Thelma White
Encyclopedia
Thelma White was an American
radio and film actress. White is best known for her role in the 1936 exploitation film
Reefer Madness
.
, White debuted in her family's circus show at age 2, acting as a "living doll" who would stand in place until she got a cue to begin cooing and wriggling. At the age of 10 she was dancing in vaudeville
as part of The White Sisters, leading to jobs with the Ziegfeld Follies and Earl Carroll
revue before she moved to Hollywood in the late 1920s. Her first film was A Night in a Dormitory (1930) co-starring Ginger Rogers
. That job led to a number of short films at Pathé Studios
(later RKO Pictures
), where she played leading lady to some of the most familiar comic faces of the day, such as Edgar Kennedy
and Leon Errol
.
White's most famous role arrived in Tell Your Children (1936) better known today as Reefer Madness
, a low-budget exploitation film to warn audiences of the dangers of marijuana
. White appeared as Mae, the tough mistress of dope-dealer Jack (Carleton Young
). Jack encourages high school students to take a toke of marijuana, after which they become involved in rape, prostitution, suicide, and various other traumas. The film was a flop and vanished into the vaults for over 30 years.
White continued to struggle through B-movie
s and small roles for the next few years, and in Hollywood circles was more known for her private life than any on-camera abilities. She was married three times, first to radio star Claude Stroud (one of the Stroud twins) for five years, then a brief marriage to Max Hoffman, Jr. Her final marriage, to actor and costume designer Tony Millard, lasted for several decades.
Tell Your Children was found in a vault in 1972 and rechristened Reefer Madness by pro-marijuana activists and a young movie distributor who saw the movie as having great comedic appeal. The film gained a following on college campuses for its campy nature as well as its crazed depiction of marijuana use. White, who had starred with W. C. Fields
and Jack Benny
in her best years, was somewhat chagrined to be known for such a film. In 1987, she told the Los Angeles Times
, "I'm ashamed to say that it's the only one of my films that's become a classic."
, White joined United Servicemen Overseas, a government program which featured entertainment for troops serving overseas. She went to Alaska
on several occasions with Rose Hobart
and Carmen Miranda
. She continued to make appearances in B-movies such as The Bowery Boys
film series, but near the end of the war contracted a crippling disease while appearing in the Aleutian Islands. White was bedridden for five years and told she would never walk again. Although she did partially recover and appeared in a few late 40's films, her acting career was essentially over.
White later worked as an agent, representing such actors as Robert Blake
and James Coburn
.
s. White died of pneumonia
in the Motion Picture and Television Hospital
on January 11, 2005 at age 94.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
radio and film actress. White is best known for her role in the 1936 exploitation film
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
Reefer Madness
Reefer Madness
Reefer Madness is a well-known 1936 American propaganda exploitation film revolving around the melodramatic events that ensue when high school students are lured by pushers to try "marijuana" — from a hit and run accident, to manslaughter, suicide, attempted rape, and descent into madness...
.
Early life and career
Born Thelma Wolpa in Lincoln, NebraskaLincoln, Nebraska
The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....
, White debuted in her family's circus show at age 2, acting as a "living doll" who would stand in place until she got a cue to begin cooing and wriggling. At the age of 10 she was dancing in vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
as part of The White Sisters, leading to jobs with the Ziegfeld Follies and Earl Carroll
Earl Carroll
Earl Carroll was an American theatrical producer, director, songwriter and composer born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.-Career:...
revue before she moved to Hollywood in the late 1920s. Her first film was A Night in a Dormitory (1930) co-starring Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
. That job led to a number of short films at Pathé Studios
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France.-History:...
(later RKO Pictures
RKO Pictures
RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...
), where she played leading lady to some of the most familiar comic faces of the day, such as Edgar Kennedy
Edgar Kennedy
Edgar Livingston Kennedy was an American comedic film actor, known as "the king of the slow burn". A slow burn is an exasperated facial expression, performed very deliberately; Kennedy embellished this by rubbing his hand over his bald head and across his face, in an attempt to hold his temper...
and Leon Errol
Leon Errol
Leon Errol , was an Australian-born American comedian and actor, popular in the first half of the 20th century.-Biography:...
.
White's most famous role arrived in Tell Your Children (1936) better known today as Reefer Madness
Reefer Madness
Reefer Madness is a well-known 1936 American propaganda exploitation film revolving around the melodramatic events that ensue when high school students are lured by pushers to try "marijuana" — from a hit and run accident, to manslaughter, suicide, attempted rape, and descent into madness...
, a low-budget exploitation film to warn audiences of the dangers of marijuana
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
. White appeared as Mae, the tough mistress of dope-dealer Jack (Carleton Young
Carleton Young
Carleton Scott Young was an American character actor born in New York City, New York and known for his deep voice.-Private life:...
). Jack encourages high school students to take a toke of marijuana, after which they become involved in rape, prostitution, suicide, and various other traumas. The film was a flop and vanished into the vaults for over 30 years.
