In 1932, the body of aspiring actress Peg Entwistle was found just below the Hollywood sign in Southern California. Todays Curious History Mystery looks at Peg's life and what led up to her jumping from that iconic sign.
I suggested this story a few months back when I found your channel. It’s such a sad story. I first heard it many years ago, when I was living in San Diego. I learned a few new things today (ie - she was born in Wales). Thanks for such an interesting and well-researched post!
Miss Entwhistle had gotten tangled up in contract disputes that cut off opportunities at a time when she couldn't afford to be cut off, compelling her to break them, which got her blackballed. It seemed the end of her career, and her career was all she wanted to do. There were people actively hating on her because of draconian rules that didn't recognize the realities of the Depression. And yeah, part of the problem was haughty decisions made when she was at the peak, but who doesn't make mistakes? People, PLEASE, never think that your mistakes deserve the death penalty! If you did wrong, how can you make amends while dead? And what if you aren't nearly as bad as you think? The suicidal frame of mind reduces everything to extremes: perfection or irredeemability, all or nothing, life or death. What if only a part of you has to die? Maybe the tiny part of you that made a mistake, replaced by an older and wiser part that now knows better. Or maybe an addiction has to die, so that the rest of you can live and grow. Or maybe it's an attitude, like the belief that if you're not perfect you're garbage, when in fact your imperfections might be part of what humanizes you and makes you beautiful. Or the belief that someone else's opinion of you matters more than life itself. And please don't rest all of your identity on a single career, however passionate. You were a person, beloved by God, before you ever had any career. Whatever you identify with, your skills can transfer to something else. And even this might prove temporary, as possibilities that you don't yet see might arise. Even if no such possibility existed, Miss Entwhistle could have made a stunning drama teacher--I mean, she inspired Betty Davis! Or volunteered in helping the dustbowl refugees flooding into California at that time. Or tried her hand at scriptwriting. She could have sold tickets to the theater and used her time as an anonymous person to study the people around her for acting gigs yet to come, as she scrimped and saved to immigrate somewhere beyond her business entanglements. The thing is, either there are possibilities and you just have to figure them out, or there aren't and you starve to death, but at least you didn't die by your own hand. While you live, no matter how far down you go, there is always an up.
There was an old TV show called "the pig and whistle" from UK. So in the opening statement your accent of describing who went off the Hollywood sign i was taken aback as i heard it as Pig an whistle, not Peg Entwistle. Made me look, but your Pehg got clearer as the show went on. Thanks for telling her story!
The story is really interesting thanks for sharing. If I could make one suggestion it would be to talk alittle slower. It was a little hard for me to keep up especially when starting a whole new sentence.
Are you familiar with the story of Thelma Todd? She and her life and death intrigue me intensely, and it's one of those stories that make you look in many directions. (She worked with the Marx Brothers on one of their movies along with other roles in others)
Anyone else disturbed that she would want to be buried with her dad in the same way a husband and wife would be? He lied to her in order to keep her from her own mother. No wonder her mom wanted to divorce him..
This is a good story, thank you for covering it. But a suggestion, please. The lady narrating it sounds as if she is reading a book report in front of the class, or as if she is simply reading aloud from a book but without trying to convey any particular information. There is no inflection, no rise and fall of voice, no pause for meaning. Delivery is flat and monotone, a bit nasal, as if we are listening to one long run-on sentence. Honestly, it sounds like a teenager just reading aloud some random article. It detracts from the story being narrated, and honestly I couldn't go more than a few minutes listening to this particular story.
