Martha Mansfield: The Actress Who Burned to Death in Her Costume on a Movie Set

Martha Mansfield belongs to some quite exclusive company. She was one of several entertainers known as the "Ziegfield Girls" to die young and tragically. One of the Ziegfield Girls committed suicide by poison in Paris; another defenestrated herself into the afterlife, and at least one died in a brutal fight inside a bar. But it is Martha Mansfield's story that may be the most horrific. Mansfield was an up and coming young silent film starlet who fulfilled Norma Desmond's claims that they had faces then. Such was the allure of Martha's face that she was approached to become a model for photographers and artists. Her dark eyes almost seem to pop out and although today's movie audiences might not consider her remarkably attractive (then again, considering today's alleged sex symbols, they just might), at the time she was thought to be quite the hottie. Martha Mansfield worked in the reverse mode of how it's done today; she was an actress turned model, having made her Broadway debut as a teenager. Although quite successful as a stage actress, this was the heady period in American entertainment history when what would eventually become the most successful medium of all time was just beginning to take shape. And it was a gimme that producers would come calling on a girl like Mansfield.