Ep. 44 - The Mysterious Death of Thelma Todd

The Herald's cover story read "…if her death was accidental, it was as strange an accident as was ever conceived by the brain of Poe."

Old Hollywood and mysterious deaths seem to go hand in hand, whether it's the case of the Black Dahlia or the mysterious "suicides" of Marilyn Monroe and George Reeves. In the same vein as the mysterious suicides of the latter stars, comes the tale of the mysterious death of movie star Thelma Todd. It is a story that contains all the elements of a perfect Hollywood drama: fame, fortune, gangsters, love and betrayal. Was she murdered, did she die by accident or did she die at her own hand? Whatever the truth may be, her spirit is at unrest.

Blonde bombshells and Hollywood. They went together well in Hollywood's Golden Age, but many of those stories ended in heartbreak or tragedy. Thelma Todd was one of those promising starlets who came to an unhappy end in what has become one of Hollywood's enduring mysteries. You possibly have never heard her name, but she became famous in the world of comedy. Her life was more colorful than most, but began with humble beginnings. She was born as Thelma Alice Todd to Irishman John Todd and his Canadian wife, Alice, in Massachusetts on July 29, 1906. The couple already had a son named William, but Thelma wouldn't really remember her brother as he died in 1910, when she was only four. This would be the first broken patch in her road. William was seven when the family visited a creamery in New Hampshire. An industrial accident in the form of a broken flywheel would bring William's life to an end as he was struck by a flying piece.   

Thelma's father had immigrated to America when he was twelve and he and a brother eventually had their carpet and upholstery business named Todd Brothers. They were successful and lived a comfortable life. Some biographies claim that John was abusive. Whether or not he was abusive to Thelma, she did very well in her young life.  Thelma was a good student and received many achievement awards while in school. She loved her studies so much that she decided she would like to become a school teacher. After she graduated high school in 1923, she enrolled at Lowell Normal School, which would later become the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, to get her degree in education. 

But teaching wouldn't satisfy Thelma. She had bigger dreams and she was the best looking girl around, so she entered beauty pageants. One of the pageants she entered was at the local Elks convention in 1925. She won "Miss Lawrence." And she would get more than that later at the "Miss Massachusetts" pageant when she won. With this win, she caught the eye of a theater magnate who operated the vaudeville theaters locally. His name was Napoleon Demara and he contacted Famous Players-Lasky Corporation and its owner Jesse Lasky about Thelma. This company would soon become Paramount Pictures and Laskey enrolled her in the Paramount Players School in Astoria, Queens, which got her signed with Paramount Pictures after she graduated. The studio system was just getting started in Hollywood and Thelma Todd would be one of its first stars. Paramount signed most graduates to a one year contract, but Thelma was given a five year contract, making $75 a week that would eventually grow to $500 a week.

Thelma had gone from Massachusetts to New York and now to Los Angeles, which was just coming into its own. It's hard to believe that Los Angeles was ever a smaller town, but it had barely 100,000 people there when the turn-of-the-century rolled over. In a few short years, the population ballooned to over a million and growing fast. Her first part for Paramount was a small one in the movie "Fascinating Youth." Thelma was touring with the movies other stars to promote the picture in July of 1926 when she got word her father had died from a heart attack. She returned to her hometown of Lawrence for the funeral. After grieving for a couple weeks, Thelma returned to Hollywood and got several other small parts in movies, but none of them showcased her growing comedic talent. The movies did little more than showcase Todd's beauty. She was loaned out to another production company in 1928 to make the movie "Vamping Venus." She impressed First National Pictures and they bought her contract. Thelma was happy to go as she would later reveal that a paramount executive had pressured her for sexual favors that she had refused. 

First National Pictures put her right to work and she soon had eight films under her belt. These films were not what Thelma considered exciting. She was still waiting for her big break. Talkies soon began and while many stars lost their stardom because their voices were not conducive to sound, Todd's career started to take off. Producer Hal Roach saw Todd's knack for comedy and he put her in movies with other comedy stars like Laurel and Hardy. The first would be "Unaccustomed As We Are." Todd was a hit. She was beautiful and had a knack for slapstick. In 1931, Todd started teaming up with ZaSu (Say Zoo) Pitts in some comedy shorts produced by Roach and they became known as the female version of Laurel and Hardy. Thelma usually played a sarcastic wise-cracker. Todd would star in two Marx Brothers movies. Stan Laurel really enjoyed working with Todd and he took her under his wing, helping her get roles in other films and the two became great friends. By the time she died, she had made 61 comedy shorts for Roach Studios. 

