Corsair, Volume 54, Number 36, 13 June 1984 — Mystery Still Shrouds Death Of Thelma Todd [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Mystery Still Shrouds Death Of Thelma Todd

By SHERRY DeLUCA Corsair Stiff Writer

Was it murder or was it suicide for the "Ice Cream Blonde" actress Thelma Todd? The Pacific Palisades beauty left behind a haunting reminder of her mysterious death. On Dec. 15, 1935, Miss Todd suffered slow death from carbon monoxide poisoning. She was found by her maid in her home garage. The beautiful blonde was slumped beneath the wheel of her Lincoln Phaeton, with blood from her nose and mouth, lacerations and bruises on her neck, and a broken false tooth. The popular actess who was born July, 1905, in Lawrence, Mass. A former school teacher and part-time model, she entered films in the mid 20's after winning a beauty contest. Her popularity reached a peak in the early '3os, just before her end. Miss Todd was known as a stubborn, independent woman. She climbed the ladder to stardom on her own with no financial help from home. She was 30 years of age when she died. The movie actress/comedienne completed 80 films in her short life. She was featured in comedy shorts opposite Charlie Chaplin and later in her own comedy series with Za Zu Pitts and Patsy Kel!.. :uccessively. She gave memorable performances in two Marx Brothers comedies and two Laurel and Hardy vehicles. In 1932, Miss Todd eloped with Pat Di Cicco, a theatrical agent said to be the best looking nonactor in the business. The marriage lasted two years, then they divorced. On Saturday, Dec. 14, 1935, a party was being given for Thelma Todd by Stanley Lupino, his wife and his daughter, Ida. Lupino had seen Miss Todd in a movie and had her flown over to England to co-star opposite him in "You Made Me Love You" (a motion picture version of "The Taming of the Shrew"). When Lupino came to California he suggested a joyous reunion and assembled 20 guests. The event was to be at a restaurant, the Trocadero. Di Cicco had pressed Ida Lupino for an invitation after he learned that she would be hosting a party for Miss Todd. That Saturday he didn't show up for dinner, but when the guest entered the next room for drinks and dancing, there standing at the bar was Di Cicco with a young English actress, Margaret Lindsay. Friends of Miss Todd felt her ex-husband deliberately had gone out of his way to insult her. Ida Lupino was outraged and did not agree with his behavior at such a "fiesta." When the music died down, Di Cicco and Miss Todd got into a minor spat. Shortly after midnight Di Cicco left with his date. Miss Lupino was glad to see the guest of honor back in high spirits, rarely missing a turn on the dance floor. It was around 3 a.m. before the party finally broke up. Everyone had agreed it was a huge success. Miss Todd

had invited everyone out to her restaurant for the following day. It was an informal hangout for celebrities. "Bet you a dinner you won't come," the blonde actress said. "You're on," the Lupinos shot back. Arthur Prince, a dance director, escorted Miss Todd to her car, where Ernest O. Peters, proprietor of a Hollywood limousine service, held open the door. According to Peters, everything had seemed unusual that evening. The actress had often lowered the glass partition to pass the time chatting. But that night she was preoccupied. Her only words were "faster Ernie," yet he was already averaging between 65 and 70 m.p.h. Peters thought/'Why the rush?" Peters drove up to the door, and saw the sign "Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe" glowing dimly in the fog. She had opened the restaurant after her divorce. Roland Van West, a producer/director, suggested the two of them jointly go into the restaurant business. They would both have living quarters on the second floor and split the profits. It was his money, and Miss Todd's name. It was a 50-50 operation. West was supposedly the actress' best friend. If that were true, then why did he lock her out the night of the party? He had told her to be home by 2 a.m. because he was locking the door. Smiling, she replied she'd be home at five minutes after 2 a.m. Now Peters was in for his second surprise. He was used to escorting her to her apartment, but this time she sent him away. She ended their conversation saying, "I think I must

owe you, Ernie. Please send me the bill." It sounded final to him. It was, Tor Peters was the last person to see her alive. A week before her death she had visited her dressmaker and said, "I'm paying my bills now, while I have the money," she continued, "I don't know why I'm living the way I am, the way things are. There's going to be, a change in my life and its going to happen before the first of the year." Some see this comment and her words to Peters as an indication she knew something was going to happen. On Dec. 16, some 30 hours later, Mae Whitehead, Miss Todd's maid, began doing her daily tasks. One was to go to the Spanish Colonial-style garage and drive her mistress' chocolate brown Lincoln Phaeton down to the sidewalk and park it in front of the cafe. When Ms. Whitehead arrived, she noticed the right garage door was slightly ajar. She opened it the rest of the way only to find Miss Todd in the front seat of the car. At first she thought the actress was asleep. "Wake up, honey," she said. She noticed that Miss Todd's fingernails were a deep crimson like the rest of the "Ice Cream Blonde's " body. She had suffered Carbon Monoxide poisoning. How strange to remember Groucho Marx warning her in several of her movies; "Now be a good little girlie, or I'll lock you up in the garage." In no time headlines were shouting the news of her mysterious death. And crowds of people swarmed around her Pacific Palisades Cafe. A detective from the New York Homicide Bureau, on vacation, spotted the crowd. He looked at the sign that

