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* T A Y L O R O L O G Y *
* A Continuing Exploration of the Life and Death of William Desmond Taylor *
* *
* Issue 9 -- September 1993 Editor: Bruce Long bruce@asu.edu *
* All reprinted material is in the public domain *
*****************************************************************************
CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:
Mary Miles Minter vs. American Film Co.
"The Humor of a Hollywood Murder" Part 6:
Evil Hollywood, Hollywood Treads Softly, Editorial Contemplations
*****************************************************************************
What is TAYLOROLOGY?
TAYLOROLOGY is a newsletter focusing on the life and death of William Desmond
Taylor, a top film Paramount film director in early Hollywood who was shot to
death on February 1, 1922. His unsolved murder was one of Hollywood's major
scandals. This newsletter will deal with: (a) The facts of Taylor's life;
(b) The facts and rumors of Taylor's murder; (c) The impact of the Taylor
murder on Hollywood and the nation. Primary emphasis will be given toward
reprinting, referencing and analyzing source material, and sifting it for
accuracy.
*****************************************************************************
Mary Miles Minter was one of the central personalities in the Taylor case.
The press details of her 1920 legal battle with the American Film Company
gives some interesting insights into her personality and the atmosphere of
the era.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
May 18, 1920
LOS ANGELES HERALD
Trial of the breach of contract suit of Mary Miles Minter, asking $4125
alleged to be due her in back pay and expenses, and the counter-suit of the
American Film Co. demanding $102,523 damages claimed to have been suffered
through her failure to appear in a projected picture, was scheduled to begin
before United States Judge Trippet today.
Involving many ramifications, among them the question of the film star's
exact age, the trial, which is to be before a jury in the federal court, is
expected to reveal many interesting sidelights on the financing of moving
picture stars and productions.
The complaint in the suit sets forth among other things that Mary Miles
Minter's real name is Juliet Reilly and that her mother's name is Mrs. Pearl
Miles Reilly.
According to the allegations of the suit brought by the star, under the
terms of a contract with the American Film Co. she was to receive $2250 a week
for a period of two years, but on various occasions received but $1125.
It was for the payment of the alleged withheld salary that Miss Minter
has brought suit. In justification of her claims it is set forth in the star's
complaint that the company did not provide directors suited to her abilities
and that she was compelled to work day and night on location in violation of
the eight-hour law.
In the counter-suit brought by Attorney H. W. Bodkin for the American
Film Co., it is claimed that the company suffered a loss of $100,000 in
prospective profits from a projected picture starring Miss Minter. In
addition, the company claims that it had expended some $2522 in purchasing a
scenario, hiring actors and other incidentals to the making of a picture.
The failure of make this picture, it is related in the complaint, was
solely due to the fact that Miss Minter refused to work during the last two
months of the period covered in her contract.
Previous to this time, the cross-complaint states, Miss Minter would not
work regularly, sometimes failing to appear more than two days out of the
week.
The question of the age of the little star is due to come up in
connection with the voidability of the contract made with the company. At the
time the contract was made in April, 1917, it is said by Miss Minter that she
was less than 18 years old.
That the burden of proving her age will rest with Miss Minter was the
contention of the attorneys for the company.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
May 19, 1920
LOS ANGELES HERALD
More than a hundred celebrities and near celebrities of filmdom thronged
United States Judge Trippet's court today when the breach of contract suit of
Mary Miles Minter against the American Film Co. actually went on trial.
A jury composed entirely of men had been selected to hear the evidence in
the case, in which it is claimed by the screen star that the company owes her
in the neighborhood of $5000 for back pay and expenses.
Mrs. Pearl Miles Selby [sic], mother of Miss Minter, was the first
witness called to the stand to testify today.
Asked concerning the reason for her daughter's failure to appear for
work on various occasions set forth by the company, Mrs. Selby [sic] declared
that in nearly every case it was due to a toothache.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
May 20, 1920
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
The American Film Company deducted $187.50 for a twenty minute period in
which Mary Miles Minter curled her shampooed hair, according to Mrs. Pearl
Miles Reilly, her mother, who testified yesterday on behalf of her daughter.
Attorneys W. J. Ford and H. G. Bodkin, representing the defendant
company, claim that Mary had too much "temperament" and ignored the directions
of the general manager which required all actresses, including stars, to be on
duty as early as 9 a.m. They have subpoenaed Margaret Shelby, Miss Minter's
sister, to testify today.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
May 20, 1920
LOS ANGELES HERALD
First hand details of how a toothache affects a screen star's
"temperament" were given by Mary Miles Minter in the trial of her breach of
contract suit against the American Film Co. in United States Judge Trippet's
court today.
There was also testimony given by Miss Minter on temperament and its
place in motion picture work. That the manager of the American Film Co. does
not agree with Miss Minter's views was a deduction to be drawn from her
testimony.
Miss Minter described a scene outside the scenario of the picture she was
making between herself and Mr. Neil when she was late on the "set" one day
because of trouble with a tooth.
On this occasion the witness testified she had not slept the night before
and felt a "perfect fright."
"Can you describe Mr. Neil's manner when you came on the set?" Miss
Minter was asked.
"I don't like to do that," she demurred.
"Well, just tell how he looked?" her attorney urged.
"Oh! He made me so nervous. He looked at me just as if I were a criminal.
I felt like screaming," Miss Minter declared.
Then it was that Mr. Neil, according to Miss Minter, said that this
"temperament business is all a joke." And furthermore declared that he didn't
believe that the star had any more toothaches than he had.
Finally, the witness said, in order to please the manager she asked her
director to take a few scenes. She said that all the time they were taking
these scenes Mr. Neil stood on the "set" in a "threatening attitude."
During a conversation between herself and Mr. Neil while on the "set"
that day Miss Minter testified the manager said to her in dramatic tones:
"No work, no pay." Her mother heard this remark the star testified and
answered it, "All right, no pay, no work."
"What effect did Mr. Neil's presence have on your ability to work?" the
star was asked.
"Well, it got to be so that when I looked at him that I just thought I
couldn't stand it."
During her testimony, Miss Minter referred frequently to her director as
"Lloyd." Judge Trippet finally asked Miss Minter to whom she referred as
"Lloyd."
"Why Mr. Ingraham," responded the witness.
"Do you usually refer to people by their first names on the "set"? she
was asked.
"Oh, yes! Everybody calls everybody by their first name," Miss Minter
declared.
Further reference was made by Miss Minter to her tooth at another point
in her testimony. She declared that owing to the fact that she was unable to
go regularly to the dentist the tooth broke off.
"The doctor was absolutely amazed," Miss Minter declared, "that anyone
would take the responsibility of endangering her health."
Miss Minter then told the jury that owing to the fact that the tooth
broke off she had to have a "false gold thing" put in its place.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
May 21, 1920
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
...Miss Minter, who is represented by Attorney E. A. Meserve, testified
the director was just as temperamental as she was.
"What do you mean by temperament?" asked Attorney Joe Ford, representing
the American Film Company.
"If you call the arguments growing out of daily associations,
temperament, then I suppose I had temperament," said Miss Minter.
She also tackled R. R. Neils, general manager of the American Film
Company. She said he was very domineering and impressed his dignity by such
orders as the one he issued to stars and others to be at work at 9 a.m.
A good part of the day was taken up in explaining the work on some
pictures. Miss Minter stated she had been delayed on occasions by improper
instructions to her, and by her desire to make up properly and in the most
artistic fashion. She also said her absence on certain days with the company
was due to a toothache, but that for a whole week she suffered rather than ask
Mr. Neils for permission to leave.
