Thelma Todd – a silent film star (her movie resume here) – known as “the ice-cream blonde” – was murdered on December 16, 1935 (the story of the notoriously shoddy and suspect investigation, etc., is in that link.) The murder has never been satisfactorily solved. If you do a quick Google search of Thelma Todd you will see how many sites are devoted to this actress, to her death, and to re-opening the investigation. Kinda like the Black Dahlia. A TV movie was made in 1991 called White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd with Loni Anderson as Thelma Todd. Hmmmmm. Not seein’ it. Anyway – it’s just one of those long-enduring Hollywood mysteries (like the death of Paul Bern), something people obsess about. There’s always something a bit gruesomely romantic about an unsolved mystery.
All of this is just to say: How cool is this? A Thelma Todd celebration in New Hampshire – a 3-day local festival! Thelma Todd was from Lawrence, Massachusetts – her family (or later generations of it) still live in the area.
I’m actually going to be up that way at the end of July – so I might have to take a day-trip and go check it out.
But with Thelma Todds 100th birthday approaching this summer, Stevenson decided to stage a special event. And so (drum roll, please), next month Manchester will play host to a full-fledged three-day festival of vintage movie screenings.
Some films will feature Todd, of course; others will be rare prints of obscure films of interest to scholars and collectors. The festival is organized to take place mostly in Manchesters downtown area, with screenings at UNH Manchester and accommodations for out-of-town guests at the Radisson. The word is already out in the vintage film community; its expected to attract devotees from far and wide to the Queen City for screenings and discussions.
Thanks to the my daily pitstop site Trouble in Paradise
Based on that picture, I’d think Kate Hudson for the biopic, though the face is more Kirsten Dunst-ish. I hope the festival totally rocks.
She was actually very Carole Lombardish … Wise-cracking, tough, funny – the Marx brothers loved her.
That celebration sounds like a lot of fun. She was a real looker. Loni Anderson? Uhhhhh…no.