Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood
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“Skittery as a waterbug”: Mack Sennett, King of Comedy: The Lively Arts (New York: Doubleday, 1954).
“she refused to have anything”: Telegram to Mack Sennett from Arthur Butler Graham, July 13, 1917, Sennett Collection, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA (hereafter AMPAS).
“never in the least forward”: Rocky Mountain News, February 12, 1922.
“exhausted the incandescence”: Fussell, Mabel.
CHAPTER 7: GIBBY
that the cops were looking for Joe Pepa: Los Angeles Times, November 7, 1920.
“Her life has been one long”: Unsourced clipping, 1914, fan scrapbook kept by Edna G. Vercoe, AMPAS.
“a house of ill fame”: My account is culled from Los Angeles Times, August 26, August 28, August 30, September 14, September 19, September 20, 1917; Los Angeles Herald, September 14, September 19, 1917.
a downtown taproom: Federal Bureau of Investigation, case file on Don Osborn, et al., October 21, 1923 (hereafter FBI case file).
suing the department for $15,863: Los Angeles Times, February 1, 1917.
Suspecting him of smuggling opium: Los Angeles Times, November 6, November 8, 1916.
two Chicago businessmen: Los Angeles Times, December 1, December 5, 1916; Day Book (Chicago), December 1, 1916; Chicago Tribune, October 25, October 26, 1915.
Betty died after her stint: Los Angeles Times, January 4, January 5, January 12, 1917.
“acute yellow atrophy”: Los Angeles death records, Registrar-Recorder, County Clerk.
“he would never be convicted”: Los Angeles Times, September 29, 1917.
“furnished rooms”: Los Angeles city directory, 1917.
The neighborhood was rough: A search of “Commercial Street” in the digital archives of the Los Angeles Times brings up considerable criminal activity. For examples contemporary with Gibby’s arrest, see Los Angeles Times, September 9, September 18, September 21, 1917.
Hahn told Lola Rodriguez: Los Angeles Times, November 11, 1917. Hahn was nearly disbarred over the charge.
“The top was quite low”: Los Angeles Times, September 19, 1917.
“Japanese men entered”: Los Angeles Times, September 19, 1917.
Gibby was cool as an April breeze: My account of Gibby’s arrest comes from the Los Angeles Times, August 26, August 28, August 30, September 14, September 19, 1917; Los Angeles Herald, September 14, September 19, 1917.
“one of the most entertaining”: Los Angeles Times, July 25, 1916.
Gardner came off like a starchy scold: Los Angeles Times, September 19, 1917.
“this little girl”: Los Angeles Herald, September 15, 1917.
“severely arraigned her”: Los Angeles Times, September 19, 1917.
“forming a halo”: Los Angeles Herald, September 15, 1917.
“started to leave the witness stand”: Los Angeles Times, September 28, September 29, 1917.
“Underworld gunmen”: Los Angeles Times, September 18, 1917.
there were whispers: A column in Photo-Play Journal, October 1920, made the connection, which no doubt disturbed Gibby greatly.
rather ingloriously fired: Moving Picture World, April 18, 1914.
CHAPTER 8: MARY
eight-cylinder Cadillac roadster: Details of Mary’s car come from Los Angeles Times, April 18, 1920; Los Angeles Express, May 22, 1920.
“scraps of paper”: Los Angeles Express, September 23, 1920.
They’d just returned: Los Angeles Times, August 14, 1920. The article reported that they’d left on August 13 and were planning to stay for three weeks. That means they would have returned about September 3. According to Leroy Sanderson’s overview of the Taylor case, dated June 13, 1941, Mary’s fake suicide attempt occurred in the “late summer.” Prior to August 13 doesn’t seem to qualify as “late summer.” Also, Charlotte Whitney left Shelby’s employ in the early fall, reported by Sanderson to be “soon after” Mary’s fake suicide stunt. That is why I have placed this incident here.
“as a glorified servant girl”: Los Angeles Herald, August 10, 1923.
“find a suitable millionaire’s”: Los Angeles Times, October 14, 1919.
“when to go to bed”: Interview with Mary Miles Minter by Charles Higham, given to Bruce Long, transcribed by Long (hereafter Higham transcript).
Lilla Pearl Miles: US Census, 1880.