Defense Attorneys Ford and Bodkin made efforts to establish whether Miss
Minter laughed in the camera in a picture purposely to spoil it because she
had been called to work early. They called Allan Forrest, an actor, to testify
regarding the incident, but he stated he did not remember. Miss Minter denied
she laughed in the camera to spoil the picture.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
May 21, 1920
LOS ANGELES HERALD
...Miss Minter admitted that on many occasions during her work with the
American Film Co. at Santa Barbara she went home at night to cry herself to
sleep.
The crying episode was revealed when her attorney asked what effect the
friction between herself and R. R. Neils had on her.
"Many, many times I went home, threw myself on the bed and cried myself
to sleep," Miss Minter testified.
"Well, do you ordinarily cry easily?" she was asked.
"No, I'm not the crying sort," answered the witness. I don't like people
who cry," she added.
Then Miss Minter was questioned concerning a checker game episode in
which the members of her company were the players.
According to the story told in court by Miss Minter, the checker game was
in progress during an interval in the filming of the picture.
The witness said she was suddenly startled by a "bing" on the back of her
chair. Then she said she heard Mr. Neils say:
"Miss Minter, I command you to stop playing checkers." At this point the
witness declared she screamed she was so nervous.
The witness was then asked if it was the custom for actors to play
checkers on the "set" when they were not engaged before the camera.
"Oh, yes," answered Miss Minter, "it is quite the custom for them to play
little games between times.
"Sometimes the boys shoot craps and the girls did embroidery or read."
Another incident described as being one of the causes of her troubles
with Mr. Neils, the manager of the American Film Co., was the filming of a
scene under too many lights.
On one occasion Miss Minter testified that there were two or three times
as many lights used as were necessary and that she was forced to rehearse
before them, which she declared is contrary to the usual custom.
That night the witness stated she went home completely blinded. During
the night she testified she awoke and thought hat her eyeballs were being
burned out. The entire family had to get up and care for her, Miss Minter
declared.
Before leaving the stand today Miss Minter was questioned by Judge
Tripped as to whether she stopped working for the American Film Co. because
she had been offered another contract with another company. Miss Minter
declared that she did not have another contract in view at that time.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
May 22, 1920
LOS ANGELES EXPRESS
...Dr. Nathaniel F. Hirtz, dentist, called at the request of Miss Minter,
was the only witness called during the morning session, and the most minute
details of dental work, past, present and possible future, were disclosed in
questions asked by Attorney Meserve, representing the star, and Attorney Ford,
who is conducting the case for the film company.
During his testimony the dentist declared that Miss Minter's teeth were
in bad condition during the period in which she claims that she was forced to
call a halt in her film work because of extreme suffering, and technical
charts and explanations were offered in substantiation.
...Letters relative to the company's attitude on Miss Minter's absence
due to the work, written by her mother, Mrs. Charlotte Shelby, to Dr. Hirtz,
were also introduced.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
May 25, 1920
LOS ANGELES HERALD
That 9 o'clock in the morning is a "reasonable" hour for a screen star to
begin work was an opinion given in the breach-of-contract suit of Mary Miles
Minter against the American Film Co., on trial before United States Judge
Trippet today.
This opinion was given on the witness stand by R. R. Neils, general
manager of the company, who declared he came from the East and found Miss
Minter's company "loafing on the job" at Santa Barbara.
Following this discovery, Mr. Neils testified, he made a rule that all
members of the company must be on the "set" ready for work at 9 o'clock in the
morning.
The first day following the issuing of this edict, the witness declared,
Miss Minter was late. He said that he waited on the "set" for her to appear
and that she did not get there until 10:30 o'clock.
"Miss Minter," the witness related he said to the screen star, "It is now
10:30. You have delayed the company one hour."
"Who are you?" was the haughty response Miss Minter made to him,
according to Neils.
The witness said his orders for punctuality on the part of Miss Minter
brought forth the remark from Mrs. Shelby, the star's mother, that the
American Film Co. was a "tin can factory" and that "pictures cannot be
produced by putting in time."
The manager of the film company said he explained to Miss Minter and her
mother that punctuality on the part of the star was necessary because her
pictures were costing twice as much as they should.
Lewis Victory Jefferson, a scenario writer, was the first witness called
today by Attorney W. J. Ford for the film company. He told of a scenario known
as the "Missing Woman," purchased for Miss Minter, but objected to by the star
and her mother on the grounds that it was "immoral."
Jefferson said owing to Mrs. Shelby's objections, the alleged "immoral
location" in it was taken out, but that it still did not satisfy Mrs. Shelby.
A council between Mrs. Shelby and the scenario staff of the company was
described by the witness.
"Did she appear angry?" the witness was asked.
"Yes. She appeared to be intensely angry at us personally and
individually," was the reply.
"What did she say?" demanded Attorney Ford.
"She said she would not put it on at first, but later added, 'All right
if I have to, but God pity it, if we do.' "
The scenario writer was asked if Mrs. Shelby used any profanity in her
remarks at that time. An objection to the question was sustained by Judge
Trippet.
Another scenario written by himself had previously been submitted to Miss
Minter, according to Mr. Jefferson. He was asked whether it caused any ill
feeling toward Miss Minter when this was rejected.
"No," responded the witness, "if we sell one story in 10 we're lucky."
When R. R. Neils, general manager of the American Film Co., was called to
the stand he stated that he had been general manager of the company for eight
or nine years.
He said he came to California from Chicago, the company's headquarters,
to get better "efficiency" at the Santa Barbara studio. On his arrival, he
said, he found the company to be "loafing on the job." Part of this was due to
the lack of punctuality on Miss Minter's part, he testified.
[A series of courtroom sketches accompanied the article.]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
May 26, 1920
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
Echoes of the war were heard yesterday in the suit of Mary Miles Minter
against the American Film Corporation.
Miss Minter last week charged that the film corporation would not let her
participate in war films and protested against her work in Liberty Loan
drives.
R. R. Nehls, general manager of the film company, occupied the stand and
vigorously denied that the film company protested against Miss Minter's
activities. He said:
"Miss Minter was in the Fourth Liberty Loan drive. She spent three weeks
on the drive. During those three weeks we were not only paying her a salary of
$2250 a week, but she was worn out the week following and we gave her another
week's rest at the rate of $2250.
"In addition, we were paying the salaries of the other members of the
company, who could not act during Miss Minter's absence. Miss Minter led the
public to believe that she was giving her time for patriotic purposes. She got
all the credit--at the company's expense--and we got none of it.
"When the flu period came along and all the studios were closing down we
told Miss Minter if she would close down her company we would extend all the
contracts after the flu period to cover the time we were closed. She said she
would be willing to close providing we paid her the $2250 a week while we were
closed. I told her I did not think it very patriotic of her, because all other
companies and directors were closing and extending their contracts to cover
the loss. However, she refused, and so I told her that she and the others
would have to work if they were to draw their salaries."
Miss Minter became very indignant during this testimony and wanted to
speak, but her attorney, E. A. Meserve, motioned her to be quiet.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
May 26, 1920
LOS ANGELES HERALD
The United States district court of Judge Trippet was converted into a
film theater for a moment today while judge and jury were shown a picture of
Mary Miles Minter registering horror in a bedroom scene.
At the request of attorneys for the American Film Co., which is being
sued by Miss Minter for $5000 for alleged breach of contract, the blinds were
lowered on the courtroom windows while a projection machine threw a picture of
the star on the wall.
Several lengths of reel revealing Mary Miles Minter clad in boudoir
garments were shown in an effort on the part of Attorney W. J. Ford to prove
that the screen star laughed in the wrong place and ruined that part of the
picture.
Details of how the picture shown in court was taken were revealed by
Lloyd Ingraham, Miss Minter's director. He testified that the scenes had to be
taken over because the star did not follow his directions.
