josh pincus is crying

The differences between genres of music has intrigued me for some time. And as different as they seem, these for performers from different eras have something in common.
Tommy Dorsey was a giant in the big band era. His orchestra included, at one time or another, trumpeters Doc Severinsen, and Charlie Shavers, drummers Buddy Rich, Louis Bellson and Gene Krupa, singers Jo Stafford, Dick Haymes and Frank Sinatra and trombonist Nelson Riddle. In 1956, Tommy Dorsey took some sleeping pills and rested after a heavy meal. While asleep, he choked to death on his own vomit.
Bon Scott was the lead singer for Austailia’s AC/DC. Originally, the band’s truck driver, Scott was recruited by Angus and Malcolm Young to replace current singer Dave Evans. Scott accepted the Young brother’s proposal and AC/DC went on to become a wildly popular heavy metal band in their native Australia and later the world. In 1980, at the age of 33, Scott went out for a night of heavy drinking with some friends. He was found dead behind the wheel of a parked car in South London. He had passed out and choked to death on his own vomit.
Jon Bonham was the drummer for Led Zeppelin. After the break-up of The Yardbirds, Jimmy Page saw Bonham drum at a performance and was convinced this was the guy he needed for his new band. Led Zeppelin’s live performances featured half hour drum solos culminating with a manic Bonham banging on his drumkit with his bare hands. Led Zeppelin gained worldwide popularity and are still revered after almost thirty years since their last studio album. In 1980, John Bonham attended a rehearsal for Zeppelin’s upcoming U.S. tour. On the way to the rehearsal, Bonham stopped for breakfast, which included sixteen shots of vodka. He continued to drink heavily after he arrived at the studio. The rehearsal ended late in the evening and the band retired to Jimmy Page’s house. After midnight, Bonham had fallen asleep and was taken to bed and placed on his side. Band manager Benji LeFevre and bassist John Paul Jones found him dead the next morning. During the night, Bonham had choked to death on his own vomit.
Jimi Hendrix was a guitarist, singer and songwriter whose guitar playing was cited as the main influence for many guitarists. Although he only produced three studio albums, his live performances were legendary. His stage act included playing his guitar behind his head, playing with his teeth and then setting the instrument on fire. One evening in September 1970, Hendrix attended a party in London. Afterwards, he was picked up by his girlfriend and driven to her room at the Samarkand Hotel. He had taken nine of her prescription sleeping pills. During the night, Hendrix had choked to death on his own vomit.

Four performers. One common bond.

Rasmus Karl Therkelsen Gottlieb was born in 1886 in central Copenhagen, Denmark. As a teenager, he apprenticed as a machinist. He married and had two children, but with the outbreak of World War I, he entered the military. In 1916, after his discharge from military service, he headed to America alone, hoping to send for his family later (he didn’t). He had $25 in his pocket and spoke no English. He found work in a foundry. By summer 1917, he worked as an auto mechanic.
In Denmark, Karl’s father worked as a curtain-puller at a theater. Hanging around the theater, Karl got the inspiration to act. In late 1917, Karl appeared in his first picture. It was the first of a series of anti-German propaganda films. Karl was paid three dollars a day. He was making three dollars a week as a mechanic. The films were very successful. Rasmus Karl Therkelsen Gottlieb changed his name to “Karl Dane” and officially became an actor.
In December 1924, Karl was cast in King Vidor’s “The Big Parade”. The movie was a major success, becoming the second highest grossing silent film of all time, making almost $6.5 million.
Karl worked alongside Rudolph Valentino in “Son of the Sheik”. This film was also a success. Karl signed a contract with MGM in 1926. He began to appear as comic relief in several films including “The Scarlet Letter”, “La Boheme” and “Alias Jimmy Valentine”. Soon after signing his MGM contract, Karl teamed with George K. Arthur as a comedic duo. Together they were dubbed Dane & Arthur. In May 1927 the duo’s first film was an instant success, as were their subsequent films. By June 1927 MGM signed Karl to a long term contract. Dane & Arthur’s last silent short was released in 1928. Their first talkie was released a short time later. George Arthur had distinct British accent. Karl, however, had a thick guttural Danish accent which made his English hard to understand. Five films later, Karl lost his contract with MGM and suffered a nervous breakdown. After some much-needed rest, Dane & Arthur made a few shorts for Paramount and RKO and set out for a short vaudeville tour.
In November 1931, after the tour, Karl and some friends formed a mining corporation. The venture failed. Karl headed back to vaudeville with a solo comedic act. His act was panned by critics and was short lived.
By the summer of 1933, unable to get a movie contract, a desperate Karl had given up on films and turned again to mining. He spent three months driving up and down the West Coast trying to find a good mining deal and ended up losing $1,100 when various ventures never took off. Deeply depressed and broken down, Karl took on several jobs including mechanic, waiter, and carpenter. He was unable to hold any of these jobs. In late 1933, Karl purchased a hot dog stand outside MGM Studios, where just five years earlier he was a huge and productive star. The business failed, as it was shunned by his former friends. Karl tried to find work with his former studio as an extra or carpenter but was turned away. He was seeking a job that would pay $5 a day.
On April 13, 1934, Karl was pick pocketed of all the money he had — $18.
On April 14, 1934, Karl didn’t keep his movie date with a young woman named Frances Leake. A worried Frances arrived at Karl’s apartment. After receiving no response at the door, Frances got his landlady to unlock his apartment door. Inside the tiny unit they found Karl, slumped in a chair, a revolver at his feet and surrounded by his scrapbooks filled with rave reviews and studio contracts. There was also a note which read, “To Frances and all my friends — goodbye.”
Karl had shot himself in the head.

