The dark side of Hollywood: understanding the devastating suicide of Peg Entwistle
Hollywood is a region associated with dream fulfilment, artistic success and fame by the barrowload. The humble Los Angeles neighbourhood has long been disguised by the 45-foot tall “HOLLYWOOD” sign that looms large over the hills at its fringes. Contrary to associative belief, the Hollywood neighbourhood is a mainly run-down area, despite its prevalence as the hub of the American movie industry. There’s a reason why all the film stars shoot off to Beverly Hills, five miles away.
In 1932, as if symbolising these false promises of the Hollywood Hills, Peg Entwistle, an aspiring British actor, climbed the H of the Hollywood sign, which then read “HOLLYWOODLAND”, before jumping to her death. Of course, the run-down neighbourhood isn’t the only sobering agent one might encounter following a trip out west. As Entwistle tragically discovered, fame and fortune only came to those at the tip of an iceberg.
The Hollywood sign was erected in 1923 as a real estate advertisement billboard for the expanding neighbourhood. At first, it was lined with 4,000 light bulbs that flashed in three parts: “HOLLY”, “WOOD”, and “LAND”. The final part was removed in 1949 after standing for 26 years of dramatic change.
During this period, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded, and the Big Five studios, 20th Century Fox, RKO Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, had begun to monopolise the industry.
Entwistle was born in Wales in February 1908. Following her parents’ divorce in 1912, she moved to New York with her father, Robert, a theatre stage manager who soon remarried and had two sons. As if planting the seeds of tragedy, Entwistle’s stepmother died in 1921. Just one year later, her father also passed after being hit by a car on Park Avenue and East 72nd Street.
Having lost communication with her biological mother, Entwistle moved to her uncle Harold’s home, where she was cared for alongside her two half-brothers. Despite the trauma of her early years, Entwistle excelled in academia and pursued a stage career at age 17. After a promising start on Broadway, she was accepted into the distinguished New York Theatre Guild and allegedly had a young Bette Davis among her admirers following a blinding performance in The Wild Duck.
In 1927, Entwistle married fellow stage actor Robert Lee Keith, who had kept a previous marriage and his son a secret. Sadly, albeit predictably, this love wasn’t to last, and the couple divorced just two years later.
As the 1930s dawned, hopes for a new decade were dashed for most with the burgeoning reality of the Great Depression. In pursuit of silver screen fame and the associated cash flow, Entwistle left for the west coast in 1931, where she moved in with another kindly uncle, Charles.
By the summer of 1932, Entwistle had launched a concerted attack on Hollywood’s thriving Golden Age, securing an acting role in George Archainbaud’s high-profile thriller, Thirteen Women. Alas, much of Entwistle’s performance was cut from the final product, and when it finally hit screens, the critics lacked enthusiasm. Entwistle’s contract at RKO was discontinued following the flop, leaving her destitute without palpable salvation.
After many years of tragedy and career disappointment, Entwistle found herself at breaking point. On the night of September 16th, 1932, she left her uncle’s home on Beachwood Drive, informing him that she was off to meet some friends. Instead, she hiked up the Hollywood Hills and scaled to the top of the ‘H’.
The following day a female hiker found a shoe, coat and purse strewn across the steep, rocky terrain beneath the Hollywood sign. The purse contained Entwistle’s suicide note: “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.”
“I was hiking on Hollywood mountain and near the Hollywood land sign, I found a woman’s shoe, Jacket and purse,” the anonymous hiker told The Lewiston Daily Sun at the time. “In the purse, I found a suicide note. I looked down the mountain and saw a body. I don’t want any publicity in this, so I wrapped up the purse, shoe and Jacket and laid the bundle on the steps of the Hollywood police station.”
The story hit newspapers across the country over the following days, and as the years went by, Entwistle’s death became a thing of legend fraught with conjecture and conspiracy. Rumours have run rampant over the nine decades since. Some say Entwistle’s ghost haunts the Hollywood Hills leaving behind the scent of her gardenia-based perfume, while others claim a letter arrived the day after her death, offering a role in a play about a woman who commits suicide.
Watch Peg Entwistle act in Thirteen Women, her only major movie role, below.
