***************************************************************************** * 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 * ***************************************************************************** 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 ***************************************************************************** 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. ***************************************************************************** ***************************************************************************** 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 B, 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 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. ***************************************************************************** ***************************************************************************** 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 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 February 7, 1922 NEW ORLEANS ITEM "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. ***************************************************************************** ***************************************************************************** Back issues of Taylorology are available on the Web at any of the following: http://www.angelfire.com/az/Taylorology/ http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/Taylorology/ http://www.uno.edu/~drif/arbuckle/Taylorology/ Full text searches of back issues can be done at http://www.etext.org/Zines/ For more information about Taylor, see WILLIAM DESMOND TAYLOR: A DOSSIER (Scarecrow Press, 1991) *****************************************************************************