09/16/2024
Does she not look a little like Kirsten Dunst? Or is it just me? 🧐
THE GHOST OF PEG ENTWHISTLE
On September 16, 1932, a young Hollywood hopeful named Peg Entwhistle took her own life by plunging to her death from one of the most iconic landmarks in Los Angeles – the Hollywood Sign. Peg became a symbol for Hollywood tragedy and failure and yet she could have been one of the brightest stars of in Tinseltown – if she had just waited a little while longer.
Instead, on that terrible night, Lillian Millicent "Peg" Entwhistle climbed up the slopes of Mount Lee with the glowing sign as her final destination. When she arrived, she scaled the heights of the giant letter "H" – and she jumped. Her body plunged down the side of the hill and broke on the ground below. As she had planned, the fall killed her, leaving her body battered and bloody on the unforgiving earth.
She was only 24-years-old.
Peg had been born in Wales in 1908. She grew up in an acting family, although little is known about her early life, save for the fact that her mother died when Peg was quite young. She left Peg’s father alone to raise a daughter and two sons, Robert and Milton.
A short time later, Peg’s father packed up and moved the family to New York, where he started working in local theater. Unfortunately, tragedy struck again, and Peg’s father was run over by a truck on Park Avenue, ending his life. Robert and Milton were sent to Los Angeles to live with Harold Entwhistle, their uncle, and Peg turned to the stage for solace.
She made her acting debut in “Hamlet” when she was just 17 years old. To everyone’s surprise, she quickly became a bonafide star, loved by audiences, critics, and directors alike. There was no question about it, Peg was a knockout and possessed a gentle quality that won the hearts of just about everyone she ever worked with. She quickly became a Broadway star and a member of the New York Theater Guild.
While working on Broadway, Peg met a fellow actor named Robert Keith who was 10 years her senior. He was also a popular star and the two fell in love and got married. But the marriage soured quickly. During a visit to her mother-in-law’s house, Peg noticed a photograph of a young boy on the mantel. She asked who he was and was informed that he was Robert’s son from his first marriage – a son and a marriage that she knew nothing about. Incidentally, that surprise stepson was future actor Brian Keith, star of the television show "Family Affair" and dozens of movies.
Just weeks later, during a dinner party at their home, a police officer came to the door and demanded nearly $1,000 in back child support that Robert owed. Peg got the money together, but when she asked Robert about it, he became violent. The bad debts, lies, and fights ended the marriage and they were soon divorced.
Peg went back to the Broadway stage, but this part of her life was also coming to an end. The Great Depression had arrived, and the majority of the public could no longer afford expensive theater tickets. Thanks to this, Peg’s last seven New York plays bombed. But all wasn’t lost. While Broadway may have been suffering, Hollywood was booming. During Peg’s initial fame in New York, Hollywood was making the transition from silent films to talkies. Unfortunately, many of the silent film stars were just not cut out for talking roles and Hollywood producers looked to the stars of the New York stage to fill the acting rosters. Many other stage actors were making it big in Hollywood, so Peg packed up and took the train to California, sure that greater fame and fortune waited for her on the West Coast. When she arrived, Peg moved into a Beachwood Canyon bungalow with her brothers and Uncle Harold. The house was located in the Hollywoodland subdivision, just under the towering sign where Peg would later take her life.
Not long after she arrived in Hollywood, Peg found work in small theater. The first production she did was a play called "Mad Hopes," starring Billie Burke, who would go on to play Glenda the good witch in “The Wizard of Oz.” Another performer in the show was a Hollywood newcomer named Humphrey Bogart. The play opened to decent reviews, but only lasted a week and a half. When the curtain fell, Peg saw it as another personal failure. She began to wonder if her New York jinx had followed her to Tinseltown. She went on to appear with Billie Burke in a few more small productions, although Bogart returned to New York. His days of fame and fortune were still to come.
Thanks to her good looks and her popularity on Broadway, Peg landed a short-term contract with RKO Studios and landed a part in the film “Thirteen Women.” She knew that even though it was a small part, it would lead to other offers. It was only her first movie role, she realized, but little did she know that it would turn out to be her last.
