the Investigation - Collage

Collage made up from photos of people figuring in the investigation of the death of Thelma Todd.

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Thelma Todd Photo

A Thelma Todd publicity photo from the Hal Roach studio in the early days of sound. The idea here is that she's in an oyster shell with a bunch of pearls, which here seem to be called jewels. "Joya" is jewel in Spanish, and the name "Joya" was on Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe was because of Jewel Carmen, who financed it. Likewise Roland West's yacht "Joyita" was named for her: Joyita means "little jewel".

Special thanks to Jorge Finkielman for providing us with this photo.

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Newspaper Ad For Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe

An ad for "Thelma Todd's Inn", which we usually call Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café.

"Joya" is Spanish for "little Jewel", and is a reference to Jewel Carmen, who was married to Roland West, and was involved in the project along with him.



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Jewel Carmen was involved with Roland West and "Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café". And early in her career she had made Keystone comedies with Mabel Normand and Fatty Arbuckle.

Jewel Carmen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

        

Jewel Carmen
Born	Florence Lavina Quick (1897-07-13)July 13, 1897 Danville, Kentucky, U.S.
Died	March 4, 1984(1984-03-04) (aged 86) San Diego, California, U.S.
Other names	Evelyn Quick Florence La Vinci Jewell Carman
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1912–1926
Spouse(s)	Roland West (m. 1918–35)

Jewel Carmen (July 13, 1897 – March 4, 1984) was an American silent film actress.

• 1 Early life and career
  • 1.1 Lawsuits against Fox
• 2 Later years and death
• 3 Filmography
• 4 Notes
• 5 Sources
• 6 External links

Early life and career

Born Florence Lavina Quick in Danville, Kentucky, Carmen made her film debut in the 1912 film The Will of Destiny. She went on to appear in Daphne and the Pirate (1916), opposite Lillian Gish and D. W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916).

Lawsuits against Fox

In 1917, Carmen contracted with Fox Film Corporation, but finding the deal unsatisfactory opened a new contract with the Keeney Corporation in 1918 while her first contract remained in effect.^[1][2] Fox sent Keeney notice of their prior contract, warning that they would hold Keeney responsible for assisting her in breaking it,^[1] promising to indemnify Keeney against legal retaliation.^[3] Carmen launched two lawsuits against Fox, one to attempt to free herself of the obligation of living up to her contract and another to seek redress for their interference with her contract with Keeney.^[3]
Key to the issues was the question of where the contracts had been made: New York or California. Fox's offices were located in New York; Carmen was a resident of California. By California law, Carmen was an adult at the time of signing the contract; by New York law, which granted majority at 21, she was not. If not an adult, she could not be legally held to the document she had signed.^[4] Though Carmen initially won the first lawsuit, having the contracts set aside and receiving damages of $43,500 from Fox, the decision was overturned on appeal because she had "unclean" hands, having herself treated Fox unfairly.^[3][5][6][7] However, she won her second case because Fox's interference with her employment with Keeney had been outside the law, though Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo made clear that he did not approve of the legal loophole that allowed Carmen to break her contract with Fox.^[3][8]

