1465 lines
92 KiB
Plaintext
1465 lines
92 KiB
Plaintext
*****************************************************************************
|
|
* T A Y L O R O L O G Y *
|
|
* A Continuing Exploration of the Life and Death of William Desmond Taylor *
|
|
* *
|
|
* Issue 40 -- April 1996 Editor: Bruce Long bruce@asu.edu *
|
|
* TAYLOROLOGY may be freely distributed *
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:
|
|
Taylor in the British Army
|
|
Personal Appearances by Silent Stars in the Weeks after the Murder:
|
|
Monte Blue, Hobart Bosworth, Francis X. Bushman and Beverly Bayne,
|
|
Mary Carr, Lew Cody, Viola Dana, Miss DuPont, Elsie Ferguson,
|
|
Pauline Frederick, Hoot Gibson, Lillian Gish, Mildred Harris,
|
|
Hazel Howell, Louise Lovely, May McAvoy, Martha Mansfield,
|
|
Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Marie Prevost, Herbert Rawlinson,
|
|
Will Rogers, Ruth Roland, Gladys Walton, Claire Windsor
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
What is TAYLOROLOGY?
|
|
TAYLOROLOGY is a newsletter focusing on the life and death of William Desmond
|
|
Taylor, a top Paramount film director in early Hollywood who was shot to
|
|
death on February 1, 1922. His unsolved murder was one of Hollywood's major
|
|
scandals. This newsletter will deal with: (a) The facts of Taylor's life;
|
|
(b) The facts and rumors of Taylor's murder; (c) The impact of the Taylor
|
|
murder on Hollywood and the nation; (d) Taylor's associates and the Hollywood
|
|
silent film industry in which Taylor worked. Primary emphasis will be given
|
|
toward reprinting, referencing and analyzing source material, and sifting it
|
|
for accuracy.
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
|
|
Taylor in the British Army
|
|
|
|
Below are some press items which appear to be substantially accurate
|
|
regarding Taylor's military service. Also, there were several photos
|
|
published in the press. In one of them, there are four N.C.O.'s outside a
|
|
tent; one is Taylor and the others are identified by name, one of them being
|
|
Towt, who is interviewed below. The unit is indicated as Company 5, 5th
|
|
Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. In another photo, Taylor as an N.C.O. is
|
|
standing before a formation of black soldiers.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
July 10, 1918
|
|
LOS ANGELES HERALD
|
|
A farewell banquet was tendered William D. Taylor, the well known
|
|
director, by members of the Motion Picture Directors' association at the the
|
|
Athletic club.
|
|
The dinner was in honor of Mr. Taylor's enlistment in the British army.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 7, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES TIMES
|
|
...Dr. H. M. S. Maddock, who was the examining physician for the Canadian
|
|
recruiting mission throughout the period of the war, and who is a Los Angeles
|
|
resident, examined William Desmond Taylor for Canadian [British] army
|
|
service.
|
|
Facts obtained from Dr. Maddock concerning William Desmond Taylor's
|
|
enlistment coincide with the records of W. D. Taylor found in the London War
|
|
Office. The London dispatch states the enlistment of W. D. Taylor of 1127
|
|
Orange Street, Los Angeles, was attested to in Chicago, July 3, 1918.
|
|
Dr. Maddock, though he does not remember the date, stated last night
|
|
that it was a very hot day in July, 1918, when William Desmond Taylor entered
|
|
the recruiting office in the San Fernando Building for his medical
|
|
examination.
|
|
"I remember the man well," he said. "I did not usually examine
|
|
personally, the recruits. Most of them were ordinary men, such as we see
|
|
daily on the streets, many shabbily dressed. Mr. Taylor was different from
|
|
the ordinary man, so I examined him personally. He was a man of fine
|
|
physique for his age, one of the best physical specimens I had yet seen.
|
|
"Mr. Taylor, as was the rule, was then sent to San Francisco for a
|
|
second examination. He did not accompany the other recruits, whose railroad
|
|
fare was always paid by the recruiting mission. He paid his own fare to San
|
|
Francisco and went alone. No one had accompanied him to the Los Angeles
|
|
recruiting office on the day of his enlistment. He was alone.
|
|
"The war record shows he was entered into the service at Chicago on July
|
|
3, 1918, I am told. That is not unusual for the recruits, after passing
|
|
examinations at San Francisco, were sent either to Vancouver or to Chicago
|
|
for their final medical examinations. At the place where this third medical
|
|
examination is passed, the recruit is then taken into the service. I think
|
|
Mr. Taylor went to Chicago"
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
August 21, 1918
|
|
HANTS JOURNAL, Windsor, N.S.
|
|
There arrived on Monday evening's [August 19] express from the West, 183
|
|
B.E.F. recruits. The boys appeared happy at reaching the I.R. [Intercolonial
|
|
Railway] Depot here for many of them had traveled long distances.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 6, 1922
|
|
SAN FRANCISCO CALL-POST
|
|
[interview with Sergeant Major Ellis G. Towt]
|
|
..."I was stationed at Windsor, Nova Scotia, when Bill Taylor 'blew'
|
|
into camp. He told me he was manager [director] for Mary Pickford. His
|
|
civilian address was given as the Los Angeles Athletic Club. At that time,
|
|
too, I believe, he was head of the Motion Picture Directors' Association.
|
|
"He was dressed in very expensive clothing when he arrived. It was on
|
|
August 18, 1918. Besides his clothing he wore several diamonds.
|
|
"I noticed that he was a gentleman, well educated, silent and
|
|
considerate of others. There were few available tents and I offered to share
|
|
mine with him, even though he was only a private.
|
|
"His poise and efficiency soon won him promotion to corporal and later
|
|
to sergeant. At my suggestion he sent his diamonds and expensive clothing
|
|
back to Los Angeles.
|
|
"During the time that he was in camp he put on several shows for us and
|
|
won wide publicity. Later he became sick. It was his stomach. He couldn't
|
|
eat, but requested that I not get a doctor. I notified the medical corps,
|
|
however, and he was placed in a hospital. Soon after his recovery he went
|
|
overseas and I never saw him again.
|
|
"Bill Taylor was singularly taciturn. He never mentioned his past life
|
|
and there was nothing to indicate he had any outside ties. If he received or
|
|
dispatched any mail it was always done in the strictest secrecy."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 7, 1922
|
|
NEW YORK TIMES
|
|
[from an interview with Stuart Cooling]
|
|
"Taylor came to Camp Fort Edward at Windsor, Nova Scotia, in the summer
|
|
of 1918 with other recruits. I was Provost Sergeant. He was very quick to
|
|
learn and became a Lance Corporal in two weeks, a Corporal in three weeks, a
|
|
Sergeant in five weeks, and a company Sergeant Major in two months. Then we
|
|
went to England and he got a Lieutenant's commission in the Army Service
|
|
Corps of the British Army. His men worshipped him--would do anything for him.
|
|
"We N.C.O.'s, his pals, always found him a man who never thought of
|
|
himself, who was always helping the underdog, those who had less than he had.
|
|
I wouldn't believe wrong of him, no matter what anybody said."
|
|
|
|
[The original Fort Edward was built in 1750. By World War One it was gone,
|
|
just an historical marker. But it was a local landmark and still is. When a
|
|
temporary wooden barracks was built the locals still referred to it as Fort
|
|
Edward although a barracks is not a defensive structure. The local paper,
|
|
a weekly paper called the HANTS JOURNAL, usually referred to the wartime
|
|
facility as "Fort Edward". But midway through World War One, a B.E.F.
|
|
training depot was established, which was a large tent encampment, and local
|
|
buildings like the library and YMCA were requisitioned for base use, like
|
|
stores, officers' quarters, etc. With both Canadian military activities and
|
|
British military activities going on in the same small town, even the press
|
|
started using hybrid terminology, referring to "Camp Fort Edward" in the
|
|
HANTS JOURNAL -- and this means the B.E.F. tent camp at Fort Edward. Special
|
|
thanks to Ron Jack and Leland Harvie for furnishing this information and the
|
|
clippings from the HANTS JOURNAL.]
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
September 4, 1918
|
|
HANTS JOURNAL, Windsor, N.S.
|
|
BEF Lines
|
|
THE CONCERT. Last Saturday night the B.E.F. held a benefit concert...
|
|
at the Opera House .... hundreds were turned away and the concert was
|
|
repeated on Monday evening. [a list of the performers follow:]
|
|
Regd. Sergt. Major Spicer
|
|
Pte. Clapham, piano
|
|
Pte. Baskin's, violin
|
|
Corp. Harrison, song
|
|
Pte. Jenkins, dance
|
|
Corp. Chapman, dance
|
|
Pte. Hendry, Scottish dance
|
|
Piper L.Corp Sellars, Scottish dance
|
|
Pte. Blumenthal, Russian solo
|
|
Pte. Evans, son of famous Welsh singer
|
|
Ptes. Hendry & Burnett, songs
|
|
Pte. H.G. Birks, "old music hall singer"
|
|
Pte. Gale, magician
|
|
L. Corpl Kane, "a New York vaudiville artist", comic song
|
|
Closure - God Save The King
|
|
[There were similar entertainment activities going on virtually the whole
|
|
three months Taylor was there. Although Taylor is not mentioned in these
|
|
items, the above interview with Ellis Towt indicates Taylor directed several
|
|
of these shows, which is confirmed by notations in Taylor's journal, quoted
|
|
in A CAST OF KILLERS, p. 66: "Private Gale, magician...Hendry, bagpipes."
|
|
Those names also appear above. ]
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 9, 1922
|
|
CHICAGO AMERICAN
|
|
[from an interview with Ivan Royes]
|
|
"I enlisted in the British army in Chicago in the latter part of August,
|
|
1918, and was sent to Windsor, Nova Scotia.
|
|
"There I was placed in Company C, made up of colored men from various
|
|
parts of the British West Indies.
|
|
"William Desmond Taylor, the man slain in Los Angeles, was sergeant-
|
|
major of my company. We left Canada on Nov. 6, 1918, arriving at Bristol on
|
|
Nov. 18.
|
|
"From there we were sent to Hounslow Barracks, where we were grouped and
|
|
assigned to different regiments throughout England, Ireland and Wales.
|
|
"Taylor was assigned to some regiment other than mine and we parted at
|
|
Hounslow Barracks. It was generally understood he was sent off somewhere to
|
|
receive a commission. But to the best of my knowledge he was a sergeant
|
|
major. He was never in the Canadian army.