On cross-examination by Attorney Meserve for Miss Minter, Mr. Ingraham
admitted it is not at all unusual for scenes to be taken over in the making of
a picture. He was then asked if this was frequently owing to the fault of the
star.
"Yes," he answered, "they often cut capers in the making of a picture."
According to Mr. Ingraham Miss Minter warned him before starting work
that morning that the scenes would not be good if he made her work.
"If you make me work today you'll surely have to take the scene over,"
the witness testified Miss Minter said to him.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
May 27, 1920
LOS ANGELES HERALD
"Mary Miles Minter went at me in the fashion of a cat, knocked a
checkerboard high in the air and a cigar out of my mouth, and made three
personal attacks on me," R. R. Nehls, general manager of the American Film
Company, testified in the court of United States District Judge Oscar A.
Trippet yesterday, where Miss Minter is suing for $4125 back salary she says
is due her.
The company claims $102,000 damages because of the alleged refusal of the
star to complete her contract to work when told to do so. The case will go to
the jury today, it is expected.
Miss Minter's alleged attack on the film company's general manager
occurred, he said, after the players had been ordered to cease playing
checkers on the set. The company's game board was removed, but Miss Minter
brought her own, he asserted.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
May 28, 1920
LOS ANGELES HERALD
Mary Miles Minter is victor in her suit against the American Film Co. for
back salary. The jury in the court of United States District Judge Oscar A.
Trippet awarded her $4000. She sued for $4125. The jury by its verdict decided
that the film star was obedient to the orders of the company.
Earlier in the day Miss Minter won another victory over the company when
the court nonsuited the company's claim for $102,000 against the actress on
the ground of a violated contract. Miss Minter proved she was absent from work
on the days mentioned because of a toothache.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
June 3, 1920
LOS ANGELES RECORD
Rumors that Mary Miles Minter is 26 or 27, or any of a dozen other ages
were definitely set at rest last Thursday, when a jury decision in Judge
Trippet's federal court put it on record that the Realart star reached her
18th birthday on April 1, 1920.
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"The Humor of a Hollywood Murder", Part 6
Evil Hollywood
February 9, 1922
DETROIT FREE PRESS
There seem to be two ways in which the Hollywood situation may be
handled by the producers. One is by cleansing the colony so effectively that
the world will believe it is purified. The other is by uprooting it from the
face of the earth. On the whole the latter course seems much the simpler.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 26, 1922
OMAHA BEE
Drive Garbage Element From Movies
Protesting the alleged scandalous actions of certain movie stars in
Hollywood, the Motion Picture Theater Owners' Association of America has
issued the following statement:
"There should be some effective way to remove the garbage element from
the producing end of the motion picture business. The elimination of the
dirty birds who have befouled the high positions into which the theater
owners and public boosted them must be accomplished in some way.
"The odium of their malodorous conduct falls on the theater owner and
this polluting group must no longer be permitted to hang their smeared linen
on this exhibitors' line. It must be made plain to the public that the
theater owners are not responsible for the conduct of these human filth
gushers in the industry, that we utterly repudiate them and demand their
removal from every place where their foul presence tends to contaminate our
business.
"Now we have the Taylor murder with its divorce attachment, alias
appendages, multiplicity of actresses, jealous and other scandalous
circumstances involving well-known stars. The possibility of a well-known
producer being mixed in confronts us and the whole mess of tragic obscenity
is nauseating. [1]
"The belief in some quarters that the motion picture business is on the
one side festering with crass immorality and on the other distended with
bulgy and bulky money bags makes it very essential that theater owners become
alive to the situation confronting them. It must be emphasized that theater
owners are not responsible for these conditions and that they will keep faith
with the public, that no person tainted with scandal shall appear in actor
guise or otherwise on our screens."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
April 1, 1922
MOVIE WEEKLY
Dorothy Gish said the attacks upon picture actors and actresses have
affected her keenly: "When I walk down the street nowadays and someone
recognizes me, I feel like turning my head so that I won't hear them say:
'Oh, there's another one of those picture actresses. I wonder when her story
will be told on the front pages of the newspapers.' "
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 12, 1922
NEW YORK TELEGRAM
In Washington Representative Myron Herrick, of Oklahoma, declared the
exposures justified his bill to prohibit beauty contests in newspapers to
select moving picture stars.
"Girls all over the country are longing to get into the movies," Herrick
said. "And whether they succeed or not their minds are perverted and their
morals loosened by what their favorite screen stars are doing."
Herrick has introduced a bill to tax all moving picture producers and
theatres fifty per cent of their net profits.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
Richard Burritt
CHICAGO NEWS
Lot, pleading to save movieland, would have cried:
"Lord, will you spare movieland if a few players are found whose lives
are above reproach?"
Were the Hollywood colony in peril of the divine wrath, Lot would have
to strike a sharp bargain.
Many men have told me in all seriousness that movieland is a smear on
American decency. Others who have followed the game closely for years have
said that, were it not for the cleansing air of Southern California, the
stench of the movies would asphyxiate clean-minded America.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 20, 1922
BUFFALO EXPRESS
Speaking on the sanctity of human love last evening at the Central
Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Dr. Robert J. MacAlpine, the pastor, said:
"Untainted love is the divinest thing this side of heaven. But tainted
love is born of Hades. It has disgraced Hollywood. It threatens the very life
center of the film world.
"The recent moral revelations in California's movie realm shocked the
self-respecting world. But, had it not been for the death tragedies in star
circles, there would have been no revelation and no shock. The unsuspecting
public would have moved on in peaceful ignorance. And undisturbed the
malignant virus would have still gone on eating its cancerous way into the
body vitals of American life.
"Did physical conditions exist with such destructive virulence, the
state would long ago have quarantined the infested quarters and restricted
the liberties of the infected parties. Public sentiment itself would have
demanded it as a necessary protection to the health of society. Worse than
such a pestilence has been running rampant in Hollywood. By accident, or
incident, it has only recently been brought to light. And now no less is it
necessary to protect society from its contagious germ. The whole cinematic
bottom needs thorough housecleaning and disinfecting. If it doesn't get it,
nothing short of moral disaster will follow. For, from the rotten source, the
moral taint will appear on the screen in every city and hamlet in the land.
If it be allowed to continue, society will pay the penalty by moral
disintegration and decay. And this fair republic will reap the harvest of
untold moral disease and pain and death. Nothing on earth is more certain."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 11, 1922
PHILADELPHIA RECORD
Loose Los Angeles
It is possible that within the limits of the city of Los Angeles there
are some people of refinement who deplore the flood of notoriety that has
come upon the place, culminating in the tidal wave that found its crest in
the melodramatic passing of William Desmond Taylor--or whatever his real name
may have been. But no one would be able to guess this from the news
dispatches that have been pouring out of that storm center into every little
backwater community that maintains a printing press.
The voice of Los Angeles speaks through the megaphone of the movie
director. The municipal authorities either sing small or take their cue from
the dominant orator. The Mayor of the city recently felt it incumbent upon
him to announce to the world, or to such small part of the world as might
give ear to his words in the clamor of more interesting voices, that Los
Angeles was proud to be the capital of the moving picture world. Proud? Of
what? There is nothing in Hollywood that any reputable city might be proud
of, except the money it brings to the neighborhood--and it is this money
which is responsible for the evils of which Hollywood now stands convicted.
It is remarkable that Hollywood should have any defenders at all; and
yet one intelligent and sophisticated observer was recently moved to remark,
in effect, that moral defections on the part of members of the movie world
were no more worthy of reprehension than the forging of a check, or any other
criminal lapse on the part of a clergyman would be. Again we come round to
the eternal "root of all evil"--the love of money. Easy money, pouring
lavishly into the pockets of those who have been unaccustomed to it, is at
the bottom of the shame of Los Angeles. At Hollywood is gathered a vast
colony of men and women who receive incomes out of all proportion to their
intellectual merits. Flattery and admiration are lavished upon them far
beyond their deserts. Their community has become, naturally enough, a nest of
neurotic noxiousness. The whole place needs a healthy fumigation.
