Even in the silent era, Hollywood had its fair share of scandals, but few were more scandalous than that of one of cinema’s first great power couples, Jack Pickford and Olive Thomas.
The younger brother of the silent movie starlet Mary Pickford, Jack was a promising young star who had cultivated a “boy next door” persona both on screen and in the press.
Olive Thomas was a former Ziegfeld showgirl and dancer, who was busy making a successful leap from the stage to the screen when she and Jack met by chance at a café in Santa Monica in 1916. Within a matter of months, they were married.
Olive, however, soon discovered that Jack’s on-screen and public persona were a long way from his real-life behavior. A heavy drinker and womanizer, he had a string of lovers and affairs, and by the late 1919’s, their marriage was on the rocks. Jack had joined the US Navy towards the end of the First World War—reportedly only in an ill-fated attempt to woo Olive back—but when it emerged, he had been bribing officers to ensure that he was given undemanding assignments far away from the front line, he was court-martialed and dishonorably discharged.
The scandal served only to worsen his reputation and his marriage. In the summer of 1920, in a last-ditch attempt to save their relationship, he arranged a second honeymoon and left for Paris with Olive.
It was there, on September 5, 1920, that Jack and Olive returned to their hotel after a long night of partying at around 3 a.m., at which point, Olive reportedly took a huge dose of mercury bichloride. The chemical was a common treatment for syphilis at the time but was fatal in large enough quantities. Sure enough, Olive passed away in hospital four days later.
When the news of her death broke back in Hollywood, rumors began to swirl that Jack had deliberately poisoned Olive to claim on her life insurance; that she had committed suicide to escape their doomed relationship; or that Olive had taken the poison when she discovered her husband’s long string of infidelities.
Whatever the truth, the scandal had claimed the life of one of Hollywood’s most promising young actresses. As for Jack, he went on to marry a further two times but fell into depression and alcoholism and died at the age of 36 in 1933.
For good reason, the pair’s extraordinary story has since become known as the “First Great Hollywood Scandal.”