Margaret Ehrlich

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Margaret Ehrlich (1917 – January 12, 1936) was a dancer and motion picture actress from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her career in Hollywood was cut short by an auto accident.

Her true surname was Earlich. She was a graduate of Santa Monica High School.

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[edit] Brief Movie Career

Ehrlich was discovered by a movie scout at the age of 16 in 1933. At the time she was sunbathing in Santa Monica, California. It was predicted that she would be under contract to RKO Pictures. Instead she signed with Metro-Goldwyn Mayer using the stage name Margo Early.

She has uncredited roles in three motion pictures. They are Love Detectives (1934), Whirlpool (1934), and Stand Up And Cheer! (1934). In two of the bit parts she depicted dancers.

[edit] Death In Accident

In January 1936 Ehrlich was riding with Mary A. Grace, 18, following a party at the beach home of actress Marion Davies. Grace was a dancer for Warner Bros.. Their car crashed into a concrete abutment on the Roosevelt Highway in Santa Monica, California. The specific location was an incline on California Avenue. Ehrlich, 17, was killed, and Grace, a friend of Davies, was critically injured.

They had traveled only a few blocks on the Roosevelt Highway at the time of the wreck, which occurred about 2:30 a.m. There were no witnesses but police estimated that Grace was speeding. Her speed was so excessive that she could not make the turn into the California Avenue incline. Tire marks indicated that the auto slid forty-one feet prior to hitting the abutment, and thirty-one more feet after the collision.

Ehrlich sustained head injuries, a fractured right arm, and lacerations on her body. She died in an ambulance on the way to Santa Monica Hospital.

She was survived by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Milton Ehrlich, of 227 Fifteenth Street in Santa Monica. Two brothers, Paul and Frederick, also survived her. Her body was taken to Kirkelle, Bernard & Peck Mortuary, in Ocean Park.

[edit] Inquest

On the morning of January 16 an inquest into Ehrlich's was conducted by the Los Angeles County Coroner at the funeral parlor. According to an autopsy report read at the inquest, a basal skull fracture was the cause of her death. A coroner's jury deemed an absence of caution and care as the cause of the car crash.

A night watchman disclosed that he had seen Ehrlich arrive at Davies' party with her father. It was revealed that Milton Ehrlich was notified of the wreck and identified his daughter's body.

Margaret Ehrlich was entombed in a mausoleum at Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica.

[edit] References

  • Lima News, Hollywood News And Gossip, October 18, 1933, Page 9.
  • Los Angeles Times, Auto Crash Takes Life Of Actress, January 13, 1936, Page 1.
  • Los Angeles Times, Crash Death Inquest Set, January 14, 1936, Page A3.
  • Los Angeles Times, Fatal Crash Blame Fixed, January 16, 1936, Page A5.