Friday, April 19, 2013

Thelma Todd - Wikipedia

A look at Wikipedia, or, what goes up must come down by another's hand.

Thelma Todd

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thelma Todd
in Corsair (1931)
Born	Thelma Alice Todd (1906-07-29)July 29, 1906 Lawrence, Massachusetts
Died	December 16, 1935(1935-12-16) (aged 29) Pacific Palisades, California
Cause of death	accidental carbon monoxide poisoning
Other names	Alison Loyd
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1926-1935
Spouse(s)	Pat DiCicco (m.1932–1934; divorced)

Thelma Alice Todd^[1] (July 29, 1906 – December 16, 1935) was an American actress. Appearing in about 120 pictures between 1926 and 1935, she is best remembered for her comedic roles in films like Marx Brothers' Monkey Business and Horse Feathers, a number of Charley Chase's short comedies, and co-starring with Buster Keaton and Jimmy Durante in Speak Easily. She also had roles in Wheeler and Woolsey farces, several Laurel and Hardy films, the last of which (The Bohemian Girl) featured her in a part that was truncated by her death.

Early life

Todd was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts to John and Alice Todd, and was a bright student who achieved good academic results. She intended to become a school teacher. However, in her late teens, she began entering beauty pageants, winning the title of Miss Massachusetts in 1925. While representing her home state, she was spotted by a Hollywood talent scout and began her career in film.

Career

in Corsair (1931)

During the silent era, Todd appeared in numerous supporting roles that made full use of her beauty but gave her little chance to act. With the advent of the talkies, Todd was given opportunity to expand her roles when producer Hal Roach signed her to appear with such comedy stars as Harry Langdon, Charley Chase, and Laurel and Hardy. In 1931 she was given her own series, teaming with ZaSu Pitts (pronounced "Zay-soo," also her character's name) for slapstick comedies. This was Roach's attempt to create a female version of Laurel and Hardy. When Pitts left Roach in 1933, she was replaced by Patsy Kelly. The Todd shorts often cast her as a working girl having all sorts of problems, and trying her best to remain poised and charming despite the embarrassing antics of her sidekick.

In 1931, Todd became romantically involved with director Roland West,^[1]^[2] and starred in his film Corsair.

Thelma Todd became highly regarded as a capable film comedian, and Roach loaned her out to other studios to play opposite Wheeler & Woolsey, Buster Keaton, Joe E. Brown, and the Marx Brothers. She also appeared successfully in such dramas as the original 1931 film version of The Maltese Falcon starring Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade, in which she played Miles Archer's treacherous widow. During her career she appeared in 119 films although many of these were short films, and was sometimes publicized as "The Ice Cream Blonde."

In August 1934, she opened a successful cafe at Pacific Palisades, called Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe, attracting a diverse clientele of Hollywood celebrities as well as many tourists.^[3]

Todd continued her short-subject series through 1935, and was featured in the full-length Laurel and Hardy comedy The Bohemian Girl. This was her last film; she died after completing all of her scenes, but most of them were re-shot. Producer Roach deleted all of Todd's dialogue and limited her appearance to one musical number.^[4]

Death

On the morning of Monday, December 16, 1935, Thelma Todd was found dead in her car inside the garage of Jewel Carmen, a former actress and former wife of Todd's lover and business partner, Roland West. Carmen's house was approximately a block from the topmost side of Todd's restaurant. Her death was determined to have been caused by carbon monoxide poisoning. Todd had a wide circle of friends and associates as well as a busy social life; police investigations revealed that she had spent the last night of her life at the Trocadero, a popular Hollywood restaurant, at a party hosted by entertainer Stanley Lupino and his actress daughter, Ida. At the restaurant, she had had a brief but unpleasant exchange with her ex-husband, Pat DeCicco. However, her friends stated that she was in good spirits, and were aware of nothing unusual in her life that could suggest a reason for committing suicide.

The detectives of the LAPD concluded at first that Todd's death was accidental, the result of her either warming up the car to drive it or using the heater to keep herself warm. Other evidence, however, pointed to foul play. The Grand Jury ruled her death as suicide. Since her body was cremated, a second, more thorough autopsy could not be carried out. It was believed that she was the target of extortion, but refused to pay. It is also possible that she was locked in the garage by her assailant after she started the car. Blood from a wound was found on her face and dress, leading some to believe that she was knocked unconscious and placed in the car so that she would succumb to carbon monoxide poisoning.

