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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 7 -- July 1993 Editor: Bruce Long bruce@asu.edu *
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* All reprinted material is in the public domain *
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*****************************************************************************
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CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:
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The Case Against Thomas Dixon
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Fragments from the Police File
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"The Humor of a Hollywood Murder" Part 4:
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Love Letters, Frozen Horror, Untamed Hollywood,
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Frank Mayo vs. The Press, Tall Tales #1: Walter Underwood
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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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Reader input is welcome, in the form of "Letters to the Editor," short
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articles, and contributed source material.
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*****************************************************************************
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The Case Against Thomas Dixon
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If the early press reports are to be believed, Thomas Dixon was once a prime
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suspect in the murder of Taylor, but he was soon overshadowed by a flood of
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other suspects. When director King Vidor gained access to the police file in
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the mid-1960s, it appears that any references to Dixon had long been purged
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from the files, except for the one reference in Mary Miles Minter's official
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statement. Following, in chronological order, are some press items which
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refer to Dixon, linking him with Mary Miles Minter prior to Taylor's murder,
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or suggesting his involvement in murder.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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December 28, 1921
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LOS ANGELES TIMES
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A romance of interest to filmdom and the public, soon to be consummated
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in marriage, if all reports are to be believed, is that between Mary Miles
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Minter, Lasky star, and T. E. Dixon, son of the lead-pencil king.
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Mr. Dixon has just arrived in the city and is a guest at the Ambassador.
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Asked concerning the romance he did not deny the engagement. Miss Minter
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herself, when she came from a visit to New York so long ago as a year ago
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last summer, admitted to a TIMES representative she was engaged to Mr. Dixon.
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At that time she said business matters connected with her film work
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caused her to desire to keep the engagement a secret, but she showed a
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handsome diamond and ruby ring, the gift of her fiance. Mr. Dixon said
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yesterday that business had brought him West.
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...Miss Minter met Mr. Dixon when on a visit to New York.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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January 7, 1922
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BILLBOARD
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The pretty blonde motion picture star, Mary Miles Minter, has been
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engaged so many times to various millionaires that when we hear a rumor
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circulated that the knot has at last been tied we are prone to look upon it
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as another publicity stunt issued by the overactive brain of a hard-working
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press agent.
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The gentlemanly bridegroom in the present case happens to be Thomas E.
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Dixon, son of a millionaire pencil manufacturer. The rumor says that at a
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Christmas party held in Hollywood, Cal, the young couple evaded their friends
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and ran off, to be married.
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The mother of Miss Minter, Mrs. Charlotte Shelby, left New York for the
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Coast December 28, and before going she is quoted as saying that she knew her
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daughter was engaged to Mr. Dixon, but that she did not believe there was any
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truth in the report of her sudden marriage.
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...Mr. Dixon is 27, a Yale graduate, and was a captain in the Aviation
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Corps during the war. He makes his headquarters at the Yale Club in New York
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City, but left for California three weeks ago.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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December 29, 1921
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LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
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Mary Miles Minter, film star, and Tommy Dixon, heir to the Dixon lead-
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pencil millions, denied their engagement in concert last night.
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"People are continually announcing engagements for me that I know
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nothing whatever about," said Miss Minter. "Tommy and I are just good
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friends, aren't we Tommy?" and Tommy nodded his head mechanically like a
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reluctant little boy who had been coached against his will.
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...
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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April 1922
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PICTURE PLAY
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(from a description of the wedding of Lottie Pickford and Alan Forest, which
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took place on Jan. 7, 1922)
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Among those present were:...Mary Miles Minter, Thomas Dixon...
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...Although Mary Miles Minter says she is not engaged to Thomas Dixon,
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son of the leading pencil manufacturer, she evidently finds him an ideal
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escort. And her mother doesn't object to having the young folks slip away to
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the movies in the evening.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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January 21, 1922
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LOS ANGELES EXPRESS
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(from an interview with Mary Miles Minter on the movie set) ..."It's the
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first time he [Dixon] has been here in two weeks," Miss Minter said. "I
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would like for the world to know that Mr. Dixon is a very dear friend--a
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charming fellow--a wonderful acquaintance, but he is not my affiance.
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"...I have known Mr. Dixon for five years.
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"I met him in 1917, when I was touring around trying to do my little bit
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in Liberty Loan campaigns.
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"Since that time we have been the best of friends. About one year ago
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we became engaged--but it was a conditional engagement. We kept it secret
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for that reason.
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"When Mr. Dixon came to California during the holidays the engagement was
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called off, despite rumors to the contrary. And that's all.
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"I have not seen much of him recently, and it is by the merest
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coincidence that he is visiting in the studio today.
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"I regard him as a friend. But I do not love him. And, until I love
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someone, I will never marry.
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"That's the true story of my romance, if romance it has been. To me,
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however, it has just been a dear, sweet friendship, and my real romance is
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yet to come."
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 3, 1922
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LOS ANGELES RECORD
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Detectives today were known to be quietly seeking a young New York
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broker, whose identity is being kept secret, to question him in an effort to
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bring to light more facts about the murder. This young man is said to have
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been prominent in movie society. He is described as a friend of a prominent
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movie actress. ...Detectives gave no intimation of what light they believed
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he might possibly shed on the mysterious slaying.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 6, 1922
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SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
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The EXAMINER learned late tonight that a prominent rich young New
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Yorker, formerly engaged to marry one of the most beautiful stars in the film
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world, has mysteriously disappeared, and because this actress was a close
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friend of William D. Taylor, the director murdered in his home last Wednesday
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night, a nation-wide search has been instituted for the missing man. He is
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reported to have checked out of his hotel last Wednesday afternoon and to
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have departed from Los Angeles the following day, shortly after Taylor's body
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was discovered.
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...According to the authorities, this man was jealous of Taylor and
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upbraided the actress for having anything to do with the director. He is said
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to have employed one or more men to follow her, and on one occasion recently,
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when she visited the Taylor bungalow, to have flown into a rage. This
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occurred several hours after the visit, when his detectives reported the
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matter to him. A stormy scene ensued and the actress is said to have broken
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off her engagement on the spot. Efforts toward a reconciliation were made
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later by the young man, but to no avail and he is said to have been brooding
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and drinking heavily ever since.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 6, 1922
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NEW YORK JOURNAL
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...Detectives today are centering their investigation of the film
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director's murder on information about a triangular love affair, in which the
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slain man, a popular screen actress and a scion of a wealthy Eastern family
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are said to have played the leading roles.
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...The new love triangle theory projected itself strongly into the case
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today when the police announced that they had learned a wealthy young New
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Yorker, at one time reported engaged to marry a leading actress of the film
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world, had mysteriously dropped from sight the day following the murder of
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Taylor.
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Other investigators learned that the actress in question was a close
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friend of the murdered man, and are proceeding on a theory that the former
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fiance, discovering the close relationship existing between the screen star
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and director, may have been driven to commit murder by his rage which
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followed this revelation.
