty girls in this story, nobody would look at it. The blog, I mean, although that could probably also be said of the movie NIGHT LIFE OF THE GODS.



* The Toffee stories were supposed to be similar to the Thorne Smith stuff and references to this similarity were made when they were originally published in magazines such as FANTASTIC ADVENTURES. Charles Myers later became more famous as Henry Farrell.


Watch the first three minutes of NIGHT LIFE OF THE GODS:




Watch Geneva Mitchell and friends in HOI POLLOI:




Broccoli Bunch ( Pat DiCicco's Relatives In The Movies ):
http://www.hollywoodnepotism.net/pages/tv_movies.cgi?hnbid=3271&hnpid=1166&hnbcatid=1

NIGHT LIFE OF THE GODS At Shadowplay:
http://dcairns.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/ye-gods/


NIGHT LIFE OF THE GODS Review At "Universal Horrors":
http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/28119


Pat DiCicco At "Glamour Girls Of The Silver Screen":
http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/66/Pat+DiCicco/index.html


Startales: Perseus:
http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/perseus.htm


Thornesmith.net:
http://www.thornesmith.net/