The Ice Cream Blonde by Michelle Morgan

Author:Michelle Morgan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2016-04-06T04:00:00+00:00

The idea of doing something outside the entertainment business had been growing in Thelma’s mind for quite some time. She wanted more control over not only the arc of her career but also her day-to-day life. One reporter visiting the set of a Pitts/Todd short in 1933 had discovered her arguing with the director over the best way to shoot a scene. Thelma wanted ZaSu to perform a particular stunt, while the director disagreed. “We write our own stories,” Thelma told the reporter, before ZaSu added that they at least suggested situations. “Yes,” replied Thelma sarcastically, “and you see how far it gets us?”

Now, more than a year later, Thelma’s frustrations had only intensified. Other actresses were making great strides in Hollywood at the time, including Jean Harlow and Carole Lombard, but Thelma’s career never managed to reach such heights. Small roles seemed to follow one another in quick succession, and the positive reviews she received with such films as You Made Me Love You had shown her that there was so much more on offer than short movies, if only she had the chance.

Rumors began in earnest that the actress would leave the Hal Roach Studios and move into dramatic roles exclusively. They gathered momentum when an actress by the name of Lilian Ellis arrived in the city, reportedly to take Thelma’s place as Patsy Kelly’s on-screen partner. However, those stories came to nothing when, on June 8, 1934, it was announced that Thelma had signed a new contract for eight more Hal Roach comedies.

Her decision may have come as a surprise, but it probably shouldn’t have. It is clear by looking at her career choices that Thelma did actually enjoy her comedic work. “Comedy teaches one to act and think quickly, to be alert every moment,” she’d said only recently. “I think it is the best training in the world and I wouldn’t take anything for my experience in comedies.” Her partnership with Patsy Kelly was perhaps the most reliably enjoyable aspect of her ongoing comic training.

It was away from the Hal Roach lot that her comic career continued to disappoint. While RKO had made big statements during their signing of Thelma, not much seemed to actually be happening to make her into a full-fledged star. Late July saw the release of the studio’s Cockeyed Cavaliers, a feature set in medieval England and complete with dancing, singing, and huge petticoats. Thelma was billed third after starring funnymen Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, though her role of Lady Genevieve was yet another supporting part in a middling film. While some cinema managers reported the movie to be fairly funny, others were dismayed as audiences stayed away or actually walked out on the film.

As Thelma struggled to break out, she was also troubled by the ways Hollywood had changed over the past five years. Stars seemed to disappear from the screen as quickly as they arrived. “Whoever hears of them now?” she would ask writer Nora Laing in 1935. “Most of them are unhappy and rather bewildered….

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