Sunday, September 16, 2012

ACTRESS

PEG ENTWISTLE: THE ACTRESS WHO JUMPED FROM THE HOLLYWOOD SIGN

It's September 16. And you know what I mean. IT'S 100 DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS, so let's get the Christmas countdown started!

But did you know this was also the day another tormented soul from Earth has been set free by way of suicide?

Let me tell you the story of Millicent Lilian Entwistle, popularly known as Peg Entwistle.

On Sept. 18, 1932, a hiker discovered the body of Peg Entwistle, two days after the despondent actress jumped from the “H” in the Hollywood sign.

Early in the morning of Sunday, Sept. 18, 1932, a woman hiking in the Hollywood hills came across the dead body of a young woman. The hiker collected some belongings of the woman and left them on the steps of the local police station. 

In an anonymous phone call to the police, she described, “I was hiking near the Hollywoodland sign today and near the bottom I found a woman's shoe and jacket. A little further on I noticed a purse. In it was a suicide note. I looked down the mountain and saw a body.”

When police arrived at the scene of the death, they deduced that the young woman jumped from a 50-foot-tall “H,” the first letter in the “Hollywoodland” sign that dominated the landscape over the famous movie-making town. An electrician’s ladder had been left propped against the letter, leaving easy access for any passers-by.

Unable to identify the deceased, the Los Angeles police published her suicide note in the newspaper the next day. It read, “I’m afraid, I’m a coward. I’m sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E.” 

Tabloids jumped on the story, and eventually people began referring to her as the “Hollywood Sign Girl,” a nickname still used today.

The body was identified as Peg Entwistle, a 24-year-old actress who had left Broadway to make it big on the silver screen. 

Entwistle was born in Port Talbot, Wales, but moved to New York at an early age. She had dreams of becoming a star and after training with New York City’s Theater Guild she starred in several Broadway shows, and also appeared in a Los Angeles production opposite Humphrey Bogart.

While she was in California, Entwistle was called in for a screen test. She performed well and was given a one-movie contract with RKO. Despite the fact it was a small role, Entwistle developed high hopes for her movie career. Unfortunately, early reviews of the film, “Thirteen Women,” were poor and her scenes were almost all cut out of the final product.

For the next few months, Entwistle went to audition after audition, but further parts never materialized. One night, she told her uncle, with whom she lived in a house near the “Hollywoodland” sign, that she was going out to meet with friends.

“She instead made the arduous hike up the canyon hill to the Hollywood Sign, her one-time beacon of hope but now a symbol of failure and rejection,” writes the Hollywood Sign Trust. “She climbed 50 feet up a workman's ladder to the top of the ‘H’ and plunged to her death.”

Ironically, on the day after her death, a letter arrived from the Beverly Hills Playhouse, offering Entwistle a starring role: that of a woman driven to suicide at the end of the play.

Although she wasn’t well known when she was alive, in death Entwistle achieved the stardom she sought. Over the years, many myths have evolved surrounding the story of the “Hollywood Sign Girl,” and Entwistle’s ghost is rumored to linger at the site of her demise.

Moral Lesson: NEVER QUIT IN LIFE. MAYBE THERE WILL BE SOMETHING GOD HAS IN STORE FOR YOU.





source:https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=409471522441138&set=a.289245514463740.77512.289243791130579&type=1&relevant_count=1&ref=nf

No comments:

Post a Comment