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...Announcement was made that investigators have been detailed to trace
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the movements of the young man, who checked out of one of the leading hotels
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of the city the day after the murder and has not been seen by friends since.
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Police are acting on the report that the suspect fled to San Diego in
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hopes of escaping across the border into Tiajuana.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 7, 1922
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LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
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Located by the EXAMINER late last night and questioned until midnight by
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Deputy Sheriff Harvey Bell and George Pross, manager of the Burns Detective
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Agency, the wealthy young New Yorker, who had been engaged to a motion
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picture star frequently mentioned in connection with the William D. Taylor
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murder mystery, gave an account of himself, which, in the opinion of the
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officers, practically eliminates him from consideration.
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The examination of the young man occurred in a downtown hotel and was of
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special interest because of his close attentions to two of the actresses most
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conspicuous in the social life of Taylor.
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He was able, state the officers, to account for every hour of his time
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on the night of the murder. Interest had centered in this picturesque
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character for several days, largely because he was known as the rejected
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suitor of the star who, herself, was said to be infatuated with Taylor.
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Police and sheriff's officers were instructed to find this man, who had
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checked out from the fashionable hotel where he was a guest on Wednesday
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afternoon and, apparently, had disappeared.
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Information coming to THE EXAMINER late yesterday afternoon enabled one
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of its representatives to locate him. He was found in his room at a downtown
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hotel and his interrogation followed.
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His elimination is regarded by the police as one of the most important
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contributions to the case in that it removes a possibility which had engaged
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the efforts of several officers, and thus narrows the field in which
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investigation must be prosecuted.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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(from Minter's official statement to W.A. Doran, made on February 7, 1922)
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..."Thomas Dickson [sic] is the only one to whom I have been even remotely
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engaged, and that was a freak of despondency."
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 8, 1922
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SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
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The angle eliminated today was the theory that the New York broker who
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came here, ostensibly to marry Miss Mary Miles Minter, might have slain the
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director out of jealousy. It was well known that Taylor idolized the girl.
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It was learned today, however, that the young man did not flee the city the
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day after the murder from any apprehension. The management of the hotel at
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which he was guest, had requested him to leave. The broker brought a film
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actor and two extra girls into his room.
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It is declared that the quartet was noisy and that people in nearby
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rooms summoned the hotel detective. The latter declares there was much drink
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in the place. He says further that when he asked the women to leave the men
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assaulted him.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 9, 1922
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SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
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One of the theories related to a wealthy young man who had been in love
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with her [Minter], was known to be extremely jealous and of highly emotional
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character.
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Until today it had been supposed that this young man had been eliminated
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from the case having, as it appeared, furnished a complete alibi.
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But a checking up on persons to whom this man referred for his alibi
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brought forth the startling revelation that they had not been with him the
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night of the murder, as he had claimed.
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It will now be necessary for this person to supply other evidence of his
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movements on the night of February 1 or his arrest as a suspect undoubtedly
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will follow.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 9, 1922
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CHICAGO DAILY NEWS
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Here is the theory of the Taylor murder mystery that is coming to be
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accepted by criminal investigators from Sheriff Traeger's office, a theory
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not without certain substantiation that the investigators have quietly been
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gathering the last forty-eight hours.
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...She [Minter] flouted one who had formerly been the most favored of
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her suitors, treated him with open contempt. She snapped her fingers at him
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in disdain, and, when she did, there grew in his heart a hate for Taylor as
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unreasoning as the star's affection.
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He went to Taylor's home on the night of Feb. 1, according to the
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theory, first to suggest, then to threaten and demand that Taylor break with
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the girl--his girl. ...Hate broke the leash and the despised and rejected
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suitor turned loose the weapon he had brought to use only as a last resort.
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He fired.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 11, 1922
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SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
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A young New Yorker, whose father is a wealthy manufacturer, has been
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brought under suspicion because of his devotion to the same pretty actress.
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He has been hanging around Hollywood, and reports, now believed to have had
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their inception in his own love-sick brain, that he was engaged to the
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actress, have been circulated. He was questioned early in the police
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investigation and gave what appeared to be a satisfactory story of his
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whereabouts. Persons whose names he brought into the statement of his
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movements on the night in question have contradicted him, according to the
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investigators, and this has brought him under the shadow again.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 12, 1922
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NEW YORK AMERICAN
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Arthur James, motion picture writer and an authority on the cinema, made
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a spirited defense of Mary Miles Minter last night. He has known the Los
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Angeles star and her family since Mary's babyhood.
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He told this story of her recent reported betrothal to a young broker
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here:
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"The poor youngster is so pursued by admirers that she sometimes is
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compelled to say yes when they propose to her, in the hope of getting rid of
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them. Now this latest affair:
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"The young chap bothered her to marry him until one day she said she
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would--in Los Angeles on New Year's Day. It was a jest.
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"Well, on New Year's day the young man appeared in Los Angeles and
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telephoned Mary to remind her that it was her wedding day. She was at a
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family dinner.
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"She exclaimed that she had forgotten all about the wedding and that she
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would have to beg off. No doubt she likes the young fellow, but I don't
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believe she ever took the affair seriously."
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*****************************************************************************
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*****************************************************************************
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Fragments from the Police File
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(From official transcribed statements made to the district attorney
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during the investigation into Taylor's murder)
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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(February 1922 interrogation of Arthur Hoyt, one of Taylor's friends)
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Hoyt: Mind you, I am saying this from memory, but he [Taylor] said, "What
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am I going to do? She [Minter] comes here--threatens to make a scene. I try
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to get rid of her, doing all in my power--finally, when I did get her to go,
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she said, 'Well, you will have to drive me home,'" and he said, "No, you got
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here and you will have to go alone."
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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(February 1922 interrogation of Harry Fellows, Taylor's Assistant Director)
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Q: Did she [Miss Minter] appear fond of him?
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A: Yes, she did seem to be very fond of Mr. Taylor--and seemed to chase
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him around the studio and things like that. As far as I know, Mr. Taylor
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never really thought an awful lot of Miss Minter--I mean more than just to
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like her for a nice little girl....He thought more of Miss Normand than he
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did of anyone I have ever known.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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(February 1922 interrogation of W. A. Robertson, one of Taylor's friends)
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Q: Were you ever present when Mr. Taylor mentioned Mary Miles Minter?
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A: Yes--last Saturday night.
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Q: Who if anyone else was present?
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A: Mr. Hoyt. He [Mr. Taylor] said she had been pesticating around there
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and got to be a great deal of annoyance: she would come to his house and
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kick up a fuss.
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Q: What did he tell you about her kicking up a fuss?