Later years and death

Carmen later became known for her connection to the scandal surrounding the death of actress Thelma Todd. She was the wife of Roland West, who had an extramarital affair with Todd and who came under suspicion following Todd's death of carbon monoxide poisoning.^[9]
Todd died in a garage attached to the home where Carmen's parents lived, which Carmen had formerly shared with West.^[10] The death was suspicious for a number of factors, including that Todd was allegedly spotted or spoken to several times the day after her purported time of death; Carmen herself testified before the grand jury that she had seen Todd somewhere with another man.^[11] After the scandal broke, Carmen's marriage to West ended, and she retired from the public eye.^[9]
Carmen died of lymphoma on March 4, 1984 at the age of 86.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1912	The Will of Destiny	Frances	Credited as Florence La Vinci
1913	The Professor's Daughter		Credited as Evelyn Quick
	A Life in the Balance		Credited as Evelyn Quick Alternative titles: Crashing Through Potted Plays No. 7
	Professional Jealousy		Credited as Evelyn Quick
	He and Himself		Credited as Evelyn Quick
	Four Queens and a Jack	The Girl	Credited as Evelyn Quick
	Their Husbands		Credited as Evelyn Quick
1916	Daphne and the Pirate		Credited as Jewell Carman
	Sunshine Dad	Charlotte
	The Children in the House	Jane Courtenay
	Flirting with Fate	Gladys, the Girl	Alternative title: The Assassin
	The Half-Breed	Nellie	Alternative title: The Carquinez Woods
	Intolerance	Favorite of the Harem	Uncredited
	Manhattan Madness	Girl
	American Aristocracy	Geraldine Hicks
1917	The Kingdom of Love	Violet Carson
	A Tale of Two Cities	Lucie Manette
	American Methods	Claire de Beaulieu
	To Honor and Obey	Rose Delvane
	The Conqueror	Eliza Allen
	When a Man Sees Red	Captain Sutton
	Les Misérables	Cosette at age 18
1918	The Girl with the Champagne Eyes	Nellie Proctor
	The Bride of Fear	Ann Carter
	Confession	Mary Anderson
	Fallen Angel	Jill Cummings	Alternative title: Paying the Piper
	Lawless Love	LaBelle Geraldine	Alternative title: Above the Law
1921	The Silver Lining	The Angel
	Nobody	Little Mrs. Smith
1923	You Can't Get Away with It
1926	The Bat	Miss Dale Ogden

• 

  The Kingdom of Love, 1917
• 

  The Girl with the Campagne Eyes, 1918

Notes

1. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} American Law Reports Annotated, 1211.
2. Jump up ^ Kaufman, 228.
3. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c d} Kaufman, 229.
4. Jump up ^ American Law Reports Annotated, 1212.
5. Jump up ^ American Law Reports Annotated, 1210, 1213.
6. Jump up ^ Carmen v. Fox Film Corp. 269 F. 928 (2nd Cir., 1920); cert denied, 255 U.S. 569, 41 S.Ct. 323 (1921)
7. Jump up ^ Field, Richard H.; Benjamin Kaplan; Kevin M. Clermont (2007-04-10). Civil Procedure- Materials for a Basic Course. New York, New York: Foundation Press. pp. 1077–79. ISBN 978-1-59941-145-3.  Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)
8. Jump up ^ Cf. American Law Reports Annotated.
9. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Wright, David (2002). Joyita: Solving the Mystery. Auckland University Press. p. 3. ISBN 1-86940-270-7. 
10. Jump up ^ Donati, William (2000). Ida Lupino: A Biography. University Press of Kentucky. p. 39. ISBN 0-8131-0982-5. .
11. Jump up ^ Nash, Jay Robert (2004). Great Pictorial History of World Crime. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 250. ISBN 1-928831-22-2. 

Sources

• Burdett A. Rich and M. Blair Wailes, ed. (1921). American Law Reports Annotated 15. Retrieved 2008-12-10. 
• Kaufman, Andrew L. (1998). Cardozo. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-09645-2. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jewel Carmen.

• Jewel Carmen at the Internet Movie Database
• Jewel Carmen at AllRovi
• Jewel Carmen at Find a Grave

                                                          *                          *                           *






Like Mae Busch, Jewel Carmen made Keystone comedies in the silent era and then went on to stardom in dramatic films, but Jewel Carmen became wealthy enough to retire, while Mae Busch returned to comedies once more when her days as a star ended.

I had the good fortune to be able to communicate with Rudy Schafer, the son of the manager of the Sidewalk Café. His father had been married to Jewel Carmen's sister Alberta. Rudy told me a little about the Carmens. He said that they were actually from Oregon, and that their mother was an Indian. " 'Aunt' Jewel was a rather exotic looking lady with a rather distant, sophisticated personality," he said. In the movies, Jewel Carmen was a blonde leading lady who I suppose might be compared to other blondes of the period.

Rudy Schafer recalled that his aunt liked to read. "I have one of her books- ELMER GANTRY, by Sinclair Lewis. There were lots of books around the West home, but I didn't take much note of them. Remember I was just a kid then. It seemed to me that Jewel quite often had a book in hand--something which looked "arty". I don't recall seeing any murder mysteries or similar material." As for Jewel's relationship with Thelma, Rudy never saw them together, so he was unaware as to how they got along.

