The Puzzle of Peggy Davis

Peggy Davis (Mary Margaret Laird, 1899-1931) left behind few fans but many questions when she drove her car off a 600 foot cliff at the age of 31.

The Birmingham, Alabama native had been singing and dancing since childhood. Theda Bara saw one of her performances and cast her in Under Two Flags (1916). It was reported said that she once won a beaty competition, danced in cabarets and was possibly in some Christie Comedies, but other than this her known credits are few. She was featured in The Ziegfeld Follies of 1921, had a role in the 1923 silent melodrama The Net, and was a show girl in the 1929 stage musical Broadway Nights.

The real drama appears to have been in her private life. Her first two marriages, in 1918 and 1921 were annulled because in both cases it turned out the grooms were already married, In 1922 she spent time in a sanitarium for what was then called a nervous breakdown, possibly after having been bitten by a zoo lion while rehearsing a movie scene (although that sounds to me like bosh from a studio publicity hack). In 1925 she married a wealthy Australian and then moved to Paris, where they had a daughter.

Then in early 1931, her spectacular death off that cliff near Eze on the Riviera. Her husband claimed she had been drinking brandy, and had left behind this note: “David, it’s finished. I cannot stand your demands for me to return to the stage. You know how much I detest that life and why I beg you to keep it from baby. I love baby and her sweet smile. Please pay Wally 4,000 francs. Look, David, I love you so please look after mother and baby. I love her so”.

David Townsend was one of the wealthiest men in Australia. Isn’t it more likely that she WANTED to go back into show business, as opposed to the other way around? In what universe does a millionaire force his wife, the mother of a young child, to go on the stage? Sounds like Bizarro World!

At any rate, Davis joins Peggy O’Neill,Peggy Shannon, and Peg Entwistle in a Pathetic Parade, proving the ancient dictum that those with the cheek to go on the stage will soon be taken down a Peg.

For more on the history of show business,consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, for more on silent film please check out my book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube.