The Ice Cream Blonde: The Whirlwind Life and Mysterious Death of Screwball Comedienne Thelma Todd, by Michelle Morgan
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The Ice Cream Blonde: The Whirlwind Life and Mysterious Death of Screwball Comedienne Thelma Todd, by Michelle Morgan
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A beloved film comedienne who worked alongside the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, and dozens of others, Thelma Todd was a rare Golden Age star who successfully crossed over from silent films to talkies. This authoritative new biography traces Todd’s life from a vivacious little girl who tried to assuage her parents’ grief over her brother’s death, to an aspiring teacher turned reluctant beauty queen, to an outspoken movie starlet and restaurateur. Increasingly disenchanted with Hollywood, in 1934 Todd opened Thelma Todd’s Sidewalk Café, a hot spot that attracted fans, tourists, and celebrities. Despite success in film and business, privately the beautiful actress was having a difficult year–receiving disturbing threats from a stranger known as the Ace and having her home ransacked–when she was found dead in a garage near her café. An inquest concluded that her death, at age just twenty-nine, was accidental, but in a thorough new investigation that draws on interviews, photographs, documents, and extortion notes–much of these not previously available to the public–Michelle Morgan offers a compelling new theory, suggesting the sequence of events on the night of her death and arguing what many people have long suspected: that Thelma was murdered. But by whom? The suspects include Thelma’s movie-director lover, her would-be-gangster ex-husband, and the thugs who were pressuring her to install gaming tables in her popular café–including a new, never-before-named mobster. This fresh examination on the eightieth anniversary of the star's death is sure to interest any fan of Thelma Todd, of Hollywood's Golden Age, or of gripping real-life murder mysteries.
The Ice Cream Blonde: The Whirlwind Life and Mysterious Death of Screwball Comedienne Thelma Todd, by Michelle Morgan- Amazon Sales Rank: #271747 in Books
- Published on: 2015-11-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x 1.00" w x 6.00" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 288 pages
Review “The Ice Cream Blonde is a riveting mystery about the death of Thelma Todd. It’s also an eerie exploration of the Todd dichotomy—breezy comedienne on the one hand; serious businesswoman with underworld connections on the other. Highly recommended.” —Robert Matzen, author of Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3 “an engrossing and accessible biography.” —Retroist "The Ice Cream Blonde is revealing, insightful, compelling, interesting, and entertaining." —Examiner.com“The Ice Cream Blonde gives an engaging and balanced look at the fascinating life and notorious death of Thelma Todd. Michelle Morgan proves once again that she is expert researcher who can tackle a controversial subject justly, and through her, Thelma Todd becomes much more than just a scandalous Hollywood footnote.” —Christina Rice, author Ann Dvorak: Hollywood's Forgotten Rebel"In Ice Cream Blonde, biographer Michelle Morgan shows us why Thelma Todd was so beloved to her family, co-workers, and fans. In the final riveting chapters, Morgan exposes the dangerous world Todd lived in and the shadowy figures she let into her life. Finally, 80 years after her death, we understand why Todd's last days were more unsettling and disturbing than any role Hollywood could have written for her." —Michael G. Ankerich, author of Mae Murray: The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips"Author Morgan does meticulous work, not only about all the strangeness surrounding Todd's death, but the actresses' slow, steady and mostly unsatisfying climb." —New York Social Diary"a great read, and also timely." —Huffington Post“Morgan presents a biography sure to appeal to fans of Hollywood’s Golden Era rich in significant details about Todd’s life and aimed at ending speculation about the death of this versatile actress.” —Booklist“A truly exceptional and impressively researched biography that reads as smoothly as any riveting suspense novel.” —The Midwest Book Review“Morgan digs into the complexities of Thelma's last night, and the events that would follow, with a strong investigative eye.” — indieWIRE“This is a well-researched and invigorating celebration of a talent that does not deserve to be forgotten.” —EDGE“a good read, especially for anyone interested in the heyday of Hollywood with all its dirty little secrets.” —New York Journal of Books
About the Author Michelle Morgan is the author of The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals, The Mammoth Book of Madonna, and several books about Marilyn Monroe: Marilyn Monroe: Private and Confidential, Before Marilyn: The Blue Book Modeling Years, and Marilyn’s Addresses: A Fan’s Guide to the Places She Knew.