There are among these men and women, to be sure, some worthy, self-
respecting actors and actresses who should not be condemned with the
majority; but they are, unfortunately, the minority. They were prompt to
declare that Hollywood must have a thorough housecleaning, but, as we
remarked above, theirs is not the voice at the megaphone. Unfortunately, too,
most of us who prefer to listen to the voice of the movie director, and to
the printed words of his abettors in certain newspapers, have large and furry
ears. The public has been a good deal of a jackass in its unlimited adoration
of the film stars; and so to that extent, at least, it is responsible for the
present deplorable state of the community which the pious first explorers
called the "City of the Angels."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 15, 1922
NASHVILLE BANNER
(reprinted from JOHNSON CITY STAFF)
The leprous colony at Hollywood will not be reformed and consequently
will have to be destroyed.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 11, 1922
NEW YORK HERALD
Chicago Suburb Will Ask to Have Name Changed
What's in a name? A lot, according to the citizens of Hollywood, Ill., a
placid little suburb of Chicago.
Since the Arbuckle and Taylor cases were revealed the tiny Illinois town
doesn't feel so placid. While it boasts of a movie theater, the Illinois
Hollywood is innocent of Japanese butlers, love bungalows, Chinese dope
peddlers and screen ingenues whose faces register "frozen horror."
Because of the notoriety of the movie colony, the residents of Chicago's
suburb today announced they would have the name of their town changed.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 18, 1922
TAMPA TRIBUNE
Hollywood, Ill, wants its name changed. Don't worry, little Illinois
town, everybody knows the only ill Hollywood is in California.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
GARY POST-TRIBUNE
Hollywood Must be Purified by U.S. Government
Hollywood must be purified by the government, Canon William Sheafe
Chase, veteran movie reformer, declared today in an interview.
He demanded passage by congress of a resolution to investigate the film
colony and prevent its scandals from debauching the mind of America.
"Actors and actresses of the screen," he charged, "are teaching the
public free love, adultery, murder, infidelity and lust. And," he added, "too
many of them naturally are practicing what they teach.
"The murder of William Desmond Taylor is another reason why Hollywood
should be investigated," Chase asserted.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 22, 1922
NEW YORK TIMES
(Albany)--Exchange of personalities between Senator Walker, minority
leader of the Senate, and Canon Chase of Brooklyn marked the hearing this
afternoon before the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.
Pointing his finger at Senator Walker, Canon Chase said:
"It's time that the people of this State were told how much you, as a
paid representative of the movie interests in the Legislature, are
receiving."
"It's absolutely none of your business," replied Senator Walker.
"Well, I think they are entitled to know how much you are getting from
the movie interests," retorted Canon Chase.
"I tell you it's none of your business what I get from the motion
picture interests, any more than it is any business of mine what you get in
your collections," Senator Walker exclaimed.
"Remember, Senator, that you are a member of the Senate," said Canon
Chase.
"Yes, I am a Senator by election of the people, and not a self-ordained
lobbyist like you are," replied Senator Walker.
"I appear at this hearing as a citizen," Canon Chase said.
"You've been here most of the time as a disturber," retorted the
Senator.
Then he talked about the accusation that he had received a salary from
the moving picture interests.
"Well, maybe I have bragged about it, as you say, and I'll brag about it
from here to California and back, if I want to, but I want you to understand
once and for all that it's none of your business how much I get," said
Senator Walker.
In addition to Canon Chase, Joseph Levensen, Secretary to the Motion-
Picture Censorship Commission spoke. "If you think the present law is too
weak," Secretary Levensen said, "then you can add a section which would give
the commission authority to eliminate all movie stars who do not bear
respectable reputations. I suppose if you gave us that power about 50 per
cent of the stars would be eliminated."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 17, 1922
NEW YORK WORLD
Scorns Trip to Hollywood Because of Taylor Killing
(Johnstown)--After winning a trip to Hollywood and other film centers,
Miss Cecilia Correll, seventeen, has refused to go because of "conditions in
Hollywood as revealed by the killing of William Desmond Taylor."
Miss Correll won the trip by polling the most votes in a local
popularity contest. She says she was very anxious to get into the movies and
wanted to make the trip until the Taylor incident. Another young woman has
been selected to make the trip.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 15, 1922
NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN
The Free State of Hollywood closes its gates to the State of
California's sleuths. None there are who will risk blacklisting by the stars
of moviedom, through giving aid to the State.
When in Hollywood, do as the orgiastic worshippers of Bacchus.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 19, 1922
SAN FRANCISCO JOURNAL
Salvation Army Would Help Clean Up Films
(Los Angeles)--Evangeline C. Booth, commander of the Salvation Army in
the United States, here on an inspection tour, tonight pledged the aid of the
army in a "clean-up" of any obnoxious element that might exist in the ranks
of filmdom.
Intimating that the immoral escapades of a few film notables have cast a
reflection upon film stars everywhere, through the widespread notoriety given
their acts, Miss Booth said filmdom should bar from its ranks any such
undesirable characters.
She offered the support of the Salvation Army to be used by motion
picture officials in cooperation with moves to better the moral tone of the
motion picture world, whenever necessary.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 19, 1922
Joe Webb
AUSTIN AMERICAN
Perhaps, after all, the movie stars do get the big salaries their press
agents say they get. Dope is expensive and how could they afford to stay
hopped-up if they didn't make big money?
Also, when the producers declare that a certain feature picture cost a
million, perhaps they are including the dope the stars used while it was
being made.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 11, 1922
CLEVELAND PRESS
In 1622, at Stratford, Shakespeare's own home, his own company, called
the King's Company was bribed by the Council to leave town without playing,
the town records showing that six shillings were paid to the players "for not
playing at the hall."
Actors were thought of in those olden days as we now think of tramps.
From that low estimate, actors of honorable character and conduct thru the
centuries have greatly raised their profession in public estimation.
It took a long time to build up a reputation which is being rapidly
undermined by the doings of some of the movie actors at Hollywood.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 11, 1922
"Father Omaha"
OMAHA NEWS
Open Letter: To Will Hays, Boss of the Movies
William: It is reported that you are considering transferring the movie
colony from Hollywood to New York.
But as I pass from the pajamas-and-booze atmosphere of the Arbuckle case
to the pink-nighties-and-cocaine trimmings of the Taylor mystery, I ask: Why
not consider some habitation outside of the borders of the United States?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 9, 1922
DES MOINES REGISTER
Rev. George Wood Anderson yesterday flayed the motion picture industry
as an "evil."
"The truth is," he said, "that our motion picture colonies are as foul
as Sodom and Gomorrah. Our peril is not a yellow peril, but a Hollywood
peril."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 18, 1922
SANTA ANA REGISTER
One thing is certain, decent people are sick and tired of having to
explain to their children what the row's all about when some idol of the
screen is shattered.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 21, 1922
LONDON NEWS
It is stated that American cinema managers have decided not to show
films which feature notorious film stars.
Mr. King, of the Cinematograph Exhibitors' Association, paid a high
tribute to the standard existing among English film actors and actresses.
"There are no such scandals here," he said, "possibly because our
artists are better types, have to work harder for their salaries, and do not
have so much easily earned money to throw about."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
KANSAS CITY STAR
(reprinted from Fort Scott Tribune)
The abandonment of Hollywood would simply be pulling the scab off. The
sore will not be cured until the public abandons the characters that have
made Hollywood infamous.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
CINCINNATI TRIBUNE
(Cincinnati)--"The motion picture industry should not be condemned
because one or two persons out of its personnel of many thousand workers have
been guilty of indiscreet acts," David Wark Griffith, premier motion picture
director of America, said yesterday. "The rotters should be kicked out of the
business, and sooner or later they will be."
