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Taylorology Issue 40
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* T A Y L O R O L O G Y *
* A Continuing Exploration of the Life and Death of William Desmond Taylor *
* *
* Issue 40 -- April 1996 Editor: Bruce Long bruce@asu.edu *
* TAYLOROLOGY may be freely distributed *
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CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:
Taylor in the British Army
Personal Appearances by Silent Stars in the Weeks after the Murder:
Monte Blue, Hobart Bosworth, Francis X. Bushman and Beverly Bayne,
Mary Carr, Lew Cody, Viola Dana, Miss DuPont, Elsie Ferguson,
Pauline Frederick, Hoot Gibson, Lillian Gish, Mildred Harris,
Hazel Howell, Louise Lovely, May McAvoy, Martha Mansfield,
Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Marie Prevost, Herbert Rawlinson,
Will Rogers, Ruth Roland, Gladys Walton, Claire Windsor
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What is TAYLOROLOGY?
TAYLOROLOGY is a newsletter focusing on the life and death of William Desmond
Taylor, a top Paramount film director in early Hollywood who was shot to
death on February 1, 1922. His unsolved murder was one of Hollywood's major
scandals. This newsletter will deal with: (a) The facts of Taylor's life;
(b) The facts and rumors of Taylor's murder; (c) The impact of the Taylor
murder on Hollywood and the nation; (d) Taylor's associates and the Hollywood
silent film industry in which Taylor worked. Primary emphasis will be given
toward reprinting, referencing and analyzing source material, and sifting it
for accuracy.
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Taylor in the British Army
Below are some press items which appear to be substantially accurate
regarding Taylor's military service. Also, there were several photos
published in the press. In one of them, there are four N.C.O.'s outside a
tent; one is Taylor and the others are identified by name, one of them being
Towt, who is interviewed below. The unit is indicated as Company 5, 5th
Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. In another photo, Taylor as an N.C.O. is
standing before a formation of black soldiers.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
July 10, 1918
LOS ANGELES HERALD
A farewell banquet was tendered William D. Taylor, the well known
director, by members of the Motion Picture Directors' association at the the
Athletic club.
The dinner was in honor of Mr. Taylor's enlistment in the British army.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 7, 1922
LOS ANGELES TIMES
...Dr. H. M. S. Maddock, who was the examining physician for the Canadian
recruiting mission throughout the period of the war, and who is a Los Angeles
resident, examined William Desmond Taylor for Canadian [British] army
service.
Facts obtained from Dr. Maddock concerning William Desmond Taylor's
enlistment coincide with the records of W. D. Taylor found in the London War
Office. The London dispatch states the enlistment of W. D. Taylor of 1127
Orange Street, Los Angeles, was attested to in Chicago, July 3, 1918.
Dr. Maddock, though he does not remember the date, stated last night
that it was a very hot day in July, 1918, when William Desmond Taylor entered
the recruiting office in the San Fernando Building for his medical
examination.
"I remember the man well," he said. "I did not usually examine
personally, the recruits. Most of them were ordinary men, such as we see
daily on the streets, many shabbily dressed. Mr. Taylor was different from
the ordinary man, so I examined him personally. He was a man of fine
physique for his age, one of the best physical specimens I had yet seen.
"Mr. Taylor, as was the rule, was then sent to San Francisco for a
second examination. He did not accompany the other recruits, whose railroad
fare was always paid by the recruiting mission. He paid his own fare to San
Francisco and went alone. No one had accompanied him to the Los Angeles
recruiting office on the day of his enlistment. He was alone.
"The war record shows he was entered into the service at Chicago on July
3, 1918, I am told. That is not unusual for the recruits, after passing
examinations at San Francisco, were sent either to Vancouver or to Chicago
for their final medical examinations. At the place where this third medical
examination is passed, the recruit is then taken into the service. I think
Mr. Taylor went to Chicago"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
August 21, 1918
HANTS JOURNAL, Windsor, N.S.
There arrived on Monday evening's [August 19] express from the West, 183
B.E.F. recruits. The boys appeared happy at reaching the I.R. [Intercolonial
Railway] Depot here for many of them had traveled long distances.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 6, 1922
SAN FRANCISCO CALL-POST
[interview with Sergeant Major Ellis G. Towt]
..."I was stationed at Windsor, Nova Scotia, when Bill Taylor 'blew'
into camp. He told me he was manager [director] for Mary Pickford. His
civilian address was given as the Los Angeles Athletic Club. At that time,
too, I believe, he was head of the Motion Picture Directors' Association.
"He was dressed in very expensive clothing when he arrived. It was on
August 18, 1918. Besides his clothing he wore several diamonds.
"I noticed that he was a gentleman, well educated, silent and
considerate of others. There were few available tents and I offered to share
mine with him, even though he was only a private.
"His poise and efficiency soon won him promotion to corporal and later
to sergeant. At my suggestion he sent his diamonds and expensive clothing
back to Los Angeles.
"During the time that he was in camp he put on several shows for us and
won wide publicity. Later he became sick. It was his stomach. He couldn't
eat, but requested that I not get a doctor. I notified the medical corps,
however, and he was placed in a hospital. Soon after his recovery he went
overseas and I never saw him again.
"Bill Taylor was singularly taciturn. He never mentioned his past life
and there was nothing to indicate he had any outside ties. If he received or
dispatched any mail it was always done in the strictest secrecy."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 7, 1922
NEW YORK TIMES
[from an interview with Stuart Cooling]
"Taylor came to Camp Fort Edward at Windsor, Nova Scotia, in the summer
of 1918 with other recruits. I was Provost Sergeant. He was very quick to
learn and became a Lance Corporal in two weeks, a Corporal in three weeks, a
Sergeant in five weeks, and a company Sergeant Major in two months. Then we
went to England and he got a Lieutenant's commission in the Army Service
Corps of the British Army. His men worshipped him--would do anything for him.
"We N.C.O.'s, his pals, always found him a man who never thought of
himself, who was always helping the underdog, those who had less than he had.
I wouldn't believe wrong of him, no matter what anybody said."
[The original Fort Edward was built in 1750. By World War One it was gone,
just an historical marker. But it was a local landmark and still is. When a
temporary wooden barracks was built the locals still referred to it as Fort
Edward although a barracks is not a defensive structure. The local paper,
a weekly paper called the HANTS JOURNAL, usually referred to the wartime
facility as "Fort Edward". But midway through World War One, a B.E.F.
training depot was established, which was a large tent encampment, and local
buildings like the library and YMCA were requisitioned for base use, like
stores, officers' quarters, etc. With both Canadian military activities and
British military activities going on in the same small town, even the press
started using hybrid terminology, referring to "Camp Fort Edward" in the
HANTS JOURNAL -- and this means the B.E.F. tent camp at Fort Edward. Special
thanks to Ron Jack and Leland Harvie for furnishing this information and the
clippings from the HANTS JOURNAL.]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
September 4, 1918
HANTS JOURNAL, Windsor, N.S.
BEF Lines
THE CONCERT. Last Saturday night the B.E.F. held a benefit concert...
at the Opera House .... hundreds were turned away and the concert was
repeated on Monday evening. [a list of the performers follow:]
Regd. Sergt. Major Spicer
Pte. Clapham, piano
Pte. Baskin's, violin
Corp. Harrison, song
Pte. Jenkins, dance
Corp. Chapman, dance
Pte. Hendry, Scottish dance
Piper L.Corp Sellars, Scottish dance
Pte. Blumenthal, Russian solo
Pte. Evans, son of famous Welsh singer
Ptes. Hendry & Burnett, songs
Pte. H.G. Birks, "old music hall singer"
Pte. Gale, magician
L. Corpl Kane, "a New York vaudiville artist", comic song
Closure - God Save The King
[There were similar entertainment activities going on virtually the whole
three months Taylor was there. Although Taylor is not mentioned in these
items, the above interview with Ellis Towt indicates Taylor directed several
of these shows, which is confirmed by notations in Taylor's journal, quoted
in A CAST OF KILLERS, p. 66: "Private Gale, magician...Hendry, bagpipes."
Those names also appear above. ]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 9, 1922
CHICAGO AMERICAN
[from an interview with Ivan Royes]
"I enlisted in the British army in Chicago in the latter part of August,
1918, and was sent to Windsor, Nova Scotia.
"There I was placed in Company C, made up of colored men from various
parts of the British West Indies.
"William Desmond Taylor, the man slain in Los Angeles, was sergeant-
major of my company. We left Canada on Nov. 6, 1918, arriving at Bristol on
Nov. 18.
"From there we were sent to Hounslow Barracks, where we were grouped and
assigned to different regiments throughout England, Ireland and Wales.
"Taylor was assigned to some regiment other than mine and we parted at
Hounslow Barracks. It was generally understood he was sent off somewhere to
receive a commission. But to the best of my knowledge he was a sergeant
major. He was never in the Canadian army.
