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* T A Y L O R O L O G Y *
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* A Continuing Exploration of the Life and Death of William Desmond Taylor *
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* *
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* Issue 12 -- December 1993 Editor: Bruce Long bruce@asu.edu *
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* All reprinted material is in the public domain *
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CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:
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Time-Life's "Unsolved Crimes"--Bravo!
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Did a Canadian Army Veteran Kill Taylor?
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Charlotte Shelby's Last Two Interviews (1937)
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Interview with Mary Miles Minter (1937)
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Wallace Smith: February 10, 1922
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"The Truth About Hollywood":
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Part 1 [A brief tour of 1922 Hollywood]
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What is TAYLOROLOGY?
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TAYLOROLOGY is a newsletter focusing on the life and death of William Desmond
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Taylor, a top film Paramount film director in early Hollywood who was shot to
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death on February 1, 1922. His unsolved murder was one of Hollywood's major
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scandals. This newsletter will deal with: (a) The facts of Taylor's life;
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(b) The facts and rumors of Taylor's murder; (c) The impact of the Taylor
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murder on Hollywood and the nation. Primary emphasis will be given toward
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reprinting, referencing and analyzing source material, and sifting it for
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accuracy.
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Time-Life's "Unsolved Crimes"--Bravo!
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Time-Life Books has recently published the "Unsolved Crimes" volume
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(ISBN 0-7835-0012-2) in their True Crime series, and it includes a 40-page
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chapter on the Taylor murder. This is unquestionably the best short recap of
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the Taylor case yet published! It attempts to touch all the bases, briefly
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explore all major theories, and present the pertinent facts in a lively and
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well-written manner. It essentially skims the cream from the books by
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Kirkpatrick, Giroux, and Long. There is a handful of minor errors--the most
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glaring is the picture of Mary Miles Minter on p. 140 mis-identified as
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Margaret Fillmore. But when compared to the typical error-laden recaps
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published elsewhere in years past (see "Hollywood Mysteries--Shredded" in
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TAYLOROLOGY 11), this recap looks like a shining jewel, and establishes an
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excellent standard by which future short recaps of the Taylor case should be
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judged. If you are interested in reading about the Taylor case for the first
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time, "Unsolved Crimes" is the perfect place to start; if you are a seasoned
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Taylor case buff, you will still want this volume for your library even
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though it contains no new revelations.
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Kudos to Time-Life for this one!
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As would be expected from Time-Life, the chapter includes a lot of
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photographs--a nice selection of 30 images. Still, the recap would have been
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improved if several other visual items had been included (none of the
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following were in the Giroux or Kirkpatrick books, either):
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1. Photograph of Faith MacLean in Alvarado Court. She was possibly the
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only one to see Taylor's killer, and was sitting on her sofa knitting a
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sweater when the shot was fired. A photograph published in the May 1992 issue
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of Picture-Play shows Faith and Douglas MacLean sitting outside on the bench
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in Alvarado Court--just a few yards from Taylor's front door. In the
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photograph she is knitting the very same sweater. Time-Life did not include
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any pictures of Faith MacLean in "Unsolved Crimes."
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2. The photograph of Mary Miles Minter which she had given to Taylor
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with her inscription: "For William Desmond Taylor--Artist, Gentleman, Man.
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Sincere good wishes. Mary Miles Minter. -1920-". That photograph is one of
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the more stunningly beautiful photos of Minter ever taken, and would have
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been a nice complement to the photograph of Taylor that was inscribed to
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Minter, which Time-Life did print.
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3. The diagram of the murder scene published in a Los Angeles newspaper
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on the same day the body was found.
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4. The photograph of Taylor directing Kathlyn Williams and Dustin
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Farnum in "Davy Crockett" published in a 1916 issue of Film Fun. Kathlyn
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Williams is of particular interest because she was the one who officially
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identified Taylor's body--her signature appears on Taylor's death
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certificate. She was also the wife of Charles Eyton, who was involved in the
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clean-up of Taylor's home immediately after the body was found. Time-Life
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only printed one picture of Taylor directing a film, a photograph showing
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Taylor from behind.
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5. One of the code love letters written by Minter and found among
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Taylor's effects.
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6. "A Cubistaylor Picture." Several editorial cartoonists used the
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Taylor murder as inspiration for their drawings. One of the best cartoons on
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this subject was printed in the Pittsburgh Sun on February 11, 1922.
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An attempt will be made to soon place scanned images of all seven of the
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above items on an Internet gopher server. Details will appear in the next
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issue of TAYLOROLOGY.
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Did a Canadian Army Veteran Kill Taylor?
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The facts of William Desmond Taylor's military service are as follows: He
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enlisted as a private in the British Army and arrived at Camp Fort Edward,
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Nova Scotia, Canada, in August 1918. He was assigned to the 5th Battalion,
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Royal Fusiliers. Because of his leadership experience he was rapidly
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promoted and was a sergeant major in two months. His unit sailed for England
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and was assigned to Hounslow Barracks in November 1918. At that point he was
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commissioned Lieutenant and transferred to the Expeditionary Force Canteen,
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Royal Army Service Corps, stationed at Dunkirk. He was second in command
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under Maj. Meghar. He was released from active duty around the beginning of
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May 1919, and was a Captain in the British Reserves.
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The rumors of a revengeful Canadian veteran stem from several press
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reports:
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 17, 1922
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SANTA ANA REGISTER
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The man who may have murdered William D. Taylor, motion picture
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director, in Los Angeles, the night of February 1, was "given a lift" in
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the automobile of a prominent Tustin rancher late in the afternoon of
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Monday January 30. The given name of the man who was then assisted was
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"Spike."
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This startling information came to light here late this afternoon
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when the rancher in question, who declined to allow his name to be used
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in connection with the case, but whose name is known to The Register,
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gave full details of what occurred when he gave "Spike" and a companion
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a ride in his automobile, from Tustin in the Santa Fe tracks, Santa Ana.
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Spike was the taller of the two men. During a conversation while
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the rancher and the two men were en route to Santa Ana, the subject of
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soldiers came up, as Spike was dressed in army trousers, wrap, leggings
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and army shoes.
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The rancher mentioned Captain N. M. Holderman, stating that the
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latter had just received a new decoration. This set Spike to enveighing
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bitterly against captains in general.
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Then spike declared there was "one --- --- --- in Southern
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California" that he was "going to get" if he could find him.
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The shorter of the two men then asked Spike:
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"You mean Bill?"
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The rancher did not recall Spike's answer to this question, but it
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is assured that the reply was in the affirmative.
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Later, when Spike continued to talk along similar lines, the short
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man cautioned Spike:
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"For ---'s sake shut up."
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As the two men were about to leave the rancher's automobile at the
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Santa Fe crossing on First Street, an old-fashioned Colt's revolver
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dropped into the mud from beneath Spike's trousers belt.
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The rancher, startled, inquired of Spike what he intended to do
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with the revolver.
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Spike replied that they "figured that they might be held up."
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As the rancher was about to drive on, Spike called to him to wait,
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in order that he might clean the revolver. The mud was carefully
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cleaned from the weapon and the rancher went on his way, noticing that
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the two men walked up the tracks in the direction of the railroad
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station.
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The rancher noticed that the barrel of the revolver had been sawed
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off. The sight was missing. The gun was either .32 or .38 caliber.
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The rancher also recalled that the two men made minute inquiries of
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him regarding train and stage service from Santa Ana to San Diego.
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The two men were thereupon asked the reason for the questions, to
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which they answered that "they were just getting lined up."
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 28, 1922
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SAN FRANCISCO CALL-POST
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Investigation of the Taylor murder mystery shifted again to San
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Francisco today when search was started by detectives from the office of
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District Attorney Matthew Brady for a Canadian army veteran who is said
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to have made the statement here in January that he was "going to
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Hollywood to get revenge or satisfaction on Taylor."
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While the identity of the Taylor in question was not given as
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William Desmond Taylor, slain moving picture director, the Canadian
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trooper said that the man he was after "had been his superior officer in
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the army and had been responsible for his being courtmartialed in France
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and punished by being lashed to the wheel of a gun two hours during the
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morning and afternoon for ninety days."
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The chance remark of the former Canadian soldier was made to
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another British army veteran, now a resident of San Francisco, a week
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before the moving picture director was mysteriously slain, and when the
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man appeared in this city a few days ago with a sum of money much larger
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than he had a month ago the San Franciscan recalled the remark of his
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acquaintance that he was going to "get Taylor," and made known the fact
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to District Attorney Brady, who is withholding the identity of his
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informant.