Mr. Griffith said that he had never known, seen or talked to William
Desmond Taylor, film director, slain recently in his Los Angeles home. He
added that he had not been in California for three years.
"All I know about Hollywood," he said in answer to a question, "is what
I have read in the papers." But I imagine there must be some fire where there
is so much smoke."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 8, 1922
CLEVELAND PRESS
It is a national disgrace that so often men and women who by their
cleverness and beauty find themselves among the highest paid entertainers of
their generation cannot lead normal lives, heed ordinary proprieties and
conduct themselves without offense. Present conditions, scandalizing the
country, cannot be permitted to continue. The public holds its nose and
demands a change.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 21, 1922
Joe Webb
AUSTIN AMERICAN
Fatty Arbuckle is out with a defense of the morals of movie folks. That
ought to be enough to make it unanimous for the prosecution.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 5, 1922
NEW YORK HERALD
(Los Angeles)--In order to place the motion picture industry upon the
highest possible plane the Federation of Art was organized today in
Hollywood. Its membership is made up of four other organizations, the Writers
Guild, the Cinematographers Association, the Actors Equity Association and
the Motion Picture Directors Association.
Although its purpose in general is to further the good of motion
pictures, the federation plans to take vigorous action against the
undesirables in the motion picture industry.
Actors or other members of the industry who refuse to conduct their
private lives according to the highest standards are to be drummed out of
camp, so to speak. The writers through their representatives will refuse to
sell stories for their use, the cinematographers will refuse to photograph
them, the Actors Equity members will refuse to appear in pictures with them
and the members of the Directors Association will refuse to direct them.
*****************************************************************************
Hollywood Treads Softly
February 10, 1922
Estelle Lindsey
LOS ANGELES EXPRESS
While Mabel Normand, in a darkened room slept the sleep of exhaustion A.
McArthur, publicity director for the Sennett studios and the Cerebus at
present standing between the star and the press, today dictated this
statement:
"Miss Normand and Taylor never were in love with each other. Why in the
name of sense do the newspapers keep on harping on that silly stuff?
"Miss Normand was never engaged to Mack Sennett and he never was jealous
of Taylor."
"Mrs. John Borden of Chicago, claiming to be a close friend of Miss
Normand, claims that Miss Normand was engaged to Sennett," I suggested.
"Then she was talking nonsense," was the emphatic retort. "I didn't mean
to say anything further for publication, but I'll say that. All we are trying
to do is to keep the poor little girl's name out of the papers. Every time it
occurs in connection with the murder it injures her."
"What about the statement of Underwood, arrested in Topeka? He says a
woman killed Taylor. Has Miss Normand any theories on that subject?"
McArthur turned about and made a gesture of utter disgust.
"The poor nut," he blurted. "Underwood is crazy, bughouse. His statement
is bunk, just bunk.
"Honest, we are not going to give out any more statements for Miss
Normand. We are not going to deny or affirm. We are tired, burned out.
"Walter Underwood is just a poor boob. Why should we care what he says?"
"Are you certain Miss Normand is asleep?" I inquired.
"She should be," replied Mr. McArthur, peeping between some heavy velvet
curtains that separated the living-room from a rear chamber. "Yes, she's
asleep and I wish the gossip was as quiet. That's all.
"For God's sake, keep the girl's name out of this mess."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 16, 1922
James Foley
LOS ANGELES EXPRESS
The Woe of the Publicity Man
("All we want to do is to keep their names out of the paper."
--Movie Publicity Man in Recent Interview)
The Publicity Man wore a pair of gumshoes [2]
and his suit was the somberest black.
He walked down the alley and looked all about
that nobody followed his track.
He had on a mask and his cap was pulled down
and you never would know it was he.
He came in the back door with a soft, stealthy step,
as quiet as quiet could be.
He looked all about and he stole up the stairs
where the dramatic editor sat.
His tread was so light and his knock on the door
was the quietest rat-a-tat-tat.
And the editor asked what the news of the stars,
for he knew there must be, more or less.
The Publicity Man whispered low and he said: "Sh-h-h!
We are keeping their names from the press!"
The Publicity Man had no picture or scroll
or lay-out or story or such.
He was mum as an oyster and still as could be
with a blue pencil fast in his clutch.
And the editor said: "I will run a weird tale
of the slim stars and short ones and stout."
The Publicity Man all a-tremble and pale, said:
"Oh, Editor, pray, cut it out!"
The the Editor said: "What's the matter, old boy?
What's the which and the why and the how?"
"The stars want a rest," so the other replied.
"There is too much publicity now!
We have had so much stuff of their furs and their gowns
and their hair and their winning red lips.
Till they're simply worn out with the strain of it all
and just now all they want is eclipse."
The Publicity Man gathered up all the stuff
that the editor had on his hook
And he looked all about and he whispered goodby
with a frightened and furtive look.
Then he put back his mask and he stole out the door
and he dropped down a coal hole to hide.
For the soul of the man was all stricken and sad,
and all humbled and sore was his pride.
Then he came out at dark and he gumshoed his way
to the place where he wrote his weird stuff
And he turned out the lights and he sat in the dark
and he said: "I'm an old bird and tough,
And I've seen some of life as it comes and it goes,
as much as a man can, I guess,
But I never once thought in the whole of my days
I'd be keeping things out of the press."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 6, 1922
Edward Doherty
NEW YORK NEWS
(Los Angeles)--There are hundreds of substantial citizens who believe
the movie interests would spend millions of dollars not to catch the
murderer; but to prevent the real truth from coming out.
They fear that with the revelations coming out of the mystery, the
doings of other film actors and actresses may become known, and these are
things that would wipe out many a fair reputation once they got into
circulation.
They fear that there might be some misunderstandings if the fans learned
about those very free moonlight parties, sometimes held in the Beverly Hills
district, where nymphs and naiads dance in costumes made purely of melting
moonbeams.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
BALTIMORE AMERICAN
(Los Angeles)--The casualties brought to light by the probe of the
Taylor murder mystery continue to mount.
Mabel Normand has suffered a nervous breakdown.
Mary Miles Minter is so weak from grief that she has to be barricaded in
her home.
Claire Windsor has a severe attack of insomnia.
And now comes the report that husky Mack Sennett is ill, too ill to be
seen, too ill to talk.
Meanwhile the district attorney is talking rather bluntly about a
"conspiracy of silence" in the Taylor case.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 13, 1922
SAN FRANCISCO CALL-POST
In the center of this maelstrom of undesirable publicity and probing
Hollywood film stars are burrowing into a cloud of silence like frightened
rabbits.
Newspaper men are met with a wall of silence at every turn. One reporter
was sent on a three weeks' vacation today to commune with nature after a
nervous collapse in attempting to solve the mystery.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 11, 1922
OAKLAND TRIBUNE
Our Correspondent Afield
(Hollywood)--I have visited the police station where is kept the famous
carpet and the famous grill. With each passing hour a new suspect is placed
upon this carpet and with each hour the police begin, all over again, a
"gruelling examination." There is no one in Hollywood today who can claim to
any position among his fellows unless he has been grilled most gruellingly.
