{"product_id":"the-ice-cream-blonde-michelle-morgan-9781613730386","title":"The Ice Cream Blonde: The Whirlwind Life and Mysterious Death of Screwball Comedienne Thelma Todd","description":"A beloved film comedienne who worked alongside the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, and dozens of others, Thelma Todd was a rare Golden Age star who successfully crossed over from silent films to talkies. This authoritative new biography traces Todd's life from a vivacious little girl who tried to assuage her parents' grief over her brother's death, to an aspiring teacher turned reluctant beauty queen, to an outspoken movie starlet and restaurateur. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIncreasingly disenchanted with Hollywood, in 1934 Todd opened Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Caf , a hot spot that attracted fans, tourists, and celebrities. Despite success in film and business, privately the beautiful actress was having a difficult year-receiving disturbing threats from a stranger known as the Ace and having her home ransacked-when she was found dead in a garage near her caf . An inquest concluded that her death, at age just twenty-nine, was accidental, but in a thorough new investigation that draws on interviews, photographs, documents, and extortion notes-much of these not previously available to the public-Michelle Morgan offers a compelling new theory, suggesting the sequence of events on the night of her death and arguing what many people have long suspected: that Thelma was murdered. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut by whom? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe suspects include Thelma's movie-director lover, her would-be-gangster ex-husband, and the thugs who were pressuring her to install gaming tables in her popular caf -including a new, never-before-named mobster. This fresh examination on the eightieth anniversary of the star's death is sure to interest any fan of Thelma Todd, of Hollywood's Golden Age, or of gripping real-life murder mysteries.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Michelle Morgan\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1613730381\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781613730386\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Chicago Review Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/01\/2015\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.20lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 6.30w x 1.10d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 11\/01\/2015 pg. 21","brand":"Michelle Morgan","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":43987004915967,"sku":"9781613730386","price":26.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_47cf7827-c4fb-44f5-9f7a-579e11ca8c5d.jpg?v=1683286445","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-ice-cream-blonde-michelle-morgan-9781613730386","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}