Todd's death certificate states her cause of death as accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. She was cremated; after her mother's death, her remains were placed in her mother's casket and buried in Bellevue Cemetery in her home town of Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Complicating matters, there was an apparent murder two years later involving Todd's ex-husband Pat DiCicco and another movie actor as the victim. According to E.J. Fleming's book The Fixers (about MGM's legendary "fixers" Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling), Wallace Beery (one of MGM's top stars), gangster Pat DiCicco, and Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli (who was also DiCicco's cousin and eventual producer of the James Bond films) allegedly beat comedian and movie actor Ted Healy to death in the parking lot of the Trocadero nightclub on December 21, 1937. The book claims that Beery was sent to Europe by the studio for a few months, while a story was concocted that three college students had killed Healy. Immigration records confirm a four-month-long trip to Europe on Beery's part immediately after Healy's death, ending April 17, 1938.^[5] A pencil drawing of Beery survives that was done on a film set by Healy, an amateur artist as well as the organizer and original leader of The Three Stooges.

Legacy

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Thelma Todd has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6262 Hollywood Blvd.

Selected filmography

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1926	Fascinating Youth	Lorraine Lane
1927	Rubber Heels	Princess Anne
1927	Fireman, Save My Child		Uncredited
1928	Noose, TheThe Noose	Phyllis
1928	Abie's Irish Rose
1929	Her Private Life	Mrs. Leslie
1929	Seven Footprints to Satan	Eve
1929	Unaccustomed As We Are	Mrs. Kennedy	Short film
1930	Her Man	Nelly
1930	Another Fine Mess	Lady Plumtree	Short film
1931	Chickens Come Home	Mrs. Hardy	Short film
1931	No Limit	Betty Royce
1931	Maltese Falcon, TheThe Maltese Falcon	Iva Archer	Alternative title: Dangerous Female
1931	Corsair	Alison Corning
1931	Monkey Business	Lucille Briggs
1931	On the Loose	Thelma	Short subject
1931	Broadminded	Gertie Gardner
1932	Big Timer, TheThe Big Timer	Kay Mitchell
1932	This Is the Night	Claire
1932	Horse Feathers	Connie Bailey
1932	Speak Easily	Eleanor Espere
1932	Call Her Savage	Sunny De Lane
1933	You Made Me Love You	Pamela Berne
1933	Fra Diavolo	Lady Pamela Rocburg	Alternative titles: Bogus Bandits The Devil's Brother
1933	Sitting Pretty	Gloria Duval
1933	Air Hostess	Mrs. Carleton
1933	Counsellor at Law	Lillian La Rue
1934	Palooka	Trixie	Alternative titles: Joe Palooka The Great Schnozzle
1934	Hips, Hips, Hooray!	Amelia Frisby
1935	Two for Tonight	Lilly
1936	Bohemian Girl, TheThe Bohemian Girl	Gypsy queen's daughter

References

^ ^a ^b Erickson, Hal. "Thelma Todd". Allmovie.
^ Wright, David (2002). Joyita: Solving the Mystery. Auckland University Press. p. 3. ISBN 1-86940-270-7.
^ Wallace, David; Miller, Ann (2003). Hollywoodland. Macmillan. p. 21. ISBN 0-312-31614-3.
^ Louvish, Simon (2002). Stan and Ollie, The Roots of Comedy: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy. Macmillan. p. 339. ISBN 0-312-26651-0.
^ Ile de France passenger list, p. 117, line 9, Microfilm roll T715_6140

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Thelma Todd

Thelma Todd at the Internet Movie Database
Thelma Todd at AllRovi
Thelma Todd at the TCM Movie Database
The Mysterious Death of Thelma Todd. Los Angeles: Past, Present and Future Project, USC.
"A Mystery Revisited" Los Angeles Times, May 29, 2002

"Wikipdedia Commons" has these pictures from the movie CORSAIR:

* * *

Here we have the wikipedia entry for Thelma Todd. It's been that way a while, I guess, but there is no guarantee that it will remain as it is since anyone that wants to can put in whatever they want. I don't think I'll put anything else in as what I had previously put in was all removed.

