CAUSE: Snider rang Dorothy and told her he needed to discuss a financial settlement with her. Dorothy, naïve and kind-hearted and with $1,000 to give to Snider in her handbag, went to the house she had shared with him at 10881 Clarkson Road, West Los Angeles. There Snider tied her up, raped, tortured and sodomised her before blowing her head and tip of her left index finger off with a 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun. He had intercourse with her corpse before turning the weapon on himself. Their bodies lay undiscovered until 11pm that night because the other people in the house, a doctor and two women, thought they wanted privacy. In her Playmate Data sheet, in which the models reveal their likes and dislikes, Dorothy listed her major turn-off as “jealous people”. On August 19, Dorothy’s remains were cremated and she was buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park, 1218 Glendon Avenue, Los Angeles 90024. A bizarre footnote: on January 1, 1989, Peter Bogdanovich married Dorothy Stratten’s younger sister, Louise who was born on May 8, 1968, the year after Bogdanovich’s own daughter.
FURTHER READING: The Killing Of The Unicorn: Dorothy Stratten 1960–1980 – Peter Bogdanovich (London: Futura 1985).
Margaret Sullavan
Born May 16, 1909
Died New Year’s Day, 1960
Suicidally depressed actress. Born in Norfolk, Virginia, the daughter of a wealthy stockbroker, Margaret Brooke Sullavan was a sickly infant who later attended private schools, where she gained a reputation as a wild child. She made her Broadway début in A Modern Virgin in 1931. On Christmas Day 1931 she married Henry Fonda at the Kernan Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland, but they quickly separated and were divorced in 1933, the year she signed with Universal. Her film début came in Only Yesterday (1933) as Mary Lane. On November 25, 1934, in Yuma, Arizona, she married director William Wyler but they divorced on March 13, 1936. On November 15 of that year she married agent Leland Hayward, by whom she had three children: Brooke (b. July 4, 1937), Bridget (b. 1938, d. New York, October 1960, by her own hand) and William Leland (b. 1941). Both Bridget and Bill would spend time confined in mental institutions. Sullavan’s films included: Little Man, What Now? (1934) as Lammchen Pinneberg, So Red The Rose (1935) as Valette Bedford, Next Time We Love (1936) as Cicely Tyler, Three Comrades (1938) as Pat Hollmann, The Shopworn Angel (1938) as Daisy Heath, The Shop Around The Corner (1940) as Klara Novak, Appointment For Love (1941) as Jane Alexander, So Ends Our Night (1941) as Ruth Holland, Back Street (1941) as Rae Smith, Cry Havoc (1943) as Lieutenant Mary Smith and her final flick No Sad Songs For Me (1950) as Mary Scott. She and Hayward were divorced in 1948 and in 1950 she married British industrialist Kenneth Arthur Wagg.
CAUSE: She died of a barbiturate overdose aged 50 in New Haven, Connecticut. A coroner later ruled her death accidental.
FURTHER READING: Haywire – Brooke Hayward (New York: Bantam, 1978).
Gloria Swanson
(GLORIA JOSEPHINE MAE SWENSON)
Born March 27, 1898
Died April 4, 1983
Forever Norma Desmond. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Swanson was a silent screen actress who for a time successfully managed the transition to the talkies. She began her career as Mack Sennett’s leading lady at his Keystone studio. It was thanks to Cecil B. DeMille that she became a star in Male And Female (1919). She came to her wedding bed on her 18th birthday with fellow actor Wallace Beery. A virgin on her wedding day, the night that followed left Swanson feeling brutalised and physically hurt. After intercourse, Beery fell asleep; Swanson passed the rest of her wedding night on the floor of the bathroom, using towels to ease her pain and to staunch the bleeding that Beery’s aggression had caused. On December 13, 1918, Beery received a divorce on the grounds of desertion. In 1928 Swanson received her first Academy Award nomination for Sadie Thompson. The same year, bankrolled by her lover, Presidential father Joseph P. Kennedy, she made Queen Kelly. It was directed by Erich von Stroheim, who wasted immense amounts of money on the feature; it flopped. In 1934 she announced her retirement from the screen. She made a comeback in 1941 in Father Takes A Wife but it would be nine years again before she was back in movie houses. The wait was worthwhile, as it produced the superb Sunset Blvd. (1950), a film that earned her another Oscar nomination. (She didn’t win.) She lapsed back into retirement, making the occasional foray into film-making and promoting health foods. (She was a vegetarian.) It was Swanson’s affair with Joe Kennedy (they met for the first time in Renaissance Room of the Savoy Plaza Hotel on 5th Avenue and 59th Street on November 11, 1927) that wrecked her third marriage, to Henri, Marquis de la Falaise. (He went on to marry Constance Bennett.) One day aboard the family yacht the two lovers were espied by the then 11-year-old Jack Kennedy. He was so horrified by what he had witnessed that he jumped overboard and his father had to rescue him. By 1929 Joe was tiring of his movie star mistress and ended the affair. Afterwards, she discovered that a fur coat he had given her had actually been paid for out of her money. Uniquely, Swanson played herself in two films 51 years apart! They were Hollywood in 1923 and Airport 1975 (1974). Lapsing back into retirement she commented: “Since there is no more live television it’s getting harder to prove you’re not dead.” She was a gifted sculptress and exhibited in London.