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District Attorney Brady listened with close attention to the
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narrative told by the former soldier, now working as a house painter in
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San Francisco, and declared that the report was worthy of a thorough
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investigation. He immediately dispatched detectives to find the author
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of the threatening remarks and check up on his actions for the last
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month.
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The Canadian Veteran told his San Francisco friend a few days ago
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that he was preparing to leave for Australia.
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In telling Brady about the incident the San Francisco veteran of
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the royal forces said that he met the Canadian January 25 and that in
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the course of a talk about their experiences in the British forces, each
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told how he had been courtmartialed for infractions of the military
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rules.
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Forcefully expressing himself on his punishment, the Canadian is
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said to have remarked:
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"I'm going to Hollywood and get Taylor. It will cost him
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something, or I'll get satisfaction in some other way."
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The San Franciscan told Brady that he met the man on the street two
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days ago and he displayed a roll of currency containing $50 bills.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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March 18, 1922
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LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
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A letter was received from a fromer army officer in London,
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England, who wrote that one day after the Armistice was signed he was
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dining with Captain Taylor in a London hotel. As a stranger in the
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uniform of the Canadian army crossed the dining hall Taylor suddenly
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remarked:
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"There goes a man who is going to get me if it takes a thousand
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years to do it."
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Taylor then went on to explain that the man was a sergeant in his
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company whom he had reported and had courtmartialed for the theft of
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army property. A description of the man was contained in the letter.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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In addition to those press reports, Taylor's army diary reportedly does make
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a brief mention of the courtmartial. No details or names are given. [1]
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However, Taylor served in the British (not Canadian) Army. So what it
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all boils down to is the question: Would Canadian soldiers have been under
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Taylor's jurisdiction, either in the Royal Fusiliers or the Royal Army
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Service Corps? Or did the British and Canadian armies keep their units
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strictly separated, even when the British units were in Canada? Certainly
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the courtmartial records for both units must still exist somewhere, and
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combing them for those few months should give us the names and details of any
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such courtmartials.
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One reason why the revengeful Canadian veteran theory has considerable
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appeal is because it was reported that in the days and hours before Taylor's
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murder, a man had been asking around, trying to find out where Taylor lived.
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Most of the "usual suspects" (Sands, Shelby, etc.) already knew where Taylor
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lived, or else they could have found out through discreet means. But an out-
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of-town Canadian veteran would have had no choice but to ask strangers.
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Charlotte Shelby's Last Two Interviews (1937)
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Over the years Charlotte Shelby, the mother of Mary Miles Minter, has
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remained a prime suspect in the Taylor murder. She owned a gun similar to
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the kind that killed Taylor and had threatened Taylor's life if he did not
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stay away from Mary. Throughout her lifetime she gave very few interviews in
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which she was willing to discuss the murder. The following are the last two
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such interviews known to exit.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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June 11, 1937
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A. M. Rochen
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LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
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Mrs. Charlotte Shelby knows she is under investigation in the William
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Desmond Taylor murder case and welcomes the opportunity to face the issue.
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Neither defiant nor cowed, she came forward yesterday to demand
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immediate action by the authorities, at any cost.
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Weary of years of gossip and innuendo, she thinks the time has come to
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bring before the proper tribunals every one who has any knowledge of or
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connection with the 15-year-old slaying of the famous motion picture
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director.
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And, if in the interests of justice she must suffer temporarily the
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inconvenience of questioning and investigation, she is willing to assume the
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role so every vital fact may be developed, and all the "froth and fables"
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with which it had become surrounded in the last decade and a half may forever
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be brushed away.
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This is what she said yesterday in a remarkable interview with The
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Examiner, given in the presence of her attorney, Clyde F. Murphy, here in Los
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Angeles.
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Seven years ago, speaking to this reporter, Mrs. Shelby made similar
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demands, but under somewhat different circumstances. [2]
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Since then many things transpired in her life. The fortunes of her
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daughters, Mary Miles Minter and Margaret Shelby Fillmore, had been all but
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swept away by theft and litigation. Civil suits by the dozen have come and
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passed. These suits involved disputes in her own family, and then, last
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month, came the dramatic appearance before the grand jury of her own
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daughter, Margaret, whose testimony laid the foundation for the present
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revival of the celebrated murder case.
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"First of all," said Mrs. Shelby yesterday, "I want every one to know
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that I bear no malice toward anyone or resent anything my daughter Margaret
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or anyone else may have told the grand jury.
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"Margaret is my daughter, and her welfare and future is the important
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thing.
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"I feel that the truth, like murder, will out. I know that charges made
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must be proven and that only through investigation and search can facts, long
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forgotten or covered up, be reconstructed and made useful in an inquiry of
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this sort.
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"Therefore I say: If the authorities want to consider me a suspect in
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this case, I am willing--if that will help once and for all to verify or
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disprove the rumors and tips and ideas that have been cluttering up this case
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from the very start.
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"I am prepared, and will await the outcome of the grand jury
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investigation with interest, but without the slightest fear," she said.
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And then, for the first time, Mrs. Shelby gave her views on Mary Miles
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Minter's love for William Desmond Taylor.
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"This romantic attachment of Mr. Taylor for Mary was something I learned
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only after Mr. Taylor was killed. It was all news to me. So far as we were
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concerned, we were glad to see Mary go with Mr. Taylor. He was such a
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gentleman and we felt Mary was well chaperoned when out with him to dinner or
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the theater," she said calmly.
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"You see," she continued, "I would have no motive.
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"Neither was I in love with Mr. Taylor. To me he was just one of Mary's
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directors--a fine gentleman, and that's all."
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Q. "Were you ever in Taylor's house?"
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A. "Yes, once," she replied.
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Mary was late in coming home. She had a new car. The family worried,
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Mrs. Shelby said, so she, Charlotte Whitney, the secretary, and Chauncey
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Eaton, the chauffeur, drove to Taylor's house. Taylor's telephone was not in
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the book and that was the only way to reach him.
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"Mr. Taylor came to the door. I told him of my anxiety for Mary. He
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called the assistant director--I think it was Frank Connor, and asked him if
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he had seen Mary. Then he said, 'Mary should not go away like this,' and I
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went home. Mrs. Whitney remained in the car, as did Chauncey.
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"The rest of all this stuff they are talking about now is silly," Mrs.
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Shelby went on.
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"I was home on the night of the murder--with Carl Stockdale. We played
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cards from 7 till 9. It was Carl Stockdale who called me the next morning to
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tell me Mr. Taylor was dead.
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Q. "Did you ever own a gun, Mrs. Shelby?"
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"There was only one gun in the Shelby family," she said. "That was given
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me by a man in Santa Barbara.
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"Bullets were taken out of this gun, but that was two years before the
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murder. One night, after being scolded, Mary went to my room and locked
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herself in. We heard a shot. The door was locked. Chauncey and a night
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watchman broke it down and there, on the floor was Mary. When we saw she was
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not hurt, my mother, Mrs. Julia Miles, said to Chauncey: 'Take the bullets
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out of that gun and give them to me.'
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"She took the gun and I never saw it or the bullets again."
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Miss Minter, some days ago, told The Examiner a similar version of the
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firing of the gun. She said she was fumbling with the gun when it was
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discharged. [3]
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All the other allegations now being made by witnesses, Mrs. Shelby said,
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are baseless--and most of them are "also silly."
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"Why didn't they look into all those things at the time of the murder?"
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she demanded.
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"If the authorities had followed the real important clews, instead of
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chasing after persons whose names had Hollywood glamour, the case probably
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would have been solved long ago and all of us spared this perpetual
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annoyance."
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Mrs. Shelby then expressed regret that Stockdale, the veteran Hollywood
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actor, has been mentioned in the case. "Poor Carl, such a faithful friend and
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such a gentle soul," Mrs. Shelby sighed.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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June 12, 1937
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LOS ANGELES NEWS
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Mrs. Charlotte Shelby, mother of Mary Miles Minter, told the whole story
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yesterday of the mysterious bullet for which Junior G-men of the district
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attorney's office were seeking by means of a fluoroscope in the William
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Desmond Taylor murder investigation. [4]
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While the district attorney's clue-seekers turned the fluoroscope on the
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walls of a former home of Mrs. Shelby, the latter admitted the missing bullet
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had been fired from her pearl-handled revolver and that the remaining bullets
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in the gun had been handed to Chauncey Eaton, her former chauffeur.
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Mrs. Shelby said the missing bullet, believed to have lodged in a closet
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wall, was fired by Miss Minter two years before the murder, apparently as a
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joke.
