***************************************************************************** * T A Y L O R O L O G Y * * A Continuing Exploration of the Life and Death of William Desmond Taylor * * * * Issue 99 -- 2012 Editor: Bruce Long * * TAYLOROLOGY may be freely distributed * ***************************************************************************** CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE: Robert P. Shuler ***************************************************************************** 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 on reprinting, referencing and analyzing source material, and sifting it for accuracy. ***************************************************************************** ***************************************************************************** Robert P. Shuler In 1922, anti-Hollywood preachers mentioned the Taylor murder in speeches and writings to bolster their arguments against the motion picture industry. At that time, the most prominent and vocal anti-Hollywood clergyman in Los Angeles was Rev. Robert P. Shuler. In addition to his sermons, Shuler published "Bob Shuler's Magazine" to spread his viewpoint to a wider audience; the following items were published in his magazine during 1922. Anti-Semitic references have been left intact for historical purposes. See Shuler's biographical Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_P._Shuler * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * THE CLEANEST OF THE UNCLEAN March 1922 BOB SHULER'S MAGAZINE A colony of people, mighty in potentiality, the educators of the childhood and youth of the nation in ideals and standards, the manipulators of human emotions in America, live in the twin cities of Hollywood and Los Angeles and are the center of the attention of the whole world today. They make you laugh and cry. They make you mad and glad. They make you thrill and they fill you continuously with the food that makes your heart desire to be good or bad. They are more powerful than all the universities in the world in their influence over the human soul and will either draw the heart of the this nation to the high table lands of purity and noble resolve or they will within a decade or so pull us down into the depths as to "souse" our very souls in infamy and shameless debauch. This colony of people is sometimes referred to as "the movie world" and indeed they are as large as the globe in the reach of their influence. Out of Hollywood are to be the issues of life in America, if I am any prophet. Hollywood, with her movie studios and thousands of movie actors and actresses, is the center of the idealism of America today. There is not another force as potent unloosed within this broad land as the millions of feet of film that are traveling out from Hollywood every year. Then what of Hollywood's "movie world?" The spotted leopard does not sire a lamb. The poisonous fountain does not send forth sweet waters. Think not that purity shall be the lesson learned from that textbook that is produced in the sordid bed of lechery! We hear much talk of a most certainly needed "clean up" of the unclean film. I come to say, after the most careful and studious investigation, that you will never clean the film until you clean its fountain. The very nature of the leopard must be changed. Back of the sex-full film is the sex-overflowing movie colony of Hollywood. The waters of the film, vile and unholy, are but the natural products of a fountain that has suddenly been discovered to be too nasty for human contemplation. Within the past five years, literally hundreds of movie luminaries have had their pictures in Los Angeles papers and their names in glaring headlines that tell the tale of scandal, of free love, of tainted divorce, of looseness in social relations, of defiance of morality and convention, of blear-eyed license and shameless lust. Movie beauties are constantly on the pages of these papers, their nudeness emphasized, their sexual charms brazenly portrayed, their naked lack of womanly modesty advertised flagrantly to the whole wide world. If you would know why the smear of slime has been so pronounced across the face of the picture, pray study for a moment the character of folk that are behind the picture. For ten years a big, fat, jolly Pied Piper was followed by a veritable tide of childish hearts and laughing faces of little boys and girls. The entry of the Son of God into Jerusalem was not more triumphant than was the entry of this man into the confidence of American childhood. And then came the San Francisco booze party, when this hero of little children, clad in his pajamas, uncorked his booze and amid the noise of jazz proceeded in that drunken carousal, that dance in night attire and undergarments with women of his ilk and of his trade, that finally culminated in the death of an actress, the trials of the comedian and the revelations of sex shame so vile as would cause a litter of dogs to blush in their kennel. Immediately, the "movie world" threw the power