CAUSE: She died in her sleep aged 85 at The New York Hospital, 525 East 68th Street, New York City. She had been admitted on March 20, supposedly to treat a minor coronary. The following day she was cremated at Trinity Church Crematory and her ashes interred in the Church of Heavenly Rest, New York City.
FURTHER READING: Swanson On Swanson – Gloria Swanson (London: Michael Joseph, 1980).
T
Sydney Tafler
Born July 31, 1916
Died November 8, 1979
Working-class spiv. Born in London, Tafler made his stage début aged 20, appearing in his first film six years later in The Young Mr Pitt (1942). Although a stalwart of British films, Tafler never became a star. He carved a niche as a small-time villain, someone you wouldn’t want to bump into down a dark alley. In 1941 he married RADA-trained actress Joy Shelton (b. London, June 3, 1922, d. January 28, 2000, from emphysema) who was groomed for stardom by Gainsborough Studios before being unceremoniously dumped. She concentrated on raising their three children and only really resurfaced once they were adults. She converted to Judaism when she married Tafler. She made her last film in 1962, HMS Defiant. Tafler’s films included: Uneasy Terms (1948) as Maysin, London Belongs To Me (1948), It Always Rains On Sunday (1948) as Morry Hyams, Passport To Pimlico (1949) as Fred Cowan, Once A Sinner (1950) as Jimmy Smart, Mystery Junction (1951), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) as Clayton, Hotel Sahara (1951) as Corporal Pullar, The Galloping Major (1951) as Mr Leon, Assassin For Hire as Antonio Riccardi, Wide Boy as Benny, Venetian Bird (1952) as Boldesca, Time Gentlemen Please! (1952) as Joseph Spink, Emergency Call (1952) as Brett, Blind Man’s Bluff (1952) as Rikki Martin, There Was A Young Lady (1953) as Johnny, Operation Diplomat (1953) as Wade, Johnny On The Run (1953) as Harry, The Sea Shall Not Have Them (1954) as Corporal Robb, The Saint’s Return (1954) as Max Lennar, Dial 999 (1955) as Alf Cressett, A Kid For Two Farthings (1955) as Madame Rita, The Cockleshell Heroes (1955) as the Policeman, Reach For The Sky (1956) as Robert Desoutter, Fire Maidens Of Outer Space (1956) as Dr Higgins, Carve Her Name With Pride (1958) as Potter, No Kidding (1960) as Mr Rockbottom, Make Mine Mink (1960) as Mr Spanager, Let’s Get Married (1960) as Pendle, The Bulldog Breed (1960) as the owner of a speedboat, Sink The Bismarck! (1960), Carry On Regardless (1961) as a strip club manager, Alfie (1966) as Frank and The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) as Liparus Captain. Not long before his death he and his wife toured in a production of Barefoot In The Park.
CAUSE: He died of cancer in London aged 63.