|
|
"He was a fine fellow. We had no arms while he was with me. He put us
|
|
through squad drills. He was the kind of a man we could go to with any kind
|
|
of trouble. He was always ready to listen and help.
|
|
"...In all respect to him, I can only say he was a gentleman in every
|
|
sense of the word."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 7, 1922
|
|
San Francisco Chronicle
|
|
...William Desmond Taylor was never an officer attached to the 5th
|
|
battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, according to the official record of the
|
|
fusiliers, who are now stationed at Hounslow barracks, London, where the
|
|
adjutant searched through forty-six thousand names of officers and men of the
|
|
regiment participating in the World War. ...[Taylor] arrived at Hounslow
|
|
barracks December 2, 1918, coming in a draft of 500 Britishers who had
|
|
enlisted in America...On December 5, 1918, he was transferred to the Army
|
|
Service Corps at the Expeditionary Force Canteen on Victoria Street, London.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 8, 1922
|
|
WISCONSIN NEWS
|
|
An unfinished chapter in the life of William Desmond Taylor...was
|
|
completed here through revelations of Percy Sweet, who says he served with
|
|
Taylor in the British army, during January, 1919.
|
|
Sweet, who was a sergeant-major, declared Taylor was a first lieutenant
|
|
with Army Service Corps of the Expeditionary Forces Canteen Service,
|
|
stationed at Dunkirk, on the Belgian border, shortly after the armistice.
|
|
...Sweet declared it very probable Taylor was advanced to a captaincy as
|
|
stated in Monday's dispatches, after the armistice. He said privates and
|
|
officers in non-fighting units such as the one to which Taylor was attached,
|
|
were commissioned rapidly that they might take the places of officers who had
|
|
seen hard service. He asserts positively that Taylor was a first lieutenant,
|
|
being second in command to Maj. Meghar, a veteran with a long record in the
|
|
British service in India.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 9, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES TIMES
|
|
Army records and papers found yesterday in the home of William D.
|
|
Taylor, according to officials of the Lasky company, prove that the murdered
|
|
motion-picture director was at least a lieutenant in the British forces.
|
|
Among the army records found, a pass of leave from duty in Dunkirk,
|
|
dated April 4, 1919, shows that William D. Taylor was at that time a
|
|
lieutenant in the British forces.
|
|
An embarkation ticket bearing the name of William D. Taylor, according
|
|
to the Lasky officials, shows that the director was a lieutenant, and also
|
|
shows the army number F-56979, and regiment E.F.C., R.A.S.C.
|
|
It is further stated that Mr. Taylor was discharged with the rank of
|
|
captain.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
June 1, 1919
|
|
NEW YORK TELEGRAPH
|
|
The Famous Players-Lasky Corporation will picturize Mark Twain's
|
|
immortal story, "Huckleberry Finn," in the form of a special production, with
|
|
a large cast of picked players. Work will be started at the Lasky studio,
|
|
Hollywood, in about two weeks under the direction of William D.
|
|
Taylor...About a year ago Mr. Taylor...expected to enter an officers'
|
|
training camp but found it would take eleven months to finish the course, so
|
|
being impatient to get to the fighting district, he enlisted as a "Tommy" in
|
|
the Royal Fusiliers. Then he was transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps
|
|
and commissioned lieutenant. He served in Flanders and was the second officer
|
|
to enter Lille after the Germans evacuated the city. He also reached Cologne
|
|
and other German points and spent some time in London before returning to
|
|
this country a few weeks ago. Aside from suffering from illness for some
|
|
time, he had plenty of interesting adventures, and looks splendid.
|
|
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
|
|
Personal Appearances by Silent Stars in the Weeks after the Murder:
|
|
Monte Blue, Hobart Bosworth, Francis X. Bushman and Beverly Bayne,
|
|
Mary Carr, Lew Cody, Viola Dana, Miss DuPont, Elsie Ferguson,
|
|
Pauline Frederick, Hoot Gibson, Lillian Gish, Mildred Harris,
|
|
Louise Lovely, May McAvoy, Martha Mansfield, Mary Pickford and
|
|
Douglas Fairbanks, Marie Prevost, Herbert Rawlinson, Will Rogers,
|
|
Ruth Roland, Gladys Walton, Claire Windsor
|
|
|
|
Throughout the silent film era there was a steady stream of actors and
|
|
actresses making "personal appearances" around the country. In the weeks
|
|
following the Taylor murder, those who made personal appearances or traveled
|
|
to other cities around the U.S.A. often faced questions by reporters about
|
|
the Taylor murder case or about Hollywood morality.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Monte Blue in Columbus
|
|
|
|
February 6, 1922
|
|
D.H.K.
|
|
OHIO STATE JOURNAL
|
|
"Three cheers for Monte Blue! One hundred percent man and an A No. 1
|
|
actor." This is what D. W. Griffith said about the popular movie star, who
|
|
visited the Majestic yesterday "in person," when the big Griffith production,
|
|
"Orphans of the Storm," was completed.
|
|
"I cried just like a baby," said Mr. Blue to us yesterday afternoon when
|
|
we brought this press news to his attention.
|
|
"He did say it, standing up on a box in the studio grounds, and the
|
|
whole cast, Gishes and everybody, joined in. I had only come in on the last
|
|
four months of the picture and had done my best to pull it through to
|
|
completion," he added.
|
|
Monte Blue is a Hoosier, all American, even to boasting some pure Indian
|
|
blood. Monte Blue is not homely. We make this statement because, though we
|
|
always have considered him one of the most finished actors on the screen, we
|
|
also felt him to be one of the least attractive as to appearance. Monte has
|
|
a quiet dignity and a clear, direct way of talking that gives character to
|
|
all he says.
|
|
"William D. Taylor was one of the cleanest, finest men I ever knew. He
|
|
was a director whom everybody loved," said Mr. Blue, in connection with the
|
|
tragedy which came to this well-known movie director a few days ago.
|
|
"It's the outside world that is to blame for the many scandals in the
|
|
movie world. People have gone movie mad and they haunt studios and stars and
|
|
sweep the actors off their feet. If there is a big scandal connected with a
|
|
banker, no one condemns the banking world; if there is a story told about a
|
|
minister, no one condemns religion; now why should we movie people come in
|
|
for so much opprobrium just because of a few recent flagrant crimes?"
|
|
Monte Blue delivered this opinion of his as an ultimatum. Monte has
|
|
just completed "My Old Kentucky Home," and after going over into Indiana to
|
|
see his mother tomorrow, he jumps back to New York to make another picture.
|
|
Monte is seen this week as the leading man with Mae Murray in "Peacock
|
|
Alley." He declares this to be one of his big pictures, and his enthusiasm
|
|
for Mae Murray is great.
|
|
He informed us we were all wrong about Mae. She is most sincere, he
|
|
says, and a hard worker. She is the first at the studio in the morning and
|
|
the last one to leave in the evening.
|
|
"Why are you so unjust to her?" he plaintively asked, and we tried to
|
|
justify our stand by telling him we wouldn't mind if she kept off the
|
|
"underneath the blossoms," "Buster Brown collar" stuff.
|
|
Monte Blue gave interesting talks yesterday afternoon and evening at the
|
|
Majestic, revealing some side light on the movie game.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Hobart Bosworth in San Francisco
|
|
|
|
February 8, 1922
|
|
SAN FRANCISCO CALL
|
|
"The public is responsible for the character of motion pictures and as
|
|
long as the public demands rotten pictures they will continue to be produced.
|
|
The majority of the persons who are employed in the picture industry are hard
|
|
working, normal living and honorable people. We producers are not any more
|
|
responsible for the morals of our employees than the managers of any other
|
|
line of industry where propinquity between the sexes exists."
|
|
This was the hot shot fired by Hobart Bosworth, prominent screen star,
|
|
who yesterday addressed 300 women at a meeting of the literary section of the
|
|
California Club.
|
|
Amplifying his address of yesterday Bosworth, one of the big producers
|
|
who has transferred his production headquarters from Southern California to
|
|
San Mateo and who has recently produced his first picture here, said:
|
|
"If employees of a big San Francisco corporation were involved in some
|
|
mess you wouldn't hit the president of that corporation on the nose, would
|
|
you? The situation is exactly the same in the motion picture world. The
|
|
many should not be blamed for the backsliding of the few.
|
|
"Why, I don't know a place more free from objectionable things than the
|
|
average motion picture lot. Compared to them the old time Shellmound picnics
|
|
were a disgrace.
|
|
"Do not forget that San Francisco has been getting a great deal of the
|
|
motion picture 'slime money.' I mean by that that directors and actors have
|
|
been in the habit of coming to San Francisco for their sprees. Why? Because
|
|
their employers would fire them if they were caught.
|
|
"I am speaking now of the few who are given to these things. It is time
|
|
that San Francisco was getting some of the clean motion picture money."
|
|
Bosworth characterized the public as an "infallible judge" of pictures.
|
|
"The public--the public that supports the motion picture industry--does
|
|
not want decent pictures," he said.
|
|
"There are, however, some exceptions. Noteworthy successes have been
|
|
made by clean pictures.
|
|
"But there is no question that the other kind of pictures draw in the
|
|
nickels--and a motion picture producer cannot differentiate between a soiled
|
|
nickel and a clean nickel; they both pay salaries. A chain is no stronger
|
|
than its weakest link."
|
|
To the women yesterday he said:
|
|
"You women have the power to make the screen just what you want it to
|
|
be. If your neighborhood picture house is showing a film which you do not
|
|
desire your children to see, just drop a letter to the manager."
|
|
As to the comparatively few motion picture actresses and actors who go
|
|
wrong, Bosworth said:
|
|
"Some of those who do not keep along the normal channels of life are
|
|
victims of lack of mental balance. Give $1500 a week or more to a person who
|
|
has been used to nothing and the balance, in many cases, is liable to shift,
|
|
unless the mental and moral development of the individual is strong enough to
|
|
resist new conditions."
|
|
Speaking of William Deane Taylor, the murdered Los Angeles director,
|
|
Bosworth said:
|
|
"I knew Taylor well and knew him as a cultivated gentleman--an art
|
|
connoisseur, a director of exceptional ability.
|
|
"He was fatherly and sweet and gentle. Why, he was like a clergyman in
|
|
appearance and manner. He was all gentleness in his daily associations.
|
|
I never knew him to speak an angry word.
|
|
"He was troubled with nervous dyspepsia and I do not think his physical
|
|
condition was consistent with the reports that paint him as another kind of
|
|
man than he was generally regarded to be."