of its powerful hold upon California and the gold of its purse into an effort to free their fellow, but while they blocked the way of justice and saved their comrade from the pen, they were not powerful enough, thank God, to stay the revelations of impurity that was resultant from those trials. And while the nation stood aghast before this revelation, another prominent movie man was discovered dead in his bed by two female satellites who slept in his apartments with him, a thin curtain separating their bed from his. Scarcely had this shameful exposure been quieted and smoothed over until a star committed suicide under circumstances that might have implicated some of the most renowned in the profession, had not the soft pedal been placed on the newspapers just in time. In the meantime a woman killed her paramour in a middle west state and after a nationwide sensation in the way of a chase and a trial, ending in her release, she too found her way to the pictures and married her producer. The "movie world" howled with a vengeance at her entry, though the most studious could not tell why, since both in life and in the picture produced, she undoubtedly ran true to type. And through it all, with every daily paper that came from the press, there ran the purple thread of divorce and scandal, of charge and counter charge, of shame and perfidy. But the "movie world" contended that such crimes, such violation of every sacred principle of human life, such contempt for the sanctity of the American home, such show of lust and portrayal of the sensual came from the unclean among them and certain representatives stood out and plead with the public not to judge the clean by the unclean. Preachers apologetically referred to the fact that we were wading through a veritable flood of filth that came not from the majority of the film folk, but from a minority. We were told that these objectionable creatures were to be put out of the business and we vainly waited for the hundreds of stars that had been connected with scandal, with shaded divorce action, with booze parties and dope evenings to receive their "walking papers." Promises were plentiful. Fulfillment never came. Then it was that one of the most prominent men in the "movie world" escorted a beautiful star to her auto, after she had spent, according to her statement, forty-five minutes in his bachelor apartments alone with him at night, and, promising to call her immediately upon her arrival home, returned to his own house to be shot in the back and killed. The whole movie colony arose to do him honor. At last a clean man had come the way of tragedy among them. The public was assured by all who knew him, by the newspapers, by the women with whom he was most intimate, by his servants, by his friends that he was an excellent gentleman, clean, virtuous, manly, chivalrous, ideal. Here at last the "movie world" had its opportunity. Finally, there would stand up before all men a blameless dead man from the film trade and the critics would be punished while the doubting would be satisfied. But death has a way of opening up graves, you know, and slowly the dead past came to life. According to press reports this murdered man was a wife deserter; a child deserter; a home defamer, as shown by the court records of the divorce that followed the desertion; a man of affairs with many women and none of them to his credit. No sooner was he dead than certain world-renowned actresses became frenzied with excitement. One was hurrying to secure her letters to him for fear the public would misunderstand the terms of endearment therein. Another was trying to explain a missive in which was a passionate profession of love and which was found among his personal effects. Still another was on the anxious seat as to "dope parties" which it seems this clean man had attended in order to secure "atmosphere" for his work. We read in the papers about dainty undergarments found in his apartments, of half-drained whiskey glasses and cigarette stubs, and thus the tide of revelation rolled on. It appears that he had gone under many names, had once been a showman with a "beautiful sister" connected with his show, though there seems to have been no such real sister. A hotel man comes along to tell about his having spent a week in his hotel under an assumed name with a woman, supposedly his wife, though his only wife was the deserted woman referred to. All this and more--and then, more--and then, some more rolled out into the wide open as a startled public gasped for breath, for this was the "clean man of the movies," the "ideal gentleman" of the pictures, the "splendid sample of the best" in the world where the film is born. But with all the revelation, the movie people stood by their "ideal gentleman," just as they stood by "Fatty" and the greatest funeral ever accorded a movie man took place in a prominent downtown church of this city while the stately service of the Church of England was read over the body of the world's