The Life and Death of Thelma Todd

  

 

Today's tribute is dedicated to Thelma Todd, who died on this day 88 years ago. This blonde beauty, like Jean Harlow, died staggeringly young and at the peak of her career. She was known as "The Ice Cream Blonde" and "Hot Toddy" -- although she disliked both of those names. For the longest time, her death was a mysterious puzzle, but in later years it was finally solved. Had it not been so soon, she presumably would have had an enduring career. Either way, it was a very memorable one while it lasted and I doubt she would have achieved the same level of fame and success in later decades. I also consider Thelma as one of my personal favorites due to her natural comedic gift and delightful performances.

 

Thelma Alice Todd was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts on July 29, 1906. Her parents, John Shaw Todd and Alice Elizabeth Edwards, were Irish and Canadian immigrants. She had an elder brother named William whom she was very close with, but unfortunately, he died when he was just 7 years old in 1910. While touring a creamery factory with her brother and cousins, William accidentally got too close to the machine and his leg got caught in the shaft. It resulted in a terrible accident and he lived but a few minutes. Thelma, who witnessed the whole thing, suffered a deep trauma which she never fully recovered from. Some claim that Thelma felt her father loved his son more than her and when she overheard him crying one night, she thought to herself that it should have been her who died and not William. This ultimately ensued diffidence complications in the future. Thelma tried very hard to please her father so that he would be proud of her by excelling in school with straight A’s, which led to her ambition to become a school teacher. But despite her intelligence, she had much enthusiasm for thrills. Thelma enjoyed driving and bicycling carelessly and horseback riding. In other words, she loved to "have fun." 

After graduating in 1923, she worked as a fabric clerk at a five-and-dime store and as a taxi dancer at a dance hall, or as some call it, a dime-a-dance-girl. At the age of 20, her father passed away which left Thelma with the maternal instinct to provide for her mother, whom she held very dear to her. After winning a beauty pageant in 1925, she signed a contract with Paramount Pictures. She got her first serious role in Fascinating Youth (1926) alongside Buddy Rogers, then appeared in Rubber Heals (1927) with Ed Wynn and Chester Conklin, Nevada (1927) with Gary Cooper and William Powell, The Gay Defender (1927) with Richard Dix, and so forth.  

In 1929 she moved to Hal Roach Studios where she got to showcase her talents as a comedienne. She often worked with Laurel and Hardy, Charley Chase, Harry Langdon, ZaSu Pitts, and Patsy Kelly in comedy shorts. Thelma also became a popular favorite among the lot.  

 

 

"She was a favorite with everyone on the lot, from the lowest employee to the highest. She apparently was always joyous and seemed to thoroughly enjoy her work." -- Hal Roach

"She had a wonderful sense of humor. She'd just start to laugh -- for no reason! And sometimes we'd have to shoot seven or eight times before she'd shimmer down enough. It got so that we'd just start to look at each other, and we'd start giggling." Said co-star Dorothy Granger. You know that friend that is always the life of the party, and sometimes all you have to do is just turn to each other and the giggles come out? That's the type of friend Thelma seemed to be. The kind of woman you'd want to be around. She was said to have been a lot of fun and a prankster. Some of Thelma's interests included playing the piano, writing poetry and occasional pieces for the newspaper, cooking, and learning foreign languages.

 

Outside of the Hal Roach lot at MGM, she starred in quite a few other hits such as This is the Night (1932), Corsair (1931), and Monkey Business (1932). She worked with big names like the Marx Brothers, Clara Bow, Cary Grant, Buster Keaton, Jimmy Durante, Kay Francis, Bebe Daniels, Wheeler and Woolsey, Joe E. Brown, Ginger Rogers, and Spencer Tracy, to name some. 

 

Thelma with friend and frequent screen partner Patsy Kelly in An All-American Toothache (1935).