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A .38 caliber bullet was found on a rafter in the basement of Mrs.
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Shelby's former home by investigators several weeks ago, according to the
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district attorney's office. Eaton said he placed the remaining bullets from
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Mrs. Shelby's gun there after the shooting at the closet wall by Miss Minter.
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The bullet did not lodge in the ceiling, as the investigators assume,
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Mrs. Shelby declared.
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"It penetrated the door jam of the closet and lodged in the back wall of
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the closet. The bullet hole in the wooden door jam was plainly visible for a
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time afterwards. I really don't remember whatever was done about it--whether
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a new paneling was put on or not," Mrs. Shelby said.
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"When we rushed into the room," Mrs. Shelby said, "Mary was lying on a
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rug on the floor with her hand over her face. She removed her hand, looked at
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us, and said, 'ha-ha'."
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Witnesses to the scene, Mrs. Shelby said, were Mrs. Charlotte Whitney,
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her former secretary, Eaton, her chauffeur, and Mrs. Mary Miles, her mother,
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now dead. [5]
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"My mother demanded the gun, saying, 'There'll be no more of this gun-
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play around this house'," Mrs. Shelby continued.
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"She took the gun and handed it to Eaton, telling him to unload it.
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Eaton emptied five remaining shells from the little pearl-handled gun into
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his hand and handed the gun back to my mother. I don't know what mother did
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with it after that."
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Mrs. Shelby "pooh-pooed" a recent declaration of a witness of knowledge
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of threats made against Taylor's life.
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"One night in June, two years before the murder," the mother continued,
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"Mary had not come home at a late hour. She was driving a new car, and I was
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worried about her. Charlotte Whitney and I decided we should look for her.
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Eaton knew where Taylor lived, and I ordered him to drive out there. That was
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the only time I was ever in Mr. Taylor's bungalow. I merely asked him if he
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knew the whereabouts of my daughter. He replied that he did not, and we
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left."
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A report made to the district attorney's office by Albert E. Harris,
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former taxi driver, that he drove Miss Minter, weeping and hysterical, and an
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actor from the Ambassador Hotel to Miss Minter's home the afternoon of the
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Taylor Taylor was shot, and overheard scraps of conversation, was branded as
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"silly, and ridiculous" by Mrs. Shelby.
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"Mary was on location at the beach that day, her work requiring her to
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dive into the ocean all day. She had caught a bad cold, and returned from
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work late in the afternoon, just in time for dinner. She certainly was not
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galivanting around from the Ambassador to her home in a taxicab," Mrs. Shelby
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said.
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A narcotic smuggler, Mrs. Shelby said she believes, killed Taylor.
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"I believe he was slain by someone who has never been under
|
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investigation, but who wanted to remove Taylor from the path of narcotic
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smugglers.
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Mrs. Shelby said she knew that Taylor was safeguarding a prominent film
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actress from attempts of underworld characters to lead the actress into the
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drug habit. [6]
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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Several of Shelby's statements in the above two interviews appear to be
|
|
false:
|
|
1. Shelby stated "This romantic attachment of Mr. Taylor for Mary was
|
|
something I learned only after Mr. Taylor was killed. It was all news to me.
|
|
So far as we were concerned, we were glad to see Mary go with Mr. Taylor."
|
|
On the contrary, there are several reliable sources--including Mary's own
|
|
statement--which clearly show that during 1920/1921 Shelby knew about the
|
|
Taylor/Minter romance, and she was strongly opposed to it.
|
|
2. Shelby says her gun was given to her by a man in Santa Barbara, but he
|
|
(Harry Harris) denied giving it to her. It appears the gun was given to her in
|
|
1920 by Frank Brown, a night watchman, while the family was living in the
|
|
mansion on Fremont.
|
|
3. Shelby says the last time she saw the gun was on the day of Mary's
|
|
"fake suicide scene" which took place in 1920 while the family was living on
|
|
Fremont. But the chauffeur, Chauncey Eaton, stated that Shelby unloaded the
|
|
gun and gave the bullets to him several months after the murder--when Shelby
|
|
was living at Casa de Marguerita on New Hampshire--and that he placed the
|
|
bullets on a rafter in the basement at that time. Since a bullet was indeed
|
|
located on the Casa de Marguerita rafter, it indicates that Shelby was lying
|
|
about never having seen the gun again after living on Fremont.
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
Interview with Mary Miles Minter (1937)
|
|
|
|
May 6, 1937
|
|
LOS ANGELES HERALD-EXPRESS
|
|
...Miss Minter discussed the new development and the Taylor case history
|
|
in detail. [7]
|
|
"I'll be glad to tell them all I know," she said. It'll be something
|
|
like this:
|
|
"There is nothing in the diaries I would not be willing to show the
|
|
world, if I thought it would help in the case. Most of them were written long
|
|
before the murder--by a girl going to school and working. Can you imagine
|
|
there is anything there that would help? Don't you think I would have turned
|
|
everything over to the police if it could have done the least possible good?"
|
|
As the used the word "murder" to refer to the death of her loved one,
|
|
Miss Minter's voice broke.
|
|
"I was sitting on the sofa in my home--my sister was there, and she
|
|
knows I was there that night that--that--" She was unable to finish the
|
|
sentence.
|
|
She referred to the night of Feb. 1, 1922, when Taylor was shot to death
|
|
in his swank apartment.
|
|
"My dear precious grandmother, Julia Branch Miles, and our cook, Belle
|
|
Simpson, was with us that evening, I remember," Miss Minter continued.
|
|
We knew nothing about it until the next day. Those next days were almost
|
|
a blank for me.
|
|
"And mother knew nothing of it. My mother likes to talk for a long time
|
|
on the telephone and that night she made several calls and talked to people
|
|
for hours. My sister knew that, too."
|
|
Miss Minter told how she came back to her home last night after dining
|
|
out, to find Capt. Jesse Winn, district attorney investigator, there.
|
|
"He said he'd been there since 5 o'clock," Miss Minter said. "My maid
|
|
was frightened to death. He had searched the entire house.
|
|
"I helped him in the search--he was nice about it, although I made a
|
|
mistake and called him 'Detective Winn' instead of 'Captain.'
|
|
"I wanted him to take everything he wanted, but he took only the
|
|
diaries. Then he gave me the subpoena. I asked him: 'Is this another attempt
|
|
to involve me or my family?' but all he said was: 'Just be down there in the
|
|
morning.'
|
|
"I'll be there, and I'll tell all I known again--but I'm afraid its just
|
|
another scare case that won't amount to a hill of beans."
|
|
Miss Minter said she believed the present re-opening of the case was due
|
|
to an "upheaval" by her sister.
|
|
"Margaret has been bitter against our mother, as you know," the actress
|
|
said. "They, as well, as I have been involved in litigation of some kind for
|
|
years.
|
|
"Margaret wanted to be an actress and yet I took the limelight.
|
|
"It's all come out in court, anyway, and as you remember in one case had
|
|
Margaret kept out of court by calling a doctor for her.
|
|
"I'm afraid this is just an upheaval."
|
|
Asked if she had any theory of her own as to who shot her fiance, Miss
|
|
Minter shook her head sadly.
|
|
"What do you think I've thought about these 15 years? If I had any
|
|
theory I would have taken it to the police at once. I've wracked and wracked
|
|
my brains--I can't think of an enemy in the world that Mr. Taylor might have
|
|
had."
|
|
Miss Minter was asked about the possibility of Edward Sands, Taylor's
|
|
valet, who was charged with the murder but who was never apprehended, being
|
|
involved in the crime.
|
|
"Sands?--No. He was just a fat, jolly cockney. He couldn't have done it.
|
|
I just wish I knew where he was so I could tell him to come out and clear
|
|
himself."