Thelma didn't just tackle comedy. She was also making dramatic films. Thelma got the female romantic lead opposite Chester Morris in Roland West's "Corsair" in 1931. West talked Thelma into taking on the stage name of Alison Loyd because he didn't want people stuck on comedy when they saw her name. I guess he figured they wouldn't recognize her? The way he put it to the press was so "no taint of comedy might cling to her skirts." The movie was filmed on Catalina Island and while there, Roland and Thelma flirted with each other and got very friendly. The problem was that Roland was married to silent screen star Jewel Carmen. He decided that Thelma was just an infatuation and not worth losing his marriage over and he told Jewel wanted to go cruising, so they left for the high seas.

Thelma had no problem getting men. She didn't need to get tangled up with a married man. Todd had a rich social life, dancing at the chicest night clubs in Southern California. Places like Trocadero and the Mocambo. All the Hollywood parties wanted her in attendance. And everybody called her Hot Toddy and one of the reasons for the nickname might be the fact that during Prohibition she snuck six bottles of premium Scotch whiskey past custom agents by sewing them into her mink coat. She wore a revealing costume under the coat and when custom agents asked her to open it, they were a bit scandalized and they told her to go home and put some clothes on. While West was away, Thelma met agent and producer Pat DiCicco. He was the son of the man they called "The Broccoli King." And he really was a big deal when it came to broccoli. He pioneered the growing of it and he marketed it across America. Pat wasn't interested in being a farmer, so he left for Los Angeles to do his own thing. His romance with Thelma was whirlwind for sure. They had barely been dating when they shocked everybody by eloping in Prescott, Arizona on July 10, 1932. Back in LA, they repeated their marriage vows at the Hollywood Baptist Church.The relationship was tumultuous and the two fought often, many times devolving into physical abuse. Todd broke DiCicco's nose and he hit her so hard she needed an emergency appendectomy. During the marriage, Todd became hooked on diet drugs. There was a thing called a "Potato Clause" in her studio contract that stated if she gained more than five pounds, she would be fired. She had also started drinking fairly heavily during her marriage. In 1934, the couple divorced and Thelma got sober.

Thelma was back in Roland West's life by late August 1934. He had opened a restaurant named Joya San Iguiel and she rented a home at 17925 Tramonto Drive on the hill above the café, which was located in Pacific Palisades along the Pacific Coast Highway. West and his wife Jewel also owned a home above the cafe that they named Castillo Del Mar. West and Todd continued in their affair and I'm not sure if Jewel knew about it or not because she and West partnered with Todd in the cafe and renamed it "Thelma Todd's Roadside Rest Cafe." The restaurant was very popular. There were living quarters above the restaurant, two adjoining apartments, and the club Joya San Iguiel where parties could be thrown. The third floor had a bandstand and ballroom. Eventually, Thelma moved into the second floor and West joined her as well. Thelma continued to act, but turned her attention more to the cafe because she was getting older and realized that her star was waning. 

Bootlegging and other underworld activities had traveled from the streets of New York and Chicago to California. One fateful day, Lucky Luciano walked into the Roadside Rest Cafe. No one knows if someone had tipped him off to the place or if he discovered it himself, but he was well aware that the popular location had an empty third floor that would be perfect for his gambling enterprise. Todd was a strong willed woman and not interested in the criminal activity. Movies and books have claimed that Luciano invited her to have some champagne at a club, but Todd was committed to her sobriety. An enraged Luciano grabbed her and poured the bottle of champagne down her throat. There are claims that they had a relationship and he got her hooked on prescription pills for losing weight and used her as a punching bag. There are sources that claim Todd's ex-husband Pat DiCicco was also involved with the mob.

On Saturday, December 14, 1935, Todd attended a dinner party at the Trocadero, a popular restaurant in Hollywood. The party was in her honor, hosted by Stanley Lupino. She had a great time, dancing the night away. Her ex-husband Pat DiCicco was there and the two had an angry confrontation. Her chauffeur, Ernest O. Peters, drove her home in the wee hours of the morning. He would later say that he had dropped her off just before 4 a.m. at the foot of the stairs on PCH that led up to her apartment at the cafe. Roland West was in the apartment above the Cafe and Sid Grauman called him to let him know that Todd was on her way and that she was quite drunk. Was Thelma actually drunk since she had worked hard on being sober? I'm not so sure. What happened after this is foggy. West said that he had bolted the apartment door. Thelma had a key to the door, but she wouldn't be able to enter if that bolt was engaged. West believes that since she was a considerate person that she didn't make a fuss and just hiked up the hill to the garage below Castillo Del Mar to get in her car, which was parked inside. Some witnesses claimed to hearing a drunk Todd screaming obscenities and kicking at the door to her and West's apartment. My question is, if West knew Todd was on her way home why bolt the door? Even if no phone was made telling him this, surely he expected her to come home that evening.

