Newspaper article on Thelma Todd, posted by Adam Tunney in the Thelma Todd Fan Group on facebook.
Text version of the article ( from the site, with corrections ):
SCREEN AND RADIO WEEKLY "Thelma Todd--the Toast of All Hollywood"
"DESIRE" I think a grass widow Is better than sod: That's why I'm waiting For Thelma Todd. - Chas Nutt in ROB WAGNER'S SCRIPT
By Molly Marsh THERE are a certain number of persons in Hollywood who become traditions. ' As an outstanding example of this interesting phenomenon, you are hereby introduced to Thelma Todd. She is by no means old enough to be ( a )tradition, yet she is one. For years everything she has done, said or left unsaid has become become significant either among her friends or in clever paragraphs that have given Dorothy Parker something to live up to during her stay in the colony. Thelma Todd is publicized as tossing off a bon mot while being thrown into the Los Angeles River or off a yacht in Santa Catalina waters. She is variously reported as flinging repartee into Hollywood's English drawing rooms and causing butlers, imported from Surrey, at great trouble and expense, to leave their cocktail trays flat in the middle middle of a casual table. No woman could possibly be as clever as Thelma Todd is said to be. yet I have been impressed more times than I can remember by this or that chit-chat chit-chat chit-chat that she is supposed supposed to have delivered without a smile. Yesterday 1 met her for the first time. We interviewed each other be-tween be-tween be-tween Chic Chandler and a couple of sailors, unknown to either of us. Oddly enough, we were at the home of NeH Hamilton, but he was away on lor-- lor-- lor-- jl THELMA TODD has the effect of four dry. Martinis, , whether yon have ever taken that many or not. In fact, she is the cocktail of Hollywood and it is no exaggeration exaggeration to say that for the past five or six years she has been the toast of the town. Now I understand ft all It is the Todds of this world who make al the difference. Neil Hamilton's swimming pool sparkling in the sunlight was just a bit of background against which the lovely Thelma Todd glowed tint a sapphire. Although things were happening 3 around as, she made one forget forget that the Hamilton terraces were all clattered tip with RKO electricians, grips, property boys, earner, lights, sound apparatus, trStf ort and what not. When the '9iy.'t need a scrumptious house, ... . . . They borrow it from one of their w,lU.be 1,ke teaching a brown nen 10 imitate a peacock. I have Thtiraa m superior to anything the habit of the Wheeler and Wool-Chat Wool-Chat Wool-Chat goes on around her-and her-and her-and she ia My and Laurel and Hardy mode ecu.!s funnier thin she is supposed "'.."J8, . ,., . . tJ "For instance, my life has been Win blonds were far less com- com- f and, blue episodes. toon m the colony than they are Everybody has taken a crack at avw, the was cotuudered one of the m- m- 1 hav the P0,'" where creen'a most beautiful blonds. Pecl break-away break-away break-away to fall on me The SnfuM of drug store products, f,rom , the, ceiling, and when it with every shade from platinum to dosn 1 feel cheated, dp gold, has not changed that . Tn,s Picture is a sort of farce. incy say, oui xu me is in bciiuus pair of shoes for six meals, still, practically everybody would have to eat. If barter and exchange became became the fashion, I wanted to be in on the ground floor." HELMA TODD didn't want to become a moving picture actress in the first place. She was a don't die school teacher and born in take this with a gasp Lowell, Mass. Her name is Thelma Todd and she doesn't care to change it for picture purposes. purposes. However, she did change it for Pat DeCicco, but Thelma Todd isn't the sort that can be tied down any more than a soap-bubble soap-bubble soap-bubble can be hitched to a wagon. Not that Mr. DeCicco is a wagon, but it's the Todd manner that subtly affects everything including similes and metaphors. . Paramount went out on a quest for new faces and found Thelma Todd. She didn't want to come to Hollywood and now that she has been here for eight years and has her own cafe, she isn't at all sure it's the place for