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On this day in NY history: Showgirl's ghost haunts NYC theater
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Olive Thomas Pickford
Special Project: Halloween
New Amsterdam Theatre: Opened Oct. 26, 1903
Olive Thomas Pickford: Died Sept. 10, 1920
The New Amsterdam Theatre, at 214 West 42nd Street and Broadway, has been home to numerous plays, musicals ... and the ghost of Olive Thomas Pickford, a Ziegfeld showgirl, who is said to roam the theatre since her death at 25, 86 years ago.
Not much is known about Olive Thomas's early life. Best known for her beauty and her troubled marriage to actor Jack Pickford, she was born in 1894 in McKee's Rocks, near Pittsburgh, PA. By 1914, at age 20, she moved to New York to become an actress. Instead, she became a showgirl in the then-infamous Ziegfeld Follies. She was popular with men and spent two years in Ziegfeld's even more infamous Midnight Frolic, which featured nearly naked showgirls clad only in balloons, allowing the virtually all male audience to burst the balloons with their cigars.
In 1916, at 22, she met 20-year-old actor Jack Pickford, the brother of silent screen star Mary Pickford known for his wild partying. Screenwriter Frances Marion remarked, "...I had seen Olive often at Jack Pickford's home. They were the wildest brats ... who ever stirred the stardust on Broadway. Both were talented, but they were much more interested in playing the roulette of life than in concentrating on their careers."
The Pickfords disapproved of Olive, and were furious when the couple eloped on October 25, 1916 in New Jersey. Olive and Jack's unhappy marriage was fueled by wild parties, alcoholism, and infidelity. Neither one's acting careers ever really took off; Jack contracted syphilis.
In an effort to save their marriage, they took a second honeymoon in Paris in August 1920. There, they attended more cocaine parties and all night champagne dinners. In the wee hours of Sept. 6, they stumbled back to their room at the Ritz. Jack fell asleep, while Olive made it to the bathroom, high on cocaine and thirsty. On the sink sat a blue bottle. She thought it held water and gulped it down. But it contained a mercury bichloride solution, which had been prescribed for Jack's syphilis. It was supposed to be rubbed on the skin, not consumed.
The blue bottle shattered and she screamed, "My God!" as the chemical spread through her. Jack rushed her to the American Hospital in Neuilly, near Paris. Jack remained at her side as she lingered for four days, suffering until the end came on Sept 10. After a police investigation and an autopsy, Olive's death was ruled accidental. She was 25 years old. Jack returned to New York with her body.
In the years that followed, many working in the New Amsterdam Theatre claimed to have seen Olive's ghost. Luckily, she is a benevolent spirit who appears mainly to men. Sometimes, she carries the blue bottle of mercury. Other times, she just smiles and vanishes. Perhaps the theatre was where she was happiest, and why she will not move on.
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