White continued to struggle through B-movie
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
s and small roles for the next few years, and in Hollywood circles was more known for her private life than any on-camera abilities. She was married three times, first to radio star Claude Stroud (one of the Stroud twins) for five years, then a brief marriage to Max Hoffman, Jr. Her final marriage, to actor and costume designer Tony Millard, lasted for several decades.
Tell Your Children was found in a vault in 1972 and rechristened Reefer Madness by pro-marijuana activists and a young movie distributor who saw the movie as having great comedic appeal. The film gained a following on college campuses for its campy nature as well as its crazed depiction of marijuana use. White, who had starred with W. C. Fields
W. C. Fields
William Claude Dukenfield , better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer...
and Jack Benny
Jack Benny
Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...
in her best years, was somewhat chagrined to be known for such a film. In 1987, she told the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, "I'm ashamed to say that it's the only one of my films that's become a classic."
Entertaining troops
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, White joined United Servicemen Overseas, a government program which featured entertainment for troops serving overseas. She went to Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
on several occasions with Rose Hobart
Rose Hobart
Rose Hobart was an American actress.-Career:Born in New York City, her father was a cellist in the New York Symphony...
and Carmen Miranda
Carmen Miranda
Carmen Miranda, GCIH was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, Broadway actress and Hollywood film star popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was, by some accounts, the highest-earning woman in the United States and noted for her signature fruit hat outfit she wore in the 1943 movie The Gang's...
. She continued to make appearances in B-movies such as The Bowery Boys
The Bowery Boys
The Bowery Boys were fictional New York City characters who were the subject of feature films released by Monogram Pictures from 1946 through 1958....
film series, but near the end of the war contracted a crippling disease while appearing in the Aleutian Islands. White was bedridden for five years and told she would never walk again. Although she did partially recover and appeared in a few late 40's films, her acting career was essentially over.
White later worked as an agent, representing such actors as Robert Blake
Robert Blake (actor)
Robert Blake is an American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife, but on November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death.-Early...
and James Coburn
James Coburn
James Harrison Coburn III was an American film and television actor. Coburn appeared in nearly 70 films and made over 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, and played a wide range of roles and won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.A capable,...
.
Death
White's third husband, Tony Millard, died in 1999. She had no children, and spent most of her time with her Mexican Hairless DogMexican Hairless Dog
The Mexican Hairless Dog is a rare, hairless breed of dog, the size of which varies greatly. It is also known as Xoloitzcuintle .-History:...
s. White died of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
in the Motion Picture and Television Hospital
Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital
The Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital is a retirement community, with individual cottages, and a fully licensed, acute-care hospital, located at 23388 Mulholland Drive in Woodland Hills, California...
on January 11, 2005 at age 94.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930 | A Night in a Dormitory | Thelma | |
| 1930 | Ride 'em Cowboy | Alternative title: Pathé Folly Comedies: Ride 'em Cowboy | |
| 1930 | Sixteen Sweeties | Alternative title: Pathé Melody Comedies: Sixteen Sweeties | |
| 1931 | One Way Out | Desperate for Permanent Wave | |
| 1931 | Hot Sands | Wife | |
| 1933 | Hey, Nanny Nanny | Mrs. Bond | |
| 1934 | What Price Jazz | ||
| 1934 | Susie's Affairs | Susie's Blonde Roommate | |
| 1935 | Never Too Late | Helen Lloyd | Alternative title: It's Never Too Late to Mend |
| 1936 | Reefer Madness Reefer Madness Reefer Madness is a well-known 1936 American propaganda exploitation film revolving around the melodramatic events that ensue when high school students are lured by pushers to try "marijuana" — from a hit and run accident, to manslaughter, suicide, attempted rape, and descent into madness... |
Mae | Alternative title: Tell Your Children |
| 1936 | Two in the Dark Two in the Dark Two in the Dark is a 1936 mystery film starring Walter Abel, Margot Grahame, Wallace Ford, Gail Patrick, and Alan Hale. The movie, about an amnesiac suspected of murder, was directed by Benjamin Stoloff.... |
Woman | Uncredited |
| 1936 | The Moon's Our Home The Moon's Our Home -Plot summary:A comedy about marriage and everything relating to it. A New York novelist Henry Fonda meets up with an actress, Margaret Sullavan, and the two date and later marry, though neither knows of the other's fame... |
Salesgirl | |
| 1936 | Forgotten Faces | Nurse in park | |
| 1938 | Wanted by the Police | Lillian | |
| 1942 | Syncopation | Singer on Piano at Party | Uncredited |
| 1942 | A Man's World | Dancehall girl | Uncredited |
| 1942 | Pretty Dolly | Baby, Cigar Counter Clerk | |
| 1943 | Spy Train | Millie | |
| 1944 | Bowery Champs | Diane Gibson | |
| 1947 | Hectic Honeymoon | ||
| 1948 | Mary Lou | Eve Summers | |