In 1939, Jewel Carmen took Roland West to court over money. She said that in 1935 she had advanced him $28,000.00 to be advanced in stocks, bonds, and the restaurant business*. Roland West responded that from June of 1933 to June of 1934, she had given him $34,000.00 and that she already had $70,000.00 invested in a shared annuity from which they both profited. West eventually settled out of court.

Jewel Carmen spent her final years out of the limelight, perhaps in part because her time in the limelight had not always been happy.

*Jewel Carmen put up the money for Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café, according to testimony made during the investigation of the death of Thelma Todd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE BAT was cited by Bob Kane as an inspiration for his character Batman.

 

 

 

 

 

Jewel Carmen, Emily Fitzroy, Louise Fazenda et Eddie Gribbon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jewel Carmen in 1939.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jewel Carmen postcard

 

 

 

 

 

The "Joyita" was actually named after Jewel Carmen - the name means "little jewel" in Spanish -

 

 

 

 

 

 and so was "Joya's" - the private dining room upstairs at the Sidewalk Café - "Joya" means "Jewel".

 

 

The Sidewalk Café actually had the names of both Thelma Todd and Jewel Carmen on it.

 

RAGTIME BAND was one of the Keystone comedies Jewel Carmen was in.





Jewel Carmen:

http://books.google.com/books?id=LQsB66qPGmgC&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=jewel+carmen+thelma+todd&source=bl&ots=aqkq3Lr_Q2&sig=ven5sbn4x5_p1GEX4U2D37N57_U&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Kwj1UpTlC-GqyAG1oYC4BA&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=jewel%20carmen%20thelma%20todd&f=false

http://books.google.com/books?id=Td3_d9o81QMC&pg=PA3&dq=jewel+carmen+thelma+todd&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hwn1Uvv1FYifyQH-oYDYAg&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=jewel%20carmen%20thelma%20todd&f=false


http://books.google.com/books?id=oYx13-wI72oC&pg=PA279&lpg=PA279&dq=jewel+carmen+evelyn+quick&source=bl&ots=R6tVZlzLMk&sig=S3XeQjFnKOTD9_1AyincMO1dftQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9Wb1UpezEI3YyAG-1YHgDw&ved=0CFoQ6AEwDA#v=onepage&q=jewel%20carmen%20evelyn%20quick&f=false


Joyita:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/04/joyita.html

Keystone Comedies:
http://scatcat.fhsu.edu/~laevans2/Final%20Projed/Index.html


Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2014/01/thelma-todds-sidewalk-cafe.html


Roland West:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2014/02/roland-west.html

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Roland West was the one who changed Thelma Todd's name to "Alison Loyd" for the movie CORSAIR. They later operated the Sidewalk Cafe together.

Roland West

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roland West (February 20, 1885 – March 31, 1952) was a Hollywood director known for his innovative film noir movies of the 1920s and early 1930s.

 Biography

West was born Roland Van Zimmer to a theatrical family in Cleveland, Ohio, he began acting in vaudeville productions as a teenager. By his early twenties, he was writing and directing vaudeville productions.

Shortly afterward, he began directing films such as The Monster (1925) with Lon Chaney, Sr., The Bat (1926) based on the novel by Mary Roberts Rinehart (dramatized on stage by Rinehart and Avery Hopwood), Alibi (1929), The Bat Whispers (1930) (also based on the Rinehart novel and play), and Corsair (1931).

So established was West by 1930, that The Bat Whispers was billed on posters as Roland West's The Bat Whispers. However, he made only one more film in his career.

Roland West's first wife was beautiful actress Jewel Carmen, although the two would eventually become estranged, and West began a longtime affair with actress Thelma Todd. Following Todd's death in 1935 and his divorce from Carmen in 1938, he married actress Lola Lane sometime after June 25, 1946 ^[1] and remained married to her until his death in 1952.

Following Todd's death and his divorce, West rarely worked and withdrew into virtual seclusion. In the early 1950s his health began to decline and he suffered a stroke and a nervous breakdown. He died in Santa Monica, California in 1952, aged 67.

