Olive Thomas was born in Pennsylvania in 1894 and lived a hard but working-class lifestyle in her early years. She found fame when she won a competition to find New York's most beautiful woman. From there she went on to become a pin-up girl and was then cast in many silent films with her most successful being The Flapper 1920.
In 1916 she met and married the actor Jack Pickford and by all accounts their marriage was often on the rocks as Pickford was promiscuous and contracted syphilis during their relationship.
While on hiatus from film production Thomas and Pickford travelled to Paris to be fitted for costumes and to live it up in the vibrant parisian night life scene and to enjoy a break from their busy schedules.
Late at night on September 5, 1920 after partying with friends in a Paris nightclub, Thomas and Pickford returned to their hotel suite and Pickford went to sleep. Unable to sleep Thomas poured a substance that she believed was a sleeping powder into some alcohol and drank it. She woke Pickford screaming in agony as she had unwittingly consumed Mercury Bichloride an extremely toxic substance that was only meant for the external treatment of Syphilis. Thomas was rushed to hospital close to death.
Olive Thomas died four days later in a parisian hospital in agony and unable to talk as her vocal chords had been destroyed by the poison that she consumed. After her death there was a moral panic about the dangers of Paris's nightlife and speculation about Pickford's role in the death of his wife but ultimately Thomas's death was ruled an accident.
Now the world can only wonder what Olive Thomas would have achieved in her career if she didn't die so tragically young and enjoy her haunting past work.
Here is the full film of The Flapper 1920
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xUuKuvFpX8
References
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0859310/bio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_Thomas
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