While filming Corsair in 1931, Thelma fell for the film's director, Roland West, who would play an influential role in her life. The two carried on an affair but it ended for a while in 1932 when Thelma met someone new... Pat DiCicco was a handsome, young aspiring actor and talent agent. He was the son of a wealthy Long Island farmer who went by the name of "The Broccoli King." DiCicco arrived from New York to LA with hopes of achieving a fortune of his own. The two wed that same year, but the relationship quickly turned sour, resulting in Thelma filing for divorce 18 months after the wedding. Apparently, the relationship was very volatile and DiCicco was an abusive husband, who ended up having ties to the mob. In September 1933, Thelma wrote him off her will, but I find it funny that when she died he only received 1 dollar. (The reason she left him money was because if she didn't, he could have gotten a chance to take over her will. Smart girl!) Personally, I don't think he should have received anything at all, but that just goes to show her imitable sense of humor, even though 1 dollar was worth a lot more in 1935 than in today's economy.  

 

In August 1934, Thelma was back together with her ex Roland West, who was now not only her lover but also her business partner. Thelma wanted more security as an actress, so she and West decided to open their own cafe called Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe located at 17575 Pacific Coast Highway in LA. The restaurant was highly successful and Thelma devoted much of her time to running and maintaining the business. Above the restaurant, Thelma and Roland West lived in adjoining bedrooms but they fought frequently. 

  

 

 

On the morning of December 16, 1935, Thelma was found dead in her 1932 Lincoln Phaeton convertible inside the garage of Roland West. Her cause of death was determined to have been carbon monoxide poisoning. Was Thelma murdered? Was it an accident? Did Thelma commit suicide? For years rumors and various, messy conflicts have circulated, but it's now time to unveil the truth...  

 

I'm not going to get into all the fluff surrounding her death -- sorry to disappoint you, but I do have a few points I would like to make. First, I want to eliminate all inaccurate possibilities. It definitely wasn't a suicide. Many of Thelma's friends claimed she had such a zest for living and would never do such a thing. I wholeheartedly agree. Besides there not being any evidence, Thelma was a fighter and she was intelligent. Pat DiCicco was the number one suspect, but it's been proven he had nothing to do with it. Thelma was never associated with Lucky Luciano either. He was miles away from LA at the time, and already in jail for committing a salacious crime. Why would he get away and murder her when it would obviously do him no good? The most accurate theory that I resonate with was that it was an accidental murder. When Thelma got word that RKO and Hal Roach would not be renewing her contract with them, her career was practically over. Although Thelma saw it coming, she was still shocked and as a result, began to drink excessively. The night before her death she attended a party hosted by Stanley Lupino at the Trocadero. She had already been arguing with West before attending the party, and when she left, she asked Sid Grauman to phone him that she was heading home. When West received the call, he locked her door as a way of saying she needed to be home when he wanted her to. Keep in mind that West was very dominating and emotionally abusive of Thelma. When Thelma's chauffeur arrived at her home, she told him to wait outside knowing there was going to be an argument between them. Thelma, who was partially drunk, began to argue with West through the door, and at some point, he allowed her in. Though we don't know exactly what they were bickering about, it has been speculated to be related to Todd's habitual intemperance or West's new lover.  Either way, it did not end well and Thelma headed for the garage and started her car engine. It was then that West closed the garage door to stop her from leaving. It apparently didn't cross his mind that she could die from carbon monoxide poisoning -- he just wanted to teach her a lesson about double-crossing him and went back to his apartment. Now this is what I find suspicious. I find it odd that Roland West didn't know what he was doing. On the other hand, Thelma was reported to have passed out intoxicated from minor exhaustion after having too many drinks before the carbon monoxide hit her. Sounds about right if you ask me.  

 

Her cafe is obviously no longer in business but the building still stands today. There are also numerous pictures of her dead body, but I am not one to share them because I find that incredibly disrespectful and inappropriate, but if you want to look that up on your own go ahead.  

Now how did West get away with this, you may ask? The truth is Hollywood had power over all of it. There had already been scandals that damaged their studios' reputation like the Fatty Arbuckle trials and the Busby Berkely case, and they basically wanted to cover everything up to make it sound like there was no murder. This was common practice in those days by the way. And it is also true that Roland West confessed he was guilty on his deathbed. Chester Morris claimed so in interviews and he was there with him when he died. Case closed!