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
Wallace Smith: February 10, 1922
|
|
|
|
The following is another sample of Wallace Smith's sensationalized reporting,
|
|
published 10 days after the murder.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 10, 1922
|
|
Wallace Smith
|
|
CHICAGO AMERICAN
|
|
One of filmland's best known producers of pictures, also known for a
|
|
notorious affair conducted with an actress named in the mystery of William
|
|
Desmond Taylor's slaying, was sought by detectives today to account for his
|
|
movements on the night the eccentric director was murdered. [8]
|
|
Ever since Taylor's death, it became known, this producer has instructed
|
|
his secretary to inform callers he was too ill to be seen. This instruction
|
|
also held good for the police, who accepted it. Such seems to be the
|
|
reluctance of the Los Angeles police to investigate too sharply any incident
|
|
that might annoy the Hollywood moving picture colony.
|
|
It was declared that Prosecutor Thomas Lee Woolwine, who had taken the
|
|
investigation out of the hands of the police, was ready to demand the
|
|
appearance of the famous producer. In fact, it was stated the prosecutor had
|
|
motored to the studio where the producer was said to be in seclusion.
|
|
The affair of the producer and the actress was one of the scandals of
|
|
Hollywood. These dispatches recently referred to the history of the
|
|
"romance," the first fights between the two and their final separation, which
|
|
led the actress to the fatal slavery of drugs.
|
|
Recently the affair was revived. All Hollywood buzzed with gossip as it
|
|
learned the actress had returned to the direction of this producer in the
|
|
films -- and it was rumored, in life. [9]
|
|
Then came rumors of the actress' affair with Taylor, the producer, his
|
|
affection rekindled, was known to be jealous. It was stated the actress had
|
|
endeavored to break off her association with the director and that a final
|
|
quarrel between them occurred last New Year's eve. [10]
|
|
Later, it was stated, the slain director refused to abandon his latest
|
|
light o'love and this, it was said resulted in a bitter enmity between him
|
|
and the producer.
|
|
It was theorized today, the producer resolved to win back the whole love
|
|
of the actress, confronted Taylor, demanded he drop out of the young woman's
|
|
life and finally killed him.
|
|
The district attorney, while waiting to assemble the story of the
|
|
director, began a hunt for a secret safety deposit box said to have been
|
|
maintained by Taylor. In it he hoped to find some clew to the mysterious
|
|
slaying.
|
|
Earlier in the day the district attorney had given three film actresses
|
|
known from Broadway to the narrowest main street that ever supported a split-
|
|
reel nickelodeon, the chance to come before him and tell what they knew of
|
|
Taylor's strange life and his weird death.
|
|
The three actresses were:
|
|
Mabel Normand, once reported engaged to wed Taylor, who was a visitor at
|
|
his home a matter of minutes before the assassin wiped out Taylor's life.
|
|
She was to be asked of her visit, her long companionship with Taylor, the
|
|
statement of his valet that she and Taylor were to marry "and have a little
|
|
baby," an alleged quarrel with the director and the letters she wrote to the
|
|
man of mystery.
|
|
Mary Miles Minter, who was Taylor's confidante -- except in regard to
|
|
his deserted wife and daughter -- and who was to be questioned regarding the
|
|
"I love you -- I love you" note written on her stationery and found in
|
|
Taylor's home with a dainty handkerchief bearing the initials "M.M.M."
|
|
Edna Purviance, leading woman for Charles Chaplin and neighbor of Taylor
|
|
in Alvarado St. She visited the Taylor home at midnight the day of the
|
|
slaying and saw the lights burning in his study, but could not gain an answer
|
|
to a ring at the bell. [11]
|
|
It was reported that Claire Windsor, another actress whose name had been
|
|
linked with Chaplin's as well as with Taylor's, and Neva Gerber, once engaged
|
|
to marry Taylor, also might be called by the prosecutor.
|
|
The stories of the actresses were waited as District Attorney Thomas Lee
|
|
Woolwine created a sensation by taking charge in person of the investigation
|
|
of Taylor's death, which appears to have been badly bungled by the police.
|
|
As he drove forward in his inquiry, it was reported that a special grand
|
|
jury would be demanded by the authorities to batter down the wall of silence
|
|
which has been built to protect the wilder set of Hollywood -- and behind
|
|
which the slayer of Taylor has escaped.
|
|
Whether or not the three film stars would appear was a question that
|
|
seemed to rest between them and their managers.
|
|
Miss Normand, who had been reportedly sufficiently recovered from the
|
|
shock of Taylor's death to resume her studio work, was reported to have had a
|
|
relapse shortly after it was known that the prosecutor desired to speak with
|
|
her.
|
|
At the home of Miss Minter it was stated that the young star still
|
|
suffered from the nervous jar occasioned by Taylor's death, a jar which she
|
|
confided to friends brought to her face an expression never seen there before
|
|
-- "frozen horror," she called it.
|
|
It was learned that Miss Minter had already been questioned by the
|
|
district attorney for two hours last Tuesday evening. The Lasky beauty, it
|
|
was stated, had admitted her great affection for the slain director. This
|
|
interview, however, was considered quite unsatisfactory and the star was to
|
|
be given an opportunity to talk again.
|
|
That she was the first to be questioned was considered of deep
|
|
significance because it had been rumored from the first that, whatever her
|
|
feeling toward the director, he had shrined her in his heart as the one woman
|
|
in the world.
|
|
There was a new significance given the letters of Miss Normand, too,
|
|
when it was reported that she had informed certain officials that she had
|
|
gone to the home of Taylor on Wednesday to demand that he return the letters
|
|
she had written him.
|
|
"Not that they meant anything to any one but us," declared Miss Normand,
|
|
"but I feared that they might fall into other hands and be misconstrued."
|
|
According to one version of her alleged demand for the letters Taylor
|
|
told Miss Normand that he had mailed the packet of letters to her home. It
|
|
was on this assurance that she left his Alvarado St. home a short time before
|
|
the hour upon which the police have agreed the murder occurred.
|
|
It has been remarkable from the time Taylor's body was found that those
|
|
who seemed closest to the tragedy were not closely questioned by the police.
|
|
Certainly this sensational case, a crime that has aroused the entire country,
|
|
has not been conducted with anything resembling even the rudiments of police
|
|
work.
|
|
There have been sinister rumors of attempts to smother all inquiry into
|
|
the crime -- even reports that money has changed hands. It seems incredible
|
|
that even the millions of dollars that are tied up in the movies would be
|
|
used in such a manner to protect the pampered darlings of the pictures.
|
|
Yet the police at the time the prosecutor took hold of the investigation
|
|
seemed to be exactly where they were at the time the crime was discovered. A
|
|
little more bewildered, if anything.
|
|
Personages of the films, apparently because of their might in front of
|
|
the camera, were not disturbed, despite the fact that every circumstance
|
|
indicated they would be able to shed light on the crime.
|
|
Just two calls were made on Miss Normand, it was learned. She refused
|
|
to pay any attention to the first. At the second, after keeping the
|
|
detectives waiting in their high-laced hiking boots and mackinaw jackets, she
|
|
issued a formal statement.
|
|
Prosecutor Woolwine declared his intention of taking a stenographic
|
|
signed statement from each witness called to his office. His work began
|
|
yesterday and went on until close to midnight.
|
|
In that time he interviewed, among others, Henry Peavey, Taylor's
|
|
houseman; Mrs. Douglas MacLean, actor's wife and neighbor of Taylor's;
|
|
Douglas MacLean; Christine Jewett, nurse in the MacLean household; Harry
|
|
Fellows, assistant director to Taylor; Howard Fellows, Taylor's chauffeur; an
|
|
unnamed male witness said to be the sweetheart of a movie player and Arthur
|
|
Hoyt, film actor.
|
|
The chief information reported to have been distilled from this
|
|
questioning was that Edward F. Sands, former valet and secretary to Taylor,
|
|
was not the man seen by Mrs. MacLean at Taylor's door immediately after the
|
|
shot was heard.
|
|
But the new investigation brought about the discovery of a new witness,
|
|
a Los Angeles policeman named Thomas Long, who told Prosecutor Woolwine that
|
|
on the night of the murder he had seen a man skulking behind a telephone pole
|
|
in the vicinity of Taylor's home.
|
|
"He ran when I came up, said the policeman, "and he disappeared in the
|
|
dark before I could reach the spot. I noticed near the telephone pole where
|
|
he had been hiding the stubs of two cigarettes. They were gold tipped and a
|
|
brand I never heard of before. When I read how Taylor always smoked that
|
|
kind and that some were stolen from his house, I thought that this man might
|
|
have had something to do with it.
|
|
Another report was that an earlier woman visitor had preceded Mabel
|
|
Normand to Taylor's study. The prosecutor was especially interested in
|
|
discovering why the name of this woman -- said to have been another movie
|
|
star of the first magnitude -- had been concealed.
|
|
The federal agents called into the case, who already have compiled quite
|
|
a secret history of Hollywood's hidden life, were said to be on the trail of
|
|
a new woman in the case. Incidentally they still pursued the twisting path
|
|
of the drug peddlers in the private studio life of the moving picture colony,
|
|
despite the protests of the movie magnates.