Outside of this grill room it is more difficult to find a policeman than a
suspect. They have run to a convenient cover furnished by the united society
of film magnates. In the evening, as I sit here writing this only true
account of the famous case, I can hear the sh-shish-ing of these magnates and
their corps of agents, a shishing that is proving very effective. Over the
wave of slush, one might say, has come a wave of shish. No man dare say his
soul is his own if that soul is under contract to the movies. I am determined
to solve the puzzle--but first I shall find it.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 9, 1922
PITTSBURGH POST
(Los Angeles)--The dynamic energy of the police in the fruitless search
for the solution of the mysterious murder of William Desmond Taylor was
exceeded today by the massed and hurricane activity of the kings of the film
industry to ring down the curtain on the unceasing flow of scandal that has
surrounded the tragedy.
The police centered their search on meager clues that ended in blind
alleys--mysterious pink nighties that disappear--initialed handkerchiefs that
cannot be found--hints of secret loves of beautiful and unnamed women stars--
rejected lovers--scented love letters--
The chain is endless.
Throughout Hollywood the great men of the industry were closeted with
men and women idols of the screen, making every effort to hush up the
scandal.
Giddy parties in the fast road house resorts have been cancelled. The
lights of the white light cabarets no longer shine on decolleted and shimmy
loving women of the screen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 26, 1922
Frank Vreeland
NEW YORK HERALD
Since the recent expose of Hollywood great solidarity has sprung up
among all the players, though probably many of them wouldn't recognize it
under that name. Various cliques who formerly disparaged one another are now
firmly united in the declaration that its people are just about the grandest
little bipeds that ever stepped on the gas.
Moreover, it has been brought home to the celluloid denizens even more
forcefully than after the Arbuckle case that hereafter they must walk a chalk
line without waving their arms wildly.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 9, 1922
BUFFALO NEWS
(New York)--"One hundred million American dollars invested in the film
industry are endangered by the acts of a dozen or so wastrels and
degenerates," Carl Laemmle, one of the greatest movie magnates, declared
today.
"There are thousands of good girls and upright men in Hollywood. And
we're not going to stand for the scandalous few. They stick out like a sore
thumb. And we'll chop off that sore thumb."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 6, 1922
BUFFALO NEWS
(Buffalo)--Censorship was a topic on which Miss Lillian Gish declined to
comment.
"Please don't make me talk about censorship," she said. "I am paid to
act, not to think."
Hollywood is another topic that hasn't any particular interest to her,
Miss Lillian declared.
"Of course there are bad men and women in the film industry," she
asserted. "Why, even the weather is bad now and then. There are bad men and
women in every walk of life. But I do think the press does wrong when it
overplays the scandals and crimes of picture people."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
April 1, 1922
Irma
MOVIE WEEKLY
Romance in the movie colony is so pale, these days. Nobody is admitting
being engaged to wed. They seem to feel that it isn't proper to even be in
love any more, since all this scandal has been stirred up in the film colony.
Most of the girls are behaving like cloistered nuns, these days.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 16, 1922
Louis Joseph Vance
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL
During my brief career as a motion picture producer in Los Angeles in
1915 I heard often and again girls whose dress and manner indicated that they
had been brought up in homes of refinement, offer themselves more or less
brazenly to the casting director in return for a day's work as an extra
woman, at a wage of $3 or $5 or it might be $7.50--not for the money involved
always, though heaven knew many of them needed money, but for the chance they
foresaw of catching the eye of the director by some manifestation of good
camera value and being thereby started on the way up to the eminences.
It isn't in human nature to resist such temptations. Neither is it done.
Bear in mind that the invitation to irregular moral relations in this
last related instance didn't come from old hands in the picture business, but
from inexperienced beginners, many of them young women drawn from that very
class which holds up its hands in holy horror of the goings-on of picture
folk in Hollywood.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 18, 1922
HOLLYWOOD CITIZEN
"I think," said Rob Wagner, chairman of the Writer's Club committee on
the subject of motion picture and Hollywood publicity, "that much of the
misconception that arises about Hollywood is due to the continued use of the
word 'colony'. People in the east look upon us here as a remote, detached
'colony', probably with a fence around it, making our own morals and
dominated by motion picture people who simply wallow in debauchery.
"In view of these facts, I ask that in future the word 'colony' in
connection with the motion picture industry in Hollywood be banned."
Two other words were asked to be placed on the taboo list as well:
"Movie" and "lot" in connection with the studios here. [3]
*****************************************************************************
Editorial Contemplations
February 10, 1922
TULSA TRIBUNE
Doctors hurry, bankers worry, another movie murder threatens to tear
down the assets of another line of movie reels. At twice the salary of the
President of the United States the movie producers hire Will Hays out of the
President's cabinet to lend a touch of respectability to a gigantic business
that has lost its place of popular respect because it has deported itself in
defiance of public decency.
Will Hays has announced that he is going to Hollywood to personally
investigate conditions there. He has served notice sufficiently in advance to
find things remarkably good and pleasing there by the time of his advent. Not
unlike the old-fashioned Tulsa police raids, a tip in time will save many.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 9, 1922
KANSAS CITY STAR
Tricky Ways of the Hollywood Clues
The difficulty that confronts the Hollywood police seems to be a
superfluity of clues. If they had only one they might know what to do. Now,
there's the handkerchief picked up at the scene of the crime, an initialed
handkerchief, too. A beautiful clue, a favorite always. But the police no
sooner start work on the handkerchief than a feminine garment shows up, pink,
so we read, and marked with still other initials.
This is confusing. Nor is that all; letters are found, and while the
police are reading the letters the handkerchief disappears. Then while they
are trying to find where the handkerchief disappeared to, the letters
disappear. It is announced the letters have been returned to the writers of
them, but the writers say it's no such thing, and again the police head
swims.
The thing threatens to become complicated. It's no longer a question of
finding who fired the shot, not that merely; but who took the handkerchief
and where did the letters go.
In a way, it's a little unfair to the police. They doubtless are
competent and prepared to work on a murder case, but no police anywhere is
qualified to reveal the trick in professional sleight of hand. It's not their
line. If they pick up a handkerchief, mark it Exhibit A and put it in the
safe, that's their job done. They can't be expected to sit there and watch it-
-the murderer might get away. The letters, too; now we see them and now we
don't. Pouf--they're gone. What is to do? If we were the police we'd shrug.
The pink garment, we hope, is still there. It may turn out to be
unimportant, but the authorities ought to hang on to something. With things
disappearing out the window the way they do in that town, and everybody
saying, honest, and on their honor, they don't know anything about it,
evidence becomes of real value. Essential, maybe. Especially where there's so
much one day and so little the next. That's why it seems one good reliable
clue, one clue that would stay fixed overnight is what the police seem to
need, rather than so many handkerchief, pink garment and letter clues that
have no stability. No character, so to speak. What you might call Hollywood,
or movie clues.
Maybe a reliable or trustworthy clue is too much to expect in connection
with a Hollywood murder, but even so the police have rights in Hollywood as
well as the movies. If anybody tries to take that pink thing away, after all
that's happened to the other clues, the police would be justified in
demanding of such a person, or persons, what they want it for. That's the
inflexible position we'd take if we were the Hollywood police--considering
all the circumstances, that is, and not meaning to be harsh.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 26, 1922
NEW YORK TIMES
Thoughts on Hollywood
There is no need to accept the stories of "drug rings," "weird love
cults," and other short words fitting easily into headlines which have come
from Los Angeles since the last homicide in Hollywood. Perhaps they are true;
probably not. Most assertions on any subject are untrue--especially in
California, where everything is large, including the imagination of the
inhabitants. If it is true that most residents of Hollywood make love
carelessly, extensively, and without discrimination, it is because most of
them know no other way to kill time. The same excuse could hardly be offered
for similar offenders elsewhere. The pleasures of the senses are popular in
Hollywood because most of the residents know no other pleasures--not, as
elsewhere, because the pleasures of the intellect have been tried and found
wanting.