By the time she was six, Anissa (pronounced “ah-NEESE-ah”) Jones was hawking cereal in her first television commercial. A couple of years later, in 1966, Anissa’s acting talents caught the attention of two television producers who were preparing a new television sitcom called Family Affair. They felt Anissa would be perfect in the role of Elizabeth “Buffy” Patterson-Davis. Originally to be an older sister to Johnny Whitaker’s character Jody, upon Brian Keith’s (Uncle Bill) insistence, the role was rewritten to be Jody’s twin sister. Anissa played Buffy for the show’s entire 138-episode run. Her schedule was grueling, often requiring her to either work on the show or for show publicity all year round and sometimes seven days a week. But in June of 1969, Anissa’s hard work payed off. The show was number one in the ratings turning Buffy and Jody into household names. Buffy’s doll, Mrs. Beasley, became the best-selling doll in America during the show’s run.
Anissa’s fame continued to grow. She appeared in several television productions including guest roles in Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In and To Rome With Love. She, along with Jimmy Durante, presented the 1967 Emmy Award to The Monkees, for Best Comedy Series. She also starred alongside Elvis in her only movie, The Trouble with Girls. Numerous merchandising deals came her way. There were Buffy paper dolls, Family Affair coloring books and lunch boxes, a Buffy line of children’s clothes, and a Buffy Cookbook in 1971, all prominently featuring Anissa.
Anissa’s younger brother, Paul almost always accompanied her to the studio. Anissa was very fond of her brother. As the star of a hit TV series, Anissa would quite often receive gifts. She demanded that an identical one for her brother accompany any gift she received and if two gifts were not received, she would give hers away.
Family Affair was canceled in 1971, after five seasons. Anissa was thrilled that the show’s run was over, as it meant she could go to school and hang out with her friends. In 1972, Brian Keith contacted Anissa, offering her a role in his new TV sitcom. He assured her she could have the part without an audition. She graciously turned him down. Later in 1972, she auditioned for the part of “Regan MacNeil” in The Exorcist, a role she lost to Linda Blair. Anissa did not want to continue her show business career.
With a deteriorating mother-daughter relationship, Anissa, along with her brother Paul, moved in with their father. After their father’s death, Anissa and Paul were forced to move back with their mother, but Anissa often spent much of her time at a friend’s house. This infuriated her mother so much, that she reported Anissa as a runaway. Anissa was picked up and spent some time in juvenile detention. Upon her release, she began drinking and using drugs.
Hoping to make ends meet until her eighteenth birthday when she would receive royalties from Family Affair, Anissa took a job at Winchell’s Donut Shop in Playa Del Rey, California. At eighteen, Anissa received her $70,000 trust fund and $107,800 in US Savings Bonds from her Family Affair earnings. She and Paul got an apartment together. Anissa bought herself a new Ford Pinto and her brother a loaded Camaro that cost twice as much as her own car. With her newfound freedom, her new wealth and more drugs than she knew what to do with, Anissa began partying hard.
On August 28th, 1976, while attending a party at a friend’s house, Anissa ingested huge doses of the barbiturate Seconal (the drug of choice for Jimi Hendrix, Judy Garland, Charles Boyer and Marilyn Monroe), phencyclidine (PCP), cocaine and methaquaalone (Quaaludes). During the night, her boyfriend checked on her and she was fine. In the morning, her friends found an unresponsive Anissa and called the paramedics. Anissa was declared dead from what the San Diego County coroner called one of the most massive drug overdoses he’d ever seen.
Anissa was eighteen years old.

