Conspiracy Theories: What Happened to Thelma Todd By: Kristy Vaughn

Imagine being locked into a car that was slowly filling with cough inducing gas, slowly slipping into oblivion as the poison does its work. Thelma Todd experienced this unfortunate fate. Why would such a talented, beautiful actress choose such a fate for herself? Was it an accident or done with nefarious purposes? Thelma Todd was a well-known talented actress, who was thriving in life, with little to no indication of suicidal tendencies. Because of this more than a few speculations have arisen in the less than satisfactory investigation by the police.

Was Thelma Todd killed by the mob?

Was Thelma Todd killed by her lover?

Was she killed by her parents for the money?

With exploring what happened to her and delving deep into her mysterious death to reveal the truth, is the darker side of humanity revealed with the prime suspects being her parents?

Thelma Todd was in the prime of her life and height of her career when she met her unfortunate end. She was a character with a wit about her that made her great at comedy, which gave her a foot hold for her career to start from. “…Thelma went to Hollywood in the late 1920’s and soon became one of the primer comediennes of her day, with many appearances in comedy shorts and also feature-length movies” (Thelma Todd). These appearances made her a better actor and added to her fame as a comedian, growing her popularity in the public eye.

With this to start her career she captured her first starring role in Seven Foot Prints to Satan as Eve Martin in 1929 (Thelma Todd). From there her title credits kept rising. “She began appearing in one-and two-reel shorts, mostly comedy, which showcased her keen comic timing and aptitude for physical comedy” (Thelma Todd). With these films bringing a spot light to her comedic talent, Thelma soon started picking up more important roles in full feature-length movies. As “In 1935, she appeared in such films as Twin Triplets (1935) and The Misses Stooge (1935), all showcasing her considerable comic talents” (Thelma Todd). These movies help establish her as a comedian among her colleges and in the public eye.

Thelma Todd was also very charismatic in her professional life as well as her personal life. “But unlike countless other girls who get their start only because of screenable features, and who have fallen by the wayside during this year of drastic changes in the motion pictures industry, Thelma Todd has survived the upheaval by reason of her varied talents” (Thelma Todd Example of New Type of Leading Woman.). This shows her charismatic nature to not only survive but to thrive in an unsteady world. With her charisma leading her to bigger and better roles she quickly became a star and a sought-after actor. “Thelma Todd is coming to be known as the blonde menace of the films. Vivacious, with personality plus, she’s the vamping chorus girl again in Buster Keaton’s “Speak Easily”. Although under contract to Hal Roach, Thelma is continually sought by other companies” (The New Movie Magazine). Back in the early days of movies, the actors signed a contract that only allowed them to make movies with the company that held their contract, so since Motion Picture held her contract she could not do any movies for the other companies. With her talent and charisma making it easier for her to form good working relationships, it was no wonder that other companies would want her to work for them.

Thelma Todd also had kindness on top of all these other traits. This proves its self as she was a teacher before she was an actress. “This lovely comedy heroine took up school teaching as her profession, and had been teaching a year when her opportunity came to go into motion pictures” (Thelma Todd Example of New Type of Woman). Being a teacher is no easy task and a very important quality for a teacher to have is kindness. It takes someone who cares about others to be able to want to teach others.

Being a caring and beautiful woman with self-confidence, certainly gave Thelma a recipe for success. Thelma “won the title of “Miss Massachusetts” in 1925, and went on to the “Miss America” pageant” (Thelma Todd). Even though she did not win the title of “Miss America”, it does give us another example of how caring and self-assured she must have been. It takes a lot of self-confidence to get up on stage, let alone to be judged by your looks and character in front of an audience.

Thelma was also a trend setter. She loved being in fashion and looking her best and did things to set her apart from the crowed. “In the face of the wave of masculinity that threatens us Thelma Todd’s imaginative and romantic coiffure offers welcome contrast” (PhotoPlay’s Hollywood Beauty shop). Thelma had enough confidence in herself to sport a different hairstyle then what was in fashion at the time. Being a public figure, this was risky. Any mistake or ‘bad hair day’ would be on display for the world to see. By doing little things like this shows how confident she was in herself.

Over the years there has been two main theories clouding the air around Thelma Todd’s unfortunate demise, did the mob have its way or did a disgruntled lover want to teach a tragic lesson? There is also a third not many explore, could the parents have done it for money?

Thelma was seen having dinner the night she was last alive with a man-‘Lucky’ Luciano who was well known for having ties with the mob. Apparently, it was not going well, with Todd refusing Luciano’s offer of putting a casino in her lucrative café. Eye witnesses say that Thelma responded with ‘over my dead body’ before throwing her napkin down on the table and storming out and he calmly responded to her retreating back ‘that can be arranged’ (Thelma Todd Mysteries & Scandals). With this interaction it gave fire to the idea that the mob or Lucky Luciano, had something to do with her untimely demise. One major flaw with this idea is, why didn’t they get the café after her death? The mob was never able to put in that casino. In fact, it was passed on to her lover Roland West and his estranged wife, who ended up giving it to a small film company once West failed at running it. If the mob had done in Thelma Todd, they would have surly gotten what they wanted and turned the café in to their private little cash cow.

Roland West was the undeclared lover of Thelma Todd. He was married but estranged from his wife, and had a house abutting Thelma’s to make there trysts easier. Not being happy with Thelma’s social life and a failing directing career, could he have wanted to teach her a tragic lesson? For what reasons might he have wanted to kill her?

The profitable café that was named after Thelma Todd herself was very successful and popular with high society, with its ownership shared between Thelma, Roland, and his estranged wife. Mr. West was a director and made enough money to keep him comfortable. One theory is that he wanted this café all to himself, so he could be a successful businessman instead of a failed director. It is said his plain would be to lock her out on purpose at night. Once she had failed to get in she would go back down to the car. He would then lock her into the garage with the deadly car and unlock it the following morning, before she was discovered. Since he did get the café after Thelma’s death this dose make some sense, but the café failed miserably under his hand and he never made another movie again. He also gave the café over to his estranged wife when he final gave up on it.

The other idea is that he locked her out on purpose to teach her a lesson for her late-night life style. They had had many fights over it and West was not happy about it one bit. He fell under suspicion by police, but nothing came of it. It is rumored that on his death bed he claimed it was his fault Thelma died. This could simply be guilt, or it could be an honest confession.

Everyone is capable of unspeakable acts given the right motivation. With a gambling father and a over bearing mother, could they have killed their only daughter for her money? Thelma from an early age was used by her mother. Forcing her to quite teaching and become a star instead. First as a pageant queen and then as a movie star. It seems her mother was never content with her daughters’ achievements and always wanted more from her. On the other hand, her father was a politician and rumored to have a gambling problem.

With Thelma’s death being ruled as a suicide but then changed to accidental death, this would allow her parents to collect her money and any insurance she had. Thelma had a lot of money to be given in the event of her death. Her mother was said to have acted very strange upon arriving at her daughters house the morning she was found. Exclaiming “‘My daughter has been murdered!’ this was before she saw the body, she had just stepped out of the car” (Thelma Todd Mysteries & Scandals). This is a very interesting reaction to arriving at her daughter’s house. She didn’t ask to see her, she didn’t want to know what had happened. Instead she thought of murder. A friend of Alice Todd the mother of Thelma Todd, was said to have heard Alice bragging about ‘coming into some money very soon’ shortly before Thelma was found. Then again all of this could be explained as simple coincidence, and a mother’s want to have a successful happy child. Thelma’s ashes were even buried along with her mother in her grave.

Exploring the different theories that could have happened to Thelma; the mobster, the lover, or her parents, it will sadly always be just that, theories. Everyone who knew her or what happened have now passed away. There is one more option that is so simple it could possibly be the truest of them all. It could have been an accident as she wanted to keep warm from the cold and forgot to open a door for ventilation. But with my survey of 21 people 5% said it was an accident, 19% said she committed suicide, and 76% said she was murdered, the theory of murder remains forefront in the mind and shines a dark light on humanity.

After everything Thelma Todd has been through it is hard to put her to rest when still so many questions remaining alive in her place. With exploring what happened to her and delving deep into her mysterious death to reveal the truth about what happened that night may find the parents with blood on their hands. The closest any of us will ever get to the truth is what little evidence remains and the movies that Thelma made to keep her legacy alive.