![]() Though a tragic figure, Olive unapologetically indulges in the excess of the early 20th century by being sassy, savvy but never cynical, and sexually vibrant. ![]() These dalliances inadvertently bring about her early end she accidentally drinks a mercury solution, her husband’s syphilis treatment. Her beauty and enthusiasm open many doors into the world of silent film however, she struggles with Jack’s alcoholism and indiscriminate infidelities. After he refuses to leave his family for her, Olive takes a heartbroken trip to California, where she meets Jack Pickford, the notorious playboy and brother of Mary Pickford, and they have an exciting yet volatile marriage. After using her connections to become a Ziegfeld Girl, she performs in both the Follies and the more risqué rooftop Frolic she also begins an affair with her married boss, Florenz Ziegfeld. The apparition recollects her modest beginnings in a Pennsylvania coal mining town, getting married too young, and working as a shopgirl in New York where she’s “discovered” and becomes a model for artists such as Howard Chandler Christy and Harrison Fisher. ![]() ![]() ![]() The spirit of the actress haunts Manhattan’s New Amsterdam Theatre, once the home of the Ziegfeld Follies, in which Olive performed. In Giles’ ( Love Lies Bleeding, 2015) novel, the ghost of actress Olive Thomas recounts her previous life as a model, chorus girl, and silent-film star. ![]()
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