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A: She threatened to scream. She was very obnoxious to him.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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(March 1926 interrogation of J. Marjorie Berger, Taylor's tax accountant)
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Berger: I arrived at my office between 7 and 7:30 on the morning of
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Feb. 2, 1922. My telephone was ringing. I answered the phone. Mrs. Charlotte
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Shelby said "Marjorie, I have something terrible to tell you. The man that
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was in your office yesterday afternoon is no more. He is dead." I said what
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do you mean? What do you know about it? Where are you now? She said "I am at
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the New Hampshire home." I said, "Well, aren't you afraid to be alone?" She
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said, "Well, Mr. Smith stayed in the house last night."
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*****************************************************************************
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*****************************************************************************
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"The Humor of a Hollywood Murder", Part 4
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Love Letters [1]
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February 9, 1922
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ST. LOUIS STAR
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"I love you, I love you, I love you," wrote the movie actress to the
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late film director, thereby proving that movie actresses do, after all, have
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a pretty large vocabulary.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 9, 1922
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PITTSBURGH POST
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Those love letters in Hollywood screenland show how far some women will
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mush along to keep from washing dishes.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 10, 1922
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Bide Dudley
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NEW YORK EVENING WORLD
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In our opinion the love letter, so-called, written by Mary Miles Minter
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to Taylor, the film director, who was murdered, means nothing at all of
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importance. Being personally acquainted with Mary and her family, we are
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familiar with the little film star's nature and we are sure she might write
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just such a letter to any man friend who had been her benefactor and admirer.
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She would mean nothing by it other than an expression of such love as a happy-
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go-lucky girl might have for her father or an uncle. Everybody calls Mary
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"Dear," and every good friend of hers, male or female, kisses her when they
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meet. In the theatrical and film world a kiss isn't a very serious affair.
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Mary has always been a carefree innocent girl, closely chaperoned by her
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mother, a very estimable Southern lady. We saw Mary in New York last June,
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just before she sailed for Europe, and in front of fifty people at a dinner
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at the Hotel Biltmore she kissed us. We mention this so that, after we are
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shot, it won't be used to besmirch the reputation of Mary Miles Minter, who
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is today just as sweet and innocent as she was when she appeared as the
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barefoot kiddie in "The Littlest Rebel" eight years ago.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 11, 1922
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DETROIT NEWS
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"Why Were Mabel Normand's Letters Put Into a Boot!"--Headline in the
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Taylor case.
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We give up. Why WERE Mabel Normand's letters put into a boot?
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Because maybe they were foot notes!
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 11, 1922
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James Schermerhorn
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DETROIT TIMES
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The dumb darling of the photo drama who indicated her adoration of the
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wonderman director by painting a picture of life with him in the hills, he
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fetching the water and doing the cooking (she can only make tea) while she
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divided her time between dusting and cuddling in his arms in some soft,
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flimsy stuff, offers the most tangible clue in the connection with the taking
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off of William Desmond Taylor.
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What was there to live for, with an eternity in the kitchen confronting
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the cultured man?
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 14, 1922
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NASHVILLE BANNER
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Mabel Normand's "Blessed Baby" letters to the now defunct William Taylor
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were found in an old boot in the Taylor residence. And it was because of such
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letters as Mabel and Mary Miles Minter wrote him that Taylor put his foot in
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it.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 15, 1922
|
|
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS
|
|
To "Six-Cylinder Love," "Spanish Love," and "Desert Love," [2] the
|
|
Taylor case has added "Four X Love."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 15, 1922
|
|
DETROIT NEWS
|
|
Most of the folly and most of the ecstasy of the world has been written
|
|
into love letters. Down Los Angeles way the sudden taking off of a motion
|
|
picture director has revealed in superlative quantity the common impulse that
|
|
exists to let the emotions expand under the witching stimulus of a flowing
|
|
pen. One love letter is very like another; in this one thing the world
|
|
changeth never. It has all been said. Dido might have held the pen of Mabel
|
|
Normand in the hour she suspected Aeneas had his mind set on his famous
|
|
getaway; Cleopatra might have written like the Minter girl when Antony's eye
|
|
seemed to be roving a trifle free. Nothing original is to be found in love-
|
|
letters, probably because there is nothing original in love. This is not
|
|
astonishing. The thing that bemuses understanding is that in this day of
|
|
highly-developed inventive genius no substitute has been adopted for the
|
|
paper-and-pen love letter. What is disappearing ink for if not kindly to
|
|
erase the follies of yesterday under the blushing second though of today?
|
|
Should it not be a Medean law that all love letters are returnable to
|
|
the sender by registered return mail, special delivery? Apparently the itch
|
|
to write may not be appeased and the letters must be written; but must we and
|
|
our children and generations yet unborn forever read and re-read the eternal
|
|
secret of what one person thinks of another in that "first fine careless
|
|
rapture," or otherwise, which is found in the love letter?
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 15, 1922
|
|
CLEVELAND PRESS
|
|
We must admit we are greatly astonished by the number of letters found
|
|
in Taylor's home. We had no idea there were that many movie actresses who
|
|
knew how to read and write.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 15, 1922
|
|
Sophie Irene Loeb
|
|
NEW YORK EVENING WORLD
|
|
Written Words, Like Bullets, Can Never Be Recalled
|
|
"Do right and fear no man,
|
|
Don't write, and fear no woman."
|
|
How many tragedies would be averted if these two simple lines were
|
|
followed.
|
|
And now the latest one is filling the pages of the press, in which a
|
|
murder was committed, and in which love letters play a highly prominent part.
|
|
Doubtless Mabel Normand is at present wishing she had never written
|
|
those letters to William D. Taylor, because of the great trouble they have
|
|
already caused her in this complex situation.
|
|
People do not realize how silly they can be until they read over the
|
|
love letters that they wrote long after the love is gone.
|
|
And when they appear in cold type, in the headlines of a newspaper, they
|
|
look foolish indeed. Only a person who has been the writer can understand the
|
|
feeling of seeing his lovelorn missives, written at midnight, just after
|
|
seeing him or her, finally brought out in the broad daylight where everybody
|
|
can see them.
|
|
Young people should be very careful to whom they write love letters.
|
|
Better say it with words and save the pricks, that come from a pen-point.
|
|
As to the case mentioned, I cannot help wishing that Mr. Taylor had
|
|
either burned Miss Normand's letters or returned them to her. Had he followed
|
|
the wisdom of the great poet of his country, he would not have failed to do
|
|
this. For Kipling has wisely put this way as the only way for a gentleman to
|
|
follow:
|
|
"If She have written a letter, delay not an instant, but burn it."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 16, 1922
|
|
SAN FRANCISCO BULLETIN
|
|
Much of the most sensational matter has been, with more or less wisdom,
|
|
suppressed or diluted, and much can never be printed in any family newspaper.