|
|
The latest chapter they opened concerns one of the strangest "triangles"
|
|
that ever was introduced in Hollywood domestic geometry. It has for its
|
|
chief character a famed foreign actress, known almost as widely for her
|
|
eccentricity of dress as for her extremely emotional acting. [12]
|
|
The other two were an actor and actress recently divorced. He has
|
|
recently won great fame in a celebrated picture, his graduation from his
|
|
former role as a dancing partner. [13]
|
|
The foreign actress took a great fancy to the young woman. Always known
|
|
for her friendship for girls, she seemed especially fond of this one. So
|
|
much so that she invited her to live at her home. The invitation was
|
|
accepted and the foreign star lavishly furnished a room to be occupied by the
|
|
other.
|
|
This was before the marriage of the recent divorcee. He came in from
|
|
location one evening and called on the young woman. It was a Hollywood
|
|
formal call. with plenty of liquor for both. While the alcohol still was
|
|
working it struck them that it might be an innovation to get married. They
|
|
did so.
|
|
Next day the foreign star heard about it, after the young man had gone
|
|
back to work on location. The young bride came to take possession.
|
|
"You did not think I could be jealous, eh?" said the great foreign star.
|
|
"Look!"
|
|
She led the young woman to the lavishly furnished room. Then, as the
|
|
other stood there spellbound, the foreign actress began wrecking the place.
|
|
She tore down pictures and ripped up rugs. She slashed open cushions and
|
|
tore the bedclothes to ribbons. She gouged the tinted walls and hurled
|
|
pottery though the window.
|
|
"Now go, ingrate," she hurled at the young woman. She left -- and has
|
|
not returned.
|
|
The divorce was a sensation. The friendship of the young bride and the
|
|
foreign actress was not mentioned in the divorce proceedings. Nor were the
|
|
escapades of the young bride with other women whose friendship formed part of
|
|
Hollywood's daily gossip.
|
|
Strangely enough, on a recent eastern trip, the young actor -- then
|
|
getting divorced -- and the foreign actress traveled in the same car. [14]
|
|
It may not be ethical but this correspondent asks indulgence to make a
|
|
correction of his reports through these dispatches. Two or three days ago he
|
|
recounted the adventure of a prominent actress who, during a fight with her
|
|
favorite director, was struck over the head with a beer bottle. [15]
|
|
This was hotly denied today by a friend of the director, who grieved
|
|
that such an impression be made public. He admitted the secret love affair
|
|
conducted by the star and her director, as well as his affair with another
|
|
woman that provoked the assault.
|
|
"But it wasn't a beer bottle." explained this champion. "He hit her
|
|
with a shoe."
|
|
There have been many denials about the Hollywood revelations. Public
|
|
officials have been prevailed upon to utter statements defending Hollywood.
|
|
Movie magnates have upheld the cavortings of their golden pets.
|
|
Generally these denials are every bit as convincing as that which
|
|
substituted the boot for the beer bottle. Since the entrance of the federal
|
|
agents into the investigation these denials have been especially directed at
|
|
the stories of the operations of the dope ring in Hollywood and the weakness
|
|
of several of the country's leading stars for drugs.
|
|
In reply to these might be taken the statement of one of Los Angeles'
|
|
leading physicians. It is typical of the views of several physicians
|
|
interviewed on the subject. Their names, of course, may not be revealed.
|
|
"Don't make any mistake about the dope ring," declared the physician.
|
|
"The dope peddlers deliver the stuff to the homes of the actors and actresses
|
|
as the grocer or butcher delivers goods at the homes of other people.
|
|
"What is more, they take orders over the telephone just like any market.
|
|
That is what makes it so easy for these spoiled children of the films to find
|
|
their way to the downward path and why it is so difficult for them to win
|
|
their way back again.
|
|
"It is the business of the drug peddlers to hold their own customers and
|
|
get new ones. And they are business men.
|
|
"There is one case of a woman named in the Taylor case. It is pitiful.
|
|
She is a gay personality and she has made a game fight to redeem herself. [16]
|
|
"She began to use morphine and go to these dope parties after she had
|
|
broken with her director. They tell me she really loved him. And he seemed
|
|
very fond of her at one time. They split finally when he took up a young
|
|
girl she was trying to help out in the pictures.
|
|
"It seemed to harden her. Finally her health broke. Friends took her
|
|
to a hospital and she went through the torture that a drug victim must go
|
|
through in the effort to break the habit. She seemed to have been cured.
|
|
"But always 'way back in her brain was the craving. And what with the
|
|
loss of the man she loved her brilliant success on the screen seemed empty to
|
|
her. She grew moody and depressed. There came a day when she could stand it
|
|
no longer. And on the same day a friend offered her a 'shot.' She took it,
|
|
and she has been going downward ever since.
|
|
"I don't think she will ever try to cure herself again and it can be
|
|
only a year or so before she will be through with the pictures forever.
|
|
"It is amazing and shocking to see some of these young women whose looks
|
|
mean everything to them -- their very life -- taking to the drugs that will
|
|
rob them of every vestige of beauty within a few months.
|
|
"There was one of these screen stars in here the other day, begging me
|
|
to do something to save her. She is just coming into her full power as a
|
|
star and already every trace of the drug fiend is apparent in her. [17]
|
|
"Her mother was with her and she wept as she pleaded with me to save her
|
|
daughter. I could not handle the case. I sent her to another surgeon. He
|
|
told me that the girl seemed willing enough to take the cure.
|
|
"But even while he had her in the hospital she was visited by friends
|
|
who brought her the forbidden 'dope.' That is another way the dope ring
|
|
works. It has its agents even among the actors and actresses who are quick
|
|
to take advantage of an opportunity.
|
|
The activities of the dope ring also were said to interest the British
|
|
royal secret service, which, according to Maj. Thomas A. Osborne, British
|
|
consul at Los Angeles, has undertaken to solve the mystery of Taylor's
|
|
slaying.
|
|
The police have not abandoned the theory that Taylor was killed by a
|
|
blackmailer and they have renewed their search for "Dapper Dan" Collins, a
|
|
New York gunman, wanted for murder in the East. Collins, it became known,
|
|
had been in Hollywood a few days before Taylor's slaying.
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
In the aftermath of the Taylor murder, many newspaper articles were
|
|
written purporting to reveal the truth about Hollywood. Some, like the
|
|
sensational writings of Wallace Smith, Edward Doherty and Richard Burritt,
|
|
focused on lurid rumors--reporting every sensational whisper as fact. Other
|
|
stories, penned by the screen writers and press agents, attempted to
|
|
whitewash the truth about Hollywood. The New York Herald sent one of their
|
|
experienced investigative reporters to Hollywood to investigate and write the
|
|
balanced truth, as he found it. His five-part series, "The Truth About
|
|
Hollywood," published in the New York Herald between March 12 and April 9,
|
|
1922, gave an insightful look into the background of 1922 Hollywood. It
|
|
provides essentially no information about the murder itself, but it does give
|
|
information about life in the Hollywood movie colonly, the world in which
|
|
Taylor lived.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
March 12, 1922
|
|
Thoreau Cronyn
|
|
NEW YORK HERALD
|
|
The Truth About Hollywood
|
|
Two unfortunate incidents of a tragic nature have directed public
|
|
attention to Hollywood--a colony which, because of these happenings, has
|
|
become so widely discussed that it needs no identification.
|
|
Roscoe Arbuckle, a comedian of the screen, who has made millions laugh,
|
|
was host at a party, and one of his guests, a young woman of the screen, died.
|
|
Arbuckle and his ill-fated guest were from, and of, Hollywood.
|
|
A popular photoplay director, one of the most gifted of them all, was
|
|
murdered under circumstances that aroused public interest--an interest always
|
|
excited by the mysterious and the unexplainable. Taylor, the director, was a
|
|
leading worker in Hollywood, and about him fluttered a bevy of our most
|
|
attractive feminine celebrities of the screen. All of them his neighbors or
|
|
frequent visitors to the Hollywood community.
|
|
What kind of place is this Hollywood? It has been said widely that the
|
|
license of Babylon is as the Blue Laws in comparison to the customary
|
|
wickedness of the settlement of screen favorites. Those who live in Hollywood,
|
|
frightened by the sudden glare of public attention upon their doings, say
|
|
their beloved colony is but an average suburb, more beautiful and gayer,
|
|
perhaps. than others, but just as orderly.
|
|
And from Hollywood itself the public has turned its examining impulse
|
|
upon the "movie folk" themselves. What manner of folk are they? Primitive and
|
|
bad? Or humane and good?
|
|
These are questions worthy of answer. And the answer may be worth while
|
|
only if given dispassionately after careful, exhaustive examination into all
|
|
the aspects of Hollywood--its secrets as well as its propaganda; its people as
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well as its activities; its customs as well as its laws.