“where Negroes knelt”: Interview with Mary Miles Minter, by Kevin Brownlow, March 27, 1971, King Vidor Papers, AMPAS (hereafter Brownlow interview).
“When I was a baby”: Los Angeles Times, August 10, 1923.
“These things have an effect”: Los Angeles Herald, August 14, 1923.
“They never would let me”: Los Angeles Times, August 15, 1923.
“the little girl with the biggest”: Los Angeles Times, June 27, 1919.
“matured very quickly”: Los Angeles Herald, August 14, 1923; Los Angeles Times, August 15, 1923.
Standing with Kirkwood: The “marriage ceremony” between Mary and Kirkwood was described in grand jury testimony in 1937, as reported in the Los Angeles Herald-Express, May 7, 1937. It is corroborated by a memorandum written by Detective Leroy Sanderson, who had read the letters between Mary and Kirkwood. See Bruce Long, William Desmond Taylor: A Dossier (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2004).
“Heart hungry as I was”: Los Angeles Times, August 15, 1923.
“I recognized them”: Los Angeles Herald, August 14, 1923.
“The man was too wonderful”: Brownlow interview.
“a nice little girl”: Harry Fellows, witness statement, February 9, 1922.
she was May: Mary Miles Minter, statement to the district attorney, February 7, 1922.
“I can’t give you”: Minter, Brownlow interview.
“He reciprocated my love”: Los Angeles Herald, August 14, 1923; Los Angeles Times, August 15, 1923.
“If I ever catch you hanging”: Whitney, witness statement.
“to kiss and fondle her”: Los Angeles Herald, August 10, 1923.
“Do you really mean that?”: I’ve taken the following account from the witness statements of Whitney, November 28, 1925, and Charlotte Shelby, April 9, 1926.
CHAPTER 9: RIVALS AND THREATS
to watch the presidential election returns: New York Tribune, November 3, 1920.
Uptown at the Ritz: Variety, November 9, 1920.
“There is no question”: New York World, October 29, 1920.
Abrams working for United Artists: Variety, January 28, 1921.
“because all the people”: Zukor, Public Is Never Wrong.
“never a danger”: Adolph Zukor, interview by Ezra Stone, William E. Weiner Oral History Library of the American Jewish Committee, NYPL.
“a self-indulgence”: Zukor, Public Is Never Wrong.
“the story of a man”: Gabler, Empire of Their Own.
“his gratitude”: New York Times, November 19, 1926.
On the various affiliated Committees for Better Films: The names of these women were drawn from various papers in the National Board of Review Collection, NYPL.
one of the first policewomen: For O’Grady’s career, see New York Times, August 16, 1918; February 27, 1919; March 9, 1919; September 11, 1920; April 6, 1921.
“must have the power”: New York Times, May 29, 1919.
a tragedy occurred: New York Tribune, November 15, 1920.
“too strenuous”: New York Times, December 14, 1920.
CHAPTER 10: GOOD-TIME GIRL
the Glen Springs Sanatorium: On November 11, 1920, Variety reported: “Mabel Normand is recovering from her nervous breakdown at the Glen Springs Sanatorium near Elmira, N.Y.”
“went to bed when the moon”: New York Morning Telegraph, November 28, 1920.
up to $2,000 a month: The figure comes from US Attorney Tom Green, in New York American, February 24, 1922.
Once, on a train: Berg, Goldwyn.
“Look at him”: Frances Marion, Off with Their Heads: A Serio-Comic Tale of H
ollywood (New York: Macmillan, 1972).
“a movie star at Seventh and Vermont”: Julia Brew’s story comes from Fussell, Mabel. Although she is quoted as saying “a movie star at Seventh and Ventura,” Mabel actually lived at Seventh and Vermont, so I have changed the quote accordingly.
“Mabel Normand has a pair of callused”: New York Morning Telegraph, October 17, 1920.
CHAPTER 11: LOCUSTS
They’d gotten to know each other: Testimony, United States vs. Don Osborn, et al., District Court of the United States, Southern District of Ohio (1923) (hereafter Osborn, 1923).
Williams renewed his contract: Details of Williams’s contract renewal with Pathé are stated in his biographical entry in William Allen Johnston, Motion Picture Studio Directory, 1921 (New York: Motion Picture News, 1921).