Hollywood's residents are certainly no worse than would be any similar
number of attractive, uneducated young people who had suddenly come into
great wealth and a peculiarly heady sort of fame. Most of us, in their
situation, would do as they do; since we are not in their situation, but one
materially far less prosperous, we make the best of our comparative moral
grandeur. Because the temptations of wealth and luxury have never assailed us
we fall on those who have succumbed. We may have done as badly with less
excuse, but we haven't been caught; and if we were caught, we should never
gain the unhappy notoriety of the rich and famous. So what we take out on
Hollywood is our resentment, not at its wickedness, but at its wealth.
We go forth joyfully to indulge in the national, perhaps the universally
human sport, of kicking a man who is down. On vague, confusing and perhaps
wholly unfounded suspicion we are willing to lynch a town and an industry en
masse; and, as in most lynching mobs, righteous wrath is perhaps less potent
than a sort of envy.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 16, 1922
PHILADELPHIA RECORD
The writers of detective stories have offered no real help in the hunt
for the murderer of Mr. Taylor, in Los Angeles. The ability to compound the
details of a thriller does not imply the ability to analyze the compound of
details left behind by a real assassin. Even the redoubtable Conan Doyle did
not retire from fiction to Scotland Yard; he retired to spiritualism.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 22, 1922
BUFFALO NEWS
The Movie Mind
Take the word of Thompson Buchanan, movie playwright, all this pother
over a murder and a scandal or two or three in Hollywood is but part of a
clever plot.
Wall Street has done it. He will not go so far as to say that the
moneyed villains of Wall Street procured the murder of William Desmond
Taylor. But Wall Street is behind the campaign to "blacken the names" of the
producers and the actors. It was Wall Street that hired agitators to shout
for a censorship. Wall Street plans to "ruin the industry and then buy in the
wreck".
Wall Street's ulterior purpose--but of course you have fathomed it
already--is "to control public opinion, to make sure nothing antagonistic to
its interest is uttered to the public."
One of the dreariest of indoor pastimes is to dissect an asinine
argument.
The image of a malevolent, closely knit organization controlling the
nation's wealth and plotting, plotting, plotting, persists in only a few
quaint minds such as Thompson Buchanan's.
It is equally obvious, is it not, that any group of investors who
desired to buy movie companies could do so without any overwhelming
difficulty? We suspect that there is not a financier of consequence in New
York who has not been implored at one time or another to back or help this
movie concern or that. The greatest companies are avowedly owned by bankers
and their stocks are quoted daily on the open exchanges.
And isn't it just like the want-wits of Wall Street to set out
deliberately to destroy utterly the value of a million dollars' worth of
films of some star who is working for them, or for their debtors?
Why, then, all the space Mr. Buchanan got yesterday? Because Mr.
Buchanan's mental processes so perfectly reveal what ails a great part of the
movie industry. Read him and you understand all. You comprehend at last that
the master minds of the movies are not osseous, as perhaps you had supposed,
bus viscous, melting easily to a thin fluid when slightly heated.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 20, 1922
CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
When the eastward movement of the moving picture people gets under way,
as it is quite sure to do before many days, the movie people might come to
the inexhaustible field of the North Carolina mountains. A suspicion may lurk
that life in the mountain regions of North Carolina is too tame, but we
should think that after recent Los Angeles developments, a little tameness is
what the moving picture world is in need of. The staged banquet and jazz
party is going out of popular favor, but if some of that sort must yet be
produced, the North Carolina mountaineer can supply a few bottles of the
labeled "in bond" that would have a more riotous effect than anything they
have been able to get out in California. So, they need not hold back on that
score.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
HELENA INDEPENDENT
Worries Los Angeles
It is not surprising that every obstacle possible seems to be thrown in
the way of the officers seeking a solution of the movie murder mystery at
Hollywood. The salacious Arbuckle case and several other cases of less
prominence, capped by the Taylor murder, has started an agitation in New
York, where most of the big producers live, to have the California studios
scrapped and the movie folk moved to Gotham, which doesn't mind a murder or a
smelly orgy every day.
Naturally, the Californians don't like the idea of one of the biggest
industries in Los Angeles being moved away. Therefore, the big moving picture
companies, which are reported to be exercising powerful influence to soft-
pedal the scandal, are probably receiving much encouragement from the
commercial interests of the city.
To complicate the situation, Will Hays, who is soon to be the directing
head of five of the largest moving picture producing agencies, is reported to
have said that he will move Hollywood from California and set up the colony
in New York.
Hays is too much of a politician to make such a break, in our opinion.
Even if he thought the idea a good one, he would never publicly advocate it,
for if the plan is carried out, California would not go Republican or
Democratic either in 1924. It would go crazy.
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February 8, 1922
Gil Cowan
GLENDALE NEWS
Los Angeles Mayor George E. Cryer in this morning's papers tried to drag
Los Angeles out of the mud--but it rained.
It seems that the Mayor thinks the movie colony is all right. He would
have people believe that it isn't as bad as painted--but they paint too much
in the movies.
Without discussing the Taylor murder mystery, but bearing down on the
conditions in Hollywood, or Califilmland in general, it must be said that
there are a half dozen great big contributing causes for the bad repute which
is to be eliminated by the industry.
First--Discharge all of the low-brow hangers on, cousins of the
director, friends of the star, or other persons who do not merit the
positions they hold. This likely would reduce production costs 50 per cent.
Second--Install managers who will not be subject to the petty politics
of the studio and have absolute power over directors, stars and property.
Many a dollar has been lost because of some crazy idea on the part of a
director.
Third--Instruct the publicity department to eliminate all salacious
sayings in connection with problem plays; censor any sensuous "stills" and
otherwise attract patronage on the merit of the complete film alone.
Fourth--The State of California should have a law enabling it to deport
undesirable citizens. Thousands of girls fling themselves upon the industry
for support. Naturally, they are "cheap." There should be some way of sending
them back to Kokomo and Kalamazoo.
Fifth--But, but most important of all, there should be white men--real
red blooded Americans owning and controlling the industry. A refined,
educated person has no desire to enter the employ of the unscrupulous and
money-mad who were brought up in the perverting influence of downtown New
York, or some other salacious center. [4]
Hollywood is pure, sweet, simple, wonderful--compared with the eastern
environment picture people are forced into. If the calcium light must play on
a dead director why not turn it toward some of the producers who are still
alive and countenancing unsavory things about their studios?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 15, 1922
Hereward Carrington
ALBANY NEWS
Our personality is built-up largely by what we SEE. Our eyesight is our
greatest educator. So true is this that it has been calculated that not more
than six per cent of those born blind actually attain sufficient character
and mentality to become self-supporting!
The "movies" are today a constant series of visual suggestions. And we
are all creatures of suggestion! We are built-up largely by what we hear,
feel and see.
Those who have seen movies in the making know that the directors
dominate the entire case, men and women alike. And it is a psychological fact
that it would be easy for a strong director to carry this domination beyond
the studio, for good or for evil.
Every actor or actress is better or worse for the role he depicts. None
can live two roles forever, even on the stage and off, and escape having them
co-mingle, any more any more than Dr. Jekyl could escape from Mr. Hyde.
Usually the evil overwhelms the good.
There are two distinct kinds of pictures. Those that represent life as
it is,--extol courage, honor, sincerity and the higher qualities of man's
nature. These are undoubtedly beneficial, and are a source of great good to
the community, and to those who make them.
The other kind of pictures, appealing to mawkish sentimentality,
extolling the pettier emotions of jealousy, vanity, the worship of brute
force and the frequent misinterpretation of the true values of life, are a
source of great mischief and lead to an entirely warped conception of society
as a whole.
This sort of picture sacrifices fundamental truths in order to appeal to
false sentimentality.