|
|
One of the stars whose name has been brought into the case with regularity--
|
|
not Miss Normand--went so far as to threaten one of the newspapers with a
|
|
libel suit but changed her mind when informed that a photographic copy of the
|
|
letter that had been partly published, [3] was kept and would be exhibited in
|
|
court should suit be brought. There will be no suit.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 18, 1922
|
|
HARTFORD COURANT
|
|
A great many ways have been devised by means of which the average person
|
|
may waste a lot of time, but we think the most perfect plan yet suggested is
|
|
the deciphering of the code letters received by the late motion picture
|
|
director William Desmond Taylor.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 18, 1922
|
|
TULSA TRIBUNE
|
|
Some day there will be a law against the publication of love letters
|
|
written by women. It is a brutal and needless expose of the weaker sex's
|
|
emotionalism.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 21, 1922
|
|
Adela Rogers St. Johns
|
|
L.A. EXAMINER
|
|
Nobody can keep a lot of fool girls with blond curls from falling in
|
|
love with a man. No one can keep them from writing notes to him, if they
|
|
haven't been taught that love letters are the most dangerous things in the
|
|
world to sign except checks.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 22, 1922
|
|
MEMPHIS NEWS SCIMITAR
|
|
A whole lot depends on location. For instance X in algebra is said to
|
|
represent the unknown quantity; on a greenback it has the voice of 10 silver
|
|
bucks, or a hundred dimes. On a Hollywood perfumed note it puts you under
|
|
suspicion--no matter what your chauffeur says.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 24, 1922
|
|
CINCINNATI TRIBUNE
|
|
Of what significance is the fact that letters from Mary Miles Minter
|
|
were found in one of the slain man's boots? Does this prove anything other
|
|
than his boot was too large for his foot and that he had stuffed the toe a
|
|
bit?
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
March 2, 1922
|
|
SEATTLE UNION-RECORD
|
|
One movie stars writes love notes like a 13-year-old grammar school
|
|
girl; another reads the POLICE GAZETTE. Where is this wonderful artistic
|
|
taste that the movie people have been telling us about?
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
March 3, 1922
|
|
SACRAMENTO BEE
|
|
In writing to a movie queen (or king) it is always well to refrain from
|
|
expressions of love, and also not to sign your name, otherwise, in case of
|
|
murder, detectives may nab you immediately, on suspicion, and publish to all
|
|
the world your tender missives.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
March 18, 1922
|
|
Irma
|
|
MOVIE WEEKLY
|
|
Have you heard about how all the girls in Hollywood are rushing madly to
|
|
get their letters back from their sweethearts old and new? Why, sweethearts
|
|
away back as far as the third before the last are being begged for their
|
|
letters!
|
|
Just perfectly nice girls are as anxious as can be. Because, as one of
|
|
them said to me--she's engaged to a film star--no matter how innocuous your
|
|
letters may be, if you're in love with a man you're just bound to write mushy
|
|
stuff that would look awfully silly in print. Who can tell when something
|
|
might happen to him, and they might be using that goo stuff as evidence!
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 11, 1922
|
|
NEW YORK MAIL
|
|
Certain tender missives found in the rooms of a man who was murdered in
|
|
California are causing no end of trouble for the ladies who wrote them. Even
|
|
though they may be nothing more than innocent expressions of pure affection,
|
|
the authors doubtless are agonizing over the possibility that they may be
|
|
read by a laughing public.
|
|
It makes little difference that about 98 per cent of the adult readers
|
|
have written love notes themselves. There is a curious quirk in the average
|
|
mind that always regards a love letter--another's love letter, of course--as
|
|
funny. Yet boys and girls go on writing them, and so do men and women, and
|
|
every once in a while they keep turning up at awkward moments to plague the
|
|
writers beyond measure.
|
|
What, then! Shall people stop writing them? Heaven forbid! When love
|
|
itself goes out of fashion, when moonlight and starshine cease to play pranks
|
|
with the emotions, when a scented envelope loses its charm, when men are too
|
|
cold to thrill and women too indifferent to please, when sense has outlawed
|
|
sensibility, when all the Omars shall cling only to barren reason--then and
|
|
not until then shall the love note be outlawed, without benefit of clergy.
|
|
Discretion, to be sure, would prevent the sending of many a dainty
|
|
confection of words, but who is Discretion that he should pretend to be a
|
|
lover? It was of Discretion that Hafiz was thinking when, as Kipling
|
|
translates him, he advises that a letter from "Her" should be burned, adding:
|
|
"Tear it to pieces, O Fool, and the wind to her mate will return it." But
|
|
just now the question is not of letters to any "Her" who has an obstreperous
|
|
mate in the background.
|
|
It was Emerson--or was it?--who advised one to walk ten miles before
|
|
writing one letter. But that is nonsense. There is a better and safer way
|
|
than that, if one must court safety. And that is to write the letter, to put
|
|
one's soul into its composition, to write singing words fit for Philomel's
|
|
melody--and then to tear it up without sending it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Frozen Horror
|
|
|
|
February 8, 1922
|
|
LOUISVILLE COURIER-JOURNAL
|
|
Moviedom's New Art
|
|
Taylor, the Hollywood movie director, will not have died in vain if his
|
|
death shall have taught some of the screen "stars" to act.
|
|
Mary Miles Minter, who admits she wrote to Taylor scented notes laden
|
|
with X's and "I love you--I love you--I love you," discovered, by looking
|
|
into a mirror, that she could act when she heard of Taylor's murder. "It was
|
|
terrible," says Mary. "I rushed at once to my mirror and looked at my face. I
|
|
was appalled. I kept the expression and hurried to mama.
|
|
" 'Mama,' I cried, 'did you ever see this expression on my face before?'
|
|
" 'No,' she said. 'It is perfect frozen horror. You've never done it
|
|
before.' " [4]
|
|
Now if Mary can only keep that frozen horror in cold storage until she
|
|
can get it on the screen in her next picture, movie fans may yet see on
|
|
Mary's face something which, like Mary's mother, they never saw there before.
|
|
And if Mary has been stirred to deep facial emotion by Taylor's taking
|
|
off, is it not likely that many, many other screen stars were similarly
|
|
stirred? Mary was only one of those stars whose orbits encircled Taylor. It
|
|
may be that these others lacked Mary's thought to rush to mirrors and inspect
|
|
their faces when they heard of Taylor's assassination: that they failed to
|
|
grip the frozen horrors thus revealed and before they melted hurry away to
|
|
mammas or other witnesses just as good. But no doubt they have learned a
|
|
lesson from Mary and will be better prepared to improve their opportunity the
|
|
next time one of their dear ones is snuffed out. Probably they could cut out
|
|
the rush to mirrors, for do they not carry mirrors around with their powder
|
|
rags, anyway; while as for mamma, to make sure of having her within reaching
|
|
distance before the thaw, couldn't they declare a Pekingeses holiday and
|
|
attach the leash to mamma?
|
|
There would seem to be great possibilities of Mary's discovery how to
|
|
acquire new facial expressions. In a free and easy colony like Hollywood it
|
|
ought not be difficult to provide for the slaughter of some loved one
|
|
whenever a star feels the need of a shock that will be good for a frozen
|
|
horror or other similar tragic refrigeration.