|
|
Bosworth predicted a commercial future for San Francisco in the
|
|
legitimate production of motion pictures.
|
|
"Los Angeles and its environs," he said, "are worn out from the
|
|
standpoint of locations, and in San Mateo and on the peninsula I am convinced
|
|
the locations are more beautiful than in any other spot I know. That is why
|
|
I am staking everything I possess in my effort to bring the motion picture
|
|
industry to San Francisco. It will mean thousands of persons and the
|
|
expenditure of an untold quantity of money, which will be cleanly and
|
|
legitimately spent. San Francisco will not then be receiving only the
|
|
unclean lavishness that is spent on sprees."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Frances X. Bushman and Beverly Bayne in New Orleans
|
|
|
|
February 8, 1922
|
|
George Collingwood
|
|
NEW ORLEANS ITEM
|
|
They are just plain, every day sort of folks--the Bushmans.
|
|
Even the blase interviewer is compelled to admit that Beverly Bayne and
|
|
Francis Bushman are as genial and charming a pair as one could hope to
|
|
interview.
|
|
But it wasn't an interview at that, just a visit during which all six in
|
|
the tiny Orpheum dressing room talked on sundry topics that have little to do
|
|
with the stage but are closely concerned with genuine life. Of course the
|
|
targets for our queries were there, and Ben Paizza, manager of the theatre,
|
|
for he never misses any of the fun and he came along just to see how the
|
|
Bushmans would "put it over" a Southern interviewer. Then charming Mrs.
|
|
Callender, the house press agent, and the Lady Who Goes to the Theatre With
|
|
Me were very much in the foreground.
|
|
It was a merry party, a sort of meeting of congenial souls capable of
|
|
forgetting the world for a few minutes. So genial were the Bushmans that we
|
|
felt the warmth of their welcome did not bear the imprint of the
|
|
artificiality of the stage--but came from the heart.
|
|
"My, but he's handsome," ejaculated the Lady Who Goes to the Theatre
|
|
With Me, on Monday afternoon when "Bushy"--as his talented wife calls him--
|
|
burst into view on the stage. He is and it is a genuinely manly beauty,
|
|
without any of the insipid mannerisms he affects in his one act comedy; in
|
|
addition he's a genuine patrician if one ever existed, though a human one at
|
|
that.
|
|
Miss Bayne lives for but two persons--Francis and Richard--and 'tis
|
|
difficult to decide which is the most dear. The rest of the world may just
|
|
roll by, so far as she is concerned. This does not mean that she is
|
|
indifferent to the plaudits of the world--for Miss Bayne loves the roar of
|
|
applause from the front, but--well, audiences are plentiful and there is but
|
|
one Francis and one Richard.
|
|
Right here is the time to pay a just tribute to the speaking voices of
|
|
the two Orpheum stars. So many years have their voices been stilled while
|
|
they carved niches for themselves in the silent drama, the average
|
|
theatregoer began to wonder if they really could talk. They can. And with
|
|
the most pleasing voices imaginable. Miss Bayne's is a deep contralto, a
|
|
singing voice, the kind one likes to listen to for hours and never tires.
|
|
Bushman's voice is as pleasing and distinct, carefully modulated, showing
|
|
culture and refinement.
|
|
Mr. Bushman said that his characterization of the "Poor Rich Man"
|
|
followed closely a chap they had met on Long Island, when on location for a
|
|
movie picture.
|
|
"Without exaggerating," said Mr. Bushman, "we met dozens of the same
|
|
type, who had no other interest in life than to--
|
|
"Talk?" chimed in the dainty Beverly Bayne, "why he repeats every word
|
|
he hears, and it is necessary to be careful when he is around."
|
|
"Just live," continued Bushman. "They are so terribly bored with the
|
|
whole scheme of things that--
|
|
"It's so easy to make them hang on to your fingers even when they are
|
|
not more than a day or two old," came from the other corner of the dressing
|
|
room.
|
|
"They find it even difficult to breathe without assistance," Bushman
|
|
went on. "This particular man I studied for several weeks and had my act
|
|
written around, was--"
|
|
"Just two and a half years old," Miss Bayne chipped in, "but he has the
|
|
mentality of a child of five. He's waiting at the hotel for us now."
|
|
At this juncture, Mr. Bushman gave up trying to tell his story and we
|
|
all listened to Miss Bayne while every wrinkle on the dearest baby in the
|
|
whole world was described in detail.
|
|
The baby--Richard--is as well known in the films as his illustrious
|
|
parents, and Bushman explained that any infant will hold tight to one's
|
|
finger and permit himself to be lifted a few days after birth. It's the
|
|
natural instinct of self-preservation, he explained. The child is trained to
|
|
stiffen his knees and stand on his father's hands upright.
|
|
"I do not know Mr. Taylor," said Mr. Bushman, referring to the latest
|
|
tragedy in movieland. "You see we have filmed all of our pictures in the
|
|
East and our acquaintance with Hollywood personages is limited. One thing I
|
|
would like to say, though, it seems to me that the press of the country is
|
|
doing its best to blacken one of the greatest industries in America. Why
|
|
should we brand the industry with calumny because one or two, or even 20,
|
|
connected with it prove to be worthless? You do not throw all your good
|
|
money away when you find a stray bad dollar in your pockets do you? The mass
|
|
of people connected with the moving picture industry are serious, hard-
|
|
working and clean, self-respecting men and women. Surely they should not be
|
|
dipped in the scandal pot because of a few whose morals are questionable?"
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Mary Carr in Buffalo
|
|
|
|
March 1, 1922
|
|
BUFFALO EXPRESS
|
|
Less curiosity concerning the brand of breakfast food used by the film
|
|
stars, and more interest in the work they are doing to entertain the public,
|
|
was urged by Mrs. Mary Carr, star of Over the Hill, who spoke at both
|
|
performances yesterday at the Lafayette Square theater, at the meeting of the
|
|
Western New York Theater Owner's association and also at several private club
|
|
meetings.
|
|
"An abnormal interest in the very personal life of the players on the
|
|
screen has developed through the activities of the various fan magazines,"
|
|
said Mrs. Carr. "This interest shows a tendency in some localities of being
|
|
carried to such excess that personal gossip can work great harm to screen
|
|
reputations.
|
|
"Because of our close connection with the public it is natural that we
|
|
should be subjected to the publicity limelight. The members of the various
|
|
film colonies are normal hard-working people. I cannot believe otherwise of
|
|
anyone who has to report at the studio at 7 or 8 o'clock in the morning and
|
|
put in ten or more hours before the camera. Those who have all their leisure
|
|
for personal pleasure are by-products of the industry and not of the workers.
|
|
"The theatrical profession in its capacity for doing good while it
|
|
entertains is on a plane with the schools and the pulpit. I personally
|
|
started out to become a teacher and still retain my diploma from the
|
|
Philadelphia Normal school. But I entered dramatic work instead. I should
|
|
like to see each of my six children who have already had some stage
|
|
experience choose this profession and become good actors and actresses."
|
|
Mrs. Carr will be present at the assembly this morning of the Masten
|
|
Park high school. She will leave Buffalo tonight for the William Fox studios
|
|
in New York to resume work on another picture in which she also plays the
|
|
role of a mother.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Lew Cody in Cleveland
|
|
|
|
March 1, 1922
|
|
CLEVELAND PRESS
|
|
Lew Cody concentrated his efforts in the movies in creating the
|
|
impression that he was a pretty boy.
|
|
His profile was his chief asset in that direction, so he saw to it that
|
|
most of the close-ups showed him in profile.
|
|
He carried his cigarettes in a delicate silver case. He smoked them in
|
|
a delicate ivory holder. And he carefully flicked the ashes into an ash tray
|
|
in a most delicate manner.
|
|
In addition large and costly pages in the movie magazines were employed
|
|
to herald him as the "butterfly man" and the "champion he-vamp."
|
|
And, after Cody had got that impression across, he found that it really
|
|
didn't amount to so much in the popular estimation to be known as the
|
|
screen's pretty boy.
|
|
Worse than that, happenings around Hollywood knocked the bottom out of
|
|
the he-vamp market until quotations on them fell below those for German marks
|
|
or Russian rubles.
|
|
So now Cody has the job on his hands of building up a new impression of
|
|
himself in the public mind.
|
|
Cody, in Cleveland this week, carries his cigarettes in the case the
|
|
come in, smokes them without the holder, and doesn't mind if the ashes fall
|
|
on his vest now and then.
|
|
He wants to be known now as a he-man instead of a he-vamp.
|
|
"Don't say he-vamp to me," Cody says now. "The words are like a red
|
|
flag to me."
|
|
Cody from now on, one assumes, will concentrate on full face close-ups
|
|
instead of profile.
|
|
Viewed that way Cody could pass for most anything except the gay Don
|
|
Juans he has been impersonating in the movies.
|
|
One remark of Cody's raises an interesting point. He says he is making
|
|
his present tour of the country "to let people see what he's really like."
|
|
One wonders if Cody knows what he's really like himself.
|
|
Probably he doesn't.
|
|
It has been commented concerning most actors in general that no matter
|
|
how poorly they act upon the screen, they're all very good actors off the
|
|
screen.
|
|
And acting to create first this impression and then that impression,
|
|
they probably lose track of what they're really like.
|
|
Cody likes music. He tells you that he is a great lover of music.
|
|
But one doubts if he spends evenings betaking himself to the symphony
|
|
concert and the opera.
|
|
Cody likes jazz music. He says he has a portable graphophone which he
|
|
takes about the country with him.
|
|
The other afternoon he stopped in a Cleveland store for a half dozen
|
|
records.
|
|
He bought all jazz band records with one exception. That was a medley
|
|
of old-fashioned tunes, "Sidewalks of New York," "The Bowery," etc.
|
|
Cody, in fact, is a connoisseur of jazz records. He listens to a record
|
|
with his head cocked on one side. "Nothing distinctive about that record,"
|
|
he'll say. "Let's hear another one."
|
|
Like other members of the movie profession who have recently visited
|
|
Cleveland, Cody rallies to the defense of Hollywood.
|
|
He's willing to admit that the movie profession has its black sheep.
|
|
But, says Lew Cody--
|
|
"We've fewer black sheep than many other professions."
|
|
Cody was born in Waterville, Me.
|
|
He attended McGill University, played baseball, hockey and lacrosse,
|
|
became a member of the college dramatic club, liked it, and decided to become
|
|
an actor.
|
|
"So I joined a troupe that played at Asheville, N.C.," he tells.