latest Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. Enough flowers from Hollywood's "movie world" to cover the graves of forty men told the story of the high esteem in which that colony held this man, for he was the "cleanest of their unclean." Is not this picture amazing? And yet this picture is as true as truth. Indeed, this man, with all the things that death hath opened its mouth to tell of him, was undoubtedly one of the very highest-class movie men to be found. To say that such a man is high class among real men is ridiculous, absurd, revolting. To say that he was the kind of citizen the nation needs would be to court the ridicule of all mankind. To say that his life reflected credit on his nation, his race or himself would be to be openly laughed at. And yet when his fellow movie comrades proclaimed him a sample of their very best, they undoubtedly told the truth. Two-thirds of the movie people will today class under this victim of the assassin's bullet. He was without doubt a cleaner, higher type gentleman than most of the stars who attended his funeral. The whole difference is in a conception of what it takes to constitute a clean man or a pure woman and the "movie world" has served notice on all humanity that they are not to be judged according to the standards of convention, of good morals, of decent behavior by which other mortals stand or fall. They are artists and must be accorded the privileges belonging to artists of their peculiar "temperaments." Ordinary people should marry and be true to their marriage vows. Ordinary unmarried women should be chaperoned when calling at night at the apartments of men. Ordinary girls should not attend booze parties and dope "sneezes." Ordinary men and women should not live as cats and dogs live. But the "movie world" is an artistic world and movie folk are not ordinary folk. And this is why a man who would tail the list among ordinary gentlemen heads it with emphasis among the gentlemen of the movie colony. If Mr. Hays, with his $150,000 salary, can bring the folk behind the picture to sanity in living their lives he will go many a mile toward cleaning the pictures and saving the industry from the wrath of an indignant parenthood, the last of which jobs is in reality the one assigned him. But so long as such a condition obtains as today obtains among the movie people, there is little hope of revolution toward safety from within the industry. The inside of the cup and platter is in a pitiable condition out Hollywood way. When a wife-deserter, a child-deserter and a man with as many women intimates as have recently been advertised through the public press, can go to his grave extolled and magnified, crowned and adored by a group of people, it is a certain sign that their ideals and standards are about nil. And yet American childhood and youth are in their keeping. The parents of the nation have surrendered their offspring to these people for the stirring of the very fountains of their lives and the making of the very goals of their destinies. These are the teachers of the growing, developing, maturing America of tomorrow. And these teachers very positively defy the parents of this nation in their efforts to safeguard their children from the poison flowing from the products of the "movie world." When we ask for a loaf of censorship, the movie "money-bags" hurl at us a golden stone, which frightens our business men to death, and we stand helpless. We are at the mercy of the unclean and lo, the cleanest of the unclean appears not more clean than the uncleanest in the ranks of ordinary mortals: men and women, forsooth, whose characters must be up to their art, their trade or the profession. For the "movie world" itself hath spoken it. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * PAGE MR. HAYS April 1922 BOB SHULER'S MAGAZINE It is reported that Adolph Zukor, Carl Laemmle, Hiram Abrams, Louis J. Selznick, Samuel Goldwyn, William Fox and Marcus Loew have employed Will Hays at the insignificant figure of $150,000 per annum. In the old saloon days, when we read the list of brewers, we coined a remark to the effect that "There is something in a name." In the above transaction, there is something in a name. The names of the employers of Mr. Hays speak eloquently for themselves. Those who know those names will immediately drop all this childish prattle about the employment of Mr. Hays for the cleansing of the Movies. These employers are historic in the Movies. Their attitude to cleanliness in pictures is as well known as the Ten Commandments, though the relation is not marked. They have been in absolute control of the pictures through a career of dirt and filth on the screen that has shocked the American conscience to its center. The names of the men is sufficient guarantee of the fact that, what ever shall be the duties of Mr. Hays, the making clean of the picture is not one of them. But there is the name of Mr. Hays. Few names are as large and full of meaning. He belongs to the machinery of government in America. He