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Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood

Page 52

by William J. Mann


  Sennett, Mack, 45–46, 65, 153, 267, 294, 358–59

  and Normand, 45–46

  and Normand, professional relationship, 93

  Serling, Rod, 423

  Sex, 94

  Seymour, Clarine, 31, 33, 42, 44

  death, 42

  Shanley’s restaurant, 299

  Shawnee Hotel, 322, 355

  “Sheik of Araby, The,” 184

  Shelby, Charlotte, 56–63, 80–83, 116, 204, 228, 286–90

  aka Lilla Pearl Miles, 57

  alibi, 273–74, 400, 412

  bullets, 400

  childhood, 57

  daughter, aspirations for, 56, 57–58

  description, 57–58

  and eyewitnesses, 398

  grand jury testimony, 400–401

  gun, 274, 304, 397, 399, 400, 412

  home, 56

  later life, 421–22

  motive for murder, 397, 410

  and police, 244–48, 272–74, 303–8

  protecting her daughter, 82

  public opinion, 410

  shrewdness, 411

  statement to police, 397

  as suspect, 316, 346, 396

  and Taylor, 61–62, 82–83, 143–44

  and Taylor, jealousy, 362

  Taylor murder, knowledge of, 396

  Taylor murder, reaction to, 211

  and Woolwine, 316, 409

  and Zukor, 58

  Shelby, Margaret, 399, 410

  alcoholic, 410

  grand jury testimony, 400

  Shell-Shocked Sammy, 354

  Shelly, Hazel, 109

  Sheridan, Harriett, 377–78

  Sherman Antitrust Act, 134

  Sins of Hollywood, The, 294, 372

  Slauson, Ruth, 51, 52

  Slim Princess, The, 21

  Smith, Wallace, 223, 242

  Snow, Evelyn F., 251

  Soul of Youth, The, 32, 84–85, 87, 129

  Spoilers, The, 121

  St. Johns, Adela Rogers, 23, 52, 89, 91, 268

  St. Mary of the Angels Episcopal Church, 33

  St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral, 240

  St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 42

  St. Vincent’s Hospital, 73

  Star Is Born, A, 421

  State Theatre, 147

  Stockdale, Carl, 400, 412, 416

  Stone, Marie, 188, 414

  Streetcar Named Desire, A, 421

  Stutesman, Jessie, 423

  Sultan Baths, 77

  Suzanna, 189, 241, 267, 269

  Swaine, Robert T., 348

  Swanson, Gloria, 54, 79, 104, 109, 229, 291

  Sweet, Blanche, 43

  Sweet Lavender, 130

  Tabor Grand Opera House, 129

  Talmadge, Constance, 154, 240–41, 261, 291

  Talmadge, Norma, 146, 154

  Tate, Harry, 266

  Taylor, William Desmond “Billy,” 4–8, 23, 26, 27, 44, 52, 79, 84

  aka Cunningham Deane, 221

  aka William Deane-Tanner, 111, 176, 213, 221, 244

  arrest in Denver, 129

  attack witnessed by Kosloff, 181

  autopsy, 212

  bachelor, 29

  and Ben Lindsey, 32

  blackmail, 413

  body, discovery of, 195–97

  Brunton Studios, 30

  Brunton Studios memorial and eulogy, 33–34

  bullet wound, 201

  burglary, 172

  cause of death, 198, 199, 200–201

  censorship, 30, 85

  change in mood, 172

  childhood, 85

  cooperation with drug enforcement, 91–92

  and critics, 31

  daughter, 213

  description, 29

  director, 6–7

  drugs, 87, 91–92, 242, 252–53

  family, 221, 236

  final visit from Normand, 187–90

  footsteps in alley, 190

  funeral, 240–44