He was six foot three: Description of Don Osborn comes from the FBI records of the case against him, his World War I draft registration, and newspaper photographs. Although the FBI description says that Osborn had brown eyes, I’ve trusted the draft registration, which says they were blue, since it was compiled during an in-person interview.
When he was nineteen, Osborn had masterminded: Los Angeles Times, March 8, 1914.
suing for child support: FBI case file, November 2, 1923.
registered for the draft: Registration card, Don F. Osborn, June 5, 1917.
name would not be found: The Triangle records held by the Wisconsin Historical Society and the New York Public Library were exhaustively checked for any mention of Osborn.
“drinking parties”: George Weh, statement, August 2, 1923, FBI case file.
“the prettiest working girl in the city”: Chicago Tribune, March 31, 1912. Also see March 3, 1912; December 11, 1913; US Census, 1900, 1910, Chicago.
“the kind of man who liked to work”: Mabelle Osborn (Rae Potter) to Don Osborn, July 31, 1923, FBI case file.
“longed for the love”: Los Angeles Times, May 14, May 15, 1919.
the opening of the Mission Theatre: Los Angeles Times, November 14, 1920; December 2, 1920; Los Angeles Express, December 11, 1920.
CHAPTER 12: THE MADDEST WOMAN
“I am very, very happy”: Mary Miles Minter to Adolph Zukor, October 11, 1920, Zukor Collection, AMPAS.
“until the end of my life”: Higham transcript.
“that halfbreed Indian”: Shelby, witness statement. Charlotte Whitney also recalled the incident in her statement, though she placed it in Mary’s dressing room. Shelby’s statement, by and large, is more accurate, so I’ve gone with her account. This anecdote is sometimes told with Shelby driving the car herself. But in her interview with Kevin Brownlow, Mary reported that her mother didn’t drive.
“big, fast roadster”: Los Angeles Examiner, December 26, 1929.
“Who is there?”: Details of this encounter come from a long interview with Charlotte Shelby published in the Los Angeles Examiner, December 26, 1929.
Charlotte Whitney noticed: Whitney, witness statement.
CHAPTER 13: IMPUDENT THINGS
“with all the trimmin’s”: Los Angeles Express, November 24, 1920.
“The heads of the motion picture”: Los Angeles Express, November 1, 1920.
Greeting him was his valet: My description of Sands comes from the Daily Bulletin, February 7, 1922, a publication of the Los Angeles Police Department; the more detailed police description sent to the press, as published in the Los Angeles Times, February 8, 1922; Sands’s World War I draft registration card; and Earl Tiffany, witness statement, February 17, 1922. Mary’s description comes from the Higham transcript, as well as the Brownlow interview. There are some contradictions in these accounts. The Bulletin description, presumably provided by people who knew Sands, reported him as having a “light complexion.” But Tiffany called Sands “ruddy,” which he clarified to mean “healthy looking, very healthy.” Tiffany also reported that Sands had blond hair, where the Bulletin and the draft registration both state he had brown hair, making me question Tiffany’s reliability. I have gone with the description provided by the Bulletin.
had dynamited a hill: Los Angeles Herald, July 17, 1920.
And in one fantasy: Hopkins described this scene in his unpublished memoir, “Caught in the Act,” shown to me by Charles Higham.
“[Taylor] was always seeking”: Philadelphia Inquirer, February 4, 1922.
“The men would lie in silk”: This comes from one of Edward Doherty’s sensational syndicated dispatches, as in the New York Daily News, February 9, 1922.
“visiting the queer places”: Philadelphia Inquirer, February 4, 1922.
how his heart had raced: Hopkins, “Caught in the Act.”
the director’s melancholic moods: Los Angeles Examiner, February 6, 1922.
other gay couplings: For context regarding the gay subculture in Hollywood at the time, see William J. Mann, Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910–1969 (New York: Viking, 2001).
CHAPTER 14: DOPE FIENDS
“Looking like the Mabel”: Los Angeles Times, December 24, 1920.