"He was a fine fellow. We had no arms while he was with me. He put us
through squad drills. He was the kind of a man we could go to with any kind
of trouble. He was always ready to listen and help.
"...In all respect to him, I can only say he was a gentleman in every
sense of the word."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 7, 1922
San Francisco Chronicle
...William Desmond Taylor was never an officer attached to the 5th
battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, according to the official record of the
fusiliers, who are now stationed at Hounslow barracks, London, where the
adjutant searched through forty-six thousand names of officers and men of the
regiment participating in the World War. ...[Taylor] arrived at Hounslow
barracks December 2, 1918, coming in a draft of 500 Britishers who had
enlisted in America...On December 5, 1918, he was transferred to the Army
Service Corps at the Expeditionary Force Canteen on Victoria Street, London.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 8, 1922
WISCONSIN NEWS
An unfinished chapter in the life of William Desmond Taylor...was
completed here through revelations of Percy Sweet, who says he served with
Taylor in the British army, during January, 1919.
Sweet, who was a sergeant-major, declared Taylor was a first lieutenant
with Army Service Corps of the Expeditionary Forces Canteen Service,
stationed at Dunkirk, on the Belgian border, shortly after the armistice.
...Sweet declared it very probable Taylor was advanced to a captaincy as
stated in Monday's dispatches, after the armistice. He said privates and
officers in non-fighting units such as the one to which Taylor was attached,
were commissioned rapidly that they might take the places of officers who had
seen hard service. He asserts positively that Taylor was a first lieutenant,
being second in command to Maj. Meghar, a veteran with a long record in the
British service in India.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 9, 1922
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Army records and papers found yesterday in the home of William D.
Taylor, according to officials of the Lasky company, prove that the murdered
motion-picture director was at least a lieutenant in the British forces.
Among the army records found, a pass of leave from duty in Dunkirk,
dated April 4, 1919, shows that William D. Taylor was at that time a
lieutenant in the British forces.
An embarkation ticket bearing the name of William D. Taylor, according
to the Lasky officials, shows that the director was a lieutenant, and also
shows the army number F-56979, and regiment E.F.C., R.A.S.C.
It is further stated that Mr. Taylor was discharged with the rank of
captain.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
June 1, 1919
NEW YORK TELEGRAPH
The Famous Players-Lasky Corporation will picturize Mark Twain's
immortal story, "Huckleberry Finn," in the form of a special production, with
a large cast of picked players. Work will be started at the Lasky studio,
Hollywood, in about two weeks under the direction of William D.
Taylor...About a year ago Mr. Taylor...expected to enter an officers'
training camp but found it would take eleven months to finish the course, so
being impatient to get to the fighting district, he enlisted as a "Tommy" in
the Royal Fusiliers. Then he was transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps
and commissioned lieutenant. He served in Flanders and was the second officer
to enter Lille after the Germans evacuated the city. He also reached Cologne
and other German points and spent some time in London before returning to
this country a few weeks ago. Aside from suffering from illness for some
time, he had plenty of interesting adventures, and looks splendid.
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Personal Appearances by Silent Stars in the Weeks after the Murder:
Monte Blue, Hobart Bosworth, Francis X. Bushman and Beverly Bayne,
Mary Carr, Lew Cody, Viola Dana, Miss DuPont, Elsie Ferguson,
Pauline Frederick, Hoot Gibson, Lillian Gish, Mildred Harris,
Louise Lovely, May McAvoy, Martha Mansfield, Mary Pickford and
Douglas Fairbanks, Marie Prevost, Herbert Rawlinson, Will Rogers,
Ruth Roland, Gladys Walton, Claire Windsor
Throughout the silent film era there was a steady stream of actors and
actresses making "personal appearances" around the country. In the weeks
following the Taylor murder, those who made personal appearances or traveled
to other cities around the U.S.A. often faced questions by reporters about
the Taylor murder case or about Hollywood morality.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Monte Blue in Columbus
February 6, 1922
D.H.K.
OHIO STATE JOURNAL
"Three cheers for Monte Blue! One hundred percent man and an A No. 1
actor." This is what D. W. Griffith said about the popular movie star, who
visited the Majestic yesterday "in person," when the big Griffith production,
"Orphans of the Storm," was completed.
"I cried just like a baby," said Mr. Blue to us yesterday afternoon when
we brought this press news to his attention.
"He did say it, standing up on a box in the studio grounds, and the
whole cast, Gishes and everybody, joined in. I had only come in on the last
four months of the picture and had done my best to pull it through to
completion," he added.
Monte Blue is a Hoosier, all American, even to boasting some pure Indian
blood. Monte Blue is not homely. We make this statement because, though we
always have considered him one of the most finished actors on the screen, we
also felt him to be one of the least attractive as to appearance. Monte has
a quiet dignity and a clear, direct way of talking that gives character to
all he says.
"William D. Taylor was one of the cleanest, finest men I ever knew. He
was a director whom everybody loved," said Mr. Blue, in connection with the
tragedy which came to this well-known movie director a few days ago.
"It's the outside world that is to blame for the many scandals in the
movie world. People have gone movie mad and they haunt studios and stars and
sweep the actors off their feet. If there is a big scandal connected with a
banker, no one condemns the banking world; if there is a story told about a
minister, no one condemns religion; now why should we movie people come in
for so much opprobrium just because of a few recent flagrant crimes?"
Monte Blue delivered this opinion of his as an ultimatum. Monte has
just completed "My Old Kentucky Home," and after going over into Indiana to
see his mother tomorrow, he jumps back to New York to make another picture.
Monte is seen this week as the leading man with Mae Murray in "Peacock
Alley." He declares this to be one of his big pictures, and his enthusiasm
for Mae Murray is great.
He informed us we were all wrong about Mae. She is most sincere, he
says, and a hard worker. She is the first at the studio in the morning and
the last one to leave in the evening.
"Why are you so unjust to her?" he plaintively asked, and we tried to
justify our stand by telling him we wouldn't mind if she kept off the
"underneath the blossoms," "Buster Brown collar" stuff.
Monte Blue gave interesting talks yesterday afternoon and evening at the
Majestic, revealing some side light on the movie game.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Hobart Bosworth in San Francisco
February 8, 1922
SAN FRANCISCO CALL
"The public is responsible for the character of motion pictures and as
long as the public demands rotten pictures they will continue to be produced.
The majority of the persons who are employed in the picture industry are hard
working, normal living and honorable people. We producers are not any more
responsible for the morals of our employees than the managers of any other
line of industry where propinquity between the sexes exists."
This was the hot shot fired by Hobart Bosworth, prominent screen star,
who yesterday addressed 300 women at a meeting of the literary section of the
California Club.
Amplifying his address of yesterday Bosworth, one of the big producers
who has transferred his production headquarters from Southern California to
San Mateo and who has recently produced his first picture here, said:
"If employees of a big San Francisco corporation were involved in some
mess you wouldn't hit the president of that corporation on the nose, would
you? The situation is exactly the same in the motion picture world. The
many should not be blamed for the backsliding of the few.
"Why, I don't know a place more free from objectionable things than the
average motion picture lot. Compared to them the old time Shellmound picnics
were a disgrace.
"Do not forget that San Francisco has been getting a great deal of the
motion picture 'slime money.' I mean by that that directors and actors have
been in the habit of coming to San Francisco for their sprees. Why? Because
their employers would fire them if they were caught.
"I am speaking now of the few who are given to these things. It is time
that San Francisco was getting some of the clean motion picture money."
Bosworth characterized the public as an "infallible judge" of pictures.
"The public--the public that supports the motion picture industry--does
not want decent pictures," he said.
"There are, however, some exceptions. Noteworthy successes have been
made by clean pictures.
"But there is no question that the other kind of pictures draw in the
nickels--and a motion picture producer cannot differentiate between a soiled
nickel and a clean nickel; they both pay salaries. A chain is no stronger
than its weakest link."
To the women yesterday he said:
"You women have the power to make the screen just what you want it to
be. If your neighborhood picture house is showing a film which you do not
desire your children to see, just drop a letter to the manager."
As to the comparatively few motion picture actresses and actors who go
wrong, Bosworth said:
"Some of those who do not keep along the normal channels of life are
victims of lack of mental balance. Give $1500 a week or more to a person who
has been used to nothing and the balance, in many cases, is liable to shift,
unless the mental and moral development of the individual is strong enough to
resist new conditions."
Speaking of William Deane Taylor, the murdered Los Angeles director,
Bosworth said:
"I knew Taylor well and knew him as a cultivated gentleman--an art
connoisseur, a director of exceptional ability.
"He was fatherly and sweet and gentle. Why, he was like a clergyman in
appearance and manner. He was all gentleness in his daily associations.
I never knew him to speak an angry word.