Thelma was inside her chocolate brown 1934 Lincoln Phaeton convertible on Monday morning, December 16, 1935. That's where her housekeeper, Mae Whitehead, found her. Todd's body was slumped over onto her left side in the front seat. Her head drooped over the edge of the seat with her hands cupped near her face. The maid thought she had passed out this way and slept in the car, still wearing her diamond jewelry and mauve and silver evening gown and a mink coat. The maid then noticed that Thelma's legs were unnaturally situated twisted from the center of the seat down towards the driver's side floor with one foot resting next to the foot pedals. There was coagulated blood near the top of her head as though she had struck her head on something, most likely the steering wheel. 

Whitehead contacted the cafe's treasurer, Mr. Smith first and then she drove down to the cafe to pick up Roland West after Mr. Smith buzzed the house to tell him that something was wrong with Thelma and that the maid Mae was picking him up. He hopped in her car and they returned to the garage. West ran in and touched Thelma's face. He used a handkerchief to wipe some blood from her face. Whitehead had returned to the main house to pick up West's sister-in-law, Alberta, and her husband, Rudolph. West told Rudolph to drive his car to get the police and a doctor. He asked the maid to call Thelma's mother. Then West proceeded to survey the scene. He could see that the ignition button was pushed in on the car. Nothing seemed to be missing from Thelma, so she hadn't been robbed. The blood on her face probably came from hitting her steering wheel. 

LAPD Captain Bruce F. Clark arrived on the scene with several officers. West shared his observations and Clark agreed with the assessment. Except there was this one weird thing. The car still had three gallons of gas in the tank. Why was the engine shut off? Who shut off the engine? There didn't seem to be foul play and this doesn't look like suicide since there was no note and Thelma had never expressed suicide ideation according to West. The officers on the scene and Detective Clark came to the conclusion that a cold Thelma Todd had started her car's engine in the closed garage so she could stay warm and that she fell asleep and died from carbon monoxide poisoning. But the first doctor on the scene, Dr. Philip Sampson, thought that Thelma may have had a heart attack. He was told that Thelma had heart trouble and her mother, who had arrived on scene at this point as did several of Todd's friends and a flock of journalists and photographers, told the doctor that the heart trouble was so bad that a life insurance company had recently refused Thelma coverage. Although with such a bad ticker, one has to wonder how she was able to hike up the steep hill to the garage. And dance the night away? 

Todd's body was removed from the car and the garage and taken for an autopsy. Then Detective Clark had Thelma's body transported to Todd & Leslie's Mortuary in Santa Monica. The body was looked over at the mortuary and a temporary tooth was found loose in her mouth. A coroner's inquest was held on December 18th and the coroner stated that there were no signs of violence on the body other than a contusion to her lower lip. But other reports claim blood and bruising was found. Some claim she had broken ribs. The carbon monoxide saturation of her blood was 70%, a lethal dose. The time of death was fixed at 5am Sunday morning. A jury concluded that the death appeared accidental, but called for further investigation. Obviously, something did not seem right to them. A Grand Jury went through four weeks of testimony and they could find no evidence of murder. The LAPD had at first believed this was suicide, but after the Grand Jury conclusions, they closed the case as accidental death. Todd was laid out for viewing and then she was cremated. Her mother kept the ashes and then when she died, Todd's ashes were placed in her coffin and they were buried at Bellevue Cemetery in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The two women had been incredibly close and lived together most of their lives.

There are so many questions. Didn't Todd know that running a car in a closed garage would be dangerous? And if she wanted to be in a warm car, another car in the garage made more sense because it was fully enclosed. Todd's convertible had no windows. If she needed warmth, there were places she could go to warm up. A previous time when she was locked out of the apartment, she broke a window to get in. She clearly had keys to her car. Why not drive somewhere? Unless she really was drunk. Then she wouldn't be thinking straight about anything. The autopsy revealed that her blood alcohol level was .13, which is considered a moderate level of intoxication. Considering that .08 is illegal for driving, she shouldn't be driving anywhere. The overhead light in the garage wasn't turned on. Wouldn't she have turned that on so she could see what she was doing? Suicide should never had been on the table because there was no evidence for it. Thelma had a big movie she was going to start filming for that very Monday she was discovered. There was no note and no indication from her that she wanted to die. And she had just bought over a hundred Christmas presents for friends and family. Stanley Lupino, who had thrown the party for Todd, had danced with Thelma and talked to her about a new film he wanted her to star in. He told the papers, "No one could have been in better spirits or more brilliant and sparkling than Thelma. She was the life of the party. There was nothing in her manner to indicate that anything was worrying her."