|
|
Moreover, this field for the renaissance, or origination, of the art of
|
|
acting in moviedom which Miss Minter has opened up is by no means limited to
|
|
the production of emotions of horror and grief. It should be even more
|
|
fertile in products of joy, exultation and ecstasy. If a star could fill an
|
|
icehouse with frozen horror for use in the films by having one of her lovers
|
|
snickersneed, [5] she could lay in a yet more plentiful stock of joy by
|
|
having one of her enemies kiboshed. And with its rivalries and jealousies,
|
|
moviedom abounds even more in enemies than in lovers. None of its stars would
|
|
ever be at a loss to pick out an enemy for the butcher whenever she felt the
|
|
need of a boost of her joy emotions. The supply of enemies would last as long
|
|
as moviedom lasted.
|
|
There would be the rub. With such a system of stimulating acting in
|
|
practice, how long would moviedom--Hollywood, at least--last? Might not
|
|
Hollywood, by the incessant slaughter of lovers and enemies, ultimately be
|
|
exterminated?
|
|
Even so, there seem to be some people who would not be inconsolable for
|
|
that. For instance, there is that Eastern moving picture magnate, Herbert
|
|
Brenon, who thinks "it would be a jolly good thing if Hollywood were
|
|
abolished" at once. [6]
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 10, 1922
|
|
LOUISVILLE COURIER-JOURNAL
|
|
For the broadening of Mary Miles Minter's newly discovered art it is a
|
|
pity that this twinkling screen star was not in rushing distance of a mirror
|
|
so that she could have discovered what was the frozen expression on her face
|
|
when she saw that Mabel Normand beat her to it and fainted dead away right
|
|
there in front of the whole show at the Taylor funeral.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 12, 1922
|
|
JACKSON NEWS
|
|
Mary's Horror
|
|
For an original way of displaying deep emotion at the death of a friend,
|
|
Mary Miles Minter wins the lace soup ladle.
|
|
Poor Miss Minter could not tell how she felt until she saw her face.
|
|
Even then she needed mama to tell her it was an emotion she had never
|
|
"registered" before. It's fortunate the news didn't come while Mary Miles
|
|
Minter was in the dark, for then she never would have known just how she did
|
|
take it.
|
|
The death of loved human beings has been a most fertile source of
|
|
artistic expression. The poetry, prose, music and drama of the world would
|
|
suffer irreparably if they were deprived of their eulogistic pieces.
|
|
It remained for Miss Minter, however, to invent a new form of artistic
|
|
eulogy--the frozen-horror movie face.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
March 19, 1922
|
|
LOUISVILLE COURIER-JOURNAL
|
|
Bon Voyage, Mary!
|
|
Dear Mary Miles Minter, who made famous the frozen-horror face, has
|
|
sailed for Honolulu, Hong Kong and other points east.
|
|
So far as can be learned, she has packed her emotions in her suitcase,
|
|
fearing to leave them behind on her bureau. It's never safe to be separated
|
|
long from one's emotions. While some of them are preserved by freezing,
|
|
others are known to melt, disintegrate and decay.
|
|
With her emotions, Mary Miles has placed her mirror. There they are side
|
|
by side, so that when Mary tries on an emotion, she can see its effect
|
|
immediately and thus find out just how she is feeling.
|
|
For example, if she nestles in a quiet corner of the hurricane deck and
|
|
is subjected to the blandishments of the flirts that haunt the seven seas,
|
|
she should have her emotional kit by the side of her steamer chair.
|
|
Otherwise, she'd be at a dead loss to react in the proper manner, being
|
|
wholly ignorant of her feelings until she looks in the mirror.
|
|
In this connection, a theory regarding this charming damsel has been
|
|
conceived. It will be remembered that when the news of the death of her
|
|
friend, William Desmond Taylor, was brought to her, she not only registered
|
|
perfect frozen horror, but was able to carry the expression to her mamma and
|
|
have it interpreted.
|
|
It is said by close analysis of Mary Miles' makeup that the term
|
|
"frozen" is not strictly accurate, but is merely used as a metaphor. It is
|
|
said, further, in explanation of this gift of preserving an expression, that
|
|
Mary Miles has no trouble at all in exercising it. Mary Miles, they say, is
|
|
concrete from the neck upward and impressions upon such a skull last
|
|
extraordinarily well.
|
|
A pleasant voyage to Mary Miles!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Untamed Hollywood
|
|
|
|
February 5, 1922
|
|
Skye T. Errier
|
|
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
|
|
The American Occupation of Movieland
|
|
Movieland, Southern California.--The marines have landed and have the
|
|
situation well in hand. The devil dogs constitute the Army of Occupation of
|
|
Movieland and will remain here until peace has been established and Movieland
|
|
formally annexed to the United States. All bars have been closed and the
|
|
marines are now raiding the peanut stands. No unpleasant incident occurred
|
|
during the occupation except the burning of the beautiful library belonging
|
|
to one of the native queens, consisting of two books, one by Nietzsche, the
|
|
other by Freud, a telephone directory, and a copy of the Police Gazette.
|
|
A large number of the chiefs and natives assembled this afternoon, and I
|
|
read to them the provisions of the Volstead act, which they had never heard
|
|
of before. They cheered vociferously until they discovered that it also
|
|
applied to cocktails. I also read them the constitution of the United States,
|
|
and they thought it was very pretty. They seem to be a good natured people,
|
|
willing to obey our laws as soon as they find out what they are. A large
|
|
number of the inhabitants have expressed the wish to go to America, and have
|
|
offered to take the oath of allegiance, but as most of them are being held as
|
|
witnesses to something or other, their requests could not be complied with.
|
|
Some of the inhabitants are demanding a plebiscite, but I do not think that
|
|
the claims of America to sovereignty on the ground that the country formerly
|
|
belonged to the United States will be forcibly disputed.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 16, 1922
|
|
S. Kye Terrier
|
|
BOSTON HERALD
|
|
The American marines, who are now in complete possession of Movieland,
|
|
report no further casualties. A drastic curfew law has been put in force and
|
|
all the inhabitants of Movieland are required to be in their houses by 7
|
|
o'clock in the evening. This drastic rule caused much excitement, as most of
|
|
the residents of this strange country were not in the habit of getting up
|
|
until that hour unless they were posing in a picture. The provost marshal
|
|
issued an announcement today that caused much comment. "The night," said the
|
|
provost marshal, "is the time for sleeping." The natives of Movieland said
|
|
they never heard of such an outlandish thing. The provost marshal also
|
|
declared that February, March and April must be regarded as closed months for
|
|
grouse, quail, directors, scenario writers, black bear, tourists and game of
|
|
all kind. Whether or not these will be permitted to be shot in the future
|
|
rests on Will Hays, the new governor-general of Movieland, who has not yet
|
|
arrived. Movieland is fast becoming Americanized, and its annexation can be
|
|
looked for in the near future.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 11, 1922
|
|
Arthur Baer
|
|
NEW YORK AMERICAN
|
|
Shooting Stars
|
|
State of California is going bankrupt trying our moving picture actors
|
|
for murder.