"He was troubled with nervous dyspepsia and I do not think his physical
condition was consistent with the reports that paint him as another kind of
man than he was generally regarded to be."
Bosworth predicted a commercial future for San Francisco in the
legitimate production of motion pictures.
"Los Angeles and its environs," he said, "are worn out from the
standpoint of locations, and in San Mateo and on the peninsula I am convinced
the locations are more beautiful than in any other spot I know. That is why
I am staking everything I possess in my effort to bring the motion picture
industry to San Francisco. It will mean thousands of persons and the
expenditure of an untold quantity of money, which will be cleanly and
legitimately spent. San Francisco will not then be receiving only the
unclean lavishness that is spent on sprees."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Frances X. Bushman and Beverly Bayne in New Orleans
February 8, 1922
George Collingwood
NEW ORLEANS ITEM
They are just plain, every day sort of folks--the Bushmans.
Even the blase interviewer is compelled to admit that Beverly Bayne and
Francis Bushman are as genial and charming a pair as one could hope to
interview.
But it wasn't an interview at that, just a visit during which all six in
the tiny Orpheum dressing room talked on sundry topics that have little to do
with the stage but are closely concerned with genuine life. Of course the
targets for our queries were there, and Ben Paizza, manager of the theatre,
for he never misses any of the fun and he came along just to see how the
Bushmans would "put it over" a Southern interviewer. Then charming Mrs.
Callender, the house press agent, and the Lady Who Goes to the Theatre With
Me were very much in the foreground.
It was a merry party, a sort of meeting of congenial souls capable of
forgetting the world for a few minutes. So genial were the Bushmans that we
felt the warmth of their welcome did not bear the imprint of the
artificiality of the stage--but came from the heart.
"My, but he's handsome," ejaculated the Lady Who Goes to the Theatre
With Me, on Monday afternoon when "Bushy"--as his talented wife calls him--
burst into view on the stage. He is and it is a genuinely manly beauty,
without any of the insipid mannerisms he affects in his one act comedy; in
addition he's a genuine patrician if one ever existed, though a human one at
that.
Miss Bayne lives for but two persons--Francis and Richard--and 'tis
difficult to decide which is the most dear. The rest of the world may just
roll by, so far as she is concerned. This does not mean that she is
indifferent to the plaudits of the world--for Miss Bayne loves the roar of
applause from the front, but--well, audiences are plentiful and there is but
one Francis and one Richard.
Right here is the time to pay a just tribute to the speaking voices of
the two Orpheum stars. So many years have their voices been stilled while
they carved niches for themselves in the silent drama, the average
theatregoer began to wonder if they really could talk. They can. And with
the most pleasing voices imaginable. Miss Bayne's is a deep contralto, a
singing voice, the kind one likes to listen to for hours and never tires.
Bushman's voice is as pleasing and distinct, carefully modulated, showing
culture and refinement.
Mr. Bushman said that his characterization of the "Poor Rich Man"
followed closely a chap they had met on Long Island, when on location for a
movie picture.
"Without exaggerating," said Mr. Bushman, "we met dozens of the same
type, who had no other interest in life than to--
"Talk?" chimed in the dainty Beverly Bayne, "why he repeats every word
he hears, and it is necessary to be careful when he is around."
"Just live," continued Bushman. "They are so terribly bored with the
whole scheme of things that--
"It's so easy to make them hang on to your fingers even when they are
not more than a day or two old," came from the other corner of the dressing
room.
"They find it even difficult to breathe without assistance," Bushman
went on. "This particular man I studied for several weeks and had my act
written around, was--"
"Just two and a half years old," Miss Bayne chipped in, "but he has the
mentality of a child of five. He's waiting at the hotel for us now."
At this juncture, Mr. Bushman gave up trying to tell his story and we
all listened to Miss Bayne while every wrinkle on the dearest baby in the
whole world was described in detail.
The baby--Richard--is as well known in the films as his illustrious
parents, and Bushman explained that any infant will hold tight to one's
finger and permit himself to be lifted a few days after birth. It's the
natural instinct of self-preservation, he explained. The child is trained to
stiffen his knees and stand on his father's hands upright.
"I do not know Mr. Taylor," said Mr. Bushman, referring to the latest
tragedy in movieland. "You see we have filmed all of our pictures in the
East and our acquaintance with Hollywood personages is limited. One thing I
would like to say, though, it seems to me that the press of the country is
doing its best to blacken one of the greatest industries in America. Why
should we brand the industry with calumny because one or two, or even 20,
connected with it prove to be worthless? You do not throw all your good
money away when you find a stray bad dollar in your pockets do you? The mass
of people connected with the moving picture industry are serious, hard-
working and clean, self-respecting men and women. Surely they should not be
dipped in the scandal pot because of a few whose morals are questionable?"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Mary Carr in Buffalo
March 1, 1922
BUFFALO EXPRESS
Less curiosity concerning the brand of breakfast food used by the film
stars, and more interest in the work they are doing to entertain the public,
was urged by Mrs. Mary Carr, star of Over the Hill, who spoke at both
performances yesterday at the Lafayette Square theater, at the meeting of the
Western New York Theater Owner's association and also at several private club
meetings.
"An abnormal interest in the very personal life of the players on the
screen has developed through the activities of the various fan magazines,"
said Mrs. Carr. "This interest shows a tendency in some localities of being
carried to such excess that personal gossip can work great harm to screen
reputations.
"Because of our close connection with the public it is natural that we
should be subjected to the publicity limelight. The members of the various
film colonies are normal hard-working people. I cannot believe otherwise of
anyone who has to report at the studio at 7 or 8 o'clock in the morning and
put in ten or more hours before the camera. Those who have all their leisure
for personal pleasure are by-products of the industry and not of the workers.
"The theatrical profession in its capacity for doing good while it
entertains is on a plane with the schools and the pulpit. I personally
started out to become a teacher and still retain my diploma from the
Philadelphia Normal school. But I entered dramatic work instead. I should
like to see each of my six children who have already had some stage
experience choose this profession and become good actors and actresses."
Mrs. Carr will be present at the assembly this morning of the Masten
Park high school. She will leave Buffalo tonight for the William Fox studios
in New York to resume work on another picture in which she also plays the
role of a mother.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Lew Cody in Cleveland
March 1, 1922
CLEVELAND PRESS
Lew Cody concentrated his efforts in the movies in creating the
impression that he was a pretty boy.
His profile was his chief asset in that direction, so he saw to it that
most of the close-ups showed him in profile.
He carried his cigarettes in a delicate silver case. He smoked them in
a delicate ivory holder. And he carefully flicked the ashes into an ash tray
in a most delicate manner.
In addition large and costly pages in the movie magazines were employed
to herald him as the "butterfly man" and the "champion he-vamp."
And, after Cody had got that impression across, he found that it really
didn't amount to so much in the popular estimation to be known as the
screen's pretty boy.
Worse than that, happenings around Hollywood knocked the bottom out of
the he-vamp market until quotations on them fell below those for German marks
or Russian rubles.
So now Cody has the job on his hands of building up a new impression of
himself in the public mind.
Cody, in Cleveland this week, carries his cigarettes in the case the
come in, smokes them without the holder, and doesn't mind if the ashes fall
on his vest now and then.
He wants to be known now as a he-man instead of a he-vamp.
"Don't say he-vamp to me," Cody says now. "The words are like a red
flag to me."
Cody from now on, one assumes, will concentrate on full face close-ups
instead of profile.
Viewed that way Cody could pass for most anything except the gay Don
Juans he has been impersonating in the movies.
One remark of Cody's raises an interesting point. He says he is making
his present tour of the country "to let people see what he's really like."
One wonders if Cody knows what he's really like himself.
Probably he doesn't.
It has been commented concerning most actors in general that no matter
how poorly they act upon the screen, they're all very good actors off the
screen.
And acting to create first this impression and then that impression,
they probably lose track of what they're really like.
Cody likes music. He tells you that he is a great lover of music.
But one doubts if he spends evenings betaking himself to the symphony
concert and the opera.
Cody likes jazz music. He says he has a portable graphophone which he
takes about the country with him.
The other afternoon he stopped in a Cleveland store for a half dozen
records.
He bought all jazz band records with one exception. That was a medley
of old-fashioned tunes, "Sidewalks of New York," "The Bowery," etc.
Cody, in fact, is a connoisseur of jazz records. He listens to a record
with his head cocked on one side. "Nothing distinctive about that record,"
he'll say. "Let's hear another one."
Like other members of the movie profession who have recently visited
Cleveland, Cody rallies to the defense of Hollywood.
He's willing to admit that the movie profession has its black sheep.
But, says Lew Cody--
"We've fewer black sheep than many other professions."
Cody was born in Waterville, Me.
He attended McGill University, played baseball, hockey and lacrosse,
became a member of the college dramatic club, liked it, and decided to become
an actor.
"So I joined a troupe that played at Asheville, N.C.," he tells.