|
|
"We were stranded there and had to walk 35 miles to the next town. So
|
|
you see I had a regular start in the profession.
|
|
"Finally my father rescued me and sent me enough money to get to New
|
|
York.
|
|
"I played small parts there, then went into stock, eventually becoming a
|
|
star in stock.
|
|
"Next I became a stock producer and at one time owned five stock
|
|
companies.
|
|
"My next venture was with the Winter Garden show. When the show reached
|
|
Los Angeles, Thomas H. Ince offered me a job in the movies and I accepted it.
|
|
"I couldn't adopt myself to the ways of the movies and so flivvered and
|
|
was fired.
|
|
"But I wouldn't return to New York and admit I was a failure, so I took
|
|
a job in another company at half the salary, decided to work hard and
|
|
eventually made good."
|
|
At present Cody is the head of his own producing company.
|
|
Tall and slender, and aiming to be athletic looking. That's Cody. Dark
|
|
hair combed back smoothly. A small, carefully trimmed mustache. Brown eyes,
|
|
the sort sometimes called soulful.
|
|
Has a fondness for shirts with attached collars. Wears a light tan-
|
|
colored overcoat.
|
|
He says he can play both poker and bridge, but doesn't find much time
|
|
for either.
|
|
His favorite hobbies, he says, are hunting and fishing.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Viola Dana in Atlanta
|
|
|
|
February 6, 1922
|
|
ATLANTA JOURNAL
|
|
"I wish they wouldn't call them 'flappers,'" objected Miss Viola Dana,
|
|
Metro screen star, who had just confessed to an interviewer that the
|
|
"flapper," so-called, was her favorite type.
|
|
"The name is an injustice," she went on. "It sounds blatant, insincere.
|
|
The true flapper is neither. I like her, and I'm going to do all I can to
|
|
popularize her on the screen. She's a distinct modern type."
|
|
Miss Dana is here to appear in person at the Metropolitan theater
|
|
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and is living in a suite at the Ansley hotel.
|
|
Miss Dana has had good chances--and it must be said has improved them--
|
|
recently in "The Off-Shore Pirate" and "A Chorus Girls' Romance." In
|
|
addition to the flapper type she likes Scott Fitzgerald's writings.
|
|
"He writes as I should love to act."
|
|
Miss Dana added naively that she regarded Mr. Fitzgerald as "one of the
|
|
most imposing of the modern writers."
|
|
She said Harry Beaumont was her "favorite director," and that he had
|
|
steered her into light and comedy roles, following an amusing little turn she
|
|
had given a "heavy" role in one of the plays he was directing.
|
|
"Picture patrons seemed to like me so I have been doing comedy ever
|
|
since," she said. "However, I like emotional roles and hope to get back in
|
|
that line of work soon."
|
|
"Would you advise young girls to 'go in for the movies?'" she was asked.
|
|
"No. It's hard work and only a few reach stardom. The tax on your
|
|
nerves and strength is too great. After you get in, however, you wouldn't do
|
|
anything else."
|
|
Miss Dana laughed when told that Lew Cody was harassed by newspaper men
|
|
asking him if he was any relation to "Buffalo Bill" while in the city
|
|
recently.
|
|
"That's funny," she said. "And speaking of coincidences, I saw him at
|
|
the Terminal station Sunday morning when I arrived. He was on his way to
|
|
some point north, but stopped over a few hours to greet me upon my arrival
|
|
here."
|
|
Miss Dana is accompanied on her tour by her mother, Emily Flugrath, and
|
|
Howard Strickland, her publicity director.
|
|
Her mother has the unique distinction of having three daughters starring
|
|
simultaneously in motion pictures. Besides Miss Dana, Shirley Mason and Edna
|
|
Flugrath, her daughters, have won their way to the galaxy of cinema stars.
|
|
Miss Dana received a cablegram Sunday from her sister, Edna, saying she
|
|
was on her way from London and would join her in New York. This will be the
|
|
first time the "family" has been together in five years, Miss Dana said.
|
|
Viola, as one knowing her only a short while is tempted to call her, is
|
|
twenty-three years old. She admits it. She makes no pretense of hiding that
|
|
fact, but rather glories in her youth. She has wavy brown hair bobbed after
|
|
the current fashion.
|
|
Her eyes, however, are her distinguishing feature. They change from
|
|
gray to gray-green in a bewildering manner. And in them lurks the spirit
|
|
which must have absorbed Milton when he wrote "L'Allegro."
|
|
They have the same spark which flashes from the screen. They tell of
|
|
amazing cheerfulness and an abundance of energy.
|
|
Miss Dana has recently signed a new contract with Metro which calls for
|
|
seven pictures a year. She will continue her tour until the first of March
|
|
and then return to the coast to begin work.
|
|
Touching on the recent murder of William Desmond Taylor, a moving
|
|
picture director in Hollywood, Miss Dana was unwilling to comment at length.
|
|
"I merely had a speaking acquaintance with him," she said. "Too much
|
|
has been said to the detriment of those engaged in the picture industry. But
|
|
my firm conviction is that the film people are as good and wholesome as any
|
|
other people.
|
|
"The unfortunate Arbuckle incident and the Taylor murder have cast a
|
|
shadow over Hollywood. But in the end you will find the film people
|
|
vindicated. They are doing a helpful work and a work in which they are
|
|
vitally interested."
|
|
Miss Dana has been on tour from Hollywood since early in December and
|
|
had arrived in Atlanta at 10 o'clock Sunday from Birmingham.
|
|
She is under the care of Willard Patterson, manager of the Metropolitan
|
|
theater, during her stay here and a number of attractive dinners and parties
|
|
have been planned in her honor.
|
|
She will leave Atlanta late Wednesday night for Nashville. She then
|
|
will go to Baltimore and end her tour in New York.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Miss DuPont in Chicago
|
|
|
|
February 14, 1922
|
|
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
|
|
"I have just come from New York--Hollywood isn't in it for fun," said
|
|
Miss DuPont, appearing in person and on the screen in "Foolish Wives" at the
|
|
Roosevelt theater yesterday. "They say there are a lot of bad people in
|
|
Hollywood. I have lived in Los Angeles for the last eight years and I never
|
|
saw any of them.
|
|
"But I have just returned from New York and there is where they have the
|
|
good times. Old Broadway is the smartest place I know. If we tried to do
|
|
the things in the movies that they do in the theaters the censors would raise
|
|
a terrible cry. No movie woman was ever as undressed as some of the girls on
|
|
the New York stage.
|
|
"Then the parties, the nice quiet little affairs of lil' ol' New York--
|
|
why Hollywood would gasp and bury its head."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Elsie Ferguson in Cleveland
|
|
|
|
February 15, 1922
|
|
NEW YORK AMERICAN
|
|
Cleveland, Feb. 14--Miss Elsie Ferguson, noted equally in the films and
|
|
on the speaking stage, whose name has been mentioned among the friends of
|
|
William Desmond Taylor, said today:
|
|
"William Desmond Taylor directed me in "Sacred and Profane Love," the
|
|
only picture I made in Hollywood.
|
|
"Mr. Taylor was a quiet mannered man, evidently a gentleman, but I had
|
|
no acquaintance with him out of the studio. He spoke seldom and never on
|
|
anything other than that pertaining to the work at hand. He never stood
|
|
about chatting with the cast.
|
|
"Motion pictures must get away from the sex stuff. The more respect the
|
|
public feels for the motion picture actors, the more responsibility they will
|
|
assume.
|
|
"I know no greater opportunity for the demonstration of the doctrine
|
|
that influence is responsibility, than in the motion picture industry, which
|
|
is capable of almost endless service to the world. I should be glad to see
|
|
the public weaned from the rather stupid sex plays."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Pauline Frederick in Seattle
|
|
|
|
February 14, 1922
|
|
SEATTLE UNION-RECORD
|
|
Devotees of the cinema have it straight from Pauline Frederick that all
|
|
this fuss about the morals of Hollywood is baseless. The famous screen star,
|
|
with her husband, Dr. Chas. A. Rutherford, and her mother, Mrs. L.
|
|
Fredericks, arrived Tuesday from the Los Angeles suburb.
|
|
With the smile that has captivated millions, the vivacious film queen
|
|
asserted that it is unfair to stigmatize the profession because of one or two
|
|
unfortunate circumstances. "I never read the newspapers," she said, "and
|
|
know nothing about this Taylor murder or the Arbuckle case. I never allow
|
|
them to be discussed in my home. But I do know that I have never seen any
|
|
more evidence of lax morals in Hollywood's movie colony than anywhere else."
|
|
"You don't mean to say you never read the papers and hear all the good
|
|
things they say about you and your work?" she was asked.
|
|
"Oh, that stuff is all clipped and laid before me," she answered, "and
|
|
of course I do appreciate the nice things, but sometimes I see a real bad
|
|
one, and that disheartens me for, oh such a long, long time. I wish the
|
|
public could follow us around Hollywood for awhile," she added earnestly,
|
|
"and they would never be misled by this unwarranted publicity."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Hoot Gibson in Portland
|
|
|
|
February 12, 1922
|
|
OREGONIAN
|
|
Hollywood is a quiet, law-abiding suburban community, inhabited by
|
|
respectable citizens. Movieland, so far as the morals of film celebrities
|
|
are concerned, is not the wild oasis of dissipation pictured on the screen of
|
|
public opinion these days.
|
|
This was the emphatic assertion of Edward ("Hoot") Gibson, world
|
|
champion cowboy, screen star and daredevil, and a true Oregonian by
|
|
preference, on his arrival in Portland Saturday morning for a series of
|
|
personal appearances at the Liberty theater.
|
|
"The reports and gossip of orgies and high life among the moving picture
|
|
stars are exaggerated a hundredfold, or are simply false stories based on
|
|
unauthentic rumor," said Gibson.
|
|
"I have lived in the center of Hollywood for four years and the big
|
|
stars in the pictures are friends I have known intimately. I can truthfully
|
|
say that I know of only one star who was a drug addict. The star was a girl
|
|
who was forced out of the film game because of her use of drugs.
|
|
"The tales of elaborate 'dope' parties in the studios and homes of the
|
|
stars are not true, so far as I know. Drugs are peddled in the studios, of
|
|
course, just as they are in any town or city, including Portland. Dope
|
|
peddlers gain access to the studios by securing jobs as 'extras' in mob
|
|
scenes, and sometimes sell their horrible wares to other 'extras,' workers or
|
|
hangers-on.