Eight years later, her brother, Paul, also died from a drug overdose.

Press the “play >” button below to hear Angel and The Reruns’ back-handed tribute to Anissa, “Buffy Come Back”!

The current challenge word on sugarfrostedgoodness.com is “tiny”.

Herve Villechaize was born in 1943 in Paris. A malfunctioning organ would leave Herve at a full-grown height of just under 4 feet tall. Herve studied painting and photography at the famed Beaux-Arts Museum in Paris. At the age of 18 he became the youngest artist to ever have his work displayed in the prestigious Museum of Paris.
At the age of 21 Herve sailed to New York City. After teaching himself English by watching American television and upon immersing himself in the New York City art scene, he would eventually land roles in several off-Broadway plays. In his first notable movie role, Herve played Beppo in the 1971 comedy The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight starring Robert DeNiro. He wouldn’t experience his big break into show biz until 1974 however, when he landed the role of a tiny villain named Nick-Nack in the 1974 James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun.
Herve moved to California, where he eventually hooked up with Aaron Spelling. Spelling would cast him opposite Ricardo Montalban on Fantasy Island. The show’s six season run made a household name out of his character, Tattoo, and injected his signature call of “de plane, de plane” into American pop culture. Herve’s newfound fame would lead him to command a whopping $25,000 per episode salary. Herve and his wife moved into a 2 1/2 acre ranch in the foothills of the San Fernando Valley. Soon, Herve began to sense he was not being treated as fairly as other Fantasy Island cast members. He responded by demanding the same money as Montalban, prompting ABC to drop Herve from the show.
Leaving Fantasy Island would prove to be beginning of his career decline. Herve, having blown through his Fantasy Island money, eventually had to sell his ranch in the Valley and move into a rental house in North Hollywood. His collapsing career and deteriorating health led Herve to the bottle. He would often consume two bottles of wine in a single night. While not that unusual for average sized people, it was detrimental to Herve as he tipped the scales at just 90 pounds.
Herve’s medical condition was worsening. With increasing pain from internal organs that were too large for his body, Herve was taking upwards of 20 pills a day to alleviate the symptoms. He realized that his body was beginning to shut down, and found himself fending off frequent bouts of depression.
In 1993 Herve’s luck would turn a bit towards the better. He found work in several TV commercials including a Dunkin Donuts spot that, despite his wishes to distance himself from his Tattoo days, found him asking for “de plain” “de plain” donut.
On September 3, 1993, Herve, accompanied by his common-law wife, Katherine Self, attended a movie screening in Hollywood. They later enjoyed dinner at a restaurant near their home.
In the early morning hours of September 4, Herve placed two sound-muffling pillows against his chest, and fired a pistol into them.

The Monday Artday challenge word this week is “anarchy”.

Outside the 1968 Democratic Convention, Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman announced that their candidate for president would be a pig named Pigasus.
Jerry Rubin was a left-wing social activist (read: radical). In 1967, Rubin and some others founded the Youth International Party (The Yippies), an anti-authoritarian political party known for street theatre and politically-themed pranks. Rubin coined the phrase “Never trust anyone over thirty”. He was thirty-two when he said it. Rubin actively protested against the war in Vietnam. As part of the infamous “Chicago Seven“, he played an instrumental role in the disruption of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and was put on trial for conspiracy and crossing state lines with the intention of inciting a riot. Although he was found guilty of inciting a riot, his conviction was later overturned on appeal. After the Vietnam War ended, Rubin became an entrepreneur and businessman. He was an early investor in Apple Computers. On November 14, 1994, Rubin jaywalked on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, while on his way to dinner with his fiancée. A car swerved to miss Rubin, but a second car was unable to avoid him. He was taken to the UCLA Medical Center, where he died 14 days later.
Abbie Hoffman was also one of the founders of the Yippie party. He also earned a master’s degree in psychology from UC Berkeley. Prior to his involvement with the Chicago Seven, Hoffman led a protest movement in the gallery of the New York Stock Exchange. The protesters threw fistfuls of dollars (most of the bills were fake) down to the traders below, some of whom booed, while others began to scramble frantically to grab the money as fast as they could. Hoffman claimed to be pointing out that, metaphorically, that’s what NYSE traders “were already doing.”
At Woodstock in 1969, Hoffman interrupted The Who’s performance to attempt a protest speech against the jailing of John Sinclair of the White Panther Party. He grabbed a microphone and yelled, “I think this is a pile of shit! While John Sinclair rots in prison. . .” The Who’s guitarist, Pete Townshend, unhappy with the interruption, cut Hoffman off mid-sentence, shouting, “Fuck off! Fuck off my fucking stage!” He then smacked Hoffman with his guitar, sending him tumbling offstage, to the approving roar of the crowd. Townshend later said that, although he agreed with Hoffman’s position, Hoffman had no right to use his stage as a forum.
Hoffman was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1980. On April 12, 1989, he committed suicide by swallowing 150 Phenobarbital tablets.