  Furnace, The, 87

  and George James Hopkins, 86–87, 115–17

  and Gibson, 26, 128–30

  and Gibson in Denver, 129–30

  hang-up calls, 172

  homosexuality, 87–88, 222–23, 245

  and Mabel Normand, 23, 47, 90–91, 109, 110

  McFarlan vandalism, 142

  and Minter, 27, 60–63, 175

  and Minter, good-bye, 174–75

  and Minter, turning away, 115

  and Minter’s obsession, 143–44

  mood, 181

  morning routine, 7

  and Motion Picture Directors Association, 29

  murder, and cash, 268–69

  murder of, 7–8

  murder of, cottage industry around, 408–9

  murder scene, 196–97, 198–99, 216

  murder scene, ransacking of, 200

  and Neva Gerber, 87–88

  nightshirt, 108–9

  and Normand, argument, 179–80

  and Normand, drug dealer, 90

  and Normand, jade ornament, 180

  outing, 116–17

  papers, 417

  past, 236

  pawn ticket, theft, 175–76

  Peavey, intervention for, 189

  protectiveness of Hollywood, 85–86

  prowler, 144, 181–82

  quote on film industry, 119

  residence, 5, 6

  sadness, 30

  and Sands, threat, 181

  schedule, 30

  secrets, 34, 213

  shooting, 191–92

  Soul of Youth, The, 32, 84–85, 87

  stranger asking for address, 186–87

  valet. See Peavey, Henry, and Sands, Edward

  Vitagraph, fired by, 54, 130

  and Zukor, 18, 30

  Taylor murder investigation, 211–17

  blackmail, 216

  bullets, 400

  closed, 401

  coroner’s jury, 233–34

  drugs, 236

  eyewitnesses, 410, 412–14

  “find the woman,” 222, 232

  fingerprints, 217

  grand jury, 400

  hair, 315–16, 397, 410, 411

  handkerchief, 247

  love triangle, 234

  and Minter, 235, 246–48

  missing evidence, 314–16

  motive, 284

  nightgown, 234–35, 242, 411

  papers, 238–39

  powder burns, 231, 232

  prowlers, 213

  reopened 1925, 396

  reopened, headlines, 397

  Shelby and eyewitnesses, 398

  spiritualist, 305

  studio shielding suspect, 253

  suspects, 213–14, 216, 231, 235–36, 245, 283–85, 303–8

  Taylor’s papers, 213

  timeline, 214–15

  tip, 216

  witnesses, 215

  Taylorology, 409

  Teapot Dome, 294

  Tempest, The, 75–76, 130

  Thomas, Olive “Ollie,” 18, 24, 30, 31, 33, 40, 123

  death, 24

  funeral, 42–44

  Thompson, Houston, 134, 148

  300 Club, 386

  Tiffany, Manley “Earl,” 108, 111–12, 113, 115, 116, 142, 232, 284

  fired by Taylor, 143

  Tillie, 253

  Tillie’s Punctured Romance, 46

  Titanic, 12

  Tol’able David, 271

  To the Ladies, 370

  Traeger, William, 232

  Traprock, Walter, 205

  Trebilcock, Officer Lester, 51

  Triangle Motion Picture Company, 77

  True Detective Mysteries, 399

  Tufts, Nathan A., 16–17, 122, 134

  extortion, 17, 122

  trial, 147

  verdict, 160

  Twain, Mark, 188

  Twisted by Knaves (Shelby), 421

  United Press, 200

  Urquhart, Mrs. J. C., 334–35

  Valentino, Rudolf, 146,
262

  Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 107

  Van Nuys, Mr. and Mrs. Benton, 116

  Van Trees, Jimmy, 197, 200, 225, 240

  Van Vechten, Carl, 386

  Variety, 14, 103, 126, 148, 153, 156, 225, 249, 250, 328, 329, 361, 384, 390, 391