her. She went to London once and has hopes of going again. She thinks old things like Westminster Abbey and the British Museum are more Suited to her. Thelma Todd is the sort of girl i. iL ii . ii I m 'A .1 - - x . . .Hvv; i ' C " - ' ) rJ V. THELMA TODD of whom men say: "She is grand." i i-i i-i i-i , i ,,, ... , , and write verses to her like feel more like crying than laugh- laugh- "We serve a good dinner for 75 tne t th .,!. ... ing?" She stepped on her own cents, and a few frills extra for 0aeb WaTO .dmni tt statement immediately with: "I $1. It is a mistake to think that without her his SCRIPT would don't for one. I think life is a lot screen stars spend their money like never De what it is todav of fun and very jolly, except when water. That was all in the good c, . , , . kui ior playing safe. She got her divorce in Cali- Cali- Havin nasserf hr husinrw nlare. !iil. TnAA lnnlrerf verv " wouio De Sure not to a charming cafe on the beach be- be- devilish and said: "Days before marry w,thln a yearl tween Santa Monica and Malibu, Pola Negri, of course. Since then I told her how some friends and we have settled right down to bacon I had almost stopped there, but and eggs. realizing as we did that moving they decide it might be a good gag old d. b. p. nf" to have a truck run over me." Asked what she meant by the rs n ;. wvT . ni. tuut Ptwre people would probably ex wHK WAS rdW Tn f ih. ni,.n, !. nlav P6 d,ner t0 Pw UD "Wording to -. -. - - - o r ' film 4l-iri0 4l-iri0 4l-iri0 ujs Vtarf erva ri n a book when I approached. t, lightning would never think of "I am right up to date in my striking twice if it couldn't make reading," she said. "For the first fur times, they would throw tune in three years. I am only five we iigntning out me winuow ana y--- y--- y--- y--- " 1 at the same rime. Yet there was meicuis ui n , STARTED my film salaries, we had gone right on cafe because I never found any o a hot dog stand. ,, .W- .W- th hMrh where I "My cafe is giving me more fun ... ... . and more trouble than I have ever vuu" w """" vear behind the timca I have arat Put in a shower of to The Well of Loneliness and am electric gadget that would wipe out frightfully depressed. Still this is whole village. a long breath. 'I didn't know erv sood for me. I am takinr mv drama straight and, although now Thelma Todds in Hollywood!) and again 1 feci like screaming; Hey, isn't H time for someone to bash me over the head or give me a Mack eye, I restrain myself. enough ocean and enough places .for restaurants to take care of Mus- Mus- SO many people Rniini's anticipated nnnulation an4 Thelma todd says that her biographers write all sorts of nonsense about her, such as that she likes to exercise by sitting in a comfortable seat and watching a polo game. As a matter of fact, this is too much effort, As a rhurnmy, ping pong and tiddle-de-winks tiddle-de-winks tiddle-de-winks tiddle-de-winks tiddle-de-winks player she acknowledges acknowledges no equals. As we parted, she was standing up in a large blue car, with Ben (WhatJl Jpi,y.th,V're n5 mor er.e hungry and I had no idea how Russians. So t Mid to my. Lyon, Pert Kelton, Chic Chandler nnu in iiraa niinnririan hut . - - - , ,.,5, w, -miss -miss lodd, the day may I have learned. How I have eom. when we hand moving pic. learnedi ..ra. a u ik.. K I U U S L I, "What my bookkeeper hasn't how do vou know what Mr. Sin- Sin- thoucrh. it is much easier to be seri- seri- tausht me. mv cooks or chefs havel clair has in mind for vou?' With It is possible that I shall have ous than to be funny. In real life, But now I am established on a firm that question, I decided that take up elegance as a steady diet, as well as in the films, who doesn't footing and making money. although I might .have to accept a people "S and other goodlooking draped about. "Remember," she called out, "111 pay up to $1,000 for anyone who will invent a diet composed exclusively exclusively of expensive dishes and containing containing not less than eight items!"
James L. Neibaur: Days Before Pola Negri likely means back before the Depression, back in the old days. Thelma made a gag about it (kind of clever too).
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