The woman painted in this picture is Olive Thomas. She had a tragic death on September 10, 1920, she was only 25 years old. Thomas died by mixing up sleeping pills for her husband's syphilis medication, which was mercury chloride. It was night time and she couldn’t read the labels of the pills in the bathroom, leading to her taking the wrong one. Thomas ended up dying 5 days later at a hospital in France, and the death was claimed as an accident with no one being punished for it. There was a lot of hypothesizing in the press, with there being many different stories. A story that came out after her death was that she was having an affair with Florenz Zeigfeld Jr, who as I stated earlier was the founder of the Ziegfeld Follies. This was nothing new for Ziegfeld, in which he had many affairs with women a part of his Follies group cheating on his wife at the time, actress Billie Burke. This story about Thomas’ affair didn’t come out until after her death, and there is no speculation that her husband Jack Pickford knew what was going on between them. The thought that Pickford knew what was going on and set up his wife Thomas to be poisoned had to be a potential possibility,  but it didn’t lead to anything and in the end it was inconclusive. Thomas was very popular for her modeling and broadway shows with Zeigfeld Follies, while many younger girls idolized her wanting to achieve her level of attractiveness and confidence.

   The reason that I offered that background concerning those three events is because it helps me to explain what “Memories of Olive” was doing socially/culturally and/or politically when Alberto Vargas created it. The significance of the event of Vargas coming to New York and joining the Ziegfeld Follies is that if this never happened then many of these famous paintings would never be created. Although New York wasn’t his first option of places to move to, everything happens for a reason, and this leads to him finding his true passion and true love. The Death of Olive Thomas gives insight for this painting because of it being named “Memories of Olive” it gives a representation of what Thomas was most known for, which was nude acting and posing. The painting was post dated after Thomas death, leading to this as a memorabilia of her. Then the strike by the actors gives awareness of what was going on in New York within Broadway with the working conditions of the theater industry and how it affected them mentally and physically negatively. This contradicts everything that they show when on stage or posing, because it is difficult to tell how these individuals are doing on the inside. They are always putting on an act and there are times that they don’t know how to make a call for help sometimes when it is needed. These events helped me learn what was going on socially with these individuals and possibly make my own conclusions with why certain events happened. Then culturally I was able to learn about the norms of this time period because a painting like “Memories of Olive'' wouldn't hold any value to me, but learning the background information and everything that happened it shows me why this is such a treasured and popular piece among the public during that time period. I interpret this painting differently now, since I’ve learned about these events. They all happened for a reason and these events happening directly and indirectly affecting what led to this artwork being made.

Citation List

Garner, Bianca ’Bee’. “The Illustrious Life and Mysterious Death of Olive Thomas.” In Their Own League, 15 Mar. 2020, intheirownleague.com/2020/03/15/the-illustrious-life-and-mysterious-death-of-olive-thomas/. 

Gary, Holly. “What We Know about the Death of Olive Thomas, One of Hollywood’s First Scandals.” Grunge, 1 Apr. 2022, www.grunge.com/819287/what-we-know-about-the-death-of-olive-thomas-one-o.... Accessed 2 Apr. 2023.