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Most helpful customer reviews
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful. What a warm and wonderful gal Thelma Todd was By Lea S. What a warm and wonderful gal Thelma Todd was. Smart, classy, and enviably beautiful, she livened up numerous comedies featuring Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, Louise Fazenda, Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, Joe E. Brown, and many other famous laughmakers. Watching her performances reminds us how much was lost with her untimely death in 1936.Michelle Morgan presents a careful account of Todd's life, from her early years as a tomboyish child to her unusual entry into silent era Hollywood via the “Paramount School” to her busy career as a rowdy Depression era comedienne. Her research is detailed and well-balanced. Considering that Todd’s excellent work is often ignored in favor of the gossip surrounding her tragic death, such research is extremely welcome. Not that Morgan avoids talking about Todd's death--she covers it thoroughly, relying on the facts and using common sense (a valuable tool!) to analyze the available evidence. I was impressed to see that Todd’s well known death photos were tastefully excluded–now that’s the mark of a respectful work.A major selling point for this book were Morgan's theories on just how Todd ended up in that garage. Being a hardcore fan of Hollywood's early days who likes to devour as much info as possible, I'm not an easy sell on current authors' theories about famous scandals, but Morgan's ideas were certainly convincing to me. (No, Lucky Luciano wasn’t involved.) Like with so many other celebrity tragedies we will probably never know what happened with 100% certainty, but Morgan’s theories are the most sound one to date.I’m happy to report that "The Ice Cream Blonde" is part of a growing trend of solid biographies that actually realize their subjects were real people. The era of unscrupulous authors spreading around ugly gossip and carelessly muddying the facts is finally–mercifully–beginning to die. It will probably never fade away completely, but thanks to the Internet anyone who tries to sell any Hollywood Babylon-inspired nonsense is going to have to face the Amazon reviews.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. A very interesting book By The Reviewer Formerly Known as Kurt Johnson Thelma Todd was a Hollywood star of the 1920s and 30s, widely known for her beauty. She made movies with the Marx Brothers, and Laurel and Hardy, and Buster Keaton, and Jimmy Durante. And she was well known for the comedy shorts she made with ZaSu Pitts and Patsy Kelly.On December 18, 1935, she was discovered dead at the wheel of her car, dead of carbon monoxide poisoning. This book tells the story of Ms. Todd, her early life, her meteoric rise in Hollywood, and her tragic death. Going further, the author gives us her ideas on what really happened on that December day.Overall, I found this to be a very interesting book. The author did a good job of presenting Ms. Todd’s story in an interesting and informative manner. I found it to be an interesting look at the Hollywood of the 20s and 30s. The author’s speculation about what happened is interesting, and though it can never be proved, it is nonetheless an interesting and reasonable theory.So, if you are interested in Thelma Todd, or just in the Hollywood of the late 20s and early 30s, then I do think that you will enjoy this book. I know I did!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Well-Researched Book About a Short Life By Eric Schultz This is a fine new biography of Thelma Todd, a film actress in the 1920s and '30s, who was very talented and had good comic timing. She co-starred in many films with other great comedians of her time, such as Laurel & Hardy, Charley Chase, Zasu Pitts, Buster Keaton, Patsy Kelly and The Marx Brothers. She also was in many dramatic flms as well, and would have had a long and distinguished career, but she was suddenly found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in her garage in December, 1935. Although some wrote off her death as a suicide, she was looking forward, and planning for her future. She had just mailed many Christmas cards, which her many friends received after her death.There was another book about her in the '80s- the "hot toddy" book, which was written with a sensationalist slant and dubious accuracy (whole passages based on one anonymous source, etc.). Four years ago, there was another book on her by William Donati, which I still haven't read, but is apparently a serious work of research. This new book is also a proper work of research, which lists its sources, plus includes many notes on each chapter. The author, Michelle Morgan, has really done a fine thing in writing this book. It is a full biography of Thelma Todd, and goes into descriptions of many of her performances in a great number of films, without being too lengthy. The book's narration is sympathetic to Thelma, while remaining pretty objective throughout.Of course, it is impossible to talk about Thelma Todd's life without going into the mysterious circumstances of her death. One thing that made me sad in the book is that we are reading about a living person who is looking to the future (buying Christmas presents and mailing out cards), and then only a few pages later, we are reading about the examination of the body of someone who had died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Michelle Morgan examines the different theories of what happened (whether Thelma's death was by accident, suicide or murder) in a balanced, objective way. When she offers her own idea of what might have happened, she clearly presents it as her own speculation, and invites readers to reach their own conclusions.I wish that this book had included a filmography, but that is the only thing that seems to be missing from an otherwise excellent book. The author did provided a long bibiography of other books and articles about Thelma Todd, has complete notes on sources and a full index. This is definitely a worthwhile book, and helps give us a fuller picture of her career and life in general. I'm certainly glad that I read it, and found it very interesting.
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