Tala Birell and George Murphy with Thelma Todd and her mother on the boardwalk at the Santa Monica Pier.
This had mistakenly been labeled "Carole Lombard and Thelma Todd", and I had repeated that here.
From the "Thelma Todd Fan Group" on facebook:
William Drew:
Concerned as I am with accuracy, it's my not altogether pleasant duty to disclose that the description of a photo as showing Thelma with Carole Lombard is in error. That's Thelma, of course, her mother and George Murphy at the 1935 San Diego Exposition but the other lady is Tala Birell, not Carole. This came to my attention yesterday when I was looking through early 1935 newspapers online for items on Thelma and I found this picture identifying the actress on the left as Tala Birell. Furthermore, Michelle Morgan in her 2015 biography of Thelma had correctly identified her as Tala. Yet despite this, in 2019 several sites, including Vince Paterno's excellent "Carole & Co.," began saying it was Carole in this photo with Thelma, a description carried over into posts here. Yes, especially from that angle, Tala does bear a resemblance to Carole, but clearly the photographers and journalists responsible for the picture and accompanying information knew the identity of everyone in the photo. Unfortunately, there seem to be no known photos of Thelma and Carole together--not that I could find, anyway, from a perusal of online sources.
A
Concerned as I am with accuracy, it's my not altogether pleasant duty to disclose that the description of a photo as showing Thelma with Carole Lombard is in error. That's Thelma, of course, her mother and George Murphy at the 1935 San Diego Exposition but the other lady is Tala Birell, not Carole. This came to my attention yesterday when I was looking through early 1935 newspapers online for items on Thelma and I found this picture identifying the actress on the left as Tala Birell. Furthermore, Michelle Morgan in her 2015 biography of Thelma had correctly identified her as Tala. Yet despite this, in 2019 several sites, including Vince Paterno's excellent "Carole & Co.," began saying it was Carole in this photo with Thelma, a description carried over into posts here. Yes, especially from that angle, Tala does bear a resemblance to Carole, but clearly the photographers and journalists responsible for the picture and accompanying information knew the identity of everyone in the photo. Unfortunately, there seem to be no known photos of Thelma and Carole together--not that I could find, anyway, from a perusal of online sources.
A