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It is an old saying, "there can be no smoke without a fire." So much
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smoke has spread from Hollywood during the last four months, surely there must
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be some fire. But is it a conflagration--or a blaze? Is it fanned from within,
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as gossip says, or from without, as the people of the films declare?
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On this page is presented today the first of a series of articles
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resulting from careful, painstaking investigation by The New York Herald--
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investigation conducted in Hollywood itself. Here is the evidence for and
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against Hollywood; and the evidence for and against its players in the great
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comedy-drama that otherwise is called "the movie world."
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PART 1 [Brief Tour of 1922 Hollywood]
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Every pilgrim with a movie education feels the moment he steps off the
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train in Los Angeles that he has been cheated. He looks hungrily around for
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the familiar scenes of his imagination and finds them not. By every right of
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press agentry and tourist tales he expects to see Charley Chaplin diving
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between the legs of a small town cop, Douglas Fairbanks doing a headspin and
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the bathing beauties wiggling their toes in the sand of the neighboring beach,
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while assorted peons and East Side gunmen sit about in makeup waiting for some
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one to bellow "Action--camera!" through a megaphone.
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But he learns that the studios are far from the city, that the street
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traffic of ever growing Los Angeles is far too serious a thing to be trifled
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with by pursuit chasers, and that the nearest beach is a dozen miles away. He
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approaches his hotel with some hope, for he has been led to believe that all
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the famous stars not actively engaged on the "lot" or on "location"--the
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pilgrim has desperately mastered the movie lingo so as to feel at home with
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the Personages when he meets them--are to be seen draped in the lobby,
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possibly waiting for the gong to announce the beginning of the orgies.
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But all I could see was a number of pinch backed youths with nothing on
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their minds but the necessity of getting a good seat in the basement cafeteria
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into which prohibition has converted the men's grill.
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In the streets it was to be noted that some of the motion picture
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theaters were showing films not yet seen in New York. I was told that one of
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them had recently been advertising a Mary Miles Minter picture with a strip of
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canvas lettered "I love you--I love you--I love you," this being part of a
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letter she wrote William Desmond Taylor, the director who was murdered. It
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occurred to somebody that perhaps this was not very good advertising after all
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and the strip had been taken down.
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It was plain that no movie people, recognizable as such, were to be found
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in the city proper. They may have been there once, but Iowans have crowded
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them out. It is a stock joke that there are more Iowans in Los Angeles than in
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Iowa, and I half believe it. The reason for the hegira as given me is that
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Iowa is the only state in which farmers can lay by enough money to retire and
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go where they want to go.
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But it was Hollywood this traveler started out to see, not Los Angeles--
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Hollywood, the home of the movies, where some kind of a "colony" lived in a
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beauteous, palm bowered stockade and, not lingering to remove the grease paint
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of the studios, plunged into orgies the moment the dinner dishes were cleared
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away by soft footed, incurious Japanese.
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I got into a taxicab, noted that the meter registered 30 cents at the
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start, just as it does in New York, and set forth. Hollywood, it seemed, lay
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seven miles northwest of the center of Los Angeles. Twenty years ago it had a
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population of 1,200 persons, living on fine estates separated by lemon and
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orange orchards. Now it has 70,000. It joined Los Angeles in 1910, and has
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kept pace with the growth of that astonishing city.
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On the way I had the taxicab stop in front of the bungalow court where
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William Desmond Taylor lived. The bungalow court is, I believe, peculiar to
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southern California. On a plot of ground about the site of that occupied by a
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large apartment house in New York a parallelogram is laid out and along three
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sides one or two story houses are erected, the fourth side being the street.
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The houses are separated from one another by a space of fifteen feet or more.
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Within the central court which all of them face are planted palms,
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evergreens and shrubbery over a spread of lawn. They are beautiful and
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attractive places. The true bungalow is one story high.
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Taylor's home, a duplicate of all the others on this court, had two
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stories. He had half the ground floor and half the second floor and another
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family the other half. Each tenant has his own doorways. It is what is called
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in the East a two family house. I don't know what rent Taylor paid, but from
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what I heard of prices elsewhere would guess it was about $125 a month. Taylor
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was not a "high liver."
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Well, the trip to Hollywood took us up and down the hills of Los Angeles,
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through streets lined with date and fan palms and streets with palms on one
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side and advertising signs on the other, and every so often a monstrous real
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estate board boasting of the present and piling million on million of
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population for the future. The reigning sensation in Los Angeles outside the
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"Taylor case," by the way, was somebody's prediction that the city would have
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3,000,000 souls (even the movie people are credited with souls for statistical
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purposes) by the year 1940, I think it was.
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With no more digressions we shall now proceed to Hollywood.
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Past automobile service stations almost as neat and alluring as the
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bungalow courts, past open spaces and green hillsides and rows of deep shading
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pepper trees, along one of those justly famous California highways, we rode
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along and came to the gate of movieland.
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It wasn't a gate, but a high green wooden fence suddenly appearing behind
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a file of palms at the left, and mammoth white letters spelling "William Fox
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Studios." It was like the fence enclosing the fairgrounds in an Eastern county
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seat, and the letters seemed to rival closely the Colgate sign in Jersey City
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for size. Above it were to be seen roofs like those of barns and hangars and a
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silhouetted sierra of timbers and walls, which I later discovered were "sets,"
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the scenery of the movies.
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The next block proved to be Fox, too, but the fence and the buildings
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were of stucco. Then more studios, all shouting their name in big letters--
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Warner Brothers, Christie Comedies, and others, with blocks of dwellings
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between. Then a block surrounded by automobiles parked beneath pepper trees
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and a sign, much smaller than the others I had seen, "Famous Players-Lasky
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Studios."
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The object of this expedition was a survey of the whole town of
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Hollywood, not the studios, so I kept on. In passing, however, I noted with
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chagrin that not a Rolls-Royce was to be seen in all the automobile show
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outside the "Lasky lot." Most of the cars were common tumbrils in fact, and
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badly in need of a wash, and there weren't nearly as many chauffeurs lolling
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about as I had hoped. Where were all those glorious vehicles with gold inlay
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and platinum wheels the press agent had pictured? Here was a solecism to be
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investigated later.
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A friend who is not in the movies transferred me from a taxicab to his
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plebian car and guided me through residential parts of Hollywood. I wanted to
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see the homes of all the big actors, but as that would take several days we
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compromised on a ride ending at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Fairbanks,
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Beverly Hills.
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While passing studios and now while traversing the boulevards I kept on
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the lookout for persons identifiable as film celebrities, but saw none. Not a
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star, not an "extra," not a painted face, not a camera, not a director in knee
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breeches and puttees or otherwise, not even a group of cowboys or a single
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cowboy sleeping under a tree or rolling marihuana cigarettes while waiting to
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be called.
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All preconceptions wrong. Not a hint or symptom save an occasional studio
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giving assurance that this is really the Pittsburgh of the motion picture.
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Nobody hanging around the studios. No one clamoring to get in. Ordinary
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looking persons walking the streets, and apparently minding their own
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business. Just a southern California city of the landscaped, well tailored,
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prosperous looking sort, with a special fineness of situation because it is
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built along a valley and a slope with a background of hills which Joseph Urban
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could not improve upon.
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Kearny and Fremont, Castro and Pico fought over these hills, and later
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the terrifying bandits, Tiburcio Vasquez and Joaquin Murrieta, held them.
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Modern Hollywood, one regrets to say, knows little of the romance caressing it
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from out of the past or of the ghosts that patrol the Pass. Only one of the
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many persons from whom I sought this information knew that the heights had not
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always been called Hollywood Hills. He was a clerk in a bookstore.
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My guide rolled me along a well kept asphalt highway, which I think was
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Santa Monica boulevard, past houses half hidden by palm trees, peppers, and
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the pungent eucalyptus. The prevailing color is white or cream, varied with
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blue and pink, with red or green tiled roofs; the favored material is stucco,
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which does not seem to crack in that climate as it does in the East.
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Many of the walks leading to the houses were bordered with geraniums.
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Rose bushes climb valiantly up wall and trellis, but because of the January
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freeze California is sadly lacking in roses this year. The same frost that
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swatted the citrus crop killed the posies. Down at Santa Ana I heard of an
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outdoor fete in which artificial flowers had to be used. That is the extreme
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of desolation in the land of sunshine and flowers.
