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The Mysterious Death of Thomas Ince
By Nora De Vita
ollywood has always been strange. It is a
H
capricious environment with colorful and
eccentric characters, that have for decades
delighted us common folk or horrified us with
its stories. In our own lives, we always try to distance
ourselves as far as possible from drama or rumors, but
sometimes, rumors and drama come to us, whether we
like it or not.
Working at the William S. Hart Museum, we come
into contact with a lot of Hollywood stories, either true or
sensationalized. In fact, one of the stranger stories in
Hollywood history took place right under our noses.
Thomas H. Ince was a producer and a name that
many of you might never have heard until you started
volunteering at the Hart.
He was a pioneer in the art
of movie production, and
he even helped William S.
Hart get his big break.
Besides Hart, he was
associated with some of
the biggest names in
Hollywood, one of these
people being William
Randolph Hearst. It was
his connection to Hearst
that would lead to his
It was Thomas demise ... or did it?
Ince's connection to Over the years, Ince's
death has been debated and
Hearst that would
talked about endlessly, and
lead to his death ... that has led the facts to
or did it? disappear like snow in the
middle of August. We have
reason to believe that his
untimely death was caused by heart failure. But why did
that explanation not hold up?
It all started with two good friends.
It was November 1924. Hearst and Ince were getting
prepared to collaborate on various projects. Ince would
take Hearst's magazine and newspaper stories and put
lla,t Beat
Hearst S yacht, the Oneida.
them on the big screen, and Hearst wished to use Ince's
studios for a film he was going to make.
Hearst invited Ince to set sail with him on his yacht
the Oneida over the weekend to celebrate Ince's 44th
birthday. Among the other guests who were invited were
Charlie Chaplin and Hearst's mistress, movie star Marion
Davies. It was these two people who would later help
fuel the Ince murder conspiracy.
A day after boarding the Oneida, Ince began to feel
chest pains. The next day, he was brought back to land at
Del Mar and taken to a hotel, where he succumbed that
night.
The rumors of jealousy and murder started shortly
after Ince's death, when he was carried off the ship by
one of Hearst's personal doctors.
One of Chaplin's personal assistants, Toraichi Kono,
later told Japanese workers in the area that he saw Ince 's
body being brought off the ship with a bullet hole in his
head. The wealthy employers of these Japanese domestic
workers began to repeat it, and later the tale was picked
up by Hearst's enemies, who were trying to take
advantage of his declining media empire.
The rumored story went as follows: Ince was shot by
a jealous Hearst, who mistakenly thought he was
Chaplin. Hearst had suspected Chaplin and Davies of
carrying on an affair.
Despite efforts to quell the rumors that Hearst had
murdered Ince, the story carried on, and survives even to
this day. A movie titled The Cat'sMeow came out in
2001, and filed away the false story of Thomas Ince's
death in our minds.