 Death of Thelma Todd

West has long been considered a murder suspect in many conspiracy theories due to the unusual circumstances surrounding the death of his longtime mistress, actress Thelma Todd. Todd and West began their affair shortly after meeting on a yachting excursion to Catalina Island in 1930. The two eventually became business partners and would move in next door to each other in California. Their relationship was described as volatile and West was described as being controlling and possessive.^[2]

Todd was found dead in the garage of her home in December 1935. An autopsy concluded that she died of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning caused by the exhaust of her car. Some conspiracy buffs have suggested that Todd was really murdered by West aboard his yacht, the Joyita. This theory states that he then planted her body in her garage to be found later and staged the scene to resemble an accident. The Joyita would gain further infamy in 1955 when her entire complement of 25 passengers and crew went missing in the South Pacific.

No evidence concerning allegations against West has ever surfaced and neither he nor anybody else was ever charged with any crime surrounding Todd’s death. (According to the Internet Movie Database, in 1952 West gave a deathbed confession to actor Chester Morris implicating himself in Todd's death, but West was in ill health by that time and the confession was never independently confirmed.) However, the bad publicity surrounding his alleged involvement in Thelma Todd's death hurt his reputation and have largely overshadowed his film work.

 References

1. ^ Fidler in Hollywood Nevada State Journal (June 25, 1946), p. 4
2. ^ "Roland West - The Great Experimenter". http://www.missinglinkclassichorror.co.uk/west.htm. Retrieved 2010-05-25.

• John Wakeman, ed. (1987). World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company. pp. 1194–1197.

 External links

• Roland West at the Internet Movie Database

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"West has been variously described as 'very closed in', 'a very odd man,' and 'vacant'. The fact that he kept to himself as much as he did - even shutting himself off from those he worked with - has rendered him something of a mystery man." - John McCarty, THE FEARMAKERS, 1994.

Because West tended to be distant, sneaky, and even legally dubious, certain aspects of his life seem somewhat murky to this day. His relationship with Thelma Todd was controversial. As the term "mistress" is used to mean a kept woman, I would not use that term to describe Thelma Todd's relationship with West, who did not support her. West himself said," We were partners. If she wanted to buy lunch, she bought it. I bought mine. Would you believe it? I never bought Thelma Todd anything - no jewelry, no clothes, no presents. The only flowers I ever bought Thelma were the flowers I put on her casket." They were involved in business, but they were involved in private life as well.

According to Donati, West also was not legally married to Jewel Carman, although she is frequently referred to as his wife. It also seems that West didn't support Jewel Carmen, who was rich, and was said to have been the one who financed the Sidewalk Café.

Roland West did not work in the movies after making the movie CORSAIR with Thelma Todd. His career did not end because of the death of Thelma Todd, as has frequently been said. It had ended some time before that, by his own choice. West did not seem to like working in a studio. While still employed by the movie industry, West was known to work at night because he didn't like studio bosses around to tell him what to do.

West did regard producer Joseph Schenck as a friend, and was involved in an income tax evasion scheme with him which was also related gambling as it involved a casino that Schenck owned in Mexico. All of this came out when Schenck came to trial for income tax evasion in 1941.

As the Sidewalk Café is said to have operated at a loss, it is likely that it was, among other things, a tax shelter. Roland West continued to  operate the Sidewalk Café for years and left it to Lola Lane when he died, after which she gave it to the Paulists, the present owners.

You occasionally come across references to Roland West having made a "deathbed confession" to having killed Thelma Todd. This is an "as told to story", supposedly having been handed down from Chester Morris, who was himself dead and unable to verify it when the story first saw print. There is no proof that Roland West every made such a confession.

There was a lot of suspicion of West, and there was reason to question his testimony:

Brad Schreiber:
"Could jealousy as a spurned/potential lover have been a motivational factor for West? Certainly, he contradicted himself in testimony. West insisted he heard running water in Todd's bathroom around 3:30 a.m. but did not find her in her room when he arose later in the morning. He then revised his statement and claimed Shafer told him the water noise "could have been the carbonator that pumps water to the fountain," downstairs in the cafe. Also unconvincing was West's initial assertion that his dog began whining just before the water sound and "never" whined normally. Some pages later, he changed his words, saying his dog whined every time its blanket came off."