The entry is mostly OK, but there are some problems with it. Thelma Todd didn't actually get into movies because she won a beauty contest: Paramount was sent her picture by Napoleon Demara, a partner in a local film exchange.

The grand jury did not rule her death a suicide, but ended as a hung jury because they were unable to come to a conclusion as to whether her death had been murder, suicide, or an accident.

Many sources will tell you that Thelma Todd came to Hollywood because of a beauty contest or that the grand jury ruled her death a suicide. That is because they all tend to repeat each other, not because the information that they have is correct. A great many errors have crept into our version of history because they are widely believed to be true by people who simply do not know any better.

Thelma Todd:
http://myloveofoldhollywood.blogspot.com/2012/03/gone-too-soon-blogathon-thelma-todd.html

Thelma Todd Club:
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/thelmatoddclub/

A

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

"Gloria Bullfinch" and "Prince Del Slimo" In Wonder Woman

Did Gloria Vanderbuilt and Pat DiCicco turn up as characters in a 1942 Wonder Woman story?

The names of the characters - "Gloria Bullfinch" and "Prince Guigi Del Slimo" - are close enough to make you wonder, even though there is little physical resemblance.

Gloria Vanderbuilt had married Pat DiCicco in 1941,

something that would have been fairly recent news at the time that this story was published in

SENSATION COMICS #8 in 1942. This story has heiress "Gloria Bullfinch" as the owner of a department store where poor shopgirls aren't being paid a living wage, all of which comes to the attention of Diana Prince, who is secretly Wonder Woman.

Gloria Bullfinch does not seem to be aware of the plight of her employees, so Wonder Woman

decides to let her experience firsthand what it is like to be an employee of her own store.

Gloria ( as "Ruth" ) finds that the way the other half lives is not easy.

The scoundrels responsible for the situation at the store decide to rob it, but Wonder Woman is on the job-

as are her girl sidekicks, the "Holliday girls"-

The bad guys have the upper hand for the moment, and then this masked mystery man is revealed to be Gloria Bullfinch's manager "Doe", previously mentioned in the story.

Wonder Woman escapes being locked in the vault with a bomb and returns to unmask "Doe" as none other than Guigi Del Slimo, Gloria Bullfinch's finace.

Guigi Del Slimo recieves his comeuppance in the form of an uppercut from his former fiance.

After the crooks have been dealt with all is made right at the store, and all the girls live happily ever after.

But the charachters of the wealthy heiress and fortune hunting crook are familiar types and would not neccessarily be intended to represent Gloria Vanderbuilt or Pat DiCicco. Any resemblances could have been coincidental, which would have been what they would have said at the time.

A similar Italian villian, "Count Crafti", turned up shortly afterward in WONDER WOMAN #2. He was an agent of Mussolini*, who attempted to charm Wonder Woman as part of a plot by the god Mars ( the villian of the story ) to capture Wonder Woman.

And in SENSATION COMICS #12 there was a reference to a "Patricia Vandergilt", which also sounds like "Vanderbilt", only there wasn't really any Patricia Vandergilt in that story. The bad guys only pretended to be taking Wonder Woman to her yacht to get her to go along with them. They actually took her to Paula Von Gunther, a recurring villianess in the comic book who eventually reformed.

*The Italian leader during the second World War, who was frequently depicted in the comics along with Adolph Hitler and Emporer Hirohito as the leaders of the enemy nations.

SENSATION COMICS #8:
http://theidiolect.com/comics/spilled-milk/

http://shehulk.sliverofice.com/wonder-woman-wednesdays-sensation-comics-8/

WONDER WOMAN #2
http://shehulk.sliverofice.com/wonder-woman-wednesdays-wonder-woman-2-part-4-of-4/

THE ESSENTIAL WONDER WOMAN ENCYCLOPEDIA:
http://books.google.com/books?id=81F5RWxOdaAC&pg=PA71&lpg=PA71&dq=Wonder+Woman+guigi+del+slimo&source=bl&ots=q7gTA48A-z&sig=N6InmEdJ_jH10OCsn0kOOlFnu0U&hl=en&sa=X&ei=AHBsUdCYK-TeyQG2lYGYCw&sqi=2&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Wonder%20Woman%20guigi%20del%20slimo&f=false

Wonder Woman Enemies List, includes Prince Del Slimo ( Wikipedia ):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wonder_Woman_enemies

A

Monday, April 15, 2013

Thelma Todd's High School Photo

Here is a photo of Thelma Todd that was taken while she was in high school.

