Today is the birthday of Olive Thomas. Born on October 20, 1894 in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, she was a Ziegfeld Follies girl and silent screen star who was named "the most beautiful girl in the world." During her short life she dazzled theatre and movie goers alike with her looks, charm, and joie de vivre. Watch her in one of her surviving films and you'll see what all of the fuss was about. When she enters a scene, you can't take your eyes off her. So Happy Birthday, Ollie! You'll never be forgotten.
For more on Olive Thomas, check out some of the posts I've written here and here. And get her most famous film, The Flapper, here.
On September 10, 1920 Olive Thomas died after having mistakenly drank a solution of bichloride of mercury five days earlier. It was a terrible way for anyone to go and in Olive's case, marked an abrupt end to a blossoming career as a screen star. Already popular with filmgoers at the time of her death, we can only speculate on the other films she would have made and if she would have made the change over to talkies (of all the unanswered Olive Thomas questions, one at the top of my list is what did her voice sound like?).
Unfortunately too many people today only remember Olive for the way she died (and most of the articles/books out there are filled with rumours and false information). I think we should remember her for what she was, a beautiful and vivacious woman who lit up the screen whenever she walked in front of the camera.
Never seen an Olive Thomas film? You can watch The Flapper, one of her best known films, here.