read "Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe" and knew his vacation was over. He had investigated a scandal in New York about a mysterious letter sent to Miss Todd from Long Island City. The note read "Pay $lO,OOO to Abe Lyman, in NY. and live, if not, our San Francisco boys will lay you out. This is no joke, Thelma Todd," signed Rudy Schaeffer, Abe Lyman, Harvey Priester and Roland Van West. All

men that were supposedly friends of Miss Todd's. The actress' death cast of characters was bizarre enough to match any Hollywood movie plot. An L.A. Magazine retelling of the hearing said actors, producers, directors, playboys, etc . . . People lied and covered up on the stand. (The grand jury merely came to a conclusion that she died from carbon monoxide poisoning. But the answer satisfied few.)

The N.Y. detective duplicated the exact climb that, according to Los Angeles police, Miss Todd made the night of the tragedy. It was 270 steps that led from the back of the cafe straight up to the garage. Then a police woman, wearing shoes identical to those Miss Todd wore that night of the party, retraced her steps climbing those stairs. At the end of it, the shoes were badly scuffed. The ones found on the actress were as good as new. On the fatal night Miss Todd couldn't open her front door, for she had only one key and there were two locks. Rather than awaken West, she climbed up the 270 steps to seek shelter. What more natural place than the garage. She turned the ignition and put the heat on, perhaps unaware of the hazards of carbon monoxide poisoning. Soon the deadly fumes laid her to sleep. But that does not explain the blood from her nose and mouth and lacerations and bruises on her neck nor the broken false tooth. Who was Miss Todd in such a rush to meet the night of the party? Di Cicco had been one suggestion, but he denied he'd seen the actress after the party at the Trocadero. He'd only seen her half a dozen times since the divorce and only in social situations, he said. She had unknown enemies. She had received threatening notes from time to time, and she was in constant fear of her life during her last few months.

The time of death was pinpointed between 4 and 6 a.m. Sunday. But just as the investigation was finishing up for the day, a woman named Martha Ford claimed she had received a phone call from Miss Todd at 4 p.m. Sunday, some 12 hours after the supposed time of death. "I was giving a party Sunday afternoon at our home, to which 350 guests were invited " said Ms. Ford. The phone rang and Ms. Ford answered. It was Miss Todd. Ms. Ford said she had spoken to her on the telephone hundreds of times before. Miss Todd reportedly told Ms. Ford "You'll drop dead when you see who I am bringing with me to your party." Then she said as an afterthought, "Oh, and another thing, I went to a party last night and I'm still in evening clothes. Do you mind?" Then another witness, Jewell Carmen, West's estranged wife, told the police that she had seen Miss Todd at 11 p.m. Sunday at Sunset and Vine in her Lincoln with a man driving. He was dark, foreign looking and wore a dark suit and hat. That was 19 hours after the supposed time of death. The country autopsy surgeon, Dr. Wagner, backtracked by saying, "It is quite possible Miss Todd may have died after 4 p.m. Sunday. In this cold weather it is difficult to determine how long, in a matter of hours, a person has been dead." People were beginning to raise questions about the swelling and lacerations on the actress' throat. Those injuries weren't mentioned in the autopsy report. The actress' body was cremated before anyone could follow through on that line of investigation. Half a dozen witnesses claimed they had seen Miss Todd on Sunday. All swore under oath. Ronald A. Button, the actress' attorney, said publicly that he was convinced the actress had been murdered, and that it was the doing of the "underworld" who wanted in on the third floor of Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe for gambling and that's why she was killed, Button claimed. The description of the man that was seen with the blonde beauty the night after her actual death, could have fit Di Cicco or Lupino. Both would have made Martha Ford "drop dead" with surprise if she'd brought him to the party. Yet Jewell Carmen had later changed her story by .saying this time she couldn't really be sure it was Miss Todd because the woman was wearing a hat. Thelma Todd's death remains one of Santa Monica's most puzzling mysteries.

"Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe"

"Now be a good little girlie, or I'll lock you up in the garage."

"Oh, and another thing, I went to a party last night and I'm still dressed in evening clothes. Do you mind?"

COAST HIGHWAY LANDMARK—Restaurant-home of beautiful film star Thelma Todd still stands alongside the Pacific Coast Highway

DAVID LEE/Corsair