|
|
"A man or woman who becomes a prominent figure in the motion picture
|
|
world cannot make good against the handicaps of drugs, liquor or other forms
|
|
of excess.
|
|
"To prove my belief in the moral goodness of screen players, I would be
|
|
willing to take anyone into the home of any of the stars I know and let the
|
|
visitor see the life of stars of the screen. My personal record is clean and
|
|
I have nothing to fear from any just investigation. I can say the same for
|
|
other picture people. Some of the male stars take a drink once in a while,
|
|
but not enough to hurt them. Often a star gets a bad reputation unjustly
|
|
through the boasting gossip of some outsider who partakes of the star's
|
|
hospitality, and then tells how he 'got soused to the gills in a big party
|
|
with So-and-So, the famous film hero.'
|
|
"Nine-tenths of the persons who appear in news stories of a sensational
|
|
nature are men and women never heard of in the profession. They are 'extras'
|
|
with a few days or months experience, or no connection at all with pictures.
|
|
When caught in a jam, they call themselves movie actors or actresses.
|
|
"Nearly all the stars are married and live quietly with their families.
|
|
The lives of such stars as Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin,
|
|
Lila Lee and dozens of others I can name are absolutely clean."
|
|
Gibson declared that the Taylor murder and subsequent publicity will
|
|
eventually cost the film industry millions of dollars. He charged the police
|
|
of Los Angeles with "four-flushing" and "keystone cop antics."
|
|
"The real murderer has fooled them and to make a showing they are
|
|
dragging in the names of famous stars to divert public attention," he said.
|
|
"Mabel Normand and Mary Miles Minter are absolutely innocent of any
|
|
wrongdoing in connection with Taylor's murder.
|
|
"My personal theory is that Sands, the butler, is at the bottom of the
|
|
tragedy, although the man who planned it might not have done the killing."
|
|
Referring to the trial of Roscoe ("Fatty") Arbuckle, Mr. Gibson
|
|
expressed the firm belief that the plump comedian was innocent.
|
|
"It isn't like Roscoe to do anything like that," he said. "Everybody in
|
|
the picture profession knew of the fits that occasionally seized Miss Rappe."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Hazel Howell in New Orleans
|
|
|
|
"Los Angeles picture players are not as bad as the press is painting
|
|
them. They entertain gorgeously, but they don't go in for orgies. In two
|
|
years of work and parties, I never heard of any of them taking dope."
|
|
And the beautiful Hazel Howell, who starred with Charles Ray in "45
|
|
Minutes from Broadway," with Bryant Washburn in "Full House," in "Old Dad"
|
|
with Mildred Harris and featured by Carter de Haven as "Mary, Poor Girl" and
|
|
"My Lady Friends,"--well, Hazel ought to knew. Because when this young
|
|
California beauty, appearing with New Norworth at the Palace, led the
|
|
procession of June brides at the fashionable St. John's Church, there were at
|
|
the wedding--the Douglas Fairbanks, Lottie Pickford, Louise Glaum, Charlie
|
|
Chaplin, Mildred Davis, Hoot Gibson, Doris May, Allen Brooks, Wally Reid--but
|
|
why go on. They were all there, a congregation representing millions of
|
|
dollars "movie" income and world wide success.
|
|
"Late hours mean lines under the eyes. That won't do in pictures. And
|
|
how could people take dope, who have to be made up and ready to work by 8:30
|
|
in the morning?" asks Miss Howell. "Actors like the Pickfords rarely go out.
|
|
Of course salaries are enormous. Just an extra will get $175 a week. Mary
|
|
Miles Minter gets $4,000 a week. They have wonderful homes. There are
|
|
fortunes in the cellars of most. Also it is true that many have jumped from
|
|
poverty to millionaire incomes, but they have to sit steady in the boat and
|
|
take it out in having servants and cars.
|
|
"Los Angeles is stormed by thousands who want to be in pictures. They
|
|
think that all they have to do is to get an interview and an engagement.
|
|
They get to the office early with a bright line of conversation. And this is
|
|
how it's done. There's a little window like the wicket in a convent gate.
|
|
Through this the Director's assistant sticks his head for a moment. His eyes
|
|
glance over the crowds. He chooses by clothes and types that may be needed.
|
|
I know this. My people are well off. I went to the trial. I bought $3,000
|
|
worth of clothes. I wore a black satin suit, crimson hat and a wonderful
|
|
sable. I landed a bit at $175 a week. Then almost immediately I was chosen
|
|
for Flannagan and Edward in 'The Hall Room Boys.' Next Lois Weber's husband
|
|
looking for a star, saw my clothes and rushed me by the arm into his wife
|
|
with 'Look at this profile.' My advice to girls who will die if they don't
|
|
go to Los Angeles is to get clothes first, they speak personality."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Lillian Gish in Buffalo
|
|
|
|
March 6, 1922
|
|
BUFFALO NEWS
|
|
Lillian and Dorothy Gish, motion picture stars, played new roles in
|
|
Buffalo this morning. Here to appear in connection with the showing of their
|
|
latest picture, "Orphans of the Storm," they were for a few minutes "orphans
|
|
of the station."
|
|
Arriving in Buffalo at 10 o'clock the Gish sisters unexpectedly came
|
|
into the New York Central station on a Boston train, their sleeper having
|
|
been placed in this train instead of in that coming from New York. While a
|
|
large official welcoming committee searched sleepers of the New York train,
|
|
on a track in the train sheds, the sisters left their car and were wandering
|
|
about on the platform of the station.
|
|
So it happened that a NEWS reporter was the first and for several
|
|
minutes the only person to greet the stars of the silver screen.
|
|
"We've lost our companion, she must have been put in another train,"
|
|
Miss Lillian confided when she was told by the reporter that the official
|
|
welcoming delegation would be along presently. "It's no fun being all alone
|
|
when you have had so little experience traveling by yourself," she said.
|
|
A few minutes later the belated welcoming party, accompanied by
|
|
photographers, reporters and numerous society editors who forsook their desks
|
|
to grace the occasion with their presence, arrived and cameras began to
|
|
click. Introduction were in order and finally police officers had to aid in
|
|
making way through the throng which had assembled.
|
|
There was much comment, practically 100 per cent complimentary, as the
|
|
girls entered waiting taxis and were driven to the Lafayette hotel. Here
|
|
they submitted to an intensive interview before eating their first food of
|
|
the day. From the moment of their arrival at the hotel it became apparent
|
|
that Miss Lillian is the commander of the Gish army.
|
|
"Now Dotsie," she said, addressing Miss Dorothy, "I'm going to order for
|
|
you.
|
|
"You know," she confided to the newspaper folk assembled, "Dorothy gets
|
|
terribly nervous at times like this and I just have to look after her."
|
|
And so there were two orders of orange juice, poached eggs and coffee,
|
|
while Miss Dorothy regretfully read from the menu: "Broiled chicken, sausage
|
|
and griddle cakes, and veal cutlets."
|
|
The breakfast ordered, Miss Lillian announced herself ready for an
|
|
interview. It was carried on in a manner quite unique for a screen favorite,
|
|
with the star doing most of the talking and discussing world topics in a
|
|
manner revealing an unusual knowledge and understanding of things quite
|
|
outside the film world.
|
|
"This is my first visit to Buffalo in many years, so many I won't tell
|
|
the actual number," related Miss Lillian as Dorothy curled herself up in a
|
|
big arm chair nearby.
|
|
"We used to come here with our mother in some of those terrible
|
|
melodramas, the ten, twenty, thirty variety. That was when I was six years
|
|
old and Dorothy was four.
|
|
"In 1914 [sic] I did my first work before the camera. I had vastly
|
|
different conception of pathos that one must beat one's breast, tear one's
|
|
hair and do all that sort of thing. I realized that idea, I am ashamed to
|
|
say, until I went to England just before playing in 'Hearts of the World.'
|
|
"While in Whitechapel we were in the midst of an air raid. A Zeppelin
|
|
dropped a bomb on a kindergarten and 96 children were killed. We arrived at
|
|
the scene while frantic mothers were searching the ruins for their kiddies.
|
|
Terrible as was the scene I forced myself to study the actions of those
|
|
laboring under this terrific strain and right then and there I changed my
|
|
ideas of how to present emotion.
|
|
"Later I was able to study hundreds of persons in England and France as
|
|
they met the motions which war forced upon them, and while I feel that added
|
|
six months to my life in that time, it was an experience well worth the
|
|
ordeal, and I hope the little service rendered in this picture was not in
|
|
vain."
|
|
Miss Lillian then turned to a most intelligent discussion of world
|
|
statesmanship, of which she apparently has a knowledge that is equaled by few
|
|
men.
|
|
"I think the outstanding figure of the disarmament conference was Mr.
|
|
Balfour of the British delegation," she said. "In a quiet, inostentatious
|
|
manner" (these are the very words of film star) "he got what he came after
|
|
and then went home. The British are a people to admire and to respect, and,
|
|
moreover, when you really know them, to love."
|
|
Censorship was a topic on which Miss Gish declined to comment.
|
|
"Please don't make me talk about censorship," she said. "I am paid to
|
|
act, not to think. And while we speak of pay don't forget that salaries are
|
|
greatly exaggerated by press agents. I wish what you read in the papers
|
|
about salaries were true. But unfortunately it isn't."
|
|
Hollywood is another topic that hasn't any particular interest to her,
|
|
Miss Lillian declared.
|
|
"Of course there are bad men and women in the film industry," she
|
|
asserted. "Why, even the weather is bad now and then. There are bad men and
|
|
women in every walk of life. But I do think the press does wrong when it
|
|
overplays the scandals and crimes of picture people.
|
|
"You can't fool the camera," Miss Lillian asserted as she defended her
|
|
fellow players in the silent drama.
|
|
"If you stay out late at night, it shows in your work the next day.
|
|
Early to bed and early to rise is a motto that must be followed to be
|
|
successful in film playing."
|
|
In real life Miss Dorothy is Mrs. James Rennie. Her husband played the
|
|
lead in "Spanish Love," and is now working on a new Broadway production.
|
|
Lillian is unmarried, and asserts she has no immediate matrimonial
|
|
intentions.
