America’s “snowstorm” didn’t last long. Though cocaine would not be made illegal for non-medical purposes (on a federal level) until 1922, by that time, it was already falling out of favor. Coca-Cola removed it from their recipe in 1906. Articles about the dangers and addictive powers of the drug began appearing in newspapers even earlier, around 1890.

Nevertheless, despite these warnings, cocaine remained, to many, either a miracle cure or a harmless vice.

And if cocaine—in one form or another—was being widely used all over the country, what was going on with it at this time in Hollywood, within the nascent but already decadent-leaning community of silent film-making? Certainly it was no secret that, as in later decades, Hollywood even at that time was already awash in many dangerous and addictive chemicals. According to author Andy Edmonds, writing about the early movie colony, “Cocaine was as common as aspirin and major stars blew their fortunes on thousand-dollar-a-week cocaine habits.”

It’s long been rumored that the manic antics of the Keystone Kops was inspired by the hyped-up energy caused by cocaine. There is a theory afloat that the Kops themselves might have shot themselves up right before the cameras rolled in order to deliver the energy needed for their more madcap scenes. Mack Sennett himself was rumored to have partaken of the powder from time to time as well, at least according to some associates of his who could never fully explain his seemingly boundless energy or his often erratic mood swings. And Sennett star Fatty Arbuckle also heavily indulged throughout his career as did major silent star Norma Talmadge who died addicted to the stuff.

But Sennett and his Kops weren’t the only ones. The so-called “joy powder” (or other illicit drugs) of the era was popular with many performers. Sadly, its rampant use either resulted in or helped hasten many of their early deaths. Olive Thomas, who died at age 25, began the hecatomb. She was a former model and Ziegfeld Girl and silent film actress who was married to Mary Pickford’s brother Jack. Olive and Jack lived a short, scandalous life before her unexpected death in a hotel room in Paris in 1925, probably, from a drug overdose.