The Forgotten Flapper: A Novel of Olive Thomas

A presence lurks in New York City's New Amsterdam Theatre when the lights go down and the audience goes home. They say she's the ghost of OLIVE THOMAS, one of the loveliest girls who ever lit up the Ziegfeld Follies and the silent screen. From her longtime home at the theater, Ollie's ghost tells her story from her early life in Pittsburgh to her tragic death at twenty-five.

After winning a contest for “The Most Beautiful Girl in New York,” shopgirl Ollie modeled for the most famous artists in New York, and then went on to become the toast of Broadway. When Hollywood beckoned, Ollie signed first with Triangle Pictures, and then with MYRON SELZNICK's new production company, becoming most well known for her work as a “baby vamp,” the precursor to the flappers of the 1920s.

After a stormy courtship, she married playboy JACK PICKFORD, MARY PICKFORD's wastrel brother. Together they developed a reputation for drinking, club-going, wrecking cars, and fighting, along with giving each other expensive make-up gifts. Ollie's mysterious death in Paris' Ritz Hotel in 1920 was one of Hollywood's first scandals, ensuring that her legend lived on.

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The Forgotten Flapper: A Novel of Olive Thomas

A presence lurks in New York City's New Amsterdam Theatre when the lights go down and the audience goes home. They say she's the ghost of OLIVE THOMAS, one of the loveliest girls who ever lit up the Ziegfeld Follies and the silent screen. From her longtime home at the theater, Ollie's ghost tells her story from her early life in Pittsburgh to her tragic death at twenty-five.

After winning a contest for “The Most Beautiful Girl in New York,” shopgirl Ollie modeled for the most famous artists in New York, and then went on to become the toast of Broadway. When Hollywood beckoned, Ollie signed first with Triangle Pictures, and then with MYRON SELZNICK's new production company, becoming most well known for her work as a “baby vamp,” the precursor to the flappers of the 1920s.

After a stormy courtship, she married playboy JACK PICKFORD, MARY PICKFORD's wastrel brother. Together they developed a reputation for drinking, club-going, wrecking cars, and fighting, along with giving each other expensive make-up gifts. Ollie's mysterious death in Paris' Ritz Hotel in 1920 was one of Hollywood's first scandals, ensuring that her legend lived on.

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The Forgotten Flapper: A Novel of Olive Thomas

The Forgotten Flapper: A Novel of Olive Thomas

by Laini Giles

Narrated by Jen Taylor

Unabridged — 9 hours, 17 minutes

The Forgotten Flapper: A Novel of Olive Thomas

The Forgotten Flapper: A Novel of Olive Thomas

by Laini Giles

Narrated by Jen Taylor

Unabridged — 9 hours, 17 minutes

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Overview

A presence lurks in New York City's New Amsterdam Theatre when the lights go down and the audience goes home. They say she's the ghost of OLIVE THOMAS, one of the loveliest girls who ever lit up the Ziegfeld Follies and the silent screen. From her longtime home at the theater, Ollie's ghost tells her story from her early life in Pittsburgh to her tragic death at twenty-five.

After winning a contest for “The Most Beautiful Girl in New York,” shopgirl Ollie modeled for the most famous artists in New York, and then went on to become the toast of Broadway. When Hollywood beckoned, Ollie signed first with Triangle Pictures, and then with MYRON SELZNICK's new production company, becoming most well known for her work as a “baby vamp,” the precursor to the flappers of the 1920s.

After a stormy courtship, she married playboy JACK PICKFORD, MARY PICKFORD's wastrel brother. Together they developed a reputation for drinking, club-going, wrecking cars, and fighting, along with giving each other expensive make-up gifts. Ollie's mysterious death in Paris' Ritz Hotel in 1920 was one of Hollywood's first scandals, ensuring that her legend lived on.


Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"A film buff"s dream, wrapped in the decadence and glamour of a bygone era." - Kirkus Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

2015-10-13
In Giles' (Love Lies Bleeding, 2015) novel, the ghost of actress Olive Thomas recounts her previous life as a model, chorus girl, and silent-film star. The spirit of the actress haunts Manhattan's New Amsterdam Theatre, once the home of the Ziegfeld Follies, in which Olive performed. The apparition recollects her modest beginnings in a Pennsylvania coal mining town, getting married too young, and working as a shopgirl in New York where she's "discovered" and becomes a model for artists such as Howard Chandler Christy and Harrison Fisher. After using her connections to become a Ziegfeld Girl, she performs in both the Follies and the more risqué rooftop Frolic; she also begins an affair with her married boss, Florenz Ziegfeld. After he refuses to leave his family for her, Olive takes a heartbroken trip to California, where she meets Jack Pickford, the notorious playboy and brother of Mary Pickford, and they have an exciting yet volatile marriage. Her beauty and enthusiasm open many doors into the world of silent film; however, she struggles with Jack's alcoholism and indiscriminate infidelities. These dalliances inadvertently bring about her early end; she accidentally drinks a mercury solution, her husband's syphilis treatment. Though a tragic figure, Olive unapologetically indulges in the excess of the early 20th century by being sassy, savvy but never cynical, and sexually vibrant. Giles employs an easy style and modest creative license backed by obsessive research. The book's only noteworthy shortcoming is its failure to explore one of Olive's more noteworthy claims to fame: her early death was one of the first heavily publicized scandals, and as a ghost, the starlet would have been uniquely positioned to comment on it. That said, nearly every page features at least a passing reference, if not an appearance, by a Hollywood legend, from the Pickfords to the Selznicks to F. Scott Fitzgerald. These are joined by lesser-remembered figures such as actors Blanche Ring and George Chesebro and the cross-dressing performer Julian Eltinge. The author includes an impressive reading list to explore these personalities further. A film buff"s dream wrapped in the decadence and glamour of a bygone era.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940178859599
Publisher: Sepia Stories Publishing
Publication date: 11/06/2019
Series: Forgotten Actresses , #1
Edition description: Unabridged
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