thelma todd
Gorgeous blonde comedienne Thelma Todd was born in Massachusetts, where for two years she was a sixth-grade teacher at Lowell Normal School. [1]
Thelma Todd (July 29, 1905 - December 16, 1935) was a popular American actress of the late 1920s and early 1930s film. [2]
Out of respect for their well-liked co-worker, Laurel and Hardy had all but one of Thelma Todd ’s scenes removed from the final release print of Bohemian Girl. [3]
After appearing as leading lady and comic foil to Harry Langdon, Charley Chase, and Laurel and Hardy, Thelma was given her own starring series of Roach two-reelers in 1931, teamed first with ZaSu Pitts and then with Patsy Kelly. [1]
Thelma Todd became highly regarded as a capable film comedienne, and Roach loaned her out to other studios to play opposite Wheeler & Woolsey, Buster Keaton, Joe E. Brown, and the Marx Brothers. [4]
Her first film - at 21 years of age - was as Lorraine Lane in 1927’s Fascinating Youth (1926), a romantic comedy, which was Paramount’s showcase vehicle for its new stars. [5]
After winning the Miss Massachusetts beauty contest in 1924, Todd was selected by producer Jesse L. Lasky to join Paramount Pictures’ newly created school for young actors; the school lasted only one year, during which time Todd and her 15 “classmates” (among them Charles “Buddy” Rogers, later the husband of Mary Pickford) appeared in the Paramount film Fascinating Youth (1926). [1]
After appearing as leading lady and comic foil to Harry Langdon, Charley Chase, and Laurel and Hardy, Thelma was given her own starring series of Roach two-reelers in 1931, teamed first with ZaSu Pitts and then with Patsy Kelly. [3]
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. [4]
At the time, as today, many felt that her death was actually a murder connected to the goings-on at her club, a theory that was lent credence by the fact that no one who knew her had ever seen her depressed or morose enough to the point of being worried about her committing suicide. [5]
Her death was determined to have been caused by carbon monoxide poisoning. [2]
The excellent box-office returns for the previous Laurel & Hardy comic operas The Devil’s Brother and Babes in Toyland encouraged Hal Roach to cast the team in still another operatic adaptation, a self-styled “comedy version” of William Balfe’s The Bohemian Girl. [3]
Thelma Todd became highly regarded as a capable film comedienne, and Roach loaned her out to other studios to play opposite Wheeler & Woolsey, Buster Keaton, Joe E. Brown, and the Marx Brothers. [2]
Out of respect for their well-liked co-worker, Laurel and Hardy had all but one of Thelma Todd’s scenes removed from the final release print of Bohemian Girl. [1]
Thelma Todd was born Lawrence, Massachusetts, an industrial city near the New Hampshire state line. [5]
Sources:
[1] Thelma Todd: Information from Answers.com
[2] Thelma Todd - Biography - The Biographicon
[3] Thelma Todd Movies
[4] Thelma Todd - Wikipedia
[5] Thelma Todd - Biography