"We were stranded there and had to walk 35 miles to the next town. So
you see I had a regular start in the profession.
"Finally my father rescued me and sent me enough money to get to New
York.
"I played small parts there, then went into stock, eventually becoming a
star in stock.
"Next I became a stock producer and at one time owned five stock
companies.
"My next venture was with the Winter Garden show. When the show reached
Los Angeles, Thomas H. Ince offered me a job in the movies and I accepted it.
"I couldn't adopt myself to the ways of the movies and so flivvered and
was fired.
"But I wouldn't return to New York and admit I was a failure, so I took
a job in another company at half the salary, decided to work hard and
eventually made good."
At present Cody is the head of his own producing company.
Tall and slender, and aiming to be athletic looking. That's Cody. Dark
hair combed back smoothly. A small, carefully trimmed mustache. Brown eyes,
the sort sometimes called soulful.
Has a fondness for shirts with attached collars. Wears a light tan-
colored overcoat.
He says he can play both poker and bridge, but doesn't find much time
for either.
His favorite hobbies, he says, are hunting and fishing.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Viola Dana in Atlanta
February 6, 1922
ATLANTA JOURNAL
"I wish they wouldn't call them 'flappers,'" objected Miss Viola Dana,
Metro screen star, who had just confessed to an interviewer that the
"flapper," so-called, was her favorite type.
"The name is an injustice," she went on. "It sounds blatant, insincere.
The true flapper is neither. I like her, and I'm going to do all I can to
popularize her on the screen. She's a distinct modern type."
Miss Dana is here to appear in person at the Metropolitan theater
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and is living in a suite at the Ansley hotel.
Miss Dana has had good chances--and it must be said has improved them--
recently in "The Off-Shore Pirate" and "A Chorus Girls' Romance." In
addition to the flapper type she likes Scott Fitzgerald's writings.
"He writes as I should love to act."
Miss Dana added naively that she regarded Mr. Fitzgerald as "one of the
most imposing of the modern writers."
She said Harry Beaumont was her "favorite director," and that he had
steered her into light and comedy roles, following an amusing little turn she
had given a "heavy" role in one of the plays he was directing.
"Picture patrons seemed to like me so I have been doing comedy ever
since," she said. "However, I like emotional roles and hope to get back in
that line of work soon."
"Would you advise young girls to 'go in for the movies?'" she was asked.
"No. It's hard work and only a few reach stardom. The tax on your
nerves and strength is too great. After you get in, however, you wouldn't do
anything else."
Miss Dana laughed when told that Lew Cody was harassed by newspaper men
asking him if he was any relation to "Buffalo Bill" while in the city
recently.
"That's funny," she said. "And speaking of coincidences, I saw him at
the Terminal station Sunday morning when I arrived. He was on his way to
some point north, but stopped over a few hours to greet me upon my arrival
here."
Miss Dana is accompanied on her tour by her mother, Emily Flugrath, and
Howard Strickland, her publicity director.
Her mother has the unique distinction of having three daughters starring
simultaneously in motion pictures. Besides Miss Dana, Shirley Mason and Edna
Flugrath, her daughters, have won their way to the galaxy of cinema stars.
Miss Dana received a cablegram Sunday from her sister, Edna, saying she
was on her way from London and would join her in New York. This will be the
first time the "family" has been together in five years, Miss Dana said.
Viola, as one knowing her only a short while is tempted to call her, is
twenty-three years old. She admits it. She makes no pretense of hiding that
fact, but rather glories in her youth. She has wavy brown hair bobbed after
the current fashion.
Her eyes, however, are her distinguishing feature. They change from
gray to gray-green in a bewildering manner. And in them lurks the spirit
which must have absorbed Milton when he wrote "L'Allegro."
They have the same spark which flashes from the screen. They tell of
amazing cheerfulness and an abundance of energy.
Miss Dana has recently signed a new contract with Metro which calls for
seven pictures a year. She will continue her tour until the first of March
and then return to the coast to begin work.
Touching on the recent murder of William Desmond Taylor, a moving
picture director in Hollywood, Miss Dana was unwilling to comment at length.
"I merely had a speaking acquaintance with him," she said. "Too much
has been said to the detriment of those engaged in the picture industry. But
my firm conviction is that the film people are as good and wholesome as any
other people.
"The unfortunate Arbuckle incident and the Taylor murder have cast a
shadow over Hollywood. But in the end you will find the film people
vindicated. They are doing a helpful work and a work in which they are
vitally interested."
Miss Dana has been on tour from Hollywood since early in December and
had arrived in Atlanta at 10 o'clock Sunday from Birmingham.
She is under the care of Willard Patterson, manager of the Metropolitan
theater, during her stay here and a number of attractive dinners and parties
have been planned in her honor.
She will leave Atlanta late Wednesday night for Nashville. She then
will go to Baltimore and end her tour in New York.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Miss DuPont in Chicago
February 14, 1922
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
"I have just come from New York--Hollywood isn't in it for fun," said
Miss DuPont, appearing in person and on the screen in "Foolish Wives" at the
Roosevelt theater yesterday. "They say there are a lot of bad people in
Hollywood. I have lived in Los Angeles for the last eight years and I never
saw any of them.
"But I have just returned from New York and there is where they have the
good times. Old Broadway is the smartest place I know. If we tried to do
the things in the movies that they do in the theaters the censors would raise
a terrible cry. No movie woman was ever as undressed as some of the girls on
the New York stage.
"Then the parties, the nice quiet little affairs of lil' ol' New York--
why Hollywood would gasp and bury its head."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Elsie Ferguson in Cleveland
February 15, 1922
NEW YORK AMERICAN
Cleveland, Feb. 14--Miss Elsie Ferguson, noted equally in the films and
on the speaking stage, whose name has been mentioned among the friends of
William Desmond Taylor, said today:
"William Desmond Taylor directed me in "Sacred and Profane Love," the
only picture I made in Hollywood.
"Mr. Taylor was a quiet mannered man, evidently a gentleman, but I had
no acquaintance with him out of the studio. He spoke seldom and never on
anything other than that pertaining to the work at hand. He never stood
about chatting with the cast.
"Motion pictures must get away from the sex stuff. The more respect the
public feels for the motion picture actors, the more responsibility they will
assume.
"I know no greater opportunity for the demonstration of the doctrine
that influence is responsibility, than in the motion picture industry, which
is capable of almost endless service to the world. I should be glad to see
the public weaned from the rather stupid sex plays."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Pauline Frederick in Seattle
February 14, 1922
SEATTLE UNION-RECORD
Devotees of the cinema have it straight from Pauline Frederick that all
this fuss about the morals of Hollywood is baseless. The famous screen star,
with her husband, Dr. Chas. A. Rutherford, and her mother, Mrs. L.
Fredericks, arrived Tuesday from the Los Angeles suburb.
With the smile that has captivated millions, the vivacious film queen
asserted that it is unfair to stigmatize the profession because of one or two
unfortunate circumstances. "I never read the newspapers," she said, "and
know nothing about this Taylor murder or the Arbuckle case. I never allow
them to be discussed in my home. But I do know that I have never seen any
more evidence of lax morals in Hollywood's movie colony than anywhere else."
"You don't mean to say you never read the papers and hear all the good
things they say about you and your work?" she was asked.
"Oh, that stuff is all clipped and laid before me," she answered, "and
of course I do appreciate the nice things, but sometimes I see a real bad
one, and that disheartens me for, oh such a long, long time. I wish the
public could follow us around Hollywood for awhile," she added earnestly,
"and they would never be misled by this unwarranted publicity."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Hoot Gibson in Portland
February 12, 1922
OREGONIAN
Hollywood is a quiet, law-abiding suburban community, inhabited by
respectable citizens. Movieland, so far as the morals of film celebrities
are concerned, is not the wild oasis of dissipation pictured on the screen of
public opinion these days.
This was the emphatic assertion of Edward ("Hoot") Gibson, world
champion cowboy, screen star and daredevil, and a true Oregonian by
preference, on his arrival in Portland Saturday morning for a series of
personal appearances at the Liberty theater.
"The reports and gossip of orgies and high life among the moving picture
stars are exaggerated a hundredfold, or are simply false stories based on
unauthentic rumor," said Gibson.
"I have lived in the center of Hollywood for four years and the big
stars in the pictures are friends I have known intimately. I can truthfully
say that I know of only one star who was a drug addict. The star was a girl
who was forced out of the film game because of her use of drugs.
"The tales of elaborate 'dope' parties in the studios and homes of the
stars are not true, so far as I know. Drugs are peddled in the studios, of
course, just as they are in any town or city, including Portland. Dope
peddlers gain access to the studios by securing jobs as 'extras' in mob
scenes, and sometimes sell their horrible wares to other 'extras,' workers or
hangers-on.
