Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-09-11
Probe Tragic End
of Olive Thomas

amid surroundings such as I have de-
scribed
Should Clean Up Paris
"Thcre are now in Paris hundreds
Of Americans who are destitute, yet
they enjoyed prosperity in their own
country. They have been ruined utterly
by the accurscd lure of the modern
Babylon.
"They now spend their time in vir-
tually continuous state of intoxica-
tion from wine and worse.
"Washington should send another
undesirable ark, similar to tho ono in
which Emma Goldman and the other
Reds were deported. to clean up Paris
of the hordcs of good citizens now rush
ing to total perdition.
"Until that is done, until the women
are forbidden to make shameful eXhi-
btions of their forms in places which,
under tho name of dance halls, are
nothing less than twentieth century re-
productions of the Gracco Roman or
gies. the souls and the lives OF unso-
phisticated American girls and young
men arc not safe in Paris.
Mrs. Gary Deplores Tragedy
Mrs. Ebert II. Gary, wife Of the
chairman of the United States Steel
Corporation, said:
81 am drcadfully upset by the tragic
death Of the beautiful. sweet Olive
Thomas and would like to say some
| thing concerning the Paris life, but /
feel that an American is not entitled
to criticize a foreign country.
"The French run Paris according
TO their lights. Americans should keep
| ~. lf.. ~ y
To see ''real old time Paris Olive
Thomas on Saturday night. accompanied
by several friends. visited the Dead
Rat. the most famous OF tho MontmartrC
resorts. She appeared to be in the
highest spirits, though so tired that some
of her ntimates warned her that she
would collapse il she persisted in burn
ing the candle at both ends.
Not needing this. she remained at the
Dead Rat until the closing hour. | a.
M. and Immediately thereafter started
on a taxicab round of the clandcstine re-
sorts which always open to the magic
key-gold
Bitter Words With Husband
At 4 n. m. she arrived back at the
Ritz, where she found her husband
Jack Pickford, bitterly reSentful. Al
this time she was scarcely normal, being
extremely excited.
After listening to her husbands re-
mOnstrances she was apparently seized
with fit of despondency. She went
to the bathroom.
Immediately afterward, with pierc
ing scream, she rushed to the bedroom
CRYING to her husband:
i've taken poison ~
Without losing a moment he forced
her to drink hot salt water and BIZ
carbonate of soda, meantime applying
violent massage to create a quick re
action. The hotel doctor responded Ia
an alarm. He effected quick transfer
TO the hospital in the Pickford car. DR.,
Joseph Choate. of Los Angeles, a family
friend, being in Paris, was summoned
and took charge of the case.
Realizing at once its gravity, he tele
graphed for eminent specialists.
New York, Sept. 11.-Olive Thomas
who died yesterday in Paris from
poisoning, was known to Broadway n,
"thc girl with thousand sweethearts. y
During the several seasons she was with
various Ziegfeld shows. she posed foI
magazine covers by noted artists. Sh,
did not enter the screen world unit
1917, the same year that she married
Mary Pickford's brother, Jack. A
cablegram of sympathy was sent to .Jacl
| Pickford by Charles Chaplin, who is il
New York.
Fort Lee, n. j., Sept. 11.-Th,
motion. picture world generally mourn,
Olive Thomas's death. At the Sell
nick stu' %, where Miss Thomas did her
last work before the camera, it was
pXnpctp1 that offciala of fhn onn,n...
| would Immediately direct some obsery
] ance; Myron selznick, head Of thu
( studio, said:
Miss Tbomas was tha most no,,,,,..