She was on vacation following a 1927 stage appearance when film director E. Mason Hopper saw her and offered her a part in a Marie Prevost picture.

Her career — and life — was changed forever when the studio cast her in its new jungle epic Trader Horn opposite Harry Carey.

MGM gave the production a fairly large budget, and sent cast and crew on location in East Africa.

[2] En route to Africa, on board the SS Ussukama, director W. S. Van Dyke told her to sunbathe on deck to acclimate herself to the African sun.

[2] The makers of the film believed her role as "The White Goddess" required her to be scantily clad, which caused her to be cut by elephant grass and likely increased her susceptibility to mosquito bites.

[4] The production begged producer Irving Thalberg via cable to send a mobile ambulance unit and special first aid, but he did not.

[7] Olive Carey testified that Thalberg did not provide medical transport or extra care to Booth because he said he was concerned about the film's budget.

Neither MGM nor the other major studios had any intentions of employing her, which created an opportunity for producer Nat Levine of the low-budget Mascot Pictures.

Levine saw a chance to capitalize on the success of Trader Horn by reuniting its stars Harry Carey and Edwina Booth for two adventure serials, The Vanishing Legion and The Last of the Mohicans.

[8] Booth withdrew completely from the public eye, although she continued to receive fan mail for the rest of her life.

She declared that she would be dedicating all of her future leisure and a large proportion of her earnings to the alleviation of human suffering, "My years of illness have not been wasted," she informed the local press.

"[citation needed] She became more active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and worked in the Los Angeles California Temple.