"A man or woman who becomes a prominent figure in the motion picture
world cannot make good against the handicaps of drugs, liquor or other forms
of excess.
"To prove my belief in the moral goodness of screen players, I would be
willing to take anyone into the home of any of the stars I know and let the
visitor see the life of stars of the screen. My personal record is clean and
I have nothing to fear from any just investigation. I can say the same for
other picture people. Some of the male stars take a drink once in a while,
but not enough to hurt them. Often a star gets a bad reputation unjustly
through the boasting gossip of some outsider who partakes of the star's
hospitality, and then tells how he 'got soused to the gills in a big party
with So-and-So, the famous film hero.'
"Nine-tenths of the persons who appear in news stories of a sensational
nature are men and women never heard of in the profession. They are 'extras'
with a few days or months experience, or no connection at all with pictures.
When caught in a jam, they call themselves movie actors or actresses.
"Nearly all the stars are married and live quietly with their families.
The lives of such stars as Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin,
Lila Lee and dozens of others I can name are absolutely clean."
Gibson declared that the Taylor murder and subsequent publicity will
eventually cost the film industry millions of dollars. He charged the police
of Los Angeles with "four-flushing" and "keystone cop antics."
"The real murderer has fooled them and to make a showing they are
dragging in the names of famous stars to divert public attention," he said.
"Mabel Normand and Mary Miles Minter are absolutely innocent of any
wrongdoing in connection with Taylor's murder.
"My personal theory is that Sands, the butler, is at the bottom of the
tragedy, although the man who planned it might not have done the killing."
Referring to the trial of Roscoe ("Fatty") Arbuckle, Mr. Gibson
expressed the firm belief that the plump comedian was innocent.
"It isn't like Roscoe to do anything like that," he said. "Everybody in
the picture profession knew of the fits that occasionally seized Miss Rappe."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Hazel Howell in New Orleans
"Los Angeles picture players are not as bad as the press is painting
them. They entertain gorgeously, but they don't go in for orgies. In two
years of work and parties, I never heard of any of them taking dope."
And the beautiful Hazel Howell, who starred with Charles Ray in "45
Minutes from Broadway," with Bryant Washburn in "Full House," in "Old Dad"
with Mildred Harris and featured by Carter de Haven as "Mary, Poor Girl" and
"My Lady Friends,"--well, Hazel ought to knew. Because when this young
California beauty, appearing with New Norworth at the Palace, led the
procession of June brides at the fashionable St. John's Church, there were at
the wedding--the Douglas Fairbanks, Lottie Pickford, Louise Glaum, Charlie
Chaplin, Mildred Davis, Hoot Gibson, Doris May, Allen Brooks, Wally Reid--but
why go on. They were all there, a congregation representing millions of
dollars "movie" income and world wide success.
"Late hours mean lines under the eyes. That won't do in pictures. And
how could people take dope, who have to be made up and ready to work by 8:30
in the morning?" asks Miss Howell. "Actors like the Pickfords rarely go out.
Of course salaries are enormous. Just an extra will get $175 a week. Mary
Miles Minter gets $4,000 a week. They have wonderful homes. There are
fortunes in the cellars of most. Also it is true that many have jumped from
poverty to millionaire incomes, but they have to sit steady in the boat and
take it out in having servants and cars.
"Los Angeles is stormed by thousands who want to be in pictures. They
think that all they have to do is to get an interview and an engagement.
They get to the office early with a bright line of conversation. And this is
how it's done. There's a little window like the wicket in a convent gate.
Through this the Director's assistant sticks his head for a moment. His eyes
glance over the crowds. He chooses by clothes and types that may be needed.
I know this. My people are well off. I went to the trial. I bought $3,000
worth of clothes. I wore a black satin suit, crimson hat and a wonderful
sable. I landed a bit at $175 a week. Then almost immediately I was chosen
for Flannagan and Edward in 'The Hall Room Boys.' Next Lois Weber's husband
looking for a star, saw my clothes and rushed me by the arm into his wife
with 'Look at this profile.' My advice to girls who will die if they don't
go to Los Angeles is to get clothes first, they speak personality."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Lillian Gish in Buffalo
March 6, 1922
BUFFALO NEWS
Lillian and Dorothy Gish, motion picture stars, played new roles in
Buffalo this morning. Here to appear in connection with the showing of their
latest picture, "Orphans of the Storm," they were for a few minutes "orphans
of the station."
Arriving in Buffalo at 10 o'clock the Gish sisters unexpectedly came
into the New York Central station on a Boston train, their sleeper having
been placed in this train instead of in that coming from New York. While a
large official welcoming committee searched sleepers of the New York train,
on a track in the train sheds, the sisters left their car and were wandering
about on the platform of the station.
So it happened that a NEWS reporter was the first and for several
minutes the only person to greet the stars of the silver screen.
"We've lost our companion, she must have been put in another train,"
Miss Lillian confided when she was told by the reporter that the official
welcoming delegation would be along presently. "It's no fun being all alone
when you have had so little experience traveling by yourself," she said.
A few minutes later the belated welcoming party, accompanied by
photographers, reporters and numerous society editors who forsook their desks
to grace the occasion with their presence, arrived and cameras began to
click. Introduction were in order and finally police officers had to aid in
making way through the throng which had assembled.
There was much comment, practically 100 per cent complimentary, as the
girls entered waiting taxis and were driven to the Lafayette hotel. Here
they submitted to an intensive interview before eating their first food of
the day. From the moment of their arrival at the hotel it became apparent
that Miss Lillian is the commander of the Gish army.
"Now Dotsie," she said, addressing Miss Dorothy, "I'm going to order for
you.
"You know," she confided to the newspaper folk assembled, "Dorothy gets
terribly nervous at times like this and I just have to look after her."
And so there were two orders of orange juice, poached eggs and coffee,
while Miss Dorothy regretfully read from the menu: "Broiled chicken, sausage
and griddle cakes, and veal cutlets."
The breakfast ordered, Miss Lillian announced herself ready for an
interview. It was carried on in a manner quite unique for a screen favorite,
with the star doing most of the talking and discussing world topics in a
manner revealing an unusual knowledge and understanding of things quite
outside the film world.
"This is my first visit to Buffalo in many years, so many I won't tell
the actual number," related Miss Lillian as Dorothy curled herself up in a
big arm chair nearby.
"We used to come here with our mother in some of those terrible
melodramas, the ten, twenty, thirty variety. That was when I was six years
old and Dorothy was four.
"In 1914 [sic] I did my first work before the camera. I had vastly
different conception of pathos that one must beat one's breast, tear one's
hair and do all that sort of thing. I realized that idea, I am ashamed to
say, until I went to England just before playing in 'Hearts of the World.'
"While in Whitechapel we were in the midst of an air raid. A Zeppelin
dropped a bomb on a kindergarten and 96 children were killed. We arrived at
the scene while frantic mothers were searching the ruins for their kiddies.
Terrible as was the scene I forced myself to study the actions of those
laboring under this terrific strain and right then and there I changed my
ideas of how to present emotion.
"Later I was able to study hundreds of persons in England and France as
they met the motions which war forced upon them, and while I feel that added
six months to my life in that time, it was an experience well worth the
ordeal, and I hope the little service rendered in this picture was not in
vain."
Miss Lillian then turned to a most intelligent discussion of world
statesmanship, of which she apparently has a knowledge that is equaled by few
men.
"I think the outstanding figure of the disarmament conference was Mr.
Balfour of the British delegation," she said. "In a quiet, inostentatious
manner" (these are the very words of film star) "he got what he came after
and then went home. The British are a people to admire and to respect, and,
moreover, when you really know them, to love."
Censorship was a topic on which Miss Gish declined to comment.
"Please don't make me talk about censorship," she said. "I am paid to
act, not to think. And while we speak of pay don't forget that salaries are
greatly exaggerated by press agents. I wish what you read in the papers
about salaries were true. But unfortunately it isn't."
Hollywood is another topic that hasn't any particular interest to her,
Miss Lillian declared.
"Of course there are bad men and women in the film industry," she
asserted. "Why, even the weather is bad now and then. There are bad men and
women in every walk of life. But I do think the press does wrong when it
overplays the scandals and crimes of picture people.
"You can't fool the camera," Miss Lillian asserted as she defended her
fellow players in the silent drama.
"If you stay out late at night, it shows in your work the next day.
Early to bed and early to rise is a motto that must be followed to be
successful in film playing."
In real life Miss Dorothy is Mrs. James Rennie. Her husband played the
lead in "Spanish Love," and is now working on a new Broadway production.
Lillian is unmarried, and asserts she has no immediate matrimonial
intentions.
