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Olive Thomas (October 20, 1894 – September 10, 1920) was an American silent film actress and...

Olive Thomas (October 20, 1894 – September 10, 1920) was an American silent film actress and socialite. She was a Ziegfeld girl and the original flapper. She is best remembered for her marriage to Jack Pickford and her untimely death. Thomas was born Oliva R. Duffy though sometimes she claimed her birth name was Oliveretta Elaine Duffy. She was born into a working class family in the Pittsburgh area town of Charleroi, Pennsylvania. Her father died when she was young and, due to the strained financial situation, she was forced to leave school to help support her mother and two younger brothers, James and Williams. In April 1911, at the age of 16, she married Bernard Krugh Thomas in McKees Rocks, another small mill town. During the two year marriage, she reportedly worked as a clerk in Kaufman's department store in Pittsburgh. After her divorce, she went to stay with a family member in New York City where she found work in a Harlem department store. In 1914, after answering a newspaper ad, she won "The Most Beautiful Girl in New York City" contest run by the celebrated commercial artist, Howard Chandler Christy. She then modeled for artist Harrison Fisher and eventually landed on the