|
|
They have started in to improve movies by shooting all movie actors.
|
|
If your wife gets celluloid bug and wants to go to California for film
|
|
career, don't waste money on railroad ticket. Keep her at home and shoot her
|
|
yourself.
|
|
Day in Hollywood opens up with close-up of jailhouse, cut-back to scene
|
|
of crime and fade out of coroner's chariot.
|
|
Latest artillery practice in Los Angeles is great break for one star now
|
|
in Mr. Jail's house. California has had so many cannon parties that State has
|
|
run out of witnesses. Therefore, they've got to let him off so he can serve
|
|
as foreman of jury in this latest and more modern assassination.
|
|
Old-time actors used to get flowers over footlights.
|
|
Enthusiasts used to follow Booth, Bernhardt, Maude Adams with handful of
|
|
flowers.
|
|
Nowadays, friends of movie actors follow them with whole carriage full
|
|
of blossoms.
|
|
They may get plenty of blooms, buds and bouquets, but they never smell
|
|
'em.
|
|
Hollywood doesn't take disarmament conference seriously.
|
|
Let's go back to pie throwing stage again. If we have choice of
|
|
embalmer's or baker's wagon, we'll take pastry limousine.
|
|
Movie actors once roamed plains in countless numbers. But ruthless
|
|
extermination will soon make 'em scarcer than moths on iceberg.
|
|
Good actors are getting scarce. If Hollywood stars must have their
|
|
matinee scenarios written by Krupp's, why don't they shoot their
|
|
understudies?
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 16, 1922
|
|
NEW YORK POST
|
|
Hollywood's Wilds to be Explored
|
|
A voyage more hazardous, it is said, than the Traprock expedition to the
|
|
South Seas will be started on Saturday, when the Sherwood-Connelly-Barton-
|
|
Howard mission to the wilds of Hollywood sets sail from these shores on the
|
|
steamship Ruth Alexander of the Admiral Line. The make-up of the expedition,
|
|
it was announced today, would be Robert E. Sherwood, motion picture critic of
|
|
Life, Marc Connelly, one of the two principal authors of "Dulcy"; Ralph
|
|
Barton, the art-artist; and Sidney Howard the play-playwright.
|
|
Going to Havana and then through the Panama Canal, the party will cruise
|
|
up the coast of California to a point due west of the Los Angeles movie
|
|
colony, where they will disembark and, with the aid of native guides, proceed
|
|
inland.
|
|
"We are fully aware of the risks we are taking," declared Chief Bob
|
|
Sherwood of the expeditionary force today. "However, our minds are made up.
|
|
We shall not return until we have found the answer to the much mooted
|
|
question, 'What's all the shootin' for?' "
|
|
According to one report, bullet-proof suits will be distributed as the
|
|
explorers near their destination.
|
|
"Among other things," added Chief Explorer Sherwood, "we are hopeful
|
|
that our visit will be productive of a number of reforms. This is not merely
|
|
the beginning of the See Hollywood First movement. If Hollywood is to be made
|
|
safe for democracy it must get over its absurd idea of modesty, its chronic
|
|
distaste of publicity. The inhabitants must come out in the open, give their
|
|
names to the papers and not shrink like wild violet from the white light of
|
|
the public gaze. We hope by our example to cure them. I trust I make myself
|
|
clear."
|
|
The expedition will return to civilization in about six weeks.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 17, 1922
|
|
Foster Ware
|
|
NEW YORK POST
|
|
Game Laws for New Hollywood
|
|
According to news dispatches, one of the largest motion picture
|
|
producers is about to found a new colony. For the good of the service, the
|
|
following rules and regulations are proposed.
|
|
(1) No shooting shall be permitted during business hours.
|
|
(2) Persons contemplating acts of violence against leaders of the
|
|
industry shall be required to serve due notice of their intentions, so that
|
|
vacancies resulting therefrom may be filled with the least possible delay.
|
|
(3) Use of loaded firearms for professional purposes is strictly
|
|
forbidden except by William S. Hart, Tom Mix and William Farnum.
|
|
(4) All stars shall consent to be frisked before and after attending
|
|
social functions.
|
|
(5) No alibis shall be allowed within the reservation unless
|
|
accompanied by at least one eyewitness.
|
|
(6) No murder shall be reported to the authorities until all those
|
|
concerned have had opportunity to destroy incriminating evidence.
|
|
(7) Lights out at 8 p.m.
|
|
(8) After 8 o'clock all persons must be found in their homes, dead or
|
|
alive.
|
|
(9) No star shall be permitted to have more than twenty-five nor less
|
|
than twelve accredited suitors in any given season.
|
|
(10) No interview given to the press shall be considered valid unless
|
|
preceded by the conventional "not guilty."
|
|
(11) Deaths from natural causes are forbidden within the reservation
|
|
unless absolutely necessary.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Frank Mayo vs. The Press
|
|
|
|
February 8, 1922
|
|
CHICAGO HERALD-EXAMINER
|
|
Wants Colony Burned
|
|
(New York)--"Burn it up! The Hollywood film colony is a pernicious
|
|
influence. Scatter it, abolish it--something ought to be done. Burn it up--I
|
|
say."
|
|
Frank Mayo, screen and stage star and a resident of Hollywood as a
|
|
member of the Universal Company, made this statement here today.
|
|
"If I express myself bitterly, I am expressing what every self-
|
|
respecting actor in Hollywood feels," he said.
|
|
"The best thing that could happen to moving pictures would be to abolish
|
|
the Hollywood colony.
|
|
"Why don't we actors who have respect for our art and ourselves get
|
|
together and demand a 'clean up' of the undesirables? What good would that
|
|
do? You forget that some of the biggest stars in the business are among the
|
|
undesirables. They have been raised to positions for which they are not
|
|
fitted. They receive enormous salaries. They haven't the brains or desire to
|
|
improve themselves and they spend their money like drunken sailors. They make
|
|
us all suffer. It isn't fair, and I, for one, resent it."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 9, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES HERALD
|
|
Hollywood Up In Arms At Frank Mayo
|
|
An avalanche of indignation followed today in the wake of the statement
|
|
credited to Frank Mayo, film actor, in a New York dispatch yesterday, in
|
|
which the Hollywood motion picture colony was severely criticized.
|
|
Publication of Mayo's interview brought instant protest. The actor's
|
|
ears must have "burned" continually since yesterday if the superstition holds
|
|
good, for all Hollywood "panned" him unmercifully. For the moment he was as
|
|
big a subject for conversation as was the Taylor murder.