For instance, a handsome crook is shrouded in a cloak of romance. He is
captioned "a gentleman crook," whose finer instincts remain unstained,
although he transgresses every law. And those who uphold the law, are either
held up to ridicule or an odious light.
What is this but a very subtle justification of crime?
The natural effect of this upon young and untrained minds is to confuse
actual vice and crime with heroic glamour.
The undoubted result of this can be no more than that many are led by
these suggestions and false conceptions to a life of instinctive defiance to
the law, or even into the commission of actual crime.
The recent murder of William Taylor, with its sordid horror and morbid
revelations, would doubtless serve as an excellent "super-release!" The
romantic scenario writer probably would go as far as to concoct some
theatrical justification for this crime, and strive to weave a halo of
romance about the perpetrator, even to the extent of marrying him to the
heroine!
That's the psychology of "movie madness."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 18, 1922
Arthur James
MOVING PICTURE WORLD
The Taylor tragedy was not the murder of an individual but, if the
newspapers are to be credited, an out-cropping of the wild, hectic,
dissolute, drug crazed seething that is the secret but usual life we all of
us live day by day and night by night in the dishevelled, disordered
phantasmagoria that beggars fiction and challenges the abysses of human
imagination.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 11, 1922
TACOMA LEDGER
(reprinted from ST. PAUL DISPATCH)
Who killed William Desmond Taylor is a mystery as absorbing as anything
Sherlock Holmes ever solved. Millions of people are more curious to know the
answer to this riddle than about any of the great questions of the day. Some
are interested in the rise and fall of stocks and bonds, the price of wheat,
the Genoa conference, the next big fight or baseball dope, but more are
watching developments at Los Angeles than are attracted by any of those other
things. Every little bit of information so far deepens the mystery and whets
the appetite for more. The "suspects" soon will be numerous enough to make a
parade, eight abreast, which will be 10 minutes in passing "a given point."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 3, 1922
RICHMOND NEWS LEADER
Spoiled Idols
The murder of William Desmond Taylor, movie director, comes so quickly
on the heels of the Arbuckle case that, no matter who the slayer may prove to
be, the country will be confirmed in its conviction that the movie colony at
Hollywood has had its head turned by adulation.
It is not a new thing. One of the oldest and most curious chapters in
human psychology tells how the successive popular idols of centuries have
been "spoiled" until they lost their perspective. When Greek youths won fame
in the Olympic games, no doubt there were successful gamblers who entertained
them lavishly and silly women who went "crazy" about them. In Latin
literature, there are many echoes of the applause given gladiators. If the
truth were discoverable, it probably would be found that Sir Launcelot was as
conceited as a Derby jockey of today, and that Sir Galahad spent as much time
in front of a mirror as on his knees. A few centuries more and the "spoiled
class" consisted of the mercenary chieftain, the condottiere. One need only
read Venetian history to see how insufferable these popular idols became. The
greatest condottiere of them all solemnly warned the Italian people never to
give another man such favor as they heaped upon him: It was dangerous to the
state.
So the list might be followed to our own day. Contemporary America
differs from other countries in earlier ages only in that, so far as one can
see, they spoiled only one class, whereas America spoils a hundred. Whoever
has his name often in the newspapers and frequently appears before the public
is in danger of infection from the germ of self-importance. Escape from ruin
may be possible. A cure is not.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 18, 1922
SAVANNAH NEWS
Somebody with a bright idea wants to "probe" the moving picture
industry. But what does somebody want to find out? The government is not
going to investigate unless there is a probability that a law is being broken
by the industry, and so far while there may be a lot of individuals in the
movies breaking laws, what is there in the recent cases of Arbuckle and
Taylor for the United States to look into? Will actors and actresses be all
of them asked if they smoke cigarettes and chew gum and dance? Will they be
asked if they take a little drink now and then when they think the brand is
safe? Will they all be asked if they have led strictly moral lives? Will they
be made to tell the truth about their salaries?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
KANSAS CITY STAR
The Outrage on Movie Privacy
The privileged class of Hollywood seems inclined to resent public
interest in what that class regards as essentially a private murder. It is a
view, of course, for which something may be said. Movie actors and actresses
are entitled to preserve decently the privacies of family life as much as
anybody. They are, in a sense, a single great family, as is shown by the fact
that they leave their wardrobes around indiscriminately at each other's
houses.
Very well, then, if they are entitled to family privacy, is the public
concerned in one of their own exclusive murders? It was, as all accounts
show, conducted with entire propriety. It wasn't flaunted in the public's
face nor committed in such a manner as to constitute a breach of the public
peace. Except technically, of course. But what is meant is, that it was done
quietly--almost with reserve. Indeed, the delicacy observed by the guilty
person, the modesty and shrinking, ought to go far to disprove the charge so
often made that the manners of moviedom are loud and vulgar. As murders go,
this was a refined one. There was no public brawling, no public display of
bad taste, no shocking public violence. It was a parlor murder, done in a
private residence and apparently at a respectable hour. Moreover it was done
upon a person of irreproachable public manners, of pleasing, even courtly,
address--a gentleman if clothes ever made one. All the movie ladies said so,
and even maintained it in strong terms, so we read, which again goes to show
it.
Thus it is established it was a private murder, a family murder, a
gentlemanly perhaps even ladylike murder. And exclusive, it goes without
saying.
Such is the view held by moviedom, which inquires with raised and
penciled eyebrows where the public gets in. Well, the public does seem a
little abashed. It apparently had no idea when it first intruded what a
private little affair it was. It had no idea it was going to run into pink
initialed nightwear, letters hidden in the toe of a riding boot and other
little domestic kickshaws of a light housekeeping character of similar
nature. It was like blundering into a bathroom when it was in use.
Unconventional in its own family circle moviedom may be, but the public,
being perhaps a trifle narrow--provincial even--couldn't help but feel some
embarrassment. To that extent, at least, moviedom does occupy the stronger
position. It was the intruded upon, not the intruder. And its feelings,
through strong, are not feelings of embarrassment.
Its feeling seems to be that when the public looks at a movie pink
nightie it ought first to pay at the box office. In a word, the movies resent
their industry being commercialized to gratify public curiosity. It's being
lowered, cheapened, vulgarized by an intrusive and prying spirit that
respects neither privacy nor decency. This pink garment and these letters--
this murder even--were not for release.
Still, the thing has gone so far now movie privacy probably will not be
able to regain its countenance just yet. The public and the police are in,
intrusively or not, and probably will insist on looking around a bit. The
murder, private or not, is now public and the public will have its gossip. It
may be demoralizing to a privileged profession--the talk, that is--but
mystery murders are one of the public's weaknesses. Maybe the film industry
will admit that; and if moviedom should happen to have any weakness of its
own, it will understand how the public feels and try to put up with the
annoyance.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
(to be continued)
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NEXT ISSUE:
25 Flashes of Mabel Normand
"The Humor of a Hollywood Murder" Part 7:
The Kidnaping of Henry Peavey; Odds & Ends;
Tall Tales #3: The Atlantic City Confession;
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NOTES:
[1]The "well-known producer" was obviously a reference to Mack Sennett.
[2]"Gumshoes" were gum-soled shoes, used for walking very quietly.
[3]"Movie" was originally a slang term and the industry preferred the
highbrow term "motion picture."
[4]This is an anti-semetic reference to the fact that most of the movie
moguls (Zukor, Lasky, Laemmle, Fox, Mayer, Goldwyn, Schenck, etc.) were
Jewish.
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For more information about Taylor, see
WILLIAM DESMOND TAYLOR: A DOSSIER (Scarecrow Press, 1991)
Back issues of Taylorology are available via Gopher or FTP at
etext.archive.umich.edu
in the directory pub/Zines/Taylorology
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