|
|
While in Buffalo, the girls will accept no luncheon or other social
|
|
engagements, this being their rule at all times. They will visit the city
|
|
parks this afternoon and tomorrow hope to see Niagara Falls, leaving in the
|
|
early morning.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Mildred Harris in Hartford
|
|
|
|
February 14, 1922
|
|
HARTFORD COURANT
|
|
"Of course Mabel Normand and Mary Miles Minter loved William Taylor,"
|
|
said Mildred Harris, former wife of Charlie Chaplin, when interviewed
|
|
yesterday afternoon in her dressing room at the Capitol Theater. "Why
|
|
shouldn't they? Everyone loved him. Why, he was the best loved director in
|
|
Hollywood, and all the girls who worked for him went to him with their
|
|
troubles, their hopes, their ambitions and he helped them and treated them as
|
|
a father, or a brother would treat them. Mary Miles Minter is in love with a
|
|
chap nearer her own age, or was when I left the coast, and Mabel Normand
|
|
might one day have become Mrs. Taylor. How can they say all those things
|
|
about Mabel and Mary? I know them both well, and Mabel is one of the nicest
|
|
girls in the film colony. She studies very hard, and Mr. Taylor used to help
|
|
her with her work and her lessons. She is far too busy to be doing any of
|
|
the things they say she did. Those letters they speak of finding in Mr.
|
|
Taylor's rooms are probably just letters of thanks for some kindness he had
|
|
done for the girls. He was the kindest director I have ever known."
|
|
Mrs. Harris, mother of the diminutive star, also said that Mr. Taylor
|
|
was a kind man whom all the movie colony loved.
|
|
"Why don't they hold up the Gish sisters or Norma Talmadge as an example
|
|
of the moving picture actress?" asked Miss Harris, with a scornful curl of
|
|
her lip. "The public is satiated with the idea that all the movie people
|
|
live the way those who participated in the Arbuckle case are said to have
|
|
lived. I have met Mr. Arbuckle but did not know him well, never having
|
|
worked in the same studio with him. But I have known the Gish girls for a
|
|
long time and, certainly, they are sweet nice girls who are a credit to any
|
|
profession. I think one can find good and bad everywhere, and I am almost
|
|
afraid to admit my profession when I think that all the bad that has been
|
|
told about the pictures and none of the good. The Taylor case seems to me to
|
|
be even worse than the Arbuckle case. All those girls being brought into
|
|
it--why it's going to wreck their lives. The public will never like them as
|
|
well, and they have done nothing to be treated so. I feel so sorry for
|
|
Mabel. She's a frail girl, has never been very strong, and this has made her
|
|
ill. She will never recover from it. She has not only lost Mr. Taylor,
|
|
whose friendship she cherished, but she is losing her public as well. That's
|
|
the awful part of it."
|
|
Asked about Mr. Chaplin, Miss Harris said she had never been quoted
|
|
correctly about him. She said that she thought very well of Mr. Chaplin and
|
|
that he was a good man, "but too temperamental to be married. He wants a
|
|
change all the time. He is never satisfied or contented for long, and I
|
|
could not stand that. But I like him and respect him. I just felt that I
|
|
was too young to waste my life trying to understand why he wanted so many
|
|
different things and becoming accustomed to living that way."
|
|
She is a small, blonde, girlish person, who looks quite as young as the
|
|
press agents and her mother say she is. The movies have led some people to
|
|
believe that she is older, for she has had to take parts as a married woman,
|
|
but, looking at her yesterday, as she beaded her lashes preparatory to her
|
|
appearance, one knew that she really is "just 20."
|
|
"I left the pictures because I want to do big things, and because I felt
|
|
that the pictures were being hurt by all the scandal being published about
|
|
certain moving picture actors," she said. "I think it's just dreadful, and I
|
|
do wish someone would have the courage to write the truth about Hollywood--
|
|
after all, it's just a workshop, a place where a big industry is flourishing,
|
|
and there's no reason why it should be spoken of as it is."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Louise Lovely in Sacramento
|
|
|
|
February 24, 1922
|
|
SACRAMENTO UNION
|
|
Louise Lovely.
|
|
The surname describes her. There is hardly any need for the given name.
|
|
For she is certainly aptly described by "Lovely."
|
|
This outburst refers to Louise Lovely, who is appearing in person at
|
|
Godard's theater with her husband, William Welch, in a skit called "A Day in
|
|
the Studio."
|
|
Also in connection with Miss Lovely's appearance, the picture entitled
|
|
"Life's Greatest Question," is being shown with Roy Stewart playing opposite
|
|
the star.
|
|
It is a picture of the far north, the kind in which Miss Lovely has made
|
|
her greatest successes, she having played the lead for William Farnum under
|
|
the direction of William Fox in seven outdoor feature pictures, which it took
|
|
more than two years to film.
|
|
Although she is suffering intensely with a severe cold, Miss Lovely
|
|
shows by her determination to appear on the boards as booked, how much hard
|
|
work the leading woman of the stage must endure to achieve fame and retain
|
|
it.
|
|
Asked what advice she would give to girls who are ambitious to appear in
|
|
the movies, Miss Lovely said:
|
|
"If the right opportunity comes and the girl knows she has the talent to
|
|
make a success as well as the determination to work hard, I see no reason why
|
|
she should not take advantage of the chance. But I have worked 18 hours a
|
|
day for months producing a feature film, and I want to say to the girl that
|
|
wishes to go into the moving picture profession, 'Be sure you are willing to
|
|
work, work, work, everlastingly work and then work some more to gain
|
|
success'."
|
|
In that connection Miss Lovely declared she would not advise girls to
|
|
give up whatever they may be doing and go to Los Angeles with the idea of
|
|
going into the profession.
|
|
"Let the girl urge the home folk to produce pictures at home so that she
|
|
may know she will be protected," Miss Lovely added. "And let me say right
|
|
here, that you folks of Sacramento are overlooking splendid opportunities to
|
|
produce motion pictures here.
|
|
"Your Sacramento and American rivers are wonderfully adapted for screen
|
|
dramas. In addition to being new, the sights offered are especially good for
|
|
the work. Whenever we wished to get a river scene we always came to
|
|
Sacramento."
|
|
Miss Lovely pointed out that the close proximity of the mountains and
|
|
the historical spots within easy distances of this city make for economical
|
|
conditions.
|
|
"It is not necessary to pay hundreds of dollars in car fares to move the
|
|
company when you want mountain scenery in connection with other screen
|
|
possibilities in Sacramento," she stated.
|
|
It was only natural that she would be asked about the Taylor murder
|
|
mystery. She promptly settled the inquiry.
|
|
"I do not know any of the persons mentioned in connection with the
|
|
case," said the star. "Miss Normand, Miss Minter and Taylor all worked for
|
|
different companies and I never had the opportunity of meeting them."
|
|
"What do you think of Hollywood?" she was asked.
|
|
"Hollywood is no different than any other community its size," she
|
|
replied. "It is only because motion picture workers are more or less in the
|
|
limelight that the mistakes of the few receive so much publicity. Take any
|
|
other profession or trade, and I'll venture to say you'll find there are far
|
|
more crimes committed by these classes, relatively, than by the moving
|
|
picture folk."
|
|
Miss Lovely is making a personally managed tour of the western cities
|
|
and after showing at Portland, Seattle, Vancouver and other cities of the
|
|
Pacific coast, she expects to go east with the sketch and picture she is
|
|
showing at Godard's theater.
|
|
Miss Lovely will appear at Godards' for two more days, appearing twice
|
|
daily.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
May McAvoy in New York
|
|
|
|
February 12, 1922
|
|
Gertrude Chase
|
|
NEW YORK TELEGRAPH
|
|
It rather lends interest to an interview to be obliged to pick your
|
|
victim in the corridor of a crowded hotel like the Biltmore. Having felt
|
|
that an interview with May McAvoy was strictly due before her vacation
|
|
terminated, we arrived a little ahead of the appointed time and waited to
|
|
find the face so familiar to us on the screen.
|
|
A blue-eyes sub-deb paused uncertainly and sat on our divan, profile
|
|
view, there was a resemblance.
|
|
"Are you Miss McAvoy?" we inquired.
|
|
The girl beamed; "no," said she, "but thanks for the compliment.
|
|
I think she is just the sweetest thing, and if you expect her I shan't move
|
|
till she comes and I get a good look at her."
|
|
Shortly after we spotted a tiny person in a big fur coat and after
|
|
making a careful close-up found that we were correct.
|
|
The orchestra struck up Chopin's Military Polonaise" and the small
|
|
person indicated that she did not like music with her interviews, so we
|
|
betook ourselves to the quiet grill, much to the disappointment of the sub-
|
|
deb.
|
|
There we decided that May McAvoy might be Julia Sanderson's little
|
|
sister and were told that every one else had said the same thing.
|
|
There is no use asking a New York girl how she likes her home town and
|
|
we knew from the Motion Picture Directory that May McAvoy was born here; we
|
|
knew the date, too, and it was ridiculously short time ago. We also knew
|
|
that she is four feet eleven inches in height and weighs ninety-four pounds.
|
|
Then there is a long list of the pictures she has appeared in, although she
|
|
did not start in early childhood.
|
|
"I went to school with Genevieve and Vivan Tobin. We were all stage-
|
|
struck. After they went on the stage I decided to try pictures, and I was
|
|
lucky enough to get a part after I had been atmosphere in three. These small
|
|
parts were followed by a couple of more important ones and then I co-starred
|
|
for Mr. Blackton.
|
|
"With all the lovely parts I have had, Grizel is my favorite. Since
|
|
then I have played 'kids' and ingenues, but there was so much to Grizel.
|
|
Working with Mr. and Mrs. Robertson also made 'Sentimental Tommy' a picture
|
|
to remember."
|
|
We asked her if she would like to do "Peter Pan," to which she replied
|
|
that she thought Peter should be a boy, but that she would love to do Wendy.
|
|
This seemed to us a wise choice, for May McAvoy is one of the most
|
|
feminine little people we have ever met. There is something about her that
|
|
is intensely serious when she talks of her work, and it is astonishing to
|
|
learn that any one so fragile could stand the grind of making seven pictures
|
|
in ten months.
|
|
"One of the best directors I ever had was poor Mr. Taylor, who directed
|
|
me just a short time ago. I cannot understand this awful tragedy."
|
|
"You certainly must have needed this vacation," we ventured.
|
|
"Yes; it was nice to see New York again. Nothing is changed much.
|
|
I have been to the dentist, bought some clothes and danced a little, that is
|
|
all, but the time has flown and I shall be on my way back by next Sunday."
|
|
"And your next picture?"
|
|
"It may be 'Blood and Sand' with Bebe Daniels and Rodolph Valentino, in
|
|
which I shall be the simple Spanish wife.