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We passed Swiss chalets, glorified flat roofed Aztec 'dobes, English
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cottages, Norman castles, Mesopotamian mosques, all kinds of architecture;
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also plain redwood California bungalows, each with its vines and shrubbery and
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maybe half a dozen orange trees, laden with golden bulbs.
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At the top of a hill to our right stood a great house like a Japanese
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pagoda, the home of Adolph Bernheimer (not of the pictures), a principal show
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place of Hollywood. My friend was explaining that most of the people of
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Hollywood are not connected with motion pictures when he broke off to say:
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"Wally Reid lives there." The house to which he pointed was below the level of
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our boulevard. We looked down on a roof of red tile and walls of brown stucco.
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We could not see the swimming pool, but rapidly obtained the impression that
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Fred Harvey's desert hotels along the Santa Fe are no niftier than the abiding
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place of this same Wallace Reid.
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Up the road a little piece is the home of William S. Hart, New England
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colonial, shingled and white, one of the plainest and most agreeable places we
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saw. We were told that the appropriate thing for tourists to say when they
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reach this point on the grand tour is: "Just like Bill, isn't it?" On the
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other side of the boulevard is the mansion of Pauline Frederick, with an
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expanse of lawn costing a fortune to maintain in California. The house is of
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stucco, cream tinted, red tiled, formal looking.
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The estate of Edward L. Doheny, oil man, penetrates a canyon not far from
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Miss Frederick's home, but a frieze of eucalyptus hides it from public view.
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In the same neighborhood Mme. Nazimova has a yellow citadel.
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Passing out of Hollywood without my knowing it we were in Beverly Hills.
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Its general tone is like that of the highest priced parts of Great Neck, Long
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Island, of Upper Mountain avenue, in Montclair, N.J. It is all private
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residences except the Beverly Hills Hotel, where, I was told, Rupert Hughes
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and some of the picture stars lived and spent their leisure in riding, golf
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and contemplation of La Brea fields, the enfolding mountains and the Pacific
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flashing eight miles away. Charles Ray has a tidy thatched roof, box hedged
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English cottage in Beverly Hills. Will Rogers is bringing up his three
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children in a rambling home near by and sticking close to his swimming pool
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when in California. But every little while he has to leave the pool and go
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dripping to the front gate to say, "Yes, they live right up that road," to
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tourists before they have a chance to tell him that they are looking for the
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place where Doug and Mary live. Homespun Will Rogers, strange to say, has a
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tremendous house, with an acre or so of pillared porch and no end of formal
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gardening and all that.
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The road up the hill to the Fairbanks-Pickford house is nothing to brag
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of. It is a steep mountain grade, wide enough for only one car, and paved at
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one time, full of potholes. The tradition is that Mr. Fairbanks had the holes
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dung in order to discourage trippers. They flock up the hill, roll on the lawn
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and snapshot everything. One especially numerous flock of them gathered on the
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lawn one afternoon just after the two stars returned from their honeymoon.
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They shouted "Speech, speech!"
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"Good heavens, what shall we do?" said Doug. "Do?" said Mary. "We'll go
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out and speak to them, of course."
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So they went out and quelled the multitude with speech and were
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snapshotted and sent everybody away happy.
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Back of all these are other estates projecting their flora, like green
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spearheads, up the lower slopes of the hills. Many of these are owned by well
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to do Eastern families that have gone to California to live. The same is true
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of many of the largest homes in Hollywood itself. There is no "movie colony."
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Here and there a few actors may be found living side by side, some of them,
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the best of them, in bungalows renting at from $60 to $125 a month, but as a
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rule they rub elbows with storekeepers, artists, bankers, insurance agents,
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owners of Los Angeles factories, retired sea captains, health seekers,
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brokers, bankers--with probably a healthy admixture of pirates and the clergy-
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-just such people as may be found in any desirable suburb.
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Many Hollywood people work in Los Angeles and motor back and forth. Even
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the lowliest have cars in California. Not many of the lowliest live in
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Hollywood, for it is regarded as "an expensive place," although real estate
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prices are well below those of comparable towns around New York. The great
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unheard of, unpress-agented majority who make their living at the picture
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studios cannot afford a residence in Hollywood. A furnished room in Los
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Angeles is the home of not a few. A Hollywood acquaintance told me that of all
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the families on his block, along both sides of the street, his was the only
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one that had any member working at the studios. This may be an exceptional
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case, but it is obvious that the movies have not taken possession of all of
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Hollywood. One well known star, I think it was Guy Bates Post, told me he
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lived near Pasadena and drove twenty miles to his job every morning and back
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at night.
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The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce estimates that 30,000 of the town's
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70,000 persons are in one or another branch of the film industry. But an old
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timer said the truth was that while about 30,000 were actually engaged in the
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industry, not more than one-half of them, if that, lived in Hollywood.
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Some of the gilt edged performers have habitations accurately described
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by the real estaters as palatial, others occupy modest houses in rows that,
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save for the tropical foliage, are about like Flatbush.
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Charley Chaplin rents a Moorish dwelling of about a dozen rooms on
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Corotona Heights from a theosophist for $500 a month; J.M. Kerrigan has a
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while clapboarded one story bungalow; Kathryn MacDonald a severe Dutch
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colonial cottage; Sessue Hayakawa, the Japanese, a formidable feudal castle;
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Dustin Farnum a two story chalet; William Desmond a homey colonial; Tom Mix a
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chalet; Tom Moore an Aztec palace. In Hollywood, as everywhere, each to his
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own taste.
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After firing one guide I acquired another and conscientiously did the
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business district of Hollywood. This is divided into three parts along a mile
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and a half of Hollywood boulevard. Originally there were three drowsing
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hamlets, and when the boom came they all spurted together and began to grow
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toward one another, so that eventually they will be as one and the pleasant
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interstices now filled with vestigial orange trees will disappear.
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The brightness and cleanness of the business blocks strike the eye of the
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visitor from the East. They are not old enough to be anything else, and the
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town having no factories to speak of, there is nothing to smudge them. The
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buildings are of one or two story, except one which has five stories, and a
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skyscraper, now being completed, which has six. They are of stucco, concrete
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or pressed brick, uniformly white or cream colored. The stores are modern
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looking and cheering places to go into.
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Real estate offices are notable for numbers. You learn that twenty years
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ago orchard land in what is now the costliest part of Hollywood could be had
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at from $250 to $500 an acre. Sixteen years ago the Hollywood Trust & Security
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Savings Bank bought one of the best corners on the main street, a plot 105 by
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60 feet, for $37,500. It is now appraised at $187,000. Ordinary space along
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the street is worth $1,500 a front foot.
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Homes do not come so high. Here are samples: Furnished five room
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bungalow, hardwood floor, garage, water, adults only, $80 a month; four room
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bungalow, corner, telephone, disappearing bed, garage, $75; "lovely sunny
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corner room," $25; two rooms and sun parlor, telephone, $65; unfurnished six
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room flat, two baths, garage, $90; seven room house, all improvements, $100;
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for sale, plastered bungalow, Spanish, five rooms, unpaved, $8,000; Spanish
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home, five rooms, garage, brick chimney, lawn, shrubbery, $5,900; five room
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stucco bungalow, tiled roof, $7,500; plot 160 by 190, site for home for flats,
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$12,600; site for court or apartment, 88 by 138, $8,700; restricted lot,
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$3,000; rentals, furnished, $80, $125, $150; rentals, unfurnished, $55, $65,
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$75, $90.
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Though disappointed in Los Angeles and in the vicinity of such motion
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picture studios as I had seen, I still entertained a hope that an actor or two
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would be seen behaving roguishly in the marts of Hollywood.
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It was not to be. There were a few sporty looking automobiles, go-devils
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with port holes in the hood, but they stood parked and empty in front of banks
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and grocery stores. I had been told to approach the Hollywood Hotel with
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caution, as here was the center not only of the weird night life of the "movie
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colony," but anything was likely to happen to a diffident stranger in the
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daytime. They told me it was Passion's Playground. It proved to be a three
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story mission style hospice, screened from the street by the regulation palms,
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peppers and acacias, and built around a patio rich with tropical vegetation.
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Several Iowa grandmothers with neatly parted white hair were knitting in
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alcoves of the big sitting room lobby. Stepping close for an earful of
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scandal, I heard nothing but a debate as to the relative merits of the Santa
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Fe and the Union Pacific as a means of migration.
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Two Japanese bellboys had an air of knowing something, but I got no more
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out of them than they out of me, which was 25 cents for service. Otherwise the
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hotel was in a state of siesta, and so it continued to be all the time I was
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in Hollywood.