“How did you do it?”: Photoplay, August 1921.
interrupted by a knock at the back door: There is some controversy over when the anecdote of Taylor ejecting Mabel’s dealer from her house actually occurred—and indeed, whether it occurred at all. I believe it did, as it was reported by a well-respected US Attorney, Tom Green. I also believe that it occurred sometime in very late 1920 or very early 1921, as Green said that Taylor had told him that the actress friend he was trying to protect “had been presumed to be cured of the drug habit”; New York American, February 24, 1922. This would place the incident after Mabel’s stay at Watkins Glen. Green would tell reporters soon after Taylor’s murder that his meeting with the director had been about “a year and a half” earlier—which, if taken literally, would place it before Watkins Glen. So I have presumed Green was offering only a rough estimate, and I have accordingly placed the incident here, soon after Mabel’s return to Los Angeles in December 1920. See also Los Angeles Examiner, February 24, 1922.
Adela Rogers St. Johns recalled: Fussell, Mabel.
By going to Green: Eyton’s identity is deduced here by statements later made by Green. A man came to his office from “a certain industrial plant” where William D. Taylor was employed; Los Angeles Examiner, February 24, 1922. This clearly refers to Famous Players–Lasky, and so the man, as Bruce Long notes in his Dossier, must either have been studio chief Jesse Lasky or general manager Charles Eyton. From my study of Lasky’s letters, this does not appear to be something the studio chief would have done himself. Such a chore would more likely have been delegated to Eyton, who was in charge of studio management.
“It was then Green learned”: New York American, February 24, 1922; Los Angeles Examiner, February 24, 1922.
“Before she’s through”: Chicago American, February 11, 1922. Although this report, by the notoriously sensational Wallace Smith, did not specifically state that the federal agent investigating the drug gang in Hollywood was associated with Tom Green, it seems very likely that he must have been, as it would have been at the same time as Green’s investigation.
“If I had been a farmer”: Sennett, King of Comedy.
“a big romantic comedy”: Los Angeles Record, February 3, 1921.
Her deal was for: Given that Molly O’ was made in the spring of 1921, and Mabel’s long-term contract with Sennett, preserved in the Sennett Collection, AMPAS, was not agreed to until July (and did not commence until September 15), the deal for Molly O’ must have been separate. Mabel was clearly not working under contract when she made Molly O’. Some contemporary reports (such as Variety, February 11, 1921) indicated that the deal with Sennett was for “a number of productions.” But that agreement would not be concluded until sometime in the summer, when Mabel decided that she was comfortable signing with Sennett long-term again. The Variety report also gave the million-dollar figure.
CHAPTER 15: GREATER THAN LOVE
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“very modern and daring”: Osborn described the project he and Gibby wanted to produce in court depositions, Osborn, October 20, 1923.
Although Elsie dies early: The plot of Greater Than Love was outlined in the Chicago Daily Tribune, August 3, 1921. The film appears to be lost.
But Osborn was feeling: In his court deposition, Osborn described banks “discouraging independent production on the grounds of theaters being held by trusts.” Other would-be producers described similar frustrations, as Senator Jimmy Walker would describe in his speech to exhibitors in June 1921. Wid’s Daily, June 3, 1921.
“made inquiries about setting up”: Unsourced clipping, October 10, 1921, Patricia Palmer file, NYPL. Gibby said she had prepared outlines and budgets, but the producer (who she did not name, though it seems likely, given the timing, to have been Read) did not back her. This must have been the same project Osborn mentioned in the court record. As Gibby also stated to the reporter that she had brought forward the proposal on her own, her partners having “not come through,” I have concluded that Osborn dropped the ball, given his preoccupation with Rose and his emerging blackmail schemes.
CHAPTER 16: THE SEX THRILL
At his five-hundred-acre estate: Zukor’s estate and trap gun were described in the New York Times, May 3, 1921.
“the devil and 500 non-Christian Jews”: Variety, December 31, 1920.
“I do not ask autocratic”: Variety, March 4, 1921.
“The sex thrill”: Various newspaper reports, including the Mansfield (OH) News, January 18, 1921; Kingston (NY) Daily Freeman, January 19, 1921; and Uniontown (PA) Daily News Standard, January 19, 1921.
the California legislature: Los Angeles Times, January 8, 1921.
“No picture showing sex attraction”: Variety, February 25, 1921. The trade paper published the complete code of rules as provided by Lasky.
“an attack upon the sanctity”: W. D. McGuire to Harry Durant, Famous Players–Lasky, June 13, 1921, National Board of Review Collection, NYPL (hereafter NBR).