One of several meanings of the term 'flapper' is a teenage girl. Less flattering definitions include young prostitutes and female dancers. Most likely, a combination of the varying interpretations of 'flapper' resulted in the look and lifestyle of a segment of the female population during the 1920's which symbolized the departure from the traditional matronly ethos of generations past.
The development of 'flappers' emerged after the trauma of World War One. Their iconic image received a huge boast in Selznick Pictures' May 1920 "The Flapper." Young actress Olive Thomas plays cinema's first epitome of the Jazz Age's independent women, beginning with her scene midway in the movie. As a schoolgirl traveling on break, she's invited by an another schoolmate and her boyfried to a nightclub. She tries on the 'flapper' outfit contained in the luggage the couple demands she transport back to her father's home in Florida, where they secretly plan to pick up the stolen goods. Seeing an older man she admired back in school at the club, Thomas, wanting to impress him, exhibits all the mannerisms of future flappers by smoking a cigarette in public and acting cool.
The Frances Marion script was capitalizing on an emerging trend just in its early stages. But seeing the rebellious and confident Thomas as a young woman adopting a flapper image solidified the movement going forward.
"The Flapper" was Thomas' last viewable surviving movie she made (She acted in a later lost film, 'Darling Mine,' and a posthumously-released film, 'Everybody's Sweetheart," which is currently unavailable for public viewing.). At 25, Thomas and her husband Jack Pickford, Mary's brother, took what they called their second honeymoon in France. Their marriage, a tempestuous one at best, was filled with fights and tender make-ups ever since they had been married in October 1916. During their stay in Paris, the two returned to the hotel room on the night of September 5, 1920, after an evening of heavy drinking. According to Pickford, who was prescribed a topical medication for syphilis sores, Thomas mistook the French label on the container for water or as a sleeping liquid, despite its gooey substance, and swallowed some. The poisonous mercury bichloride solution was fatal, killing her five days later in a Paris hospital.
The media had a field day on the cause of her death. Sensational headlines screamed accusations from suicide to her being murdered by Pickford in order to claim her life insurance. The French police investigated all the circumstances behind the incident and, with the autopsy report, confirmed her death was accidental. "Olive and I were the greatest pals on Earth," lamented Pickford. "Her death is a ghastly mistake."
On the way back to the States with her body, Pickford had been rumored to have attempted suicide, so distraught was he. In an emotionally crowded funeral service in New York City, women fainted and several onlookers were crushed rushing to view her casket. Thomas is buried in a crypt at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.