|
|
Mayo's unexpected attack on the Hollywood motion picture colony was
|
|
described as "ravings" and "an example of the lengths to which some notoriety-
|
|
seeking individuals will go to get their name in the paper."
|
|
Scores of picture celebrities and studio executives strongly condemn
|
|
Mayo's act. At every studio protests were heard.
|
|
Mayo recently figured in a sensational divorce suit.
|
|
As one prominent star put it, "Persons who live in glass houses should
|
|
not throw stones."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 16, 1922
|
|
Paul Smith, U.S.N.
|
|
OAKLAND TRIBUNE
|
|
(letter to the editor)
|
|
A Sailor's Protest
|
|
While reading a copy of your edition of February 7 we Gobs happened to
|
|
notice the story of Mr. Frank Mayo, entitled "Burning--Hollywood--Scatter
|
|
It." He used the expression his class spent their money "like a drunken
|
|
sailor." We believe this to be a very poor way of comparison. Seems to be
|
|
some mistake, or brainless judgment on his part. When, where did he get the
|
|
phrase? We do not know his position during the war, but only as a movie man.
|
|
But I take it that he was in no service, or he would give his title a second
|
|
thought. I would suggest that Mr. Mayo and all other actors live on navy pay
|
|
awhile and see how drunk they could get.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 11, 1922
|
|
SAN FRANCISCO CALL-POST
|
|
A sweeping denial of an interview credited to him and in which he was
|
|
quoted in dispatches from New York as scathingly scoring the Hollywood film
|
|
colony recommending that it be "wiped out" is contained in a telegram
|
|
received today from Frank Mayo, motion picture star.
|
|
A storm of criticism followed in the wake of the reputed interview with
|
|
Mayo. From various sources in Hollywood he was classed as "an actor seeking
|
|
cheap notoriety." Several organizations, including well known film stars,
|
|
were said to be contemplating action against him. Among these organizations
|
|
are the Motion Picture Directors' Association, the American Society of
|
|
Cinematographers, the Assistant Directors' Association and the Writers'
|
|
Guild.
|
|
Mayo, charging that he was misquoted in New York, wired today as
|
|
follows:
|
|
"Have just seen what was sent to California papers purporting to come
|
|
from me. I never saw such a distorted story in my life. It is true I talked
|
|
to a reporter about my personal appearances in New York, said I did not live
|
|
in Hollywood, but I thought it needed more amusements. Absolutely nothing
|
|
more. Was thunderstruck and heart broken at way personal talk was used. I
|
|
have never made any statement against anybody or any place in my life. Please
|
|
make this denial as strong as possible. Hollywood suits me and I am coming
|
|
back to California and my friends in the profession with the same feeling I
|
|
always entertained."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
March 12, 1922
|
|
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
|
|
Frank Mayo spent several hours in town last week on his way from coast
|
|
to coast. He wasn't a bit happy. He says he was misquoted in a certain
|
|
newspaper, and as a result the world's down on him.
|
|
He was quoted as saying that Hollywood should be cleaned up--or burned
|
|
up--or something, WHICH, he says, he never asserted. There may have been wild
|
|
parties, he admits, but he never was in any of 'em and never saw anything of
|
|
the kind. But the picture people think he's done 'em dirt, and they haven't
|
|
hesitated to let him know it.
|
|
Moreover, deplored poor Mr. Mayo, he got in bad with the navy, they
|
|
having read that he had said the Hollywood folk spent their money "like
|
|
drunken sailors."
|
|
"I've been writing lots of letters," Mr. Mayo said mournfully, "and I'm
|
|
beginning to get myself squared."
|
|
This husky star has been in New York. Circumstances sound like maybe a
|
|
little birdie told him he'd better hie him to the woods and keep real still
|
|
for a long, long time!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tall Tales #1: Walter Underwood
|
|
|
|
February 10, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
|
|
A man believed to be an important witness, if not an actual conspirator
|
|
in the murder of William Desmond Taylor, is in secret custody of the police
|
|
at Topeka, Kansas.
|
|
He admits that he was an intimate acquaintance of Edward F. Sands,
|
|
fugitive valet-secretary to the slain motion picture director, and attended
|
|
many orgies of women, liquor and "dope" in the Taylor bungalow.
|
|
Further admissions indicate that he was with Sands the night of the
|
|
mysterious murder and that two days after it he embezzled more than $1000
|
|
from the Pacific Electric Railroad in Los Angeles to effect the escape of the
|
|
pair.
|
|
The suspect was taken off a Santa Fe train at Topeka, which left Los
|
|
Angeles Monday evening.
|
|
He took his arrest calmly.
|
|
"Well, you've got me," he remarked to Sheriff Robert Miler, who boarded
|
|
the train and grabbed him, "and you've got a big one."
|
|
Then he admitted his name was Walter Underwood and that he was employed
|
|
by the Los Angeles interurban line until his departure.
|
|
"What made you depart?" he was asked.
|
|
"Well, I embezzled more than $1000 and had to go," he said.
|
|
"But my father is worth $300,000 and he will get me out of this scrape."
|
|
"What do you know about the Taylor murder?" asked Sheriff Miler.
|
|
"I knew Sands and Taylor well," he said. "I have been on many parties at
|
|
the Taylor bungalow, where Mabel Normand and other actresses were present.
|
|
(Miss Normand, seen at her home here last night, denied ever knowing
|
|
Underwood or ever having heard his name.)
|
|
"In fact, I was on a wild party with Sands a night or two--well, it was
|
|
so wild and long drawn out I don't recall exactly when it ended."
|
|
"Would the party have been in progress the night of the murder?"
|
|
"Well--say, are you trying to hook me for that murder?" he suddenly
|
|
exclaimed, and refused to talk any more.
|
|
The man admitted that he was acquainted with both William Desmond Taylor
|
|
and Sands, and saw Taylor a week before his death.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 10, 1922
|
|
RICHMOND NEWS LEADER
|
|
"It was a woman who did it," Underwood said when questioned about the
|
|
murder. "I know nothing about it, but it was jealousy that caused it."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 11, 1922
|
|
TOPEKA CAPITAL
|
|
That the celebrated movie actresses whom he declares took part in the
|
|
wild parties at the home of the murdered director never used their real
|
|
names, but were known by nicknames, such as May, Kitty, Babe, or some other
|
|
similar pet name, was the declaration of Underwood.
|
|
"The women I met at Taylor's house were never formally introduced to me
|
|
as Miss Normand, or Miss Minter," Underwood declared.
|
|
"Then how did you meet them?" he was asked. "Didn't some one, a mutual
|
|
acquaintance, introduce you?"
|
|
"No, we just went in, and the rest of the party were there, and during
|
|
the evening I would hear someone call one of the actresses Kitty, or
|
|
something like that. If I had occasion to talk to one I would apply my own
|
|
pet name to her."
|
|
"Then how did you know that some girl whom you met at this fellow
|
|
Taylor's house was really Miss Mabel Normand or Miss Mary Miles Minter?"