The challenge word this week on illustrationfriday.com is “forgotten”.

If you are 25 years old or younger, you probably don’t know Carol Wayne. Even if you were around during the height of Carol’s popularity, she is most likely forgotten to you now.
Carol Wayne was a former professional ice skater and Las Vegas showgirl whose “dumb blonde” persona gave her tremendous, but brief, fame beginning in the late 1960s throughout the 1970s. She made single episode appearances in popular shows like Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Emergency!, I Spy and was featured in six different episodes of Love, American Style. She appeared on numerous game shows, including as a regular panelist on Celebrity Sweepstakes, produced by her husband, Burt Sugarman.
But, Carol was best known for her on-going stint as “The Matinee Lady” on “The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson”. In a series of skits, known as “The Might Carson Art Players”, Johnny would portray different characters. One of the most popular was Art Fern, host of the fictional “Tea Time Move”. Art Fern was a parody of local afternoon movie hosts who showed old films and shilled for local businesses. Carol’s shtick involved standing beside Johnny, batting her eyelashes. She was invariably the punchline to a barrage of rapid-fire, double entendre jokes. In 1980, Johnny Carson threatened to quit The Tonight Show unless NBC cut the show’s time from ninety to sixty minutes. NBC had no choice but to reluctantly agree to Carson’s demand. The new sixty-minute format meant that Carson had less time for skits and the need for Carol’s services dwindled.
By the early 1980s, Carol’s demand in show business was practically over. She divorced Burt Sugarman in 1980. In 1984, she declared bankruptcy due in large part to a cocaine and alcohol problem. At times, she was reduced to being an occasional escort for wealthy businessmen in order to make ends meet. In an effort to recharge her diminishing career, she posed for a nude pictorial in Playboy. It netted her a part in the film Heartbreakers. It would become her final movie role.
Carol was on vacation in Manzanillo, Mexico with Los Angeles car salesman Edward Durston on January 10, 1985. The couple had an argument and Carol went for a walk on the beach to clear her head and calm down. Edward, meanwhile, packed and checked out of their hotel. He flew back to Los Angeles, leaving Carol’s luggage at the airport in Mexico. Carol’s body was found in shallow water by a local fisherman. She was fully-clothed, free of drugs or alcohol and had been dead for approximately three days. The official cause of her death was accidental drowning. Carol did not know how to swim and consciously steered clear of water.
Sixteen years earlier, her companion, Edward Durston was in Diane Linkletter’s apartment when she jumped six stories to her death.

