with police. In February 1931, she was charged with petty theft after L.H. Hillyer, a man from whom Nolan had rented a house, accused her of stealing a $200 rug from the home. The rug later turned up at the home of a doctor who claimed Nolan had given it to him in exchange for payment for medical care. In December 1931, Nolan and her then husband William T. McCreary were arrested after thirteen employees of their dress shop filed charges against them for failing to pay them wages. In March 1932, Nolan and McCreary were convicted of violating seventeen labor laws and sentenced to thirty days in jail. Later years In July 1935, Nolan made news again when she filed a lawsuit against her former lover, MGM studio executive and producer Eddie Mannix. In her suit, Nolan claimed the two had lived together at the Ambassador Hotel from 1927 to 1931 (Mannix was married at the time), and that Mannix frequently beat her and used his considerable influence to ruin her career. Nolan further claimed that one such physical attack by Mannix required hospitalization where she underwent 20 surgeries. She asked for $500,000 in damages. Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling, the head of publicity at MGM, publicly denied Nolan's claims, stating that the suit was a publicity stunt to bolster Nolan's flagging career. Nolan's friends supported her claims, however, stating that while the two were together, Nolan underwent three abortions, paid for by Mannix, and that she appeared on set with black eyes and bruises due to Mannix's physical abuse. According to Mannix's biographer E.J. Fleming, Mannix was incensed by the negative publicity the suit brought him and set out to discredit Nolan and ruin her reputation. Strickling and MGM's publicity department leaked negative stories about Nolan's sexual activities and abortions to the press. Fleming said that Nolan later dropped the suit and left Los Angeles after Mannix sent a private detective to Nolan's home who told her that if she didn't drop the suit, she would be arrested for possessing morphine (the drug she was prescribed during her hospital stays to which she eventually became addicted). After leaving Los Angeles, Nolan earned a living by appearing on the vaudeville circuit. She also sang in nightclubs and roadhouses throughout the United States. In March 1937, she was jailed in New York City for failing to pay a four-year-old dress