|
|
"I love California, especially when one is working as hard as I have
|
|
this past year. Only about a week of rest between pictures, and then I get
|
|
in a little golf. Most of the clothes I have added in New York are sport
|
|
things. We don't go in for formal evening gowns much and the parts I get
|
|
seldom demand them, either. I am never grown up enough.
|
|
"Up in New Hampshire where I went for an exhibitors' convention, I had
|
|
my first sleigh ride. I also made my first speech, and it has settled my
|
|
mind forever upon the subject of personal appearances. I nearly died of
|
|
nerves. Never again.
|
|
"I would really rather go back to work than do anything I know of, and I
|
|
much prefer being in California."
|
|
On the whole May McAovy seems to be a girl who appreciates her blessing.
|
|
She has had wonderful success owing to the rare quality of her work on the
|
|
screen, and she likes it all.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Martha Mansfield in Cleveland
|
|
|
|
February 9, 1922
|
|
CLEVELAND PRESS
|
|
"Pink nighties and parties of a similar shade, too common in the Los
|
|
Angeles movie district, give reformers material for sermons and campaigns
|
|
that may lead the film industry to its doom," Martha Mansfield, a film
|
|
actress, said Thursday in Cleveland.
|
|
Miss Mansfield knows the inside of the movie business.
|
|
She played with Eugene O'Brien and supported John Barrymore in "Dr.
|
|
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." She knows Mabel Normand and Mary Miles Minter.
|
|
She believes a dope fiend, failing to get screen work from William
|
|
Desmond Taylor, killed the noted director.
|
|
"Find the man who has been hounding Taylor for a job for the past few
|
|
weeks and you'll have his slayer," says Miss Mansfield.
|
|
Miss Mansfield Thursday recalled seeing Mary Miles Minter during the
|
|
course of making a picture.
|
|
"She is just a baby," says Miss Mansfield. "Her mother never left her
|
|
long enough for her to get into any mischief.
|
|
"Mabel Normand is a happy go-lucky and carefree girl. Whenever I saw
|
|
her she seemed to be caring nothing about anything in particular. I do not
|
|
think she is at all affectionate."
|
|
Miss Mansfield appears at Keith's Theater this week. She starred in
|
|
several Cleveland-made pictures.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks in New York
|
|
|
|
February 16, 1922
|
|
NEW YORK WORLD
|
|
"This all right?" chirped a small voice from the top of a three-legged
|
|
stand where American Beauties grew a moment before. It was "Our Mary,"
|
|
holding a butterfly pose, arms raised and crossed, ankles stuck straight out
|
|
in front of her. Somewhere in the rear lurked Douglas, doing his best "Three
|
|
Musketeers" bow. They arrived yesterday morning from California for a four
|
|
days' visit.
|
|
The sitting room at the Ritz suddenly reassumed its twentieth century
|
|
atmosphere.
|
|
Said Mary: "Jazz! No, indeed. Douglas and I believe that husbands and
|
|
wives should dance only with each other. Of course, if I knew more about
|
|
jazz I might be more enthusiastic, but Douglas doesn't know how to fox trot.
|
|
He waltzes beautifully, though."
|
|
Mr. Fairbanks meanwhile was giving his views about New York and Europe
|
|
and Beverly Hills, where the Fairbanks-Pickford home is established, near,
|
|
but not in Hollywood.
|
|
"We don't know anything about Hollywood--never go there except to work,"
|
|
he said. "Europe--well, Europe's an impulse with me. I see a steamer down
|
|
here in the harbor and I hop aboard. But we're not going now. No, we have
|
|
to go home and work just as soon as Mary gets her law suit fixed. She's
|
|
being sued for 10 per cent of a contract she signed with Zukor in 1916, by
|
|
Mrs. Wilkenning, a play agent, and she won't give up--says it is a matter of
|
|
principle. Mrs. Wilkenning wants $130,000, and it's costing her about three
|
|
times that to keep her from getting it; but my wife, you see, is a very
|
|
determined person.
|
|
"Yes," chimed in Mary, "I've got a company all assembled out there for
|
|
my next picture. 'Tess of the Storm Country.' They've waited five weeks for
|
|
me now, at $10,000 a week. But courts are complex with me now. I love 'em."
|
|
Asked if William Deane-Taylor had ever directed her in pictures, Mary
|
|
just had time to give the names of three: "How Could You, Jean," "Joanna
|
|
Enlists" and "Capt. Kidd Jr.," before her husband cast a warning glance at
|
|
her. "I never knew he had a wife and daughter in New York--no, indeed," she
|
|
added. And that was all about that...
|
|
The name of the new Fairbanks picture, to be completed between now and
|
|
July 1, was not divulged. "It's a costume affair--even more romantic than
|
|
the 'Three Musketeers,' and just as much action. We think it is even
|
|
better," said Mary.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Marie Prevost in San Francisco
|
|
|
|
February 15, 1922
|
|
SAN FRANCISCO CALL
|
|
Now comes Marie Prevost, motion picture star, and lends her voice to the
|
|
chorus of protests against condemning Hollywood and all its works "because a
|
|
few movie people may misbehave themselves."
|
|
Miss Prevost arrived in San Francisco today from the southern storm
|
|
center of conflicting theories as to the Taylor murder case, of innuendoes of
|
|
scandal and of counter currents of virtuous protestation.
|
|
Miss Prevost is a San Francisco girl. This is her first visit home
|
|
since she achieved fame as a motion picture star. While here she will appear
|
|
in person in connection with the presentation of one of her films at a local
|
|
theater.
|
|
"It's all wrong," says Miss Prevost, "the way the public seems ready and
|
|
anxious to believe anything wicked about the motion picture players. And the
|
|
suggestions of scandal, of dope and riotous living are doing incalculable
|
|
damage to the industry.
|
|
"As a matter of fact the people at Hollywood are hard working and there
|
|
isn't much time for carousal. Why, we're all of us--stars and everybody else-
|
|
-'on set' at 8:30 in the morning and we work all day and every day and
|
|
frequently far into the night.
|
|
"Now anybody knows that one can't be around to parties at night, dancing
|
|
and drinking and staying up late, and then turn out for work at 8:30 every
|
|
morning.
|
|
"Dope? I've never seen any and I don't know any one in Hollywood who
|
|
uses it. That's all a fairy tale.
|
|
"Why, a dope fiend is the worst looking person in the world, and could
|
|
an actress possibly keep her looks and be a user of narcotics? Just think
|
|
how dissipation would show in her face in the close-ups on the screen!"
|
|
"Well, if the motion picture people don't go in for dope and drinking
|
|
and late parties, what do they do for diversion?" the interviewer asked.
|
|
"Well, I go to the movies all the time," was Miss Prevost's surprising
|
|
answer.
|
|
"I always like to study what the other actresses are doing.
|
|
"And there's another point. People have no idea how studious many of
|
|
the motion picture actresses are. Often when I've been to see Mabel Normand
|
|
I've found her surrounded by books. She studies all sorts of things.
|
|
"As for Mary Miles Minter I don't think I've ever seen her out without
|
|
her mother."
|
|
Miss Prevost said she was sorry she couldn't throw any light on the
|
|
Taylor murder mystery. She said she had known Taylor, like everybody else at
|
|
Hollywood, that he was a "nice man" and a great favorite with the players.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Herbert Rawlinson in San Francisco
|
|
|
|
February 10, 1922
|
|
SAN FRANCISCO CALL
|
|
William Desmond Taylor, murdered Los Angeles motion picture director,
|
|
was "a well bred gentleman and a man among men," according to Herbert
|
|
Rawlinson, motion picture star, who today is a guest at the Hotel St.
|
|
Francis.
|
|
Although Taylor was somewhat secretive, insofar as he did not discuss
|
|
his personal troubles with other men, there was nothing which indicated that
|
|
the slain director was a mystery man in any sense of the word, according to
|
|
Rawlinson.
|
|
"I first knew 'Bill' Taylor about seven or eight years ago when the old
|
|
Photo Players' Club was organized in Los Angeles," said Rawlinson.
|
|
"When in Los Angeles I live at the Athletic Club and Taylor made a habit
|
|
of dropping in at the club two or three times a week and having dinner with
|
|
some of the boys there. He frequently called me on the telephone, and it was
|
|
an almost weekly event for us to go out to the golf links and play eighteen
|
|
holes together.
|
|
"I could never speak too highly of 'Bill' Taylor. During my
|
|
acquaintanceship with him I never heard anyone utter a word against him.
|
|
Whenever Taylor's name was mentioned someone present invariably took occasion
|
|
to say, 'He's a real man through and through,' or some phrase to that effect.
|
|
"To me he was the personification of everything that a gentleman should
|
|
be. At all times he was a gentleman. Whether he was talking to a poor
|
|
little extra girl out on location or whether he was conversing with a leading
|
|
woman at a party, he was courteous and conducted himself in a manner that
|
|
would be a credit to any man. Electricians and stage hands and property men
|
|
all were treated with the same courtesy and respect as a manager or star.
|
|
"In this connection I am speaking from my recollection of my experience
|
|
during the four weeks that I worked under Taylor. At that time I was working
|
|
with Ethel Clayton, when we made 'Wealth.' Never in my motion picture career
|
|
have I more thoroughly enjoyed four weeks' work than those under Taylor.
|
|
"So far as his private or home life was concerned, I can say but little,
|
|
because he was not the type of man who discussed such matters.
|
|
"So far as I know, and I believe that I knew 'Bill' Taylor as well as
|
|
any other man in Los Angeles, he had no known enemies and did not fear
|
|
violence at the hands of any one.
|
|
"The death of William Desmond Taylor has taken from the motion picture
|
|
industry one of its best loved and highest type members. To know him was to
|
|
admire him and be his friend.
|
|
"He was a man among men."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Will Rogers in Cleveland
|
|
|
|
March 3, 1922
|
|
CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER
|
|
"Most of the stuff you read about the depravity of movie folks is plain
|
|
bunkum," Will Rogers, who is appearing at the Opera House this week, said in
|
|
a talk before the Exchange Club in Hotel Statler yesterday afternoon.
|
|
"You've seen a lot about Mabel Normand. Well, there isn't a woman in
|
|
Cleveland who does more for charities than Miss Normand. And 'Fatty'
|
|
Arbuckle--he always has impressed me as just a big, good natured boy.
|
|
"I have lived among the movie actors of Los Angeles for several years,
|
|
and I think they are decent, hard-working people."
|
|
This was the only serious note that the actor struck in his speech.