Carol Wayne in a “Frosted Flakes” commercial

Jerzy Kosinski walked a fine, sometimes blurred, line between bullshitter and storyteller. Kosinski was born Josek Lewinkopf in Poland in 1933. As a child during World War II, he avoided the Nazis by using a false identity. He lived with a Roman Catholic Polish family in eastern Poland under the name, Jerzy Kosinski, an assumed name given to him by his father. A Roman Catholic priest issued him a forged baptismal certificate. In 1957, Kosinski emigrated to the United States by forging letters from Polish authorities guaranteeing his loyal return, which were needed for leaving the country at that time. Once in the United States, he graduated from Columbia University. He was a lecturer at Yale, Princeton, Davenport University, and Wesleyan. In 1965, he became an American citizen.
His 1965 book The Painted Bird garnered mixed reviews. A story of a child during the Holocaust, Kosinski always insisted it was based on his own experience. However, when the book was translated and published in Poland, the family he had lived with took great exception to the abuse that was described in detail. Kosinski claimed “poetic license”.
In August 1969, Kosinski was invited, by his friend Wojciech Frykowski, to a small get-together in Los Angeles. Coming from New York, Kosinski’s luggage was lost by the airline. He phoned Frykowski, told him of this mishap and explained he would have to miss the party. The party was given by Sharon Tate and everyone there was murdered by intruders under the orders of Charles Manson.
He won the National Book Award in 1969 for Steps. In 1975, Chuck Ross, a Los Angeles freelance writer conducted an experiment with Steps by sending 21 pages of the book to four publishers under the pseudonym Erik Demos. The book was turned down by all of them including Random House (which originally published Steps) and Houghton Mifflin (which published three of Kosinski’s other novels). His 1971 book Being There was made into an Academy Award nominated film starring Peter Sellers.
A 1982 Village Voice article accused Kosinski of plagiarism. The article alleged that a great deal of Kosinski’s work was lifted from Polish manuscripts, virtually unknown by American readers. Kosinski always maintained that he loved to tell outrageous lies, particularly to the rich, intellectual and famous. They were so eager to be entertained, he explained, that they willingly suspended disbelief, and they were so confident of their superiority that they deserved to be played for fools. The truth of the Village Voice charges remained a matter of debate.
In addition to his writing, Kosinski appeared 12 times on The Tonight Show during 1971-73, posed half-naked for a New York Times Magazine cover photograph by Annie Leibovitz in 1982, and presented the Oscar for screenwriting in 1982. He also played the role of a Bolshevik revolutionary in Warren Beatty’s film Reds.
On May 3, 1991, despondent over a prolonged period of writer’s block, coupled with an irregular heartbeat as well as severe physical exhaustion, Kosinski took a fatal dose of barbiturates and washed it down with a rum and Coke. He then twisted a plastic shopping bag around his head and taped it shut around his neck. He was found dead in the bathtub in his New York apartment.

My illustration is being used HERE on the Library Thing website’s page for Jerzy Kosinski.

Mary Bickford Dunn was born in 1898 in Ontario, Canada. After her father died, she moved to Los Angeles with her mother and sister. While working as a secretary, the attactive Marie applied for and landed an acting job at the Hollywood studio owned by Mack Sennett. Sennett dubbed her “the exotic French girl,” and rechristened her “Marie Prevost.” Prevost joined his gang of infamous Sennett Bathing Beauties. Marie was in good company with other Sennett Beauties including future screen legend Gloria Swanson, Mabel Normand (who is credited with throwing the first custard pie in movies, it’s target being Fatty Arbuckle), and future Mrs. Clark Gable, Carole Lombard.
Marie’s star was rising fast. She showed the studio heads that she was more than just a pretty face and was given roles that allowed her to display her smart, comic timing. Often playing roles just short of risqué, her characters always turned out to be good girls by the end of the pictures. Marie worked with some of the greatest directors of the time, including Frank Capra, Cecil B. DeMille, Mervyn LeRoy. She was one of the busiest and most popular actresses of the 1920s. In 1926, while traveling in Florida, Marie’s mother was killed in a car accident. Her mother’s death hit her hard and she drowned her depression in alcohol.
Marie continued working, but the alcohol started to affect her physical appearance and she started to put on weight…and the studios began to notice. She found herself sliding down the Hollywood ladder. In the early 1930s she was able to find work, often portraying the wisecracking best friend. But, the girl who had once been a major player was reduced to bit roles with few lines.
A star just a decade earlier, Marie was now in her mid-thirties and considered a has-been. By 1934, she had no work at all and her financial situation deteriorated dramatically. The downward spiral became greatly aggravated when her weight problems forced her into repeated crash dieting in order to keep whatever bit part a movie studio offered. Her “crash diets” consisted of large amounts of alcohol and no food.
On January 23, 1937, police were called to a rundown apartment building in Los Angeles after neighbors complained of a continuously-barking dog. Inside, they found Marie dead on her bed. Her dog, without food or water for days, had chewed up her arms and legs in a futile attempt to awaken her. With the combination of alcoholism and self-imposed malnutrition, Marie had starved herself to death.

