A charming Mack Sennett short about female track team preparing to compete with the rival college. (Of course, in the 1920's sports was à la mode!) However, the coach Minnie Marmon (Daphne Pollard) seems to have problems getting her team ready, as her running star Norma Nurmi (Carole Lombard) is a great example of when she the night before the competition tries to sneak out to meet her boyfriend. Read:
"The track team hadn't won a race since the Dead Sea took sick."
This short is really amusing, much for two reasons:
The explaining text between the film clips almost always have a funny double meaning. For example:
"Norma Nurmi, star athlete --- once ran a mile in almost nothing --- and was nearly expelled for it."
There is a great chemistry between the two main actors, Lombard and Pollard.
Obviously, Lombard and Pollard were extremely good friends during the time they spent working for Sennett, and any stories about practical jokes they amused themselves with have been written. And aren't they a gorgeous couple? The tall, slender flapper-Lombard and the 4,9" (145 cm), stumbling Pollard ("a one-cylinder model with an underslung chassis" according to the film). It simply can't go wrong!
I am also that strange kind of person who like to watch the IMDb profiles for unknown extras. For example, the big woman playing "large student" in Run, Girl, Run - how was her career?
Her name was Madalynne Field, she was a friend and secretary of Lombard's, and her filmography contains of roles like three times "uncredited", once "extra", once "bit role" and twice "Fat girl".
Well, what do you think about this more girly touch? I thought that since my personality is so masculine, maybe I should place greater emphasis on the fact that I, indeed, am a woman. (You have probably had your doubts by this time.)
So - pink, pink, pink, some black dots and a wonderful cartoon self on the header, that my dear friend draw to me once when I needed some encourage. That will be the look of my blog for a while.
I will celebrate this new appearance with some charming bloopers from the filming of My Man Godfrey (1936). Carole Lombard's relaxed and "bawdy" personality really shines through when she misses the lines, irreplacable!
Wonderful Kate Gabrielle gave me the Friendly Blogger Award from her new flapper doodle blog. She's so sweet. I have no idea whether the award means that I'm a friendly blogger, or if my blog is friendly (?), but I'm very grateful! I put my guess on the first alternative, since I don't know how "blog friendly" Betty Page striptease videos and photos of a dead Thelma Todd is...
Anyway - it's time for me to deal the award to friendly bloggers! And the first award goes to... Kate Gabrielle for her original blog Silents and Talkies! That, my dear friends, is a friendly blog! Always interesting, funny and surprising. Check it out if you haven't!
Other blog winners are:
Manuel at Coisas do arco da velha - You'll never know what's up next on his frequently updated blog! Is it classic film stars? Is it surrealistic paintings? Campy film clips or erotic art?
The Classic Maiden - A devoted classic film nerd who updates us of every single film she sees, whether it's pre-code films or Japanese anime. And she has an on-going project of viewing almost all of Kay Francis' films.
Alexis at Ingrid Bergman Life and Films - How could one not love a blog dedicated to everything about and around the Swedish wonder Ingrid Bergman? And when it's done in such an honourable and yet easily accessible way.
Robby Cress at Dear Old Hollywood - It's always fascinating to read about his escapades around and among the buildings of the golden age of Hollywood. Robby writes his posts in a way that makes you feel welcome and absorbed.
C. K. Dexter Haven at Hollywood Dreamland - I always give him an award, and he deserves them all! If you love the gone days of Hollywood, check out this popular blog.
An last, but not at all least: Jonas at All Talking! All Singing! All Dancing! - Jonas specializes in his passion of the early talkie era of Hollywood. Always fascinating reading, and as I said to him a couple of days ago: What lacks in frequency of his blog posts is well covered with quality and passion. This is by far one of my favourite blogs!
I tried to deal the award to blogs that Kate didn't already give it to, and I hope that no one is left crying in despair! If so, maybe he/she/it will be happy by a colorized photo of Gary-the-divine-Cooper and Jean Arthur I made today. Peace out!
Yet another sad Hollywood fate. Thelma Todd was an American actress, best remembered for her comedic parts in the Marx Brother's films Horse Feathers (1932) and Monkey Business (1931). Although her life was ended tragically and mysteriously at the age of 30, she appeared in no less than 115 films.