But it's also been said that Roland West was blamed just because he was handy, and because he wasn't well liked. But then, he himself disliked some of the same people.


In 1934, Harrison Carroll reported that Thelma Todd's interest in the Sidewalk Café was listed under the name of "Alison Loyd", the name she had used for the movie CORSAIR in 1931. Usually this name was thought of as something of a joke, but West took it seriously and made a point of putting the name "Alison" on the flowers he sent to Thelma Todd's funeral. It was like he was sending a message out to the world that he thought he was right and everyone else was wrong.


Concerning the story that Thelma Todd died on the Joyita, I think it was connected with that vessel's later notoriety, when Thelma Todd was lumped in with the misfortunes of other people who were associated with the vessel.



                                                        Roland West and Jewel Carmen

 

 

 

 

 

Roland West directing Chester Morris and Jewel Carmen

 

 

 

 

 

The caption for this picture was "Wrong way to choke a lady".

 

 

 

 

 

 Chester Morris and Jewel Carmen as he signs a contract to produce a radio version of their movie ALIBI.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roland West with brother-in-law Rudy Schafer in the garage where Thelma Todd was found dead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Roland West with Thelma Todd's mother, who stood by him while others viewed him with suspicion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roland West, Mrs. Todd, and Mae Whitehead.

 

 

                                               Lola Lane was in the movies in the thirties,

 

 

but didn't marry Roland West until years later.

 

 

 

 

Lola Lane at the Brown Derby.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the old photos that had been run before when Thelma Todd was in the headlines was used again when Roland West died.

 

 

 

 

 The new caption can be seen on the back above the earlier caption. The date at the top of the picture was from the first time they used the picture.

 

 

Batman And Me ( And Roland West ):
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/04/batman-and-me.html

CORSAIR:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/11/corsair.html

Joyita:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/04/joyita.html

Lola Lane:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/04/lola-lane-and-lois-lane.html

Alison Loyd:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/11/alison-loyd.html


Brad Schreiber:
http://www.brashcyber.com/thelma.htm

Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2014/01/thelma-todds-sidewalk-cafe.html

Roland West:
http://mikegrost.com/west.htm#RolandWest

http://www.classichorror.free-online.co.uk/west.htm


http://books.google.com/books?id=QrbDle3nJscC&pg=PA84&lpg=PA84&dq=twilight+world+of+roland+west+scott+mcqueen&source=bl&ots=W_TJ1Q-7Lg&sig=Xe0Mw0fB_Rc75KXWRng5sZaZHcY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9KjyUoPdKOjgyQHj34HADw&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=twilight%20world%20of%20roland%20west%20scott%20mcqueen&f=false



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Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe

"Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café" was a restaurant Thelma Todd operated in partnership with Roland West and Jewel Carmen in Santa Monica, near the Pacific Ocean.

 

Thelma Todd at the door of the Sidewalk Café. 

 

 

 

Disregard the "copyright notice" put in by an ebay seller.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sign on this door announces that a steakhouse was going to open at the start of the next year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thelma Todd in the kitchen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Views of the dining room in color.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interior scene.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snapshot of two little boys taken in front of the Sidewalk Café.

 

 

 

 

Two photos taken in front of the Sidewalk Café.

 

 

Photo of the Sidewalk Café with steps indicated that led to the garage in which Thelma Todd's body was found.

 

 

Although the restaurant was said to have been losing money at the time of Thelma Todd's death, Roland West continued to operate it for years afterwards. 

 

 

 

"Chez Roland", as it was then called, in 1949.

 

 

 

 

Roland West left the Sidewalk Café to his widow, Lola Lane, who ended up giving the building to the Paulists, who used it as a center for the production of religious films.

 

 

 

Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café today.

 

 

Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2014/01/home-movies-thelma-todds-sidewalk-cafe.html

http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/02/rudy-schafer-returns-to-sidewalk-cafe.html

http://www.paulistproductions.org/about-us-our-building.html

http://wikimapia.org/6556973/Thelma-Todd-s-Sidewalk-Cafe-Historical-Site



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