Olive Thomas: The Poisoned Chalice

For the next three episodes Tales of History and Imagination is going Hollywood, with three related - but separate Tales. In 1919, many of the folks who brought America Prohibition of alcohol turned their sights on a new ‘peril’ - the Movie industry. These joyless wowsers were convinced Hollywood was an evil, decadent place that needed shutting down.  Hollywood took these people seriously, and by 1934 had bound itself to a restrictive morality code. Why did they do so? For one, Tinseltown was rocked by a number of serious scandals in the 1920s. We’re looking at three of the bigger ones in the following weeks, the Fatty Arbuckle case, the murder of William Desmond Taylor - and first, the story of Olive Thomas - Hollywood’s first scandal.  Sources this week include: (Sorry all, I’ll fill in later this week) The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial.  | Patreon | Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on  | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. Visit Simone’s | About Me | Twitter |