A Blog For Thelma Todd
Thelma Todd was a star of silent movies and later the talkies. She is remembered as much today for her mysterious death as she is for her films. In this blog, we take a look at Thelma Todd, her movies, and various commentaries.
In 1926, PHOTOPLAY ran a series of articles by Catherine Brody about the dangers of the dieting fad called "Wholesale Murder And Suicide".
Barbar La Marr was one of Zasu Pitt's friends.
Nita Naldi costarred with Rudolph Valenino in the silent classic BLOOD AND SAND.
Katherine Grant costarred with Charlie Chase in the silent era.
Fay Lanphier was known as "The American Venus".
First word of the article on this page is "permitted" - but the "per" seems to be missing.
"Mannikin" as used here refers to a model, which is why it says "mannikin or motion picture actress".
The starvation diet business is a pretty grim thing to be associated with prettiness.
A number of stars suffered from the effects of excessive dieting. Diet pills commonly taken at the time could have adverse effects, sometimes leading to heart trouble or even death.
In 1926, Catherine Brody wrote a series of articles in PHOTOPLAY about problems related to dieting, which was related to the current ideal of the "flapper", who was supposed to be thinner than the traditional norm in addition to rebelling against things like layers of undergarments and long hair. The movies of the period depicted heroines as being flappers and influenced many young ladies to follow the trend.
The modern media seeks to set abnormal standards which can cause problems to those who might follow them, and the problem is still with us today.
Betty Blythe in the movie SHE, based on the H. Rider Haggard's novel.
Katherine Grant worked with Charlie Chase.
Nita Naldi worked costarred with Rudolph Valentino in BLOOD AND SAND
VAMPING VENUS was filmed on the same sets used by German actress Maria Cordia in THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HELEN OF TROY. The story has a fantasy sequence where Charles Murray is hit over the head in a night club and dreams of being in ancient Greece, where all the others in the Nightclub are with him as Venus ( Thelma Todd ), Hercules ( Joe Bonomo ), and other fabulous characters from mythology.
He had an eye for blondes, but he couldn't make up his mind as to which one it was.
But the gods had greater wisdom than men, and so Venus knew.
The Ideal Screen Figure
Studio publicity compared Thelma Todd to the famous statue of Venus De Milo.
Thelma Todd Venus De Milo ( reduced )
Height 5' 4" 5' 4"
Hips 36" 38"
Thigh 21" 23"
Ankle 8" 8.5"
Calf 13.5" 14.5"
Waist 27" 28.5"
Neck 18" 14"
Bust 33" 37"
Weight 122 lbs. 137 lbs.
Thelma Todd indicates that her ankles have classical measurements.
Or at least that the measuring tape indicates that she has perfect porportions.
Get The Point?
Louise Fazenda also worked with Thelma Todd in 1929 in THE HOUSE OF HORROR. Guin "Big Boy" Williams would work with Thelma Todd again in 1931 in CATCH AS CATCH CAN and WAR MAMMAS, and in PALOOKA in 1934. Like Thelma Todd, he had only a small part in that one, which was based on the comic strip "Joe Palooka"..
VAMPING VENUS is considered to be a lost film, along with much of the other output of that era. The film stock they used at that time was unstable nitrocellulose plastic, which tended to deteriorate with time and was also inflammable. Guncotten, an early replacement for black powder in firearms, is actually another form of nitrocellulose.
VAMPING VENUS had some similarities to the earlier movie THE AMERICAN VENUS, which featured Miss America Fay Lanphier and had a story involving a beauty contest. Some of the publicity in particular is similar, with similar "measurements" given out for another "Venus".
Film frame from the movie. It is said that this is Fay Lanphier.
Louise Brooks in the judging sequence.
A pretty girl is like a melody, and not only that, you're a Lulu.
A comaparison of the two sets of measurements, Fay in first column, Thelma in second:
Height 5' 6 5'4
Neck 13.5" 13"
Bust 34 33"
Waist 26.5 27
Hips 37.5 36
Thigh 20 21
Ankle 8 8
I would consider the bust measurement given for Thelma Todd to be suspect, because she appears slightly plumper otherwise, but is given a smaller bust. It could be related to the fact that they were pretending that women were flat-chested at the time. During the "Jean Harlow" period, they tended to think of Thelma Todd as being like Jean Harlow, including emphasis on the bosom.
Very similar measurements can also be found in PHYSICAL CULTURE CLASSICS ( Volume I ) published in 1909, which listed Bernard McFadden amoung the contributors.
* Supposed classical ideal as represented by the statue known as the Venus De Medici.
The table gives a different set of measurements for a different statue of Venus, which are still similar.
And the measurements given for Thelma Todd in VAMPING VENUS are again similar. She probably was in real life close to the classical ideal, as represented by Venus, but Hollywood tried to change her and only made references to that resemblance when it suited them.
Special Thanks to my brother Dale for his assistance, including the graph he made from the chart in