While in Buffalo, the girls will accept no luncheon or other social
engagements, this being their rule at all times. They will visit the city
parks this afternoon and tomorrow hope to see Niagara Falls, leaving in the
early morning.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Mildred Harris in Hartford
February 14, 1922
HARTFORD COURANT
"Of course Mabel Normand and Mary Miles Minter loved William Taylor,"
said Mildred Harris, former wife of Charlie Chaplin, when interviewed
yesterday afternoon in her dressing room at the Capitol Theater. "Why
shouldn't they? Everyone loved him. Why, he was the best loved director in
Hollywood, and all the girls who worked for him went to him with their
troubles, their hopes, their ambitions and he helped them and treated them as
a father, or a brother would treat them. Mary Miles Minter is in love with a
chap nearer her own age, or was when I left the coast, and Mabel Normand
might one day have become Mrs. Taylor. How can they say all those things
about Mabel and Mary? I know them both well, and Mabel is one of the nicest
girls in the film colony. She studies very hard, and Mr. Taylor used to help
her with her work and her lessons. She is far too busy to be doing any of
the things they say she did. Those letters they speak of finding in Mr.
Taylor's rooms are probably just letters of thanks for some kindness he had
done for the girls. He was the kindest director I have ever known."
Mrs. Harris, mother of the diminutive star, also said that Mr. Taylor
was a kind man whom all the movie colony loved.
"Why don't they hold up the Gish sisters or Norma Talmadge as an example
of the moving picture actress?" asked Miss Harris, with a scornful curl of
her lip. "The public is satiated with the idea that all the movie people
live the way those who participated in the Arbuckle case are said to have
lived. I have met Mr. Arbuckle but did not know him well, never having
worked in the same studio with him. But I have known the Gish girls for a
long time and, certainly, they are sweet nice girls who are a credit to any
profession. I think one can find good and bad everywhere, and I am almost
afraid to admit my profession when I think that all the bad that has been
told about the pictures and none of the good. The Taylor case seems to me to
be even worse than the Arbuckle case. All those girls being brought into
it--why it's going to wreck their lives. The public will never like them as
well, and they have done nothing to be treated so. I feel so sorry for
Mabel. She's a frail girl, has never been very strong, and this has made her
ill. She will never recover from it. She has not only lost Mr. Taylor,
whose friendship she cherished, but she is losing her public as well. That's
the awful part of it."
Asked about Mr. Chaplin, Miss Harris said she had never been quoted
correctly about him. She said that she thought very well of Mr. Chaplin and
that he was a good man, "but too temperamental to be married. He wants a
change all the time. He is never satisfied or contented for long, and I
could not stand that. But I like him and respect him. I just felt that I
was too young to waste my life trying to understand why he wanted so many
different things and becoming accustomed to living that way."
She is a small, blonde, girlish person, who looks quite as young as the
press agents and her mother say she is. The movies have led some people to
believe that she is older, for she has had to take parts as a married woman,
but, looking at her yesterday, as she beaded her lashes preparatory to her
appearance, one knew that she really is "just 20."
"I left the pictures because I want to do big things, and because I felt
that the pictures were being hurt by all the scandal being published about
certain moving picture actors," she said. "I think it's just dreadful, and I
do wish someone would have the courage to write the truth about Hollywood--
after all, it's just a workshop, a place where a big industry is flourishing,
and there's no reason why it should be spoken of as it is."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Louise Lovely in Sacramento
February 24, 1922
SACRAMENTO UNION
Louise Lovely.
The surname describes her. There is hardly any need for the given name.
For she is certainly aptly described by "Lovely."
This outburst refers to Louise Lovely, who is appearing in person at
Godard's theater with her husband, William Welch, in a skit called "A Day in
the Studio."
Also in connection with Miss Lovely's appearance, the picture entitled
"Life's Greatest Question," is being shown with Roy Stewart playing opposite
the star.
It is a picture of the far north, the kind in which Miss Lovely has made
her greatest successes, she having played the lead for William Farnum under
the direction of William Fox in seven outdoor feature pictures, which it took
more than two years to film.
Although she is suffering intensely with a severe cold, Miss Lovely
shows by her determination to appear on the boards as booked, how much hard
work the leading woman of the stage must endure to achieve fame and retain
it.
Asked what advice she would give to girls who are ambitious to appear in
the movies, Miss Lovely said:
"If the right opportunity comes and the girl knows she has the talent to
make a success as well as the determination to work hard, I see no reason why
she should not take
advantage of the chance. But I have worked 18 hours a
day for months producing a feature film, and I want to say to the girl that
wishes to go into the moving picture profession, 'Be sure you are willing to
work, work, work, everlastingly work and then work some more to gain
success'."
In that connection Miss Lovely declared she would not advise girls to
give up whatever they may be doing and go to Los Angeles with the idea of
going into the profession.
"Let the girl urge the home folk to produce pictures at home so that she
may know she will be protected," Miss Lovely added. "And let me say right
here, that you folks of Sacramento are overlooking splendid opportunities to
produce motion pictures here.
"Your Sacramento and American rivers are wonderfully adapted for screen
dramas. In addition to being new, the sights offered are especially good for
the work. Whenever we wished to get a river scene we always came to
Sacramento."
Miss Lovely pointed out that the close proximity of the mountains and
the historical spots within easy distances of this city make for economical
conditions.
"It is not necessary to pay hundreds of dollars in car fares to move the
company when you want mountain scenery in connection with other screen
possibilities in Sacramento," she stated.
It was only natural that she would be asked about the Taylor murder
mystery. She promptly settled the inquiry.
"I do not know any of the persons mentioned in connection with the
case," said the star. "Miss Normand, Miss Minter and Taylor all worked for
different companies and I never had the opportunity of meeting them."
"What do you think of Hollywood?" she was asked.
"Hollywood is no different than any other community its size," she
replied. "It is only because motion picture workers are more or less in the
limelight that the mistakes of the few receive so much publicity. Take any
other profession or trade, and I'll venture to say you'll find there are far
more crimes committed by these classes, relatively, than by the moving
picture folk."
Miss Lovely is making a personally managed tour of the western cities
and after showing at Portland, Seattle, Vancouver and other cities of the
Pacific coast, she expects to go east with the sketch and picture she is
showing at Godard's theater.
Miss Lovely will appear at Godards' for two more days, appearing twice
daily.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
May McAvoy in New York
February 12, 1922
Gertrude Chase
NEW YORK TELEGRAPH
It rather lends interest to an interview to be obliged to pick your
victim in the corridor of a crowded hotel like the Biltmore. Having felt
that an interview with May McAvoy was strictly due before her vacation
terminated, we arrived a little ahead of the appointed time and waited to
find the face so familiar to us on the screen.
A blue-eyes sub-deb paused uncertainly and sat on our divan, profile
view, there was a resemblance.
"Are you Miss McAvoy?" we inquired.
The girl beamed; "no," said she, "but thanks for the compliment.
I think she is just the sweetest thing, and if you expect her I shan't move
till she comes and I get a good look at her."
Shortly after we spotted a tiny person in a big fur coat and after
making a careful close-up found that we were correct.
The orchestra struck up Chopin's Military Polonaise" and the small
person indicated that she did not like music with her interviews, so we
betook ourselves to the quiet grill, much to the disappointment of the sub-
deb.
There we decided that May McAvoy might be Julia Sanderson's little
sister and were told that every one else had said the same thing.
There is no use asking a New York girl how she likes her home town and
we knew from the Motion Picture Directory that May McAvoy was born here; we
knew the date, too, and it was ridiculously short time ago. We also knew
that she is four feet eleven inches in height and weighs ninety-four pounds.
Then there is a long list of the pictures she has appeared in, although she
did not start in early childhood.
"I went to school with Genevieve and Vivan Tobin. We were all stage-
struck. After they went on the stage I decided to try pictures, and I was
lucky enough to get a part after I had been atmosphere in three. These small
parts were followed by a couple of more important ones and then I co-starred
for Mr. Blackton.
"With all the lovely parts I have had, Grizel is my favorite. Since
then I have played 'kids' and ingenues, but there was so much to Grizel.
Working with Mr. and Mrs. Robertson also made 'Sentimental Tommy' a picture
to remember."
We asked her if she would like to do "Peter Pan," to which she replied
that she thought Peter should be a boy, but that she would love to do Wendy.
This seemed to us a wise choice, for May McAvoy is one of the most
feminine little people we have ever met. There is something about her that
is intensely serious when she talks of her work, and it is astonishing to
learn that any one so fragile could stand the grind of making seven pictures
in ten months.
"One of the best directors I ever had was poor Mr. Taylor, who directed
me just a short time ago. I cannot understand this awful tragedy."
"You certainly must have needed this vacation," we ventured.
"Yes; it was nice to see New York again. Nothing is changed much.
I have been to the dentist, bought some clothes and danced a little, that is
all, but the time has flown and I shall be on my way back by next Sunday."
"And your next picture?"
"It may be 'Blood and Sand' with Bebe Daniels and Rodolph Valentino, in
which I shall be the simple Spanish wife.