  Veiled Mystery, The, 69

  Vennum, Florence, 77

  Vidor, King, 408

  Vitagraph, 25, 26, 54, 69, 130

  Wachter, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur, 188

  Wagner, Robert, 393

  Waldorf, 252

  Walker, James J. “Jimmy,” 65, 119, 121–22, 123, 134, 300, 391

  and Marcus Loew, 65

  and Sydney Cohen, 65

  theater convention, 133

  Wallace, Mrs. Neil, 68

  Wallace Apartments, 75, 76

  Waterman, Mrs. Clarence, 105, 120

  Web of the Law, The, 309–10, 312–13, 359

  Webster, Clark E., 294

  Weh, George, 77, 97, 127, 163, 184, 185

  Weinshank, Al, 259–60

  West, James, 338

  West, Nathanael, 75, 76–77

  West Hotel, 131

  Westlake Park, 5

  Wetherell, Gladys, 212

  Wheeler, L. C., 378

  Whitney, Charlotte, 61, 63, 82, 399–400

  Wilcox, Sylvester, 420

  Williams, Clara, 319–20

  Williams, Cyrus J., 75–76

  Williams, Guinn “Big Boy,” 162

  Wilson, Edmund, 386

  Wilson, Woodrow, 40

  Windsor, Claire, 181

  Winn, Jesse, 203, 235, 273, 283, 284, 303

  partner with King, 218–19

  Woburn, Massachusetts, 15

  Women’s Christian Temperance Union, 105

  Women’s City Club, 69

  Woodlawn Cemetery, 42–43

  Woods, A. H., 385

  Woolwine, Thomas Lee, 83, 211–17, 231, 245, 256, 263, 268, 306, 316

  and Charlotte Shelby, 245–46

  illness, 345, 346

  resignation, 346

  Yarrow, Lloyd, 236

  Yellow Contraband, 420

  YMCA, 294

  Zeigler, Thompson, 198, 199, 201, 213

  Ziegfeld, Florenz, 393

  Ziegfeld Follies, 43

  Zukor, Adolph, 11–18, 30, 34, 35–41, 58, 207

  advisory role, 424

  ambition, 36

  America, embracing, 66

  Arbuckle, defense of, 158

  and Arbuckle, 155–57

  Arbuckle films, 279–82, 333–34, 425

  Arbuckle films shelved, 339

  Arbuckle trial, 275–76

  arcades, 12, 13

  Astor Hotel meeting, 261, 263

  Automatic Vaudeville, 35

  block-booking, 132, 389

  Camille preview, 147, 148

  car, 66

  and censorship, 18

  challenges against, 66–67

  cigars, 123

  control of Hays, 292

  cover up of murder, 417

  “Creepy” nickname, 11

  daughter’s wedding, 37

  decision not to go to police, 225–26

  and DeMille, informing of murder, 220–21

  description, 11

  dreams, 12

  dress, 36

  and Eva Lord, 16

  extortion, 17, 122

  Famous Players-Lasky, 11, 13

  Farm, 99, 107

  fast rise, 67

  father, 39

  Feature-length films, 37

  financial situation, 118–19

  flyers about Sands, 252

  and FTC hearings, 348–49

  grandchild, 301–2

  Harding election, 64–65

  Hiram Abrams, firing of, 17

  home, 66

  Hungarian roots, 12, 67, 157–58

  on immorality, 251

  and James J. Walker, 65

  and Jesse Lasky, production code letter, 104

  job of filmmakers, 32

  later life, 424–26

  lawsuit, alienation of affection, 16–17

  legacy, 424–25

  life insurance, 178

  loan from Kuhn, Loeb & Co., 39

  and Loew, 35–40, 132, 300–301

  Loew, competition with, 35, 118–19

  Loew, death of, 394

  and Loew defense, 136

  and Loew rivalry, 146

  marriage, 15, 123–24

  and Minter, 80

  Mishawum Manor, 131–34, 147, 160

  movie theater control, 38

  and MPTOA, 38

  new industry guidelines, 254

  newspapers, 12–13

  organization of exhibitors against, 38

  Orphans Bureau, 157–58

  Paramount Building, 389, 393

  paranoia, 41

  partners, 392

  personal reputation, 37

  and police investigation, 252

  politics, 64–66

  production code, 101–6

  production cuts, 119

  Putnam Building, 12, 118, 119, 298

  religion, 12

  Republican, 66

  scandals, 40–41, 122–23

  and Sidney Cohen, 350

  and Sydney Cohen, 70

  Taylor narrative, change in, 252–53

  tennis, 36

  theater convention appearance, 131–34, 135–37

  theater ownership, 12, 84

  and trustification, 134

  vision about movie industry, 137–38

  wealth, 13

  West Coast trip, 223–26, 249–55

  and Will Hays, 166–71

  Zukor, Lottie, 15, 37, 107, 123, 425

  and Mishawum scandal, 132

  Zukor, Mildred “Mickey,” 37

  wedding, 37

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Photo by Bobby Miller

  WILLIAM J. MANN is the author of Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn; How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood; Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand; and Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, which won the 1999 Lambda Literary Award. He divides his time between Connecticut and Cape Cod.

  Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.

  PHOTOGRAPHIC INSERT

  William Desmond Taylor. “A camouflaged man,” one colleague called him.

  An actor before he was a director, Taylor was fired for unknown reasons soon after completing the lead role in Captain Alvarez (1914).

  In the weeks after Taylor’s murder, the newspapers were filled with accounts of his many aliases. COURTESY BRUCE LONG

  Beautiful, defiant, subversive Mabel Normand was Taylor’s best friend.

  Famous Players–Lasky, the most powerful movie studio of the 1920s, the progenitor of Paramount, with its founders: Jesse Lasky, Adolph Zukor, Samuel Goldwyn, and Cecil B. DeMille. PHOTOFEST

  Marcus Loew was Adolph Zukor’s greatest rival—except the rivalry seemed to go only one way.

  Almost single-handedly, Zukor created the system by which American movies are made, sold, and shown. PHOTOFEST

  Olive Thomas’s accidental drug-related death in 1920 launched half a decade of scandals that forever changed the way Hollywood did business.

  Among the other scandals were the drug addiction and death of popular actor Wallace Reid . . . PHOTOFEST

  . . . and the rape-and-manslaughter trials of Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. Zukor did his best to manage the fallout from the Arbuckle case, just as he did with the Taylor murder.

  Mabel was devastated by Arbuckle’s troubles, remembering happier days when they made comedies for Mack Sennett, such as the famous Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1916). PHOTOFEST

  When the irreverent Mabel spoke, “toads came out of her mouth,” said Blanche Sweet—nobody minded. Everybody loved Mabel.

  COURTESY RAY LONG

  Margaret Gibson was poised to become a huge star in 1916. Then she was caught in a kimono during t
he raid of a brothel in Little Tokyo. COURTESY RAY LONG

  A little thing like being arrested didn’t derail Gibby’s ambition. She’d promised her mother to find a way out of the dire poverty they lived in, just as she often did on the screen. COURTESY RAY LONG

  Mary arriving in New York with her sister Margaret and mother. PHOTOFEST

  Eighteen-year-old Mary Miles Minter lived in a world of fantasy and illusion, one in which she was free of her controlling mother, Charlotte Shelby, and united in love with her “soul mate,” William Desmond Taylor.

  Mary (left) with her mother and her beloved grandmother, Julia Miles. During the summer of 1922, the aged Mrs. Miles traveled back to her home state of Louisiana and threw a gun into a bayou.

  Gibby starred with Taylor in The Riders of Petersham (1914).

  Mary and Gibby attended a 1916 exhibitors’ convention together in Indianapolis. COURTESY BRUCE LONG

  Mary and Taylor pose for the publicity cameras after completing a picture together.

  A rare shot of Taylor, Charlotte Shelby, and Mary together. The look Shelby seems to be giving Taylor pretty well sums up her feelings for the director. From the Los Angeles Express, October 14, 1919. COURTESY OF BRUCE LONG

  George James Hopkins was Taylor’s set designer and his lover. He’d go on to win Oscars for A Streetcar Named Desire, My Fair Lady, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Hello Dolly!. ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES

  Henry Peavey discovered Taylor’s body. He was later kidnapped by journalists trying to scare a confession out of him, an act resulting in charges by the NAACP. CORBIS

  The murder made front-page headlines for weeks, especially in the Hearst papers. COURTESY BRUCE LONG

  Attorney Thomas Lee Woolwine, was protecting the killer. In fact, Woolwine was one of the few honest DAs in Los Angeles before World War II. THOMAS LEE WOOLWINE PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY NICOLE WESTWOOD

  Detective Ed King was a top-notch detective, and might have solved the Taylor case had he not become convinced that his boss, District ED KING PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY KING FAMILY

  Faith and Douglas MacLean, Taylor’s neighbors, in the pergola at Alvarado Court. Faith saw the killer leave Taylor’s bungalow, and her testimony was key to cracking the case. COURTESY BRUCE LONG

  Mary’s love letters to Taylor were splashed all over the newspapers. Rather than humiliating her, the publication of Mary’s missives only made her devotion to Taylor stronger. COURTESY BRUCE LONG

  A newspaper photograph and diagram of the murder house. CORBIS

 

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