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The new guide suggested Armstrong & Carlton's for luncheon.
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"You'll see them all there," he said. This is the great nooning place of
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Hollywood, although there are several other restaurants and a self-service
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refectory which spells itself on the sign, "Cafateria." We went to a corner
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table. Armstrong & Carlton's was full of wavy haired young men and of girls
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reminiscent of the side streets above Forty-Second Street, New York. But the
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guide, who is a studio veteran and really knows his crowd, had to confess that
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this seemed to be an off day.
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"Let's see," he said. "There's Al Green, Tommy Meighan's director, over
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in that corner. That gray haired man is Bill Conklin, who plays heavies, but
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is socially acquainted with the elect of Los Angeles. The lady under the big
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hat is Alice Terry, who started in the pictures as a Triangle extra and earned
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a living cutting film between jobs. And that's all, so far as I can see. The
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rest are tourists, I guess. Anyway, studio people having luncheon are just
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like other people."
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With this assurance I left the restaurant to find out more about
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Hollywood and was pained to learn that it has only one all night restaurant
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and that a stool and counter affair. The Cocoanut Grove at the Ambassador,
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roadhouses and dance halls along the oceangoing highways, plenty of places of
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entertainment there are, but of these we shall write about later; they are not
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in Hollywood, though they have to do with it.
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|
There have been sixty-seven studios listed at one time, but closing of a
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|
good many of them, due to the financial slump and other causes, has reduced
|
|
the number to between forty and fifty. Hollywood has more of them than any
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|
other district, but those within the fifteen square miles that constitute the
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|
Hollywood area are not segregated and those outside of Hollywood are as much
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|
as twenty miles apart.
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|
There are now twenty-two studios in Hollywood proper, others at Culver
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City, five miles nearer the ocean; Universal City, several miles beyond
|
|
Hollywood to the northwest, and elsewhere in the region bordering on Los
|
|
Angeles and between the Santa Monica mountains and the Pacific.
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|
Of the studios I shall write in another article. The purpose here is to
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|
give a superficial view of Hollywood, the suburb.
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|
Former Californians remember the Hollywood of twenty years ago as a
|
|
small, "exclusive residential district," populated by a handful of retired
|
|
Easterners living in handsome homes in the midst of citrus orchards. Its
|
|
character was about like that, say of Bernardsville, N.J. Los Angeles was a
|
|
city of little more than 100,000. It had already started to boom when the
|
|
movies came.
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|
G.M. Anderson--Broncho Billy--appeared from somewhere and began shooting
|
|
"Westerns" requiring no studio. Col. William N. Selig is credited with having
|
|
built the first studio, at Edendale. Then came the Biograph and others, one at
|
|
a time. They found in this part of California not only the greatest number of
|
|
sunlit days and the best actinic light value, but the greatest variety of
|
|
"locations" to be discovered anywhere. There were prairie, desert, ranches,
|
|
rocky and sandy beaches, gorges, mountains, snow, gardens, vegetation of every
|
|
clime, romantic villages, bustling cities, all within a small geographical
|
|
compass.
|
|
In the center of all this, Hollywood, conveniently placed between the
|
|
mountains and the sea, far enough from Los Angeles to be out of the highest
|
|
rent zone, afforded plenty of vacant space for the erection of studios. At
|
|
first each producer of pictures had his own independent personnel. For
|
|
example, each company making wild West films had its own army of cowboys. Each
|
|
outfit was jealous of the other, and as no producing company can be busy all
|
|
the time, there was time for dissipation, wrangling, sometimes serious brawls.
|
|
Since then the cowboy market has been virtually cornered by two women.
|
|
When a producer needs a ranch crowd, he telephones the women for them. When
|
|
the cowboy scenes are finished these men are paid off. They return to
|
|
headquarters and wait for an assignment to some other studio.
|
|
There is a fascinating story in the handling of the "extra people," the
|
|
thousands who work in the pictures itinerantly, in mob scenes and the like,
|
|
but it can only be indicated here. The point is that the character of the
|
|
"movie industry" is changing just as Hollywood is changing and has changed
|
|
since the days when the first orange orchards were cut up into bungalow lots.
|
|
The first studios were makeshifts. Nobody knew how the business and art
|
|
of the cinema would develop, or whether it would develop at all. Eventually
|
|
there arose permanent studios of concrete and steel and the industry acquired
|
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a feeling of solidity. The rush to Hollywood became a stampede.
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Rob Wagner, biographer of the movies, estimates that for every star 200
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other persons are needed to assist his light in shining before men. The crowd
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|
came and it sought homes. Transients, finding themselves settled for long
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|
sojourns in California, bought or built houses. The trooper, always a nomad,
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|
dreaming of a fixed habitation, found his dream coming true. In California he
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|
could literally have his own vine and fig tree. He could be sure to seeking
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|
his family every day.
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|
There sprung up a feeling of local pride. The actor and his retinue, the
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|
director, the scenario writer, the host of others who help to make the
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|
pictures came to have a love for Hollywood because it was "their town."
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|
Proudly they voted, became bank depositors, went on boards of directors. They
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|
even joined the churches, with which some persons will be astonished to learn
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|
Hollywood is plentifully supplied.
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All this makes Hollywood, in its most interesting aspect, a social
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|
phenomenon. Hollywood is the gypsy settling down.
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|
The recent scandals have endangered the livelihood of these men and
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|
women. In defending Hollywood against attack they have acted from mingled
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|
motives of self interest, of a belief that the black sheep are few, and of
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|
local pride.
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|
In another article an attempt will be made to give the facts and to
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|
estimate the soundness of the defense.
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|
|
|
*****************************************************************************
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NEXT ISSUE:
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"The Truth About Hollywood":
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Part 2 [Drugs, Alcohol and Sexual Morality]
|
|
Part 3 [What Happens to a New Girl in Hollywood?]
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|
Part 4 [Brief Tour of Some Hollywood Studios]
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|
*****************************************************************************
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|
NOTES:
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[1] See "A Cast of Killers" p. 67.
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|
[2] That interview was reprinted in TAYLOROLOGY #6.
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|
[3] Examination of library microfilm of the Los Angeles Examiner for this
|
|
period has failed to locate any interview wherein this statement is made by
|
|
Minter. If anyone has a copy, please forward it to us and it will be
|
|
reprinted here. Similarly, if anyone knows of any later published interviews
|
|
given by Charlotte Shelby, please let us know.
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|
[4] The District Attorney's office was attempting to locate the bullet which
|
|
had been fired by Minter in 1920, when the Shelby family was living at
|
|
56 Fremont in Los Angeles. If the bullet could be found and shown to have
|
|
been fired from the same gun as the bullet which killed Taylor, this would
|
|
have been thephysical evidence needed to link Shelby with the killing.
|
|
[5] Shelby's mother was Julia Branch Miles, not Mary Miles.
|
|
[6] Obviously a reference to Mabel Normand.
|
|
[7] This interview was given after her diaries had been subpoenaed.
|
|
[8] The producer is obviously Mack Sennett, the actress is Mabel Normand. In
|
|
his autobiography, "King of Comedy," Sennett says he spent the night at
|
|
producer Thomas Ince's house on the night Taylor was killed.
|
|
[9] Mabel Normand achieved stardom working for Mack Sennett in 1913-1917, then
|
|
went to Goldwyn during 1917-1920. She returned to Sennett in 1921 but it is
|
|
very doubtful that their personal realtionship resumed.
|
|
[10] Some of the details of that quarrel were related by Taylor's chauffeur.
|
|
See "William Desmond Taylor: A Dossier," p. 255.
|
|
[11] The rumor that she had visited the Taylor home at midnight on the day of
|
|
the slaying, was strongly denied by Edna Purviance, and the rumor appears to be
|
|
false.
|
|
[12] This "famed foreign actress" is clearly Alla Nazimova.
|
|
[13] This "recently divorced" couple is clearly Rudolph Valentino and Jean
|
|
Acker. He had recently skyrocketed to fame in "The Four Horsemen of the
|
|
Apocalypse" and "The Shiek".
|
|
[14] Smith does not mention that Natacha Rambova, who would become Valentino's
|
|
next wife, was also in the car.
|
|
[15] Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand. See Taylorology #8.
|
|
[16] Again, clearly the reference is to Mabel Normand.
|
|
[17] If the incident is genuine, it is possibly a reference to Juanita Hansen,
|
|
who later wrote extensively about her drug addiction in Hollywood.
|
|
*****************************************************************************
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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
|