"I love California, especially when one is working as hard as I have
this past year. Only about a week of rest between pictures, and then I get
in a little golf. Most of the clothes I have added in New York are sport
things. We don't go in for formal evening gowns much and the parts I get
seldom demand them, either. I am never grown up enough.
"Up in New Hampshire where I went for an exhibitors' convention, I had
my first sleigh ride. I also made my first speech, and it has settled my
mind forever upon the subject of personal appearances. I nearly died of
nerves. Never again.
"I would really rather go back to work than do anything I know of, and I
much prefer being in California."
On the whole May McAovy seems to be a girl who appreciates her blessing.
She has had wonderful success owing to the rare quality of her work on the
screen, and she likes it all.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Martha Mansfield in Cleveland
February 9, 1922
CLEVELAND PRESS
"Pink nighties and parties of a similar shade, too common in the Los
Angeles movie district, give reformers material for sermons and campaigns
that may lead the film industry to its doom," Martha Mansfield, a film
actress, said Thursday in Cleveland.
Miss Mansfield knows the inside of the movie business.
She played with Eugene O'Brien and supported John Barrymore in "Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." She knows Mabel Normand and Mary Miles Minter.
She believes a dope fiend, failing to get screen work from William
Desmond Taylor, killed the noted director.
"Find the man who has been hounding Taylor for a job for the past few
weeks and you'll have his slayer," says Miss Mansfield.
Miss Mansfield Thursday recalled seeing Mary Miles Minter during the
course of making a picture.
"She is just a baby," says Miss Mansfield. "Her mother never left her
long enough for her to get into any mischief.
"Mabel Normand is a happy go-lucky and carefree girl. Whenever I saw
her she seemed to be caring nothing about anything in particular. I do not
think she is at all affectionate."
Miss Mansfield appears at Keith's Theater this week. She starred in
several Cleveland-made pictures.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks in New York
February 16, 1922
NEW YORK WORLD
"This all right?" chirped a small voice from the top of a three-legged
stand where American Beauties grew a moment before. It was "Our Mary,"
holding a butterfly pose, arms raised and crossed, ankles stuck straight out
in front of her. Somewhere in the rear lurked Douglas, doing his best "Three
Musketeers" bow. They arrived yesterday morning from California for a four
days' visit.
The sitting room at the Ritz suddenly reassumed its twentieth century
atmosphere.
Said Mary: "Jazz! No, indeed. Douglas and I believe that husbands and
wives should dance only with each other. Of course, if I knew more about
jazz I might be more enthusiastic, but Douglas doesn't know how to fox trot.
He waltzes beautifully, though."
Mr. Fairbanks meanwhile was giving his views about New York and Europe
and Beverly Hills, where the Fairbanks-Pickford home is established, near,
but not in Hollywood.
"We don't know anything about Hollywood--never go there except to work,"
he said. "Europe--well, Europe's an impulse with me. I see a steamer down
here in the harbor and I hop aboard. But we're not going now. No, we have
to go home and work just as soon as Mary gets her law suit fixed. She's
being sued for 10 per cent of a contract she signed with Zukor in 1916, by
Mrs. Wilkenning, a play agent, and she won't give up--says it is a matter of
principle. Mrs. Wilkenning wants $130,000, and it's costing her about three
times that to keep her from getting it; but my wife, you see, is a very
determined person.
"Yes," chimed in Mary, "I've got a company all assembled out there for
my next picture. 'Tess of the Storm Country.' They've waited five weeks for
me now, at $10,000 a week. But courts are complex with me now. I love 'em."
Asked if William Deane-Taylor had ever directed her in pictures, Mary
just had time to give the names of three: "How Could You, Jean," "Joanna
Enlists" and "Capt. Kidd Jr.," before her husband cast a warning glance at
her. "I never knew he had a wife and daughter in New York--no, indeed," she
added. And that was all about that...
The name of the new Fairbanks picture, to be completed between now and
July 1, was not divulged. "It's a costume affair--even more romantic than
the 'Three Musketeers,' and just as much action. We think it is even
better," said Mary.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Marie Prevost in San Francisco
February 15, 1922
SAN FRANCISCO CALL
Now comes Marie Prevost, motion picture star, and lends her voice to the
chorus of protests against condemning Hollywood and all its works "because a
few movie people may misbehave themselves."
Miss Prevost arrived in San Francisco today from the southern storm
center of conflicting theories as to the Taylor murder case, of innuendoes of
scandal and of counter currents of virtuous protestation.
Miss Prevost is a San Francisco girl. This is her first visit home
since she achieved fame as a motion picture star. While here she will appear
in person in connection with the presentation of one of her films at a local
theater.
"It's all wrong," says Miss Prevost, "the way the public seems ready and
anxious to believe anything wicked about the motion picture players. And the
suggestions of scandal, of dope and riotous living are doing incalculable
damage to the industry.
"As a matter of fact the people at Hollywood are hard working and there
isn't much time for carousal. Why, we're all of us--stars and everybody else-
-'on set' at 8:30 in the morning and we work all day and every day and
frequently far into the night.
"Now anybody knows that one can't be around to parties at night, dancing
and drinking and staying up late, and then turn out for work at 8:30 every
morning.
"Dope? I've never seen any and I don't know any one in Hollywood who
uses it. That's all a fairy tale.
"Why, a dope fiend is the worst looking person in the world, and could
an actress possibly keep her looks and be a user of narcotics? Just think
how dissipation would show in her face in the close-ups on the screen!"
"Well, if the motion picture people don't go in for dope and drinking
and late parties, what do they do for diversion?" the interviewer asked.
"Well, I go to the movies all the time," was Miss Prevost's surprising
answer.
"I always like to study what the other actresses are doing.
"And there's another point. People have no idea how studious many of
the motion picture actresses are. Often when I've been to see Mabel Normand
I've found her surrounded by books. She studies all sorts of things.
"As for Mary Miles Minter I don't think I've ever seen her out without
her mother."
Miss Prevost said she was sorry she couldn't throw any light on the
Taylor murder mystery. She said she had known Taylor, like everybody else at
Hollywood, that he was a "nice man" and a great favorite with the players.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Herbert Rawlinson in San Francisco
February 10, 1922
SAN FRANCISCO CALL
William Desmond Taylor, murdered Los Angeles motion picture director,
was "a well bred gentleman and a man among men," according to Herbert
Rawlinson, motion picture star, who today is a guest at the Hotel St.
Francis.
Although Taylor was somewhat secretive, insofar as he did not discuss
his personal troubles with other men, there was nothing which indicated that
the slain director was a mystery man in any sense of the word, according to
Rawlinson.
"I first knew 'Bill' Taylor about seven or eight years ago when the old
Photo Players' Club was organized in Los Angeles," said Rawlinson.
"When in Los Angeles I live at the Athletic Club and Taylor made a habit
of dropping in at the club two or three times a week and having dinner with
some of the boys there. He frequently called me on the telephone, and it was
an almost weekly event for us to go out to the golf links and play eighteen
holes together.
"I could never speak too highly of 'Bill' Taylor. During my
acquaintanceship with him I never heard anyone utter a word against him.
Whenever Taylor's name was mentioned someone present invariably took occasion
to say, 'He's a real man through and through,' or some phrase to that effect.
"To me he was the personification of everything that a gentleman should
be. At all times he was a gentleman. Whether he was talking to a poor
little extra girl out on location or whether he was conversing with a leading
woman at a party, he was courteous and conducted himself in a manner that
would be a credit to any man. Electricians and stage hands and property men
all were treated with the same courtesy and respect as a manager or star.
"In this connection I am speaking from my recollection of my experience
during the four weeks that I worked under Taylor. At that time I was working
with Ethel Clayton, when we made 'Wealth.' Never in my motion picture career
have I more thoroughly enjoyed four weeks' work than those under Taylor.
"So far as his private or home life was concerned, I can say but little,
because he was not the type of man who discussed such matters.
"So far as I know, and I believe that I knew 'Bill' Taylor as well as
any other man in Los Angeles, he had no known enemies and did not fear
violence at the hands of any one.
"The death of William Desmond Taylor has taken from the motion picture
industry one of its best loved and highest type members. To know him was to
admire him and be his friend.
"He was a man among men."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Will Rogers in Cleveland
March 3, 1922
CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER
"Most of the stuff you read about the depravity of movie folks is plain
bunkum," Will Rogers, who is appearing at the Opera House this week, said in
a talk before the Exchange Club in Hotel Statler yesterday afternoon.
"You've seen a lot about Mabel Normand. Well, there isn't a woman in
Cleveland who does more for charities than Miss Normand. And 'Fatty'
Arbuckle--he always has impressed me as just a big, good natured boy.
"I have lived among the movie actors of Los Angeles for several years,
and I think they are decent, hard-working people."
This was the only serious note that the actor struck in his speech.
"All that I do at my home near Hollywood is point out the house where
Mary Pickford lives," Rogers said. "I've really come here for a rest. When
I die the folks there are going to erect a statue in my yard that will look
just like me--I'll be pointing, and on the statue will be: 'Mary Pickford
lives right up there.'
"I went into the movies as an inspiration for homely men. In a year Los
Angeles was filled with them trying to get movie jobs.
"My future ambitions? I'm going to be vice president. I've been
looking over the duties of that bird, and I think I can qualify. Mostly he's
used as a substitute for the president to make speeches at dinners. But the
government would have to buy a dress suit for me; if I went in a hired one I
might be mistaken for a congressman."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Ruth Roland in San Francisco
March 18, 1922
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
If anyone wants to make Ruth Roland downright mad--not merely annoyed,
but good old-fashioned mad--one way is to ask her if she doesn't "aspire" to
do feature pictures instead of serials.
Miss Roland, who is in San Francisco for a few days rest between
episodes of her coming picture, declares that the only aspiration she has is
to make better serials, and that she doesn't care if she never makes a
feature film. Serials, to Ruth Roland, are a good deal more than chaptered
thrills.
"People who think that making serials is just a matter of stringing
impossible adventures together and getting the greatest number of thrills
into thirteen reels, don't know what they are talking about," said Miss
Roland.
"That might have been true in the first days of the movies, but it isn't
so now. Every one of my pictures has a real theme and a real story. I try
as hard as I can to make them logical and plausible.
"And as for work--well, the star of a feature picture only has to please
his audience for five or six reels; but in a serial I not only have to please
my audience for twenty-six reels, but keep them coming back to the theater
every week for thirteen weeks. And believe me, that isn't easy.
"I suppose that I could make feature pictures if I wanted to, but I
don't want to. I'd rather have people think of me as Ruth Roland, the girl
who makes good serials, than merely as one of a hundred stars of feature
films.
"And we people of the serials have our troubles with the censor.
Somehow--probably because they think so many children come to see us--the
censors put on their strongest glasses when they look at a serial film.
Things that go over in feature pictures are slashed out of serials every day.
"I have to give that side of my work a great deal of care, and I am very
particular not to let anything the list bit out of the way get into my
pictures. Actually, I haven't used my gun for so long that I've almost
forgotten how to pull the trigger, and I think I'll kill my next villain by
hurling cream puffs at him."
Miss Roland is a vigorous champion of Hollywood in that film center's
stand against critics.
"I wish people who don't know what they're talking about would be kind
enough to keep still until they see for themselves," she declared. "The east
especially has the most extraordinary idea of Hollywood--a sort of village of
vice, with Los Angeles just a little town hanging on the edge. I have been
in pictures for ten years so I certainly should know something about the
people who make them, and I don't know a finer, busier, generally better
class of people anywhere than the film folk of Hollywood."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Gladys Walton in Seattle
February 10, 1922
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Gladys Walton, film star of Universal City, is no believer in the saying
of Gaby Deslys that "it doesn't matter what they say about you so long as
they say it."
"It is an outrage that my name should have been connected with William
Desmond Taylor and the tragedy that ended his life." The petite little star
made this very plain by her indignant attitude when questioned in her rooms
at the Hotel Washington yesterday afternoon.
She said:
"I do not know anyone connected with the scandal, and think it wrong
wherever I go to be questioned regarding it. In San Francisco the papers
came out with my name on the front page in connection with it.
"It seems such a shame that these terrible tragedies which have so
lately occurred in the moving picture colony should so blacken the reputation
of the whole industry.
"Why, I have been asked repeatedly if I knew William Desmond Taylor or
anyone connected with that awful crime. I have long been an ardent admirer
of pretty little Mary Miles Minter, though I do not know her personally, and
feel that it is impossible that she will be connected in any way with any
knowledge of the perpetrators of the murder. She is such a dear, attractive
little actress.
"Down in Hollywood I hardly know any of the other stars outside of my
own studio, although I have been starred for two years now. I am so busy
with my work that I really don't have the time and besides I don't care
anything about the big doings. People seem to have the idea that all the
actors and actresses of the moving picture colony do is give and attend large
and disgraceful parties which border on orgies. This is not true. The
moving picture people work and worked hard a great part of the time."
Miss Walton is a petite and very attractive young actress. Her large
brown eyes, set in a pretty face with a most beautiful complexion, are
becomingly framed by long brown curls. The whole effect one gets from Miss
Walton is that of dainty youthfulness. She continued:
"I have been starred for two years. The first picture I ever made was a
star part for me, which was quite an honor, and I have been starred ever
since. But I feel I have much still to learn before I become the great
actress that I aspire to be.
Miss Walton has never been on the legitimate stage. She started her
histrionic career before the camera when she was sixteen years old. A film
in which she is featured is now being shown at the Columbia Theatre, where
she will appear in person, beginning Sunday.
Miss Walton will also be present at the exhibit of Pacific Northwest
Products, now in progress at the Bon Marche. Tomorrow afternoon in a window
of the Bon Marche she will display aprons made in Seattle, and on next
Wednesday and Thursday afternoons Miss Walton will appear as a model in the
fashion show.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Claire Windsor in San Francisco
March 3, 1922
Charles R. Felweiler
SAN FRANCISCO BULLETIN
Indignant because of the wide-spread publicity given her name in
connection with the mysterious murder of William D. Taylor in Los Angeles,
Claire Windsor, statuesque blonde motion picture actress, today denied
anything more than a passing acquaintanceship with the slain director.
Miss Windsor arrived in San Francisco today from Hollywood, and in an
interview immediately after her arrival threw some interesting sidelights on
her own connection with the Taylor case and the situation in the Hollywood
film colony.
"Mr. Taylor was really nothing more than an acquaintance," she said,
"and it was only through a misunderstanding on my mother's part that my name
was mentioned in the case at all.
"It was said after the murder that I had been out driving with Mr.
Taylor on the day he was murdered, and didn't get home that night. As a
matter of fact, I hadn't seen Mr. Taylor for a week, and both the night
before the murder and the night the crime was committed I worked practically
all night at the studio and slept there because it was too late to go home.
"My mother, however, was confused when she was bombarded with questions,
and did not give out facts that would have cleared things up immediately."
In the belief of Miss Windsor, which, she says, echoes the opinions of
many of the motion picture element, the Taylor case will go down as another
Elwell mystery. The general impression is, she says, that the director was
slain by his former valet, Sands.
"That is the only solution I can offer," said Miss Windsor.
"The belief seems to exist that some members of the motion picture
colony know more than they will tell and are trying to shield someone.
Personally, I cannot imagine who among the motion picture people could
possibly possess any definite knowledge without having had to reveal it.
There have been so many stories passed about that it is hard to know what to
think."
According to the film star, she knew Taylor to speak to in passing for
some time, but was only out with him on one occasion--a week prior to the
murder, when she was invited to join Taylor, Antonio Moreno and Betty
Francisco at a dinner party.
"I did not hear of the murder until about noon on the day the body was
found," Miss Windsor continued, "and I was as much astonished as anyone.
However, it was not anything that was personally close to me and I worked at
the studio that same day as usual.
"As an indication of how slightly acquainted I was with Mr. Taylor,
I didn't even know that he was a friend of Mabel Normand's. I have met Miss
Normand, and believe her to be a charming girl. I always look for the best
in people, anyway, and believe the best of them until I am disappointed."
Commenting on rumors that Taylor had made a threat to kill his former
valet, if he could lay hands on him, Miss Windsor said today that she was
present in a group that included Taylor, when the name of Sands was brought
up, but that Taylor made no threat against his former employee, although he
declared that he would prosecute him if he could find him.
Criticism of the film family at Hollywood and stories of "cocaine
parties," "love nests" and wild orgies, which she branded as unwarranted and
unjust, particularly aroused the blonde film beauty's ire.
"Some of the wild stories that were told, and which unfairly included my
name, accused me of constantly going out on parties, while the truth is that
I was only out one evening in the five weeks I was working at the studio on
my last picture.
"Some of these tales would have the public believe that motion picture
people live in one giddy whirl of gaiety, whereas the producers--mine, at
least--are constantly warning us not to go out too much, as we would become
too common with the people who see us on the screen.
"Motion picture people know how to have fun, but they do it in a clean
way. They all know each other and are jolly together, but there is no
looseness about it. The film people I know are terribly hurt by the unjust
criticism that seems to include us all."
Miss Windsor is in San Francisco for a few days of rest before starting
work on her new picture. With her are Mrs. Sailing Baruch of New York and
the latter's son, and Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Block of Philadelphia.
*****************************************************************************
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For more information about Taylor, see
WILLIAM DESMOND TAYLOR: A DOSSIER (Scarecrow Press, 1991)
Back issues of Taylorology are available via Gopher at
gopher.etext.org
in the directory Zines/Taylorology
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