A fascinated public tried to solve the case on their own, using diagrams like these published in newspapers. Note that in the diagram of the courtyard (below), the MacLean bungalow should not be opposite Taylor’s but rather immediately catercornered to it. COURTESY BRUCE LONG
Edward Sands, aka Edward Snyder, Taylor’s valet with a criminal past. Sands was the investigators’ first suspect, and his image went out to police stations across the country. COURTESY BRUCE LONG
The Taylor murder and the other scandals weren’t just grist for the tabloid press. They also ignited furious debate about Hollywood’s role in influencing the nation’s values. COURTESY BRUCE LONG
HOLLYWOOD PHOTOGRAPHS
Will H. Hays was a little man with a powerful voice and an impeccable résumé, brought in by Zukor and others to convince the public that the film industry was serious about reform. But Hays, speaking here at the Famous Players–Lasky studio (Cecil B. DeMille to his right and Jesse Lasky behind him) and at the Hollywood Bowl during a barnstorming tour of the film colony in 1922 (left), was never going to be content as Zukor’s puppet.
SPRINGFIELD HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Gibby tried to make herself a star by producing her own pictures, as here in The Web of the Law with Ranger Bill Miller.
But by 1923 most of her income came from scams she pulled with her associates Rose Putnam, Don Osborn, and Blackie Madsen, who got caught blackmailing millionaire John Bushnell. ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES/FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
Hays and Zukor eventually had to come to terms. An absolute monarch until 1922, Zukor never quite got used to sharing power. PHOTOFEST
Zukor kept a map not unlike this diagram on his desk (left), keeping track of his theaters and those of his rivals. Zukor’s crown jewel, the Paramount, opened in 1926. Directly opposite was Marcus Loew’s State, which Zukor made sure to overshadow. The Paramount stood thirty-five stories; its opulent interior seated three thousand. PHOTOFEST
Tinseltown tried to destroy Mabel, but she escaped to New York, where she became a fashion trendsetter and habitué of literary salons and speakeasies.
Mary wasn’t as lucky. Retiring from the screen, she faced a lifetime of legal battles and humiliations. Reporters gleefully noted the increasing size of the once-diminutive actress.
Despite all her setbacks, Gibby never quite gave up hope, keeping head shots on hand even into middle age, just in case the studios ever called. COURTESY RAY LONG
Gibby’s last home, hidden behind overgrown foliage in the Hollywood Hills. COURTESY RAY LONG
Adolph Zukor lived to be 103, never revealing all he had done to contain the scandals of the 1920s. PHOTOFEST
ALSO BY WILLIAM J. MANN
Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand
How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood
Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn
Edge of Midnight: The Life of John Schlesinger
Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood
Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines
CREDITS
Cover photographs: author’s collection;
Photofest (William Desmond Taylor); Los Angeles Public Library (street)
Cover design by Milan Bozic
COPYRIGHT
TINSELTOWN. Copyright © 2014 by William J. Mann. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
ISBN: 978-0-06-224216-7
EPub Edition October 2014 ISBN 9780062242228
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Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood Page 53