|
|
"Oh, I guess I know them when I see them," he replied. "I don't need to
|
|
be told who anyone is around there."
|
|
"Aren't you just trying to kid the public and get a lot of fun out of
|
|
this Taylor and Sands story?"
|
|
"No kidding, I really knew them. Both of them."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 10, 1922
|
|
CHICAGO AMERICAN
|
|
(Topeka)--Undersheriff Carlson said, "Underwood knew both Sands and
|
|
Taylor and he told me that, from what he knew of the latter, he suspects a
|
|
woman committed the murder.
|
|
"Underwood said he belonged to one of the so-called 'Oriental' clubs of
|
|
which Taylor was also a member. My prisoner informs me that he has attended
|
|
parties at the club, and that he several times attended them with Taylor and
|
|
others from the moving picture colony at Hollywood.
|
|
"Did he tell you anything of what went on at those parties?" the
|
|
undersheriff was asked. "Is the man a drug addict?"
|
|
"No," the undersheriff replied, "Underwood is not a 'dope.' He told me
|
|
he was present only at 'open house' parties of the club, and that the worst
|
|
excesses he ever witnessed were those committed by men and women who became
|
|
intoxicated, or who stupefied themselves with drugs, which, he said, they
|
|
took without embarrassment in the presence of other guests.
|
|
"It is a question how much the man really knows. From his conversation
|
|
he either knows something, or he is just seeking publicity."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 10, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES RECORD
|
|
The theory that Walter Underwood knew Edward F. Sands or had any
|
|
knowledge of the crime was flouted by W. T. Maddex, Underwood's step-father.
|
|
"The boy was a lover of notoriety," he said.
|
|
"I am certain that he never knew Sands or Taylor either. He would
|
|
sometimes tell his mother in an off-hand way that he had met some of her
|
|
friends or acquaintances on the street and it would later develop there was
|
|
no truth in his story."
|
|
According to Maddex, Underwood was a lover of adventure.
|
|
Maddex admitted that authorities had made the right arrest in connection
|
|
with the embezzlement charge.
|
|
"We have both told Walter above all things else to be honest," Maddex
|
|
said seriously.
|
|
"I have many times heard his mother tell him that."
|
|
Maddex, although he has the utmost confidence and friendship of Pacific
|
|
Electric officials, by virtue of the fact that he was formerly manager of the
|
|
Redondo line, said he would make no move to soften his step-son's punishment.
|
|
"I had concluded that since Walter is 31 years old he is old enough to
|
|
understand fully what he did. If he was let off this time, it might mean only
|
|
a repetition of the offense."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 11, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
|
|
Walter Underwood frequently had recourse to certain little "pills" to
|
|
quiet his shaking nerves while employed as an assistant cashier at the
|
|
Pacific Electric Railway ticket office.
|
|
This was made known by friends and co-workers of Underwood yesterday.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 12, 1922
|
|
TOPEKA CAPITAL
|
|
A continual examination of Underwood yesterday failed to throw any light
|
|
on the Taylor murder mystery. It is doubtful, Sheriff Miler said, if
|
|
Underwood really knew either Taylor or Sands, although he has insisted all
|
|
along that he did. When asked point blank yesterday if he would know Taylor
|
|
or Sands if they were in the room, Underwood just laughed and refused to
|
|
admit or deny anything.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 13, 1922
|
|
TOPEKA CAPITAL
|
|
Underwood Is a Fake, Local Officers Believe
|
|
That Walter Scott Underwood is telling his story of acquaintances with
|
|
William Desmond Taylor and Edward F. Sands to win notoriety, is the belief of
|
|
Sheriff Miler and other officers.
|
|
"I did not put any stock in his story after I caught him in a lie the
|
|
night I took him from the train," Miler said. "After he had told me he had
|
|
not been in his stepfather's home in the last three weeks, he told a story
|
|
about his being taken to his stepfather's home in Taylor's car less than two
|
|
weeks ago. When I called him on it, he told me I had listened too closely to
|
|
his story. He quit talking about Sands and Taylor then."
|
|
Officers from Los Angeles probably will arrive today to take Underwood
|
|
back to California.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 28, 1922
|
|
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
|
|
(Los Angeles)--Underwood said Taylor lived in constant terror,
|
|
apparently of unseen enemies who menaced him.
|
|
According to Underwood, he met Sands at Seventh and Broadway on the day
|
|
following the death of Taylor.
|
|
"Well, I'm heading south. I probably won't see you again," Underwood
|
|
says Sands told him.
|
|
"Where are you going?" Underwood says he asked.
|
|
"Probably Mexico--possibly South America," Sands replied, according to
|
|
Underwood.
|
|
Underwood said:
|
|
"Some weeks previous to the murder I was sitting alone in a downtown
|
|
cafe when Taylor and a party of friends entered and took the table next to
|
|
mine. He was in a jovial mood, and within the next thirty minutes, observing
|
|
that I was alone, invited me to join his group. I accepted.
|
|
"In the party were a number of women I recognized as having seen on the
|
|
motion picture screen--women that were known the world over as actresses of
|
|
the first degree. I will not give their names, because I do not wish to
|
|
involve any of them in this unpleasant affair.
|
|
"These same women, however, I saw on numerous occasions when I was a
|
|
guest at the Taylor bungalow on Alvarado. I have my own theory regarding the
|
|
slaying and the connection of these people with it, but as to this angle I
|
|
have nothing to say."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 28, 1922
|
|
DENVER POST
|
|
(Los Angeles)--...Undersheriff Eugene Biscailuz, informed of these
|
|
statements, interviewed Underwood in his cell in the city prison and
|
|
dismissed him from consideration.
|
|
"He's having a lot of fun," Biscailuz said.
|
|
(to be continued)
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
NEXT ISSUE:
|
|
Wallace Smith: February 8, 1922
|
|
"The Humor of a Hollywood Murder" Part 5:
|
|
The Kidnaping of Henry Peavey;
|
|
Doug and Mary Run the Gauntlet; The Fourth Estate; Psychic Visions
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
NOTES:
|
|
[1]Mabel Normand's letters (dubbed "Blessed Baby" letters because that was
|
|
allegedly Taylor's term of endearment for her) vanished from Taylor's home
|
|
until they were discovered in the toe of a boot. They were never published.
|
|
Three of Mary Miles Minter's letters to Taylor were published, including the
|
|
famous "I love you" letter.
|
|
[2]These were popular stage plays at that time.
|
|
[3]This is an obvious reference to the third published letter written by Mary
|
|
Miles Minter.
|
|
[4]This was originally reported in the dispatches of Edward Doherty.
|
|
[5]"snickersnee"-- large curved sword, from The Mikado.
|
|
[6]See NEW YORK TIMES (February 6, 1922).
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
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
|
|
uglymouse.css.itd.umich.edu
|
|
in the directory pub/Zines/Taylorology
|