"[3] After courting for just three weeks[4] and while enjoying a day off their working schedules, the couple passed a registrar's office where Courtleigh made an impromptu suggestion that they get a license of marriage, to which Fleming did not take seriously.
[4] In April 1921, Fleming was reported to have drunk carbolic acid, a form of poison, while in the back of a taxi with fellow film actor Joseph King, refusing to answer when questioned her reasons for swallowing the solution.
[4] One report suggested that Fleming, who was in a dangerous condition at Bellevue Hospital, drank the fluid in an attempt "to commit suicide because of despondency over lack of employment.
"[5] Prior to her acting career, Fleming was a swimmer, described by one newspaper as being known as "the surf girl", due to spending up to four hours a day in the water during the summer months.
She had a reputation in her home town of Staten Island as an endurance swimmer, swimming at one time up to 7 miles (11 km) prior to being picked up by boats.