'REEFER MADNESS' ACTRESS THELMA WHITE, 94, DIES

Thelma White, whose portrayal of a hard-boiled addiction queen in the 1936
movie "Reefer Madness" was largely forgotten until the 1970s, when the film
resurfaced as a cult classic, died of pneumonia Tuesday at the Motion
Picture and Television Hospital. She was 94.

Born in 1910, White was a carnival performer as a toddler, progressed to
vaudeville, radio and movies, then worked as an agent and producer for many
years. During her heyday as an actress, she appeared alongside such
legendary performers as W.C. Fields, Will Rogers, Red Skelton and Jack Benny.

What secured her place in Hollywood history, however, was a movie so awful
that its memory still made her shudder 50 years later.

"Reefer Madness" was a low-budget propaganda film written by a religious
group to broadcast the dangers of marijuana. It was relegated to the cinema
waste heap for almost 40 years until 1972, when Keith Stroup, founder of
the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws discovered it in the
Library of Congress archives and paid $297 for a print. He then screened it
in New York as a benefit for NORML, unwittingly launching it on the road to
cult-film history.

The movie was seen by Robert Shaye, who recognized its appeal as a
hilarious, if unintentional, parody. He re-released it through his
then-fledgling company, New Line Cinema, staging midnight showings until
the film became a high-camp hit, especially popular on college campuses.
(Based on early successes such as "Reefer Madness," New Line grew into a
force in the entertainment industry, responsible for "Nightmare on Elm
Street" and other hits.)

Today the movie that critic Leonard Maltin calls "the granddaddy of all
'Worst' movies" still commands a loyal audience on the cult circuit.
Amazon.com ranks it No. 35 on its list of 100 bestselling cult-movie
videos, and it has been viewed free more than 19,000 times in recent years
on the Internet at http://www.archive.org/movies.

"I'm ashamed to say that it's the only one of my films that's become a
classic," White, who made more than 40 movies and shorts during the 1930s
and 1940s, told the Los Angeles Times in a 1987 interview.

"I hide my head when I think about it," she said, adding that it was "a
dreadful film."

Born Thelma Wolpa in Lincoln, Neb., White was the daughter of itinerant
carnival performers who traveled throughout the Midwest. She made her debut
at age 2 when her parents stuck her in a line of dolls and at the
appropriate moment cued her to start cooing and wiggling.