Reblogged from http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310651600386

The seller's description reads:
"THIS IS THELMA TODDS ACTUAL HIGH SCHOOL GRADUSTION PICTURE FROM LAWRENCE HIGH SCHOOL, LAWRENCE MA. WHERE SHE IS BURRIED.THIS PICTURE WAS GIVEN TO MY UNCLE NEIL SWEENEY WHO GRADUATED WITH HER. THERE IS WRITING ON THE PHOTO BUT I CANNOT DECIPHER IT.PERHSPS YOU CAN. THE PHOTO HAS ACREASE AND AN AREA THAT IS BARE. NO TOO BAD FOR A PHOTO ALMOST 100 YEARS OLD COA AVAILABLE. PLEASE ADDRESS ANY QUESTIONS PRIOR TO BIDDING. THANK YOU FOR LOOKING. YB"

I think that what is written on the lower line may be the name "Thelma Todd", but that isn't clear.

A

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Thelma Todd Photos

Some Thelma Todd pictures.

An early publicity picture with beans. The original caption stated that Thelma Todd was from Boston, evidently so they could have her pose with the beans. She actually came from Lawrence, which is also in Massachusetts.

Pearls come from oysters, and so in this picture we have both the pearls and the oyster.

THE MALTESE FALCON

THE DEVIL'S BROTHER

COUNSELLOR AT LAW

Thirties fashion shot.

Another

An autographed photo, dated 1931.

Flowers for a lovely lady.

And a rabbit shadow.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Dagmar

Dagmar was popular on early television, but the association of that name with comedy goes back further than that.

Dagmar (American actress)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dagmar
Publicity photo, 1958
Born	Virginia Ruth Egnor (1921-11-29)November 29, 1921 Yawkey, West Virginia, U.S.
Died	October 9, 2001(2001-10-09) (aged 79) Ceredo, West Virginia, U.S.
Other names	Virginia Lewis Jennie Lewis
Occupation	Actress, model, television personality

Dagmar (born Virginia Ruth Egnor, November 29, 1921 – October 9, 2001) was an American actress, model and television personality of the 1950s. As a statuesque, busty blonde, she became the first major female star of television, receiving much press coverage during that decade.
Born in Yawkey, West Virginia, she went to high school in Huntington, West Virginia where she was known as Ruthie. She attended Huntington Business School and worked at Walgreens as a cashier, waitress, sandwich maker and soda jerk.^[1]

Broadway bound

After her marriage to Angelo Lewis in 1941, she moved to New York where he was a Naval officer, stationed at Navy Ferry Command on Long Island. She adopted Jennie Lewis as her stage name (taken from her real life married name, Virginia Lewis). To keep busy, she became a fashion photographer's model, and in 1944, other models encouraged her to audition for comedians Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson. Although she had no show business experience, she was cast in their Broadway musical revue, Laffing Room Only, a Shubert production at the Winter Garden Theatre. With Olsen and Johnson, she performed in four sketches from December 23, 1944 to July 14, 1945.^[1]
As a chorus girl named Bubbles, she appeared with Bert Lahr in the Broadway comedy Burlesque, which ran for 439 performances from December 25, 1946 until January 10, 1948. The play was set in the basement dressing-room of a midwest burlesque theater, a New York hotel suite, and a theater in Paterson, New Jersey.

Television

In 1950, when Lewis was hired by Jerry Lester for NBC's first late-night show Broadway Open House (1950–52), he renamed her Dagmar. Lester devised the name as a satirical reference following the huge success on television of the TV series Mama (1949–57), in which the younger sister, Dagmar Hansen, was portrayed by Robin Morgan. As Dagmar, Lewis was instructed to wear a low-cut gown, sit on a stool and play the role of a stereotypical dumb blonde. With tight sweaters displaying her curvy 5' 8" figure (measuring 42"-23"-39"), her dim-bulb character was an immediate success, soon attracting much more attention than Lester. Lewis quickly showed that regardless of appearances she was quite bright and quick-witted. She appeared in sketches, and Lester made occasional jokes about her "hidden talents." Her appearances created a sensation, leading to much press coverage and a salary increase from $75 to $1,250. With Dagmar getting all the attention, Lester walked off his own show in May 1951, and Dagmar carried on as host. On July 16, 1951, she was featured on the front cover of Life, and the show came to an end one month later.^[2]
Dagmar became one of the leading personalities of early 1950s live television, doing sketch comedy on Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theater, The Bob Hope Show and other shows. On June 17, 1951, she appeared on the Colgate Comedy Hour with host Eddie Cantor and guests Milton Berle, Phil Foster and Jack Leonard. In 1951, she made a TV guest appearance with Frank Sinatra,^[3] which prompted Columbia Records producer Mitch Miller to record a novelty duet with Frank and Dagmar, "Mama Will Bark". That same year, she was featured in a Life cover story with Alfred Eisenstaedt's photo of her on the July 16, 1951 issue. For the interior photo essay, Life photographers followed her to rehearsals and accompanied her on a vacation back to her home town in West Virginia.
In 1952, she hosted the short-lived, prime time Dagmar's Canteen, in which she sang, danced, interviewed servicemen and performed comedy routines. The basic premise of the show was that servicemen from the audience were given roles to act alongside Dagmar in sketches. One of Dagmar's sisters, Jean, was a member of the cast of Dagmar's Canteen. Jean, who had previously worked as a chorus girl on Broadway, also served as Dagmar's secretary, handling her sister's fan mail, which sometimes soared to 8000 letters a month. When her television show ended, Dagmar performed in Las Vegas shows and summer stock theater. Liberace spoke glowingly of her in an interview, stating that she had given him his big break as her accompanist early in his career. In the 1950s, Dagmar was a regular panelist on the NBC game show, Who Said That?, along with H. V. Kaltenborn, Deems Taylor, Frank Conniff, Peggy Ann Garner, and Boris Karloff. She occasionally made guest appearances on such shows as What's My Line?, The Mike Wallace Interview and Masquerade Party (disguised as John L. Lewis) and during the 1960s she appeared on Hollywood Squares, The Mike Douglas Show and other shows.^[1]

Alfred Eisenstaedt photographed Dagmar for the July 16, 1951 issue of Life

Books

She was one of a number of performers who posed for pictures in the Patrick Dennis novel First Lady, published in 1965, as the soubrette and Presidential courtesan Gladys Goldfoil.

Personal life

After her marriage to Angelo Lewis ended, she was married to actor Danny Dayton through much of the 1950s, and then to bandleader Dick Hinds in 1957. After years on the nightclub circuit, she moved to Ceredo, West Virginia in June 1996 to be near her family. In her last years, she lived with her brother, Bob Egnor, and his wife. Dagmar died in Ceredo, West Virginia on October 9, 2001 of undisclosed causes. She was survived by three sisters, three brothers, an aunt and numerous nieces and nephews.^[4]

Cultural legacy

The Dagmar bumper is a chrome bullet-point bulge on the front bumpers of Cadillacs, Buicks and Packards built during the 1950s. During the Korean War, a 40 mm self-propelled anti-aircraft tank was named Dagmar's Twin 40s. In the 1950s and 1960s, a blonde female midget wrestler worked as Darling Dagmar, playing off her more statuesque inspiration.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "The Delightful Dagmar," Huntington Quarterly 35, 1999.
^ Life. July 16, 1951.
^ The Frank Sinatra Show 1951 CBS
^ Martin, Douglas (2001-10-11). "Dagmar, Foxy Blonde With First-Name Status in 50's". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-02-03.

External links

Dagmar at the Internet Movie Database
Dagmar at the Internet Broadway Database
Huntington Quarterly 35 (1999): "The Delightful Dagmar" (full text)
Dagmar at Find a Grave
Dagmar interviewed by Mike Wallace on The Mike Wallace Interview (August 11, 1957)

* * *

Lyda Roberti played a character named "Dagmar" in PICK A STAR

and Dorothy Appleby ( shown below with Buster Keaton ) played a character named "Dagmar" in her

last film, PITCHIN' IN THE KITCHEN, with Hugh Herbert.

So the association of the name Dagmar with comedy seems to have been a recurring thing even before Virginia Ruth Egnor was called that on television. But with the others it had only been a gag, while the 1950's Dagmar had a whole career associated with it. And as "Dagmar" she became one of the most popular television personalities of the day.