Thelma Todd was born in late July, 1905, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. As a young woman she was a bright and successful student, who aimed to be a school teacher. She did however in her late teens attend beauty contests, and in 1925 she won the title of Miss Massachusetts. It was while presenting her home state in the competition that a Hollywood talent scout spotted her and presented her to the film industry.
During the silent era Thelma got many parts, exposing her beauty rather than getting the chance to act, and became famous among audiences as The Ice Cream Blonde. Among friends she was nicknamed Hot Toddy, a name she from time to time used when writing autographs. When the talkies started to take over the film industry, Thelma's acting was more taken advantage of. She became a famous comedienne, working with comedians like Laurel & Hardy, Harry Langdon, Charley Chase, Buster Keaton, Wheeler & Woolsey, Joe E. Brown - not to mention The Marx Brothers.
Scene: Thelma and Buster Keaton are drunk in Speak Easily (1932).Buster seems a little troubled.
In 1931 producer Hal Roach teamed Thelma up with ZaSu Pitts in an attempt to make a female slapstick comedy couple like Laurel & Hardy. In 1933 Pitts was replaced by Patsy Kelly.
Thelma and Patsy Kelly in Air Fright (1933). (Where does Patsy have her hands...?)
Even though Thelma obviously had a talent for comedy, she also starred in several dramas, like the 1931 pre-code version of The Maltese Falcon (re-filmed with a less "lewd" content in 1941). The same year Thelma was hired by director Roland West (with whom she had an affair) for a gangster epic called Corsair. To remove the air of slapstick from his heroine he re-named her Alison Lloyd. The film was, however, a flop at the box office. During this time Thelma also proved to be a smart business woman by the opening of her own café, called Thelma Todd Sidewalk Café, popular among Hollywood celebrities and tourists.
As the treacherous widow Iva Archer in The Maltese Falcon.
The next year, 1932, Thelma eloped with an Italian playboy named Pasquale "Pat" DiCicco - nicknamed "The Glamour Boy of Hollywood". This was the beginning of the end for Thelma. Pat was reportedly linked to the famous gangster "Lucky" Luciano, and his relationship with Thelma was very turbulent. At one point Thelma had to be taken to a hospital for an emergency appendectomy after one of his beatings. Thelma began drinking heavily, and after having bumped into too many cars while drinking and driving, the studio chose to pay for a chauffeur. DiCicco and Todd divorced in 1934.
Pat DiCicco watches Thelma putting on some lipstick.
Thelma's last film appearance was in Laurel & Hardy's full-length feature The Bohemian Girl (1936). She died after completing all of her scenes, but many of them had to be re-shot. Producer Hal Roach decided to limit the scenes Thelma was in, worrying for bad publicity after her death.
Thelma in her last role as "The gypsy queen's daughter" in The Bohemian Girl. (Colorized by Lolita)
One morning, in the middle of December 1935, Thelma was found dead in her car inside the garage of Jewel Carmen, a former actress and ex-wife to Thelma's former lover Roland West. Carmen's apartment was situated one block away from the topmost side of Todd's restaurant. Her death was determined to have been caused by carbon monoxide poisoning, and was labelled as a suicide. There are however a lot of circumstances that points in another directions, and up to this day the case is still unsolved. For one thing, Thelma's friends had never seen her depressed or acting in any way that would worry about a suicide. Another, very interesting, fact is that besides celebrities and tourists, underworld gangsters also was attracted to Thelma's nightclub café. There is a theory that they were trying to take over the club, and that Thelma by refusing got very dangerous enemies. Another strange thing about Thelma's death was what was found in her stomach during the autopsy - peas. Nothing strange about that, if it weren't for the fact that they didn't serve any peas at the party she had attended during that night. Also - her make up was perfect, except for her lipstick that was smudged.
Thelma as she was found dead in the garage.
The police carrying Thelma's body away.
Another theory is that Thelma's ex-lover Roland West, known to have been very possessive about her, had gone frustrated about Thelma's social life and many friends, and had locked her into the garage. According to that theory the death was accidental. There are a whole lot of other theories, but the question is if any of them are nearer the truth than those I've already mentioned.
"You're a woman who's been getting nothing but dirty breaks. Well we can clean and tighten your brakes, but you'll have to stay in the garage all night."
Groucho Marx to Thelma Todd in Monkey Business
In her will, Thelma left all her money to her mother - and one dollar to DeCicco. The D.A. who closed Thelma's case shot himself in 1973.
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