stands in the front line of leadership in the dominant party within the nation. His name will secure almost any kind of legislation that the above named gentlemen may chance to want, and will defeat any bill that might be antagonistic to their financial interests. Therefore a band of men who claim that a censorship law would cost them $15,000,000 and who further claim that a tariff on foreign films would profit them half as much, are not at all unwise in taking less than one per cent of that amount and expending it in a name that will prevent the one and give to them the other. These gentlemen, whose names are so insistently significant, also acted with characteristic wisdom in selecting a prominent church man. Mr. Hays is a Presbyterian Elder, leads in public prayer, preaches lay sermons and belongs to the "moral element." Messrs. Zukor, Laemmle, Abrams, Selznick, Goldwyn, Fox and Loew have only one element in America to fear in their successful exploitation of the morals of the American people. That is the church element. When the preachers "lay off," these gentlemen will roll in their millions without embarrassment or alarm. The newspapers are very agreeable, for advertising reasons. All other approaches to the public are well taken care of. Only the pulpit remains obstreperous. The preacher is rather a hard man to buy. It is difficult to approach him. And here again the brains that came down from the gentleman who manipulated the striped, streaked, speckled calves on his uncle's ranch, work like a well-oiled machine. The name of a Presbyterian Elder will go far in assisting a people who sell their wares on the Holy Sabbath and desire to sell pretty rotten wares at that. There is one laughable phrase that has come out of the employment of Mr. Hays. We hear of "the Landis of the Movies." Well, we will wait. If Hays is to be a second Landis, he will prove it by giving the toe of his boot to the unclean in the industry. I say, we will wait, for there is apt to be a mighty scattering among the crowned heads and the wailing of bosses that cannot be comforted, if indeed, Will Hays is to be "the Landis of the Movies." The sons of Jacob will have a dumb chill when Hays begins to do the Landis act. And we will advise our friend among the officials of the Presbyterian Church to be sure and draw his salary in advance, if in reality, he intends to Landisize the Movies. Boy, page Mr. Hays. He is now before the public eye, and the public eye will not down. If Mr. Hays has come to his kingdom for a campaign of "the heavy hand" in legislation, while he carries about with him a whitewash brush, the public eye will find it out. The public eye is now wide open, thanks to a few corpses and a living "Fatty" Arbuckle, and that public eye has not an eyelash between it and the Hon. Mr. Will Hays. We have an idea that the movie Princes (For there were many Princes in Israel) dread American censorship for the defense of the morality of the childhood and youth of this nation much more than they dread any other thing living or dead. There is no ghost that stalks through their nights so frightfully. We are of the opinion that these same Princes whose names are Zukor, Laemmle, Abrams, Selznick, Goldwyn, Fox and Loew expect their Mr. Hays to take his grip in hand and fox trot from Legislature to Legislature and from Senate to House for the purpose of preventing the people from passing laws that will safeguard public morals and protect from the salacious and filthy, their sons and daughters. To be sure, we will wait, but we are already well decided as to where our waiting will bring us and the revelations that are ahead. And although we wish Mr. Hays great success in cleaning the unclean, we doubt the method that we fear he will adopt, knowing his bosses, and we advise that he wear his rabbit foot just over the left-hind-corner of his spleen, if he expects the people to go to sleep with a security born of his having been a Cabinet member, and his still being an Elder in the church. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * April 1922 BOB SHULER'S MAGAZINE Mr. Carl Laemmle of the movies declares that 99 percent of the picture people are respectable. If that is true, the little one percent of the unclean sure produce a stench worthy of a smaller and even more nocturnal variety. But Mr. Laemmle fails to tell us whether his 99 percent are respectable according to the movie standards of respectability or the standards of men and women of ordinary life. We wonder if he counts these naked stars that we see in the papers constantly as respectable? Do his divorce queens with their court records belong to this 99 percent? Do his respectable stars drink booze, smoke cigarettes and visit men at night unattended by chaperones? In fact there are about a thousand questions we could ask, for we surmise that Mr. Lamemle has embraced in his 99 percent all who are out of jail or whose record has not been transcribed by the Court reporters. We must not forget that the codes of respectability among Movie people have been amazingly modernized to meet the demands of their temperamental and artistic natures. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * THE WHITEWASH April 1922 BOB SHULER'S MAGAZINE The Eastern Press has spread the smear of slime before its readers in an exposure of moral conditions among the Movie people of Southern California, and while there has in a few instances been exaggeration, most of the revelation has been true and much of it tame when compared with real conditions. The Movie defenders have been unique in one thing. They have sought to "step from under" by making it appear that the attack was being made upon Hollywood as a community rather than upon the Movie colony that lives in and about Hollywood. In this they have utterly failed. No one has for a moment been deceived. Hollywood, outside of her Movie inhabitants, is very much like any other city in Southern California and all men are well acquainted with that fact. And now that the exposure is complete, lacking only the finishing touches of the next episode which will be along on schedule time, the processes of the whitewash brush have been inaugurated. The Mayor, elected by the Christian men and women of Los Angeles and opposed by the united Movie world, their silver-mounted limousines plowing the streets in a campaign against him, has graciously come to the rescue of their damaged reputation. The Chamber of Commerce, always ready to intervene in behalf of revenue, when only character is imperiled, has made a grand display of purging the Eastern Press of its slanders on the good name of these pure, gentle, refined and lovely people. The Police of Hollywood, believed by many to exist for the one purpose of caring for the Movie folk when they find themselves in a predicament, has declared how very gentle and law abiding they are. You have noted that Taylor's murderer has not been caught and agitation is coming to a slow but sure and certain death. No, that manslaughter will not be caught. It would be embarrassing, no doubt, to Moviedom were that murderer caught. The reputation of these people must be saved and that the Police know full well. The City Council has spoken. Back in the days when the Christian manhood and womanhood of Los Angeles made the fight for censorship, a majority of that City Council gave every outward sign of friendliness to the Christian forces. I myself talked personally with more than half of that body. But the heavy hand of the "billion-dollar bosses" fell and the censorship matter lies snugly somewhere in its grave and the vote of the City Council is unregistered. It was such a City Council that rushed out, dripping white, to smear over the lecherous and filthy record of the Movies. Then it was that this Editor spoke his soul. He handed to the Newspapers of Los Angeles what he had to say. Usually they are eager for news, but never for news that reflects adversely upon advertisers of such large purses. My deliverance never appeared. And it is for this reason and that the whole world may know that there are men in Los Angeles, at the very front door of the Movie Industry, who are by God's grace determined to speak the truth that I publish below in my own Publication my deliverance on the evening of Feb. 26th, 1922. It was delivered before a packed house, members of the city administration and also of the Movie Colony being present, and follows word for word as delivered: "The city administration of Los Angeles and the Chamber of Commerce, in giving to the Movie Colony a nice, new glistening coat of whitewash, have simply invited those who have their eyes and ears open in Southern California to laugh at them. In asking us to swallow their affirmations, they seem to take the common herd for a pack of fools. Some day these guardians of our 'infant industry' will awaken to find that the people are not blind, deaf or even brainless. "To say that the attitude of the Movie people in public and private morals, to correct social standards, to the marriage relation and to the American home has not been altogether pernicious is to court the contempt of all who know the real facts; while to declare that these folk have as a group been living wholesome, moral, righteous lives in Southern California is but to add to the ridiculous absurdity of your defense. These glowing certificates of purity recently published from the Mayor, the City Council, the Police Force, the Chamber of Commerce, have value alone as real estate documents, in my opinion. "I would suggest to these apostles of 'our billion-dollar industry' that if they will interest themselves a little more in the character of Southern California they may not be forced to spend so much valuable time on her reputation. It might shock the whole community, but it would undoubtedly be wholesome, if some of these agencies would at least once say a word or two in defense of the morals of our youth, that have been exploited for gate receipts by Moviedom for the past five years. "The