Constance Talmadge
Born April 19, 1898
Died November 23, 1973
‘Dutch’. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Constance Alice Talmadge was the youngest of the three Talmadge sisters. Their father, Fred (b. Plainville, Connecticut, May 1868), was an alcoholic gambler and their mothe
r, Peg (b. Spain 1861), the archetypal stage mother. She believed in and practised the philosophy “Get the money and get comfortable,” meaning that although love was fine and dandy, jewellery was more substantive. As a child 5́ 7˝ Talmadge was nicknamed ‘Dutch’ because she was very tubby. She began making films in 1914 and, after appearing in innumerable short comedies, came to prominence in D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance (1916) as The Mountain Girl/Marguerite de Valois. With the help of her brother-in-law, Joseph Schenck, her career took off. She was placed in highly successful sophisticated comedies, which meant she was never a rival to her more famous sister, who specialised in melodramas. On Boxing Day 1920 she eloped to Greenwich, Connecticut, with John T. Pialogiou who made tobacco. The ceremony was a double wedding with her best friend Dorothy Gish, who married her leading man James Rennie. Mrs Talmadge was furious when she learned of the wedding and so were the Gishes, who accused Constance of leading Dorothy on. Neither marriage was to last. On June 1, 1922, Constance divorced her husband on the grounds of mental cruelty. With the advent of sound films, she retired because her strong Brooklyn accent was unsuitable for audiences. She never made a talkie. Her films included: Uncle Bill (1914) as Gladys, Our Fairy Play (1914), The Moonstone Of Fez (1914) as Winifred Osborne, The Mysterious Lodger (1914) as Lucy Lane, In The Latin Quarter (1914) as Marion, In Bridal Attire (1914) as Connie, Forcing Dad’s Consent (1914) as Connie, Fixing Their Dads (1914), Buddy’s First Call (1914), Buddy’s Downfall (1914), The Young Man Who Figgered (1915) as Connie, A Study In Tramps (1915) as Connie, Spades Are Trumps (1915) as Connie, The Master Of His House (1915) as Connie, the title role in The Lady Of Shalott (1915), Captivating Mary Carstairs (1915), Can You Beat It? (1915), Burglarious Billy (1915) as Connie, Billy’s Wager (1915) as Connie, Billy The Bear Tamer (1915) as Connie, Bertie’s Stratagem (1915) as Connie, The Missing Links (1916) as Laura Haskins, The Microscope Mystery (1916) as Jessie Barton, The Matrimaniac (1916) as Marna Lewis, Scandal (1917) as Beatrix, Betsy’s Burglar (1917) as Betsy Harlow, Up The Road With Sallie (1918) as Sallie Waters, Sauce For The Goose (1918) as Kitty Constable, Mrs Leffingwell’s Boots as Mrs Leffingwell, Good Night, Paul (1918) as Mrs Richard, Romance And Arabella (1919) as Arabella Cadenhouse, Who Cares? (1919) as Joan Ludlow, Experimental Marriage as Suzanne Ercoll, Happiness A La Mode (1919) as Barbara Townsend, The Veiled Adventure (1919) as Geraldine Barker, A Virtuous Vamp as Gwendolyn Armitage, Good References (1920) as Mary Wayne, Two Weeks (1920) as Lillums, In Search Of A Sinner (1920) as Georgianna Chadbourne, Dangerous Business as Nancy Flavelle, Wedding Bells (1921) as Rosalie Wayne, Lessons In Love (1921) as Leila Calthorpe, Mama’s Affair (1921) as Eve Orrin, Polly Of The Follies (1922) as Polly Meacham, East Is West (1922) as Ming Toy, Dulcy (1923) as Dulcy, The Dangerous Maid (1923) as Barbara Winslow, Learning To Love (1925) as Patricia Stanhope, Her Sister From Paris (1925) as Helen Weyringer, Venus Of Venice (1927) as Carlotta, Breakfast At Sunrise (1927) as Madeleine and Venus (1929) as Princess Beatrice Doriani. Following her divorce, she married three more times. In February 1926 she married Captain Alistair MacIntosh in California, divorcing him in Edinburgh on October 15, 1927, on the grounds of misconduct. On May 8, 1929, at the Beverly Hills home of her sister Natalie and brother-in-law Buster Keaton, she married Townsend Netcher, an heir to a Chicago department store. That marriage also ended in divorce. In 1939 she married a New York stockbroker called Walter Michael Giblin (d. New York, May 1, 1964).
CAUSE: She died aged 75 in Los Angeles, California, from pneumonia. She was buried alongside her sisters in Corridor G-7 of the Family Room, in the Abbey of the Psalms, of Hollywood Memorial Park, 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood, California 90038.