One of my biggest questions is, how did the car stop running? And the guy who lived above the garage never heard a car start and Todd's car was said to be very loud. Thelma's mother had wondered how her daughter with a weak heart, managed to even climb the hill to the garage. Her shoes were unscuffed. Laboring up a hill intoxicated and with a bad heart seems as though the feet might drag a bit. And then her obituary in the Los Angeles Times reported that Todd had been receiving threats, many of them death threats. Two people were arrested in New York City for trying to extort Todd for $10,000. The Examiner featured a picture snapped of Thelma in her home in March of 1935 sitting next to her guard dog and a gun is sitting on the coffee table. The Examiner captioned the photo with, "Thelma Todd, apparently, isn't taking any chances. With a gun and a dog she hopes to be amply protected against alleged death and extortion threats." It seems there were many people who might want Thelma Todd dead. Let's look at them.

The first is her mother who stood to inherit everything and she had been telling friends she planned to buy a mansion soon. This was before Todd's death and one has to wonder where the money for that was coming from. The second is Lucky Luciano. Had he ordered a hit to get back at Todd? The third is Roland West's wife, Jewel. Perhaps she had had enough of the affair and some say she was unhappy with the operation of the cafe since she was a partner in the business. Her garage was where Todd's body was found. The fourth would be her ex-husband DiCicco with whom she had had an argument at Trocadero the night of her death. The fifth would be Roland West. Why didn't he make sure Todd got to bed safely? Where was he as she trudged up the road to the garage where she died? The sixth is a stranger, perhaps someone sending the death threats.

For obvious reasons, Todd's spirit is at unrest and visits several locations. Is she trying to help clear up the mystery of her death, so we know definitively whether she was murdered, the victim of tragic circumstances or committed suicide? The very first supernatural thing that occurred was testified to by Thelma's friend, Mrs. Wallace Ford. She claimed she'd received a call from Todd on Sunday afternoon, around 4:30 p.m. Todd identified herself on the phone by the nickname Ford had coined, "Hot Toddy." Thelma asked if she could bring a guest and Ford asked if she was bringing a female friend. Todd giggled and said the guest would be male, but she wouldn't say who. She simply told Ford that, "I want to have the fun of seeing your face when I come through the door." The call was made when Todd was already dead. And LAPD officer A.R. Kallmeyer told the people assembled for the inquest that the phone records from Todd's home revealed no calls to Ford that day.

One of Todd's favorite haunts is the location that once housed her "Roadside Rest Cafe." Her full-bodied apparition is usually seen wearing a glamorous gown with a mink coat thrown over it and she has jewels adorning her neck and hands. She is also seen standing on the staircase of her former residence. She does not speak or interact with anyone, so these hauntings may be more on the residual side.

The garage where she met her end is rife with activity. One item that has been reported several times is the sound of a car running in the closed up garage. What makes this strange, other than the fact that it is dangerous to run a car in a closed up garage, is that this garage has not stored cars for years. So the sound cannot be coming from a real car. There is also the scent of carbon monoxide in the area when no cars are around. Are these sounds and smells residual repeats of her tragic death?

Thelma Todd had been the Ice Cream Blonde and made over 120 films in her short life. She was one of the funniest women around who proved she had more than just good looks. She was a real talent. What happened to her? Did someone murder her? A jealous lover perhaps? Did she decide she had enough and so took her own life in a painless way? Or was she drunk and not thinking straight and accidentally killed herself with carbon monoxide? Does Thelma Todd's ghost walk this side of the veil? That is for you to decide!

(My thoughts on what happened.)

Reporter Aggie Underwood was a woman before her time. She held her own in a male-dominated profession. Aggie wrote in her 1949 autobiography Newspaperwoman about covering the Thelma Todd case, "There’s a disquieting feeling in working some of these cinema-land death cases, whether natural or mysterious. One senses intangible pressures, as in the Thelma Todd story: After the inquest testimony, in which one sensational theory was that the blonde star, who died of carbon monoxide gas, was the victim of a killer, the case eventually was dropped as one of accidental, though mysterious, death." And a little fun fact, Aggie was invited to watch the autopsy of Thelma. Her male colleagues were testing her, making bets she wouldn't last more than a few minutes. In the end, it was only her and the coroner left in the room when the autopsy was completed.

Pictures:  https://thesilentmovieblog.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/the-death-of-thelma-todd/

Source for much of the information about the death of Thelma Todd: Jenning, Patrick; Croddy, Marshall. Testimony of a Death: Thelma Todd: Mystery, Media and Myth in 1935 Los Angeles Bay City Press. Kindle Edition.