In the summer of 1961, eighteen-year-old Richard Manuel joined Ronnie Hawkins’ backing group, The Hawks, along with Levon Helm on drums, Robbie Robertson on guitar and Rick Danko on bass. Garth Hudson joined the band around Christmas time. After two years, Manuel along with Helm, Robertson, Danko, Hudson and saxophonist Jerry Penfound left Hawkins and became Levon Helm Sextet, then later changed to the Canadian Squires, and eventually to Levon and the Hawks. They came to the attention of Bob Dylan. The group of musicians became Dylan’s backing band and Albert Grossman, Dylan’s manager, became their manager.
In 1968, they signed a 10 album deal with Capitol Records. Their first album was released under the name “The Band”, the name they would go by for the rest of their career.
The shy and insecure Manuel was the first of the group to succumb to the temptations of the 1960s lifestyle. Already considered by most friends and associates to be an alcoholic, it was not long before Manuel added Tuinal, Valium, heroin, and cocaine to his addictions. Through the 60s and 70s, Manuel’s drug abuse grew worse. He routinely drank and drugged himself into a blank stupor. At the peak of his alcoholism, Manuel was polishing off eight bottles of Grand Marnier a day. By 1976, he had been divorced and had become a shadow of his former self, usually too drunk to play. In The Last Waltz, Martin Scorsese’s documentary of The Band’s last concert, Manuel looks older than his age of 33, and even sits out of some of the songs. It was clear that he was shy, insecure, and inebriated.
In 1978, Manuel moved to Garth Hudson’s ranch outside Malibu, drying out and eventually remarrying. In 1983, The Band reformed without Robertson. They were relegated to B-List venues and became a “play-your-hits” band, usually opening for bands with far less performing experience. Manuel sank into a deep depression immediately following the 1986 death of manager and friend Albert Grossman.
On March 4, 1986, after a gig at the Cheek to Cheek Lounge outside Orlando, in Winter Park, Florida, Manuel seemed to be in relatively good spirits. Ominously, after the show, he thanked Hudson for “twenty-five years of incredible music”. The Band returned to the Quality Inn, down the block from the Cheek to Cheek Lounge, and Manuel talked with Levon Helm in Helm’s room. Around 2:30 in the morning Manuel returned to his room where his wife was already asleep. Sometime during the night, Manuel finished a bottle of Grand Marnier and a vial of cocaine, looped his belt around his neck and secured the other end to the shower-curtain rod, and hanged himself.

In March 1916, eight-year-old Peg Entwistle came to America with her father and her uncle, both stage actors. In 1922, her father was killed by a hit-and-run driver. Peg and her two half-brothers were taken in by their uncle. 1925 brought Peg her first acting role, a walk-on part in Hamlet. This led to the role of “Hedvig” in Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck, a role that a young Bette Davis cited as the reason she became an actress. Davis praised Peg Entwistle as her major influence for her entire career.
Peg performed in ten Broadway plays as a member of the Theatre Guild between 1926 and 1932. She worked with such Braodway notables as George M. Cohan and Dorothy Gish. Peg continued to appear in plays until May 1932, when she was brought to the West Coast by producers Edward Belasco and Homer Curran to co-star with Billie Burke in the play, The Mad Hopes. It was staged in preparation for a Broadway opening. The Mad Hopes opened to rave reviews. The theater had 1,600 seats, but the house was standing-room only. The play was a hit and, as scheduled, closed on June 4, 1932 to head to Broadway. Peg was set to return to New York, but RKO Pictures called her for a screen test. On June 13, 1932, Entwistle signed a contract for a one-picture deal with RKO and reported early in July to shoot her part as “Hazel Cousins” in Thirteen Women. The film received poor reviews from test screenings. The studio eliminated scenes deemed unnecessary, cutting back Entwistle’s screen time greatly. Her career was at a stand still after that. She did lots of auditions, and hung around her uncle’s house, waiting for work, and trying to save enough money to go back to New York, but couldn’t even manage train fare.
On September 18, 1932, Peg told her uncle that she was going to walk up Beachwood Drive to the drug store, and then to visit friends. Instead, she made her way up the southern slope of Mount Lee, near her uncle’s home, to the foot of the Hollywood sign. After placing her coat, shoes and purse containing the suicide note at the base of the sign, she made her way up a workman’s ladder to the top of the “H” and jumped. Her body was found in the 100-foot ravine below two days later.
The note in Peg’s purse read: I am afraid, I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E.”
The LA Times published the letter in hopes that she would be identified. She was dubbed “The Hollywood Sign Girl.” Her uncle recognized the initials and identified her body in the morgue. The cause of death was listed by the coroner as “multiple fractures of the pelvis and probably did not die quickly.”
Several days after her death, Peg’s uncle opened a letter addressed to her from the Beverly Hills Playhouse; it was mailed the day before she jumped. It was an offer for her to play the lead role in a stage production—in which her character would commit suicide in the final act.
Peg Entwistle was 24.

This illustration stirred up anger in at least one viewer. Read all about it HERE. Oh, the shit you have to put up with as an artist.