Peg Entwistle and The Hollywoodland Stigma

It’s certain that at some point in your life you’ve heard of the female Starlet that threw herself off the Hollywoodland sign. Some of you might think it an urban legend or myth, while others might be aware that it is a very real story of a beautiful young woman fed up with the heartlessness of the film industry. She was beautiful with shimmering blonde hair and long leggy appeal but was she talented? The critics disagree on that point—at least those that actually saw her in films. Truth be told, she didn’t make many films and was a supporting cast member at best. Furthermore, there’s some disagreement on the letter of the sign that she jumped/threw herself from to end her life. Some reports give it as the “13th” letter (the last D) while others say it was the “H.” Sadly, as her body was discovered some time after the event and almost unrecognizable, no one will ever know exactly which letter or why she committed suicide. It’s an assumption that she was fed up based on her uncle’s recollections of a conversation he had with her shortly before she died. His recounting of that conversation is the only evidence presented for the suicide, although a note was found inside her purse saying she was sorry and should have done “this” earlier. The note leaves things somewhat dangling in its interpretation.

Peg Entwistle is just one of the many who went to Hollywood to become a star and ended up as a police file under Murdered, Suicide, or Undetermined Cause of Death. Most share two things in-common, either they were has-beens whose careers ended badly due to drink and drugs, or they grew to maturity in a most-dysfunctional family. Unlike Scotty Beckett—child star who could not make the transition into adult roles—Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer became the victim of his own drunken temperament when he attacked a man with a heavy clock and was shot while fighting over the gun the man retrieved from his bedroom. Both Scotty Beckett and Alfa Switzer were much-adored young stars, and both never truly grew up. They battled alcohol only to find that the drink wins every time.

Other like Desmond Taylor, Thelma Todd, Marilyn Monroe, and Bob Crane met untimely ends and became unsolved crime victims. Thelma and Marilyn’s deaths were first described as suicides and later determined to be puzzling without all evidence pointing to the death as a self-inflicted affair. Desmond Taylor, until his body was rolled over, was at first glance dead from natural causes. That determination vanished with evidence of a bullet hole and blood. Bob Crane’s death could not have been mistaken for anything other than murder as his badly bludgeoned body was discovered by a female acquaintance.

So many of the early silent film stars lives ended badly, that it is impossible to read about one without being led to another and then another. They’re sad people with talent and beauty whose lives were turned upside down by fate. The most curious among the deaths, whether murder or suicide, was that of Albert Dekker. His body, according to James Robert Parish’s book, was found with a loose-noose around his neck, hypodermic needles in each arm, hands cuffed behind his back, and foul graffiti on his chest and neck. Not likely to have been a suicide, Mr. Parish lists his as a puzzling death. Perhaps all of these people were a victim of the way they lived, or they were simply victims of an industry that makes oodles of money off human flesh…who knows?