|
|
"All that I do at my home near Hollywood is point out the house where
|
|
Mary Pickford lives," Rogers said. "I've really come here for a rest. When
|
|
I die the folks there are going to erect a statue in my yard that will look
|
|
just like me--I'll be pointing, and on the statue will be: 'Mary Pickford
|
|
lives right up there.'
|
|
"I went into the movies as an inspiration for homely men. In a year Los
|
|
Angeles was filled with them trying to get movie jobs.
|
|
"My future ambitions? I'm going to be vice president. I've been
|
|
looking over the duties of that bird, and I think I can qualify. Mostly he's
|
|
used as a substitute for the president to make speeches at dinners. But the
|
|
government would have to buy a dress suit for me; if I went in a hired one I
|
|
might be mistaken for a congressman."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Ruth Roland in San Francisco
|
|
|
|
March 18, 1922
|
|
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
|
|
If anyone wants to make Ruth Roland downright mad--not merely annoyed,
|
|
but good old-fashioned mad--one way is to ask her if she doesn't "aspire" to
|
|
do feature pictures instead of serials.
|
|
Miss Roland, who is in San Francisco for a few days rest between
|
|
episodes of her coming picture, declares that the only aspiration she has is
|
|
to make better serials, and that she doesn't care if she never makes a
|
|
feature film. Serials, to Ruth Roland, are a good deal more than chaptered
|
|
thrills.
|
|
"People who think that making serials is just a matter of stringing
|
|
impossible adventures together and getting the greatest number of thrills
|
|
into thirteen reels, don't know what they are talking about," said Miss
|
|
Roland.
|
|
"That might have been true in the first days of the movies, but it isn't
|
|
so now. Every one of my pictures has a real theme and a real story. I try
|
|
as hard as I can to make them logical and plausible.
|
|
"And as for work--well, the star of a feature picture only has to please
|
|
his audience for five or six reels; but in a serial I not only have to please
|
|
my audience for twenty-six reels, but keep them coming back to the theater
|
|
every week for thirteen weeks. And believe me, that isn't easy.
|
|
"I suppose that I could make feature pictures if I wanted to, but I
|
|
don't want to. I'd rather have people think of me as Ruth Roland, the girl
|
|
who makes good serials, than merely as one of a hundred stars of feature
|
|
films.
|
|
"And we people of the serials have our troubles with the censor.
|
|
Somehow--probably because they think so many children come to see us--the
|
|
censors put on their strongest glasses when they look at a serial film.
|
|
Things that go over in feature pictures are slashed out of serials every day.
|
|
"I have to give that side of my work a great deal of care, and I am very
|
|
particular not to let anything the list bit out of the way get into my
|
|
pictures. Actually, I haven't used my gun for so long that I've almost
|
|
forgotten how to pull the trigger, and I think I'll kill my next villain by
|
|
hurling cream puffs at him."
|
|
Miss Roland is a vigorous champion of Hollywood in that film center's
|
|
stand against critics.
|
|
"I wish people who don't know what they're talking about would be kind
|
|
enough to keep still until they see for themselves," she declared. "The east
|
|
especially has the most extraordinary idea of Hollywood--a sort of village of
|
|
vice, with Los Angeles just a little town hanging on the edge. I have been
|
|
in pictures for ten years so I certainly should know something about the
|
|
people who make them, and I don't know a finer, busier, generally better
|
|
class of people anywhere than the film folk of Hollywood."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Gladys Walton in Seattle
|
|
|
|
February 10, 1922
|
|
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
|
|
Gladys Walton, film star of Universal City, is no believer in the saying
|
|
of Gaby Deslys that "it doesn't matter what they say about you so long as
|
|
they say it."
|
|
"It is an outrage that my name should have been connected with William
|
|
Desmond Taylor and the tragedy that ended his life." The petite little star
|
|
made this very plain by her indignant attitude when questioned in her rooms
|
|
at the Hotel Washington yesterday afternoon.
|
|
She said:
|
|
"I do not know anyone connected with the scandal, and think it wrong
|
|
wherever I go to be questioned regarding it. In San Francisco the papers
|
|
came out with my name on the front page in connection with it.
|
|
"It seems such a shame that these terrible tragedies which have so
|
|
lately occurred in the moving picture colony should so blacken the reputation
|
|
of the whole industry.
|
|
"Why, I have been asked repeatedly if I knew William Desmond Taylor or
|
|
anyone connected with that awful crime. I have long been an ardent admirer
|
|
of pretty little Mary Miles Minter, though I do not know her personally, and
|
|
feel that it is impossible that she will be connected in any way with any
|
|
knowledge of the perpetrators of the murder. She is such a dear, attractive
|
|
little actress.
|
|
"Down in Hollywood I hardly know any of the other stars outside of my
|
|
own studio, although I have been starred for two years now. I am so busy
|
|
with my work that I really don't have the time and besides I don't care
|
|
anything about the big doings. People seem to have the idea that all the
|
|
actors and actresses of the moving picture colony do is give and attend large
|
|
and disgraceful parties which border on orgies. This is not true. The
|
|
moving picture people work and worked hard a great part of the time."
|
|
Miss Walton is a petite and very attractive young actress. Her large
|
|
brown eyes, set in a pretty face with a most beautiful complexion, are
|
|
becomingly framed by long brown curls. The whole effect one gets from Miss
|
|
Walton is that of dainty youthfulness. She continued:
|
|
"I have been starred for two years. The first picture I ever made was a
|
|
star part for me, which was quite an honor, and I have been starred ever
|
|
since. But I feel I have much still to learn before I become the great
|
|
actress that I aspire to be.
|
|
Miss Walton has never been on the legitimate stage. She started her
|
|
histrionic career before the camera when she was sixteen years old. A film
|
|
in which she is featured is now being shown at the Columbia Theatre, where
|
|
she will appear in person, beginning Sunday.
|
|
Miss Walton will also be present at the exhibit of Pacific Northwest
|
|
Products, now in progress at the Bon Marche. Tomorrow afternoon in a window
|
|
of the Bon Marche she will display aprons made in Seattle, and on next
|
|
Wednesday and Thursday afternoons Miss Walton will appear as a model in the
|
|
fashion show.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Claire Windsor in San Francisco
|
|
|
|
March 3, 1922
|
|
Charles R. Felweiler
|
|
SAN FRANCISCO BULLETIN
|
|
Indignant because of the wide-spread publicity given her name in
|
|
connection with the mysterious murder of William D. Taylor in Los Angeles,
|
|
Claire Windsor, statuesque blonde motion picture actress, today denied
|
|
anything more than a passing acquaintanceship with the slain director.
|
|
Miss Windsor arrived in San Francisco today from Hollywood, and in an
|
|
interview immediately after her arrival threw some interesting sidelights on
|
|
her own connection with the Taylor case and the situation in the Hollywood
|
|
film colony.
|
|
"Mr. Taylor was really nothing more than an acquaintance," she said,
|
|
"and it was only through a misunderstanding on my mother's part that my name
|
|
was mentioned in the case at all.
|
|
"It was said after the murder that I had been out driving with Mr.
|
|
Taylor on the day he was murdered, and didn't get home that night. As a
|
|
matter of fact, I hadn't seen Mr. Taylor for a week, and both the night
|
|
before the murder and the night the crime was committed I worked practically
|
|
all night at the studio and slept there because it was too late to go home.
|
|
"My mother, however, was confused when she was bombarded with questions,
|
|
and did not give out facts that would have cleared things up immediately."
|
|
In the belief of Miss Windsor, which, she says, echoes the opinions of
|
|
many of the motion picture element, the Taylor case will go down as another
|
|
Elwell mystery. The general impression is, she says, that the director was
|
|
slain by his former valet, Sands.
|
|
"That is the only solution I can offer," said Miss Windsor.
|
|
"The belief seems to exist that some members of the motion picture
|
|
colony know more than they will tell and are trying to shield someone.
|
|
Personally, I cannot imagine who among the motion picture people could
|
|
possibly possess any definite knowledge without having had to reveal it.
|
|
There have been so many stories passed about that it is hard to know what to
|
|
think."
|
|
According to the film star, she knew Taylor to speak to in passing for
|
|
some time, but was only out with him on one occasion--a week prior to the
|
|
murder, when she was invited to join Taylor, Antonio Moreno and Betty
|
|
Francisco at a dinner party.
|
|
"I did not hear of the murder until about noon on the day the body was
|
|
found," Miss Windsor continued, "and I was as much astonished as anyone.
|
|
However, it was not anything that was personally close to me and I worked at
|
|
the studio that same day as usual.
|
|
"As an indication of how slightly acquainted I was with Mr. Taylor,
|
|
I didn't even know that he was a friend of Mabel Normand's. I have met Miss
|
|
Normand, and believe her to be a charming girl. I always look for the best
|
|
in people, anyway, and believe the best of them until I am disappointed."
|
|
Commenting on rumors that Taylor had made a threat to kill his former
|
|
valet, if he could lay hands on him, Miss Windsor said today that she was
|
|
present in a group that included Taylor, when the name of Sands was brought
|
|
up, but that Taylor made no threat against his former employee, although he
|
|
declared that he would prosecute him if he could find him.
|
|
Criticism of the film family at Hollywood and stories of "cocaine
|
|
parties," "love nests" and wild orgies, which she branded as unwarranted and
|
|
unjust, particularly aroused the blonde film beauty's ire.
|
|
"Some of the wild stories that were told, and which unfairly included my
|
|
name, accused me of constantly going out on parties, while the truth is that
|
|
I was only out one evening in the five weeks I was working at the studio on
|
|
my last picture.
|
|
"Some of these tales would have the public believe that motion picture
|
|
people live in one giddy whirl of gaiety, whereas the producers--mine, at
|
|
least--are constantly warning us not to go out too much, as we would become
|
|
too common with the people who see us on the screen.
|
|
"Motion picture people know how to have fun, but they do it in a clean
|
|
way. They all know each other and are jolly together, but there is no
|
|
looseness about it. The film people I know are terribly hurt by the unjust
|
|
criticism that seems to include us all."
|
|
Miss Windsor is in San Francisco for a few days of rest before starting
|
|
work on her new picture. With her are Mrs. Sailing Baruch of New York and
|
|
the latter's son, and Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Block of Philadelphia.
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
For more information about Taylor, see
|
|
WILLIAM DESMOND TAYLOR: A DOSSIER (Scarecrow Press, 1991)
|
|
Back issues of Taylorology are available via Gopher at
|
|
gopher.etext.org
|
|
in the directory Zines/Taylorology
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|