During filming, Peg discovered the part was actually a supporting role, but at least it was a good one. Her hopes began to rise. The movie was released only to be savaged by the critics. RKO quickly shelved it. It was released quietly a short time later, but substantial cuts had been made to the 73-minute running time. Peg’s part, despite her good showing, had been reduced to little more than a cameo appearance.
Once more, she was bitterly disappointed but vowed to not let it get to her. She began answering ads for small parts and going to auditions and casting calls. However, Peg soon found that she was just another pretty face in a town filled with beautiful women. All of them had come to Hollywood for the same reason -- to make it into show business.
And things went from bad to worse. Her option with RKO ran out and they declined to renew it. She was cut loose and on her own, was unable to even find work in small theater. Soon, promises of future work quickly vanished. As her career fell apart, her new friends made themselves scarce, not daring to be seen with a “nobody” in Hollywood. Peg Entwhistle, the gorgeous young woman who had shot to fame on Broadway, had now fallen to the bottom of the Hollywood barrel. Her depression worsened when she was unable to even scrape together the train fare to go back to New York. She would never act again.
So, on September 16, Peg announced to her Uncle Harold that she was going to take a walk. She was last seen alive heading down Beachwood Canyon toward Mount Lee. Apparently, Peg scratched her way up the slope to the Hollywood sign where she took off her coat and folded it neatly. She placed it, along with her purse, at the base of the maintenance ladder that led up the letter "H." She climbed to the top and then plunged to her death.
The next day, a young woman hiking in Griffith Park discovered the purse and coat near the ladder. She opened the purse and discovered a su***de note inside. It read simply:
“I am afraid I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago it would have saved a lot of pain..... P.E."
The hiker replaced the note and then, in the early morning hours, placed the purse and coat on the doorstep of the Hollywood police station. Two days later, authorities discovered the body of Peg Entwhistle in the brush at the bottom of Mount Lee.
Unsure of her identity, the police ran a description of the woman, along with the contents of the su***de note, in the newspaper. They were quickly contacted by Peg’s Uncle Harold, who had been frantically searching for his niece. She had been missing since she had left for her walk several evenings before. He feared the worst when he saw the initials attached to the end of the note. Not long after, he identified the body as that of Peg Entwhistle.
Soon after, an ironic event occurred – the kind of event that usually only seems to happen in the movies.
Two days later, Uncle Harold was sifting through the afternoon mail and he discovered a letter that had been mailed to Peg the day before she jumped to her death. The letter was from the Beverly Hills Playhouse and it had been written to offer her the lead role in their next production. The part they wanted her to play was that of a beautiful young woman who commits su***de. This might have been Peg’s big chance, but we’ll never really know.
But death was not the last act for Peg Entwhistle.
In the years following her su***de, hikers and park rangers in Griffith Park told of strange happenings in the vicinity of the Hollywood sign. Many reported sightings of a woman dressed in 1930s-era clothing who abruptly vanishes when approached. She was described as a very attractive, blond woman, who seems very sad. Could this be Peg’s ghost, still making her presence known? Could she also be linked to the pungent smell of gardenia perfume that has been known to overwhelm sightseers in the park? Perhaps it is, as the gardenia scent was known to be Peg’s trademark perfume.
What could have made Peg Entwhistle choose to end her life in such a dramatic and violent way – and from the Hollywood sign itself?
We may never know for sure, but one thing is clear – it’s been said that the Hollywood signs stands as a symbol of hope so that those who answer the siren call of Hollywood will know that anything in the city is possible. But did Peg glimpse that sign one evening, after spending the day going from one pointless casting call to another, and see it not as a symbol of hope, but one of despair? Did she feel that the sign was mocking her, laughing that so many others had made it in the movies, so why couldn’t she? Did its glowing lights remind her of why she had come to Hollywood, chasing the bright lights she would never catch up to? Or perhaps she just wanted to go out in a way that people would remember?
If this was the case, she was right. Most people would have never heard of Peg Entwhistle if not for the fact that she took that fatal plunge from the very symbol of Hollywood itself.
Like far too many Hollywood hopefuls whose life ended in tragedy, Peg gained much more fame in death than she ever did in life.