Norma Talmadge
Born May 26, 1895
Died December 24, 1957
‘The lady of the great indoors’. Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, she was the eldest of the Talmadge sisters, all of whom their mother had tried to ‘abort’ by riding the dodgems at Coney Island. When Norma was 17, her mother noticed an advertisement from a photographer who was paying girls $5 a day to pose for sheet music covers. Peg landed the job for her 5́ 4˝ daughter, whose age she dropped to 14, and then began hawking her picture around film studios. Within four years Norma was a star with her own production company in New York at 320 East 48th Street and taking home $1,000 a week. Her early films included: The Household Pest (1909), Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1910), In Neighboring Kingdoms (1910), Love Of Chrysanthemum (1910), Paola And Francesca (1911), A Tale Of Two Cities (1911), Forgotten (1911), Her Hero (1911), The Lovesick Maidens Of Cuddleton (1912), Fortunes Of A Composer (1912), Casey At The Bat (1912), Captain Barnacle’s Messmate (1912), Mrs Carter’s Necklace (1912), Mrs ’Enry ’Awkins (1912), Counsel For The Defense (1912), Captain Barnacle’s Waif (1912), Captain Barnacle, Reformer (1912), Wanted, A Stronghand (1913), O’Hara, Squatter And Philosopher (1913), O’Hara As A Guardian Angel (1913), His Official Appointment (1913), Extremities (1913), 'Arriet’s Baby (1913), Just Show People (1913), O’Hara’s Goldchild (1913), The Silver Cigarette Case (1913), The Doctor’s Secret (1913), His Silver Bachelorhood (1913), Sunshine And Shadows (1914), Sawdust And Salome (1914), Politics And The Press (1914), Old Reliable (1914), His Little Page (1914), Goodbye Summer (1914), Miser Murray’s Wedding Present (1914), Fogg’s Millions (1914), Captivating Mary Carstairs (1915) as Mary Carstairs, Janet Of The Chorus (1915), Elsa’s Brother (1915), Going Straight (1916) as Grace Remington, Fifty-Fifty (1916) as Naomi and the film that made her a star, Panthea (1917), as Panthea Romoff. The producer, Joseph Schenck, was determined to get Norma into bed; her mother was equally determined that nothing of the sort should occur. On October 20, 1916, he persuaded Irving Berlin to take Mrs Talmadge to the theatre. In the meantime he and Norma eloped to Connecticut. When Mrs Talmadge saw a screening of Panthea she told Schenck that perhaps he wouldn’t make such a bad son-in-law after all. “I’m glad you feel that way,” he replied. “I’ve been your son-in-law for two months already.” In 1922 Talmadge moved her studio to Hollywood. Her films were aimed predominantly at a female audience and included: Poppy (1917) as Poppy Destinn, By Right Of Purchase (1918) as Margot Hughes, De Luxe Annie (1918) as Julie Kendal, Her Only Way as Lucille Westbrook, The New Moon (1919) as Princess Marie Pavlovna, The Way Of A Woman as Nancy Lee, She Loves And Lies (1920) as Marie Callender, The Branded Woman (1920) as Ruth Sawyer, Passion Flower (1921) as Acacia, The Wonderful Thing (1921) as Jacqueline Laurentine Boggs, Love’s Redemption (1921) as Jennie Dobson, The Eternal Flame (1922) as Duchesse de Langeais, The Voice From The Minaret (1923) as Lady Adrienne Carlyle, Secrets (1924) as Mary Carlton, The Only Woman (1924) as Helen Brinsley, Graustark (1925) as Princess Yetive, Kiki (1926) as Kiki, Camille (1927) as Marguerite Gautier (Camille), The Dove (1927) as Dolores, The Woman Disputed (1928) as Mary Ann Wagner, New York Nights (1929) as Jill Deverne and her final film, Du Barry, Woman Of Passion (1930) as Jeannette Vaubernier/Madame Du Barry. Her voice was not suitable for talkies and she retired from film-making when the silent era ended. Between 1922 and her retirement she earned an estimated $5 million. In 1927 hers were the first footprints enshrined at Grauman’s Chinese Theater at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard, Central Hollywood. That same year, she and her sisters opened a real estate development in San Diego, California, called Talmadge Park. It is about a mile south-west of the San Diego State University campus and has streets named after each sister. On April 14, 1934, she divorced Schenck and married entertainer George Jessel nine days later. She joined the cast of Jessel’s radio show, hoping the exposure would kick-start her film career. In fact, it had almost the opposite effect and the show was cancelled. She and Jessel were divorced on August 11, 1939. On December 4, 1946, she married Beverly Hills doctor Carvel James in Las Vegas. She has been commemorated in many ways. Talmadge Street in Hollywood is named after Norma and Constance. Norma Place in West Hollywood, California, is also named for her.
Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries Page 165