divorce record of this Movie colony is enough of itself to shock the conscience of the nation to its center, while the newspaper display of nudeness on the part of movie actresses has for many years advertised their all but total lack of womanly modesty. American virtue does not display itself in the nude. With their cellars full of booze the movie people have defied convention and mocked our standards of life. Seventy-five percent of the cellars of Moviedom are stocked with intoxicants today. Their 'dope' record is as well advertised as our climate. What other profession dares demand that its women be permitted to visit unchaperoned the bachelor apartments of men at night? What other industry will put its money behind the defense of a 'Fatty' Arbuckle? What other business will eulogize to heaven a wife and child deserter and a man whose intimate relation with many women is now public property? Go read their maudlin love notes that tell the story of looseness almost as clearly as their vampire screen has told that tale, and then pray tell me why the heads of our city government must rush to their defense. "When the Captain of the Hollywood police squad declares that he has been unable to find any wrongdoing among the Movie people, he gives the Police Commission of Los Angeles the best reason on earth why his services should be dispensed with. Where was he New Year's Eve? Such a man is absolutely undependable or incapable. When the Mayor of this city declares these people blameless, he advertises that he himself is either grossly ignorant of conditions or mortally weak. When the City Council votes the Movie colony a clean bill of health, it confesses to all the world its spinelessness. The most pitiful thing that has happened in this whole Movie revelation has been the kneeling down before this golden calf on the part of our City Administration and the licking of the feet of these cigarette-smoking stars and wine-drinking beauties by men who ought to stand for the American home, the morality of our sons and daughters, and the saving of our nation from wholesale license and a reign of lust." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * EXIT BLUE SUNDAY STUFF May 1922 BOB SHULER'S MAGAZINE A world famous movie actress who visited a world famous movie producer in his bachelor apartments at night and left just before he was assassinated, stated to the District Attorney of Los Angeles County that as she walked to the car, the producer in question put his arm around her. In the meantime, she was loud in her declarations that there was no "affair" between her and the producer in question. Some folk may be rather shocked at the idea of a young woman visiting a bachelor gentleman in his apartments at night and promenading beneath the trees locked in his embrace, but such folk are simply behind the times. They are old and fogy and moss-grown and fanatical and long-haired. They are the regular blue Sunday kind. They belong to the far away dead past, when ladies were modest and virtue absolutely denied the possibility of a beautiful young woman blamelessly spending an hour in a bachelor's apartments alone with the proprietor at night. But the movie has come since then and now we are educated by the film and those who produce the pictures to where the black of other days has become as white and glistening as new fallen snow. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * May 1922 BOB SHULER'S MAGAZINE Miss Marion Hunter, of the Hollywood Studio Club, an institution recently promoted to salvage girls who have movie aspirations and who are continuously bombarding the gates of the movie studios, declares that hundreds of them are scarcely more than 16 years of age, with no chance on earth to ever get into the pictures. These girls come to Los Angeles and, failing to get into the pictures, fully ninety percent of them wreck at once. Thousands of young girls have come to this city to be stars and have become the most pitiful creatures of the night. Many who have gotten into the studios have fared no better than those who failed. The mother who is pushing her daughter toward the movies is in the large percent of instances simply pushing her into hell. I have come personally to share in sympathy and helpfulness the pitiful tragedy of more than one girl who came into this city, urged on by an aspiring mother to believe that she had talent that would land the family in a mansion and the girl on the highway of fame. Better kiss your little girl and cut her throat in most instances, foolish mother! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * May 1922 BOB SHULER'S MAGAZINE If there has been any doubt as to the attitude toward public morals of the most shining stars of the Movie world, the welcome given "Fatty" Arbuckle's "vindication" should forever dissipate that doubt. According to press reports, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Mabel Normand, (You have doubtless heard of her) and others not less famous are hilarious. Hollywood's movie people went wild with enthusiasm and rejoicing. Whether or not a "dog party" has been staged has not been announced at this writing. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Hail "Fatty," Thy Fame Is Final May 1922 BOB SHULER'S MAGAZINE "Fatty" Arbuckle is as I write the best known man in the movie world. From a standpoint of the advertisement of his wares, he is the most favorably known. He has gotten before the public in a way to make him tremendously attractive as a movie star. Today, he outshines all the rest. Many of them are well known but he is best known. His party, his pajamas, his bedrooms and bath rooms and ladies going to and fro in his drunken party, his dead woman and the revelations attending, his dog parties now so well advertised, his dirty and filthy relation to the unspeakable--all make him the best and most fitly advertised man in Moviedom, the king of the art, the crowned and acclaimed monarch of the film. Immediately upon his glorious "exoneration" he announces that he is now ready to go back into the pictures. Just how he could be any more ready, we do not understand. Surely he is the final word in preparedness when it comes to a brilliant future in the films. Several weeks ago, this writer through a little pamphlet that has traveled to the tune of multiplied thousands through every state in America, declared that the Movie people were behind "Fatty" in their sympathies and with their money. Later, the daily papers confirmed my statement anent the cash but a quite famous producer denied vehemently my declaration as to the sympathy of the picture folk. Today Jesse Lasky, who comes nearer speaking for the movie world than any other man within it, says: "I am very pleased that Mr. Arbuckle has been acquitted. An acquittal is what ALL PERSONS connected with motion pictures hoped for and believed would happen." So at last the motion picture world, through Mr. Lasky, has spoken. This famous representative declares that "All persons," not just a few, "connected with motion pictures" hoped for and expected Arbuckle's reinstatement. That he is their kind absolutely, most men have known from the beginning, but that one of their biggest men should acknowledge it is a frankness we had scarcely hoped for. This writer does not claim to be a prophet, but mark my work, "Fatty" as a film favorite is just now starting toward his zenith. He is the kind of man who will sell in the movie game. His reputation matches in wondrous fashion the modern film's display of sex, of filth, of dirt, of lust, of carousal and of slime. It will be the picture plus "Fatty" and that will produce a mighty total with that public that the Movie masters have doped to where they are no longer satisfied without a display of the wretchedly vicious. As to the finding of the jury, it is laughable. Surely, the movie people think the whole world one mob of fools to talk of that finding as an "exoneration," a "vindication." We know what it was, all right. When a jury can consider the evidence of weeks in one minute and write a lengthy letter of recommendation of the man on trial and be back in the courtroom ready to report in five minutes, it's time for the public to grab its nose. Especially is that true when two juries have hung for days on that same evidence, the last one standing ten for conviction. The Movie folk exercised bad judgment again. Their jury acted too quickly. They showed their training too well. They had it too perfectly memorized. You have simply played the fool one more time. These Jews who own the Movies are great on money making but they are some mess in dealing with the public mind. Gentlemen, you should have instructed your jury not to have reported under an hour, whatever happened. Speed ruined you again. It is all over and the only mistake made was in not dismissing the case after the first trial. There has never been the ghost of a chance of convicting "Fatty" Arbuckle with the money on hand for his defense. The Movie cohorts came nearly slipping on the second trial, but they learned their lesson and let no grass grow under their feet on the third. The preparation lacking for the second was complete in the third. The Jury in their verdict showed such training as only experts could give. It was truly splendid and the whitewash dripped to perfection. There is no need to write concerning the verdict, however, as all sane people are laughing at that. The interesting fact is that the Movie people have accepted their own at par. He is to be one of them. They have approved him. Lasky has announced that they were all behind him from the beginning. Again, he will become the educator of our children in ideals and standards. Again, our boys and little girls shall worship at his altars. America, behold thy big, fat god. Oh land of the Pilgrims, bow down before thy re-crowned slinger of pies. See him disport himself in his silk pajamas with his lady friends at his parties. Behold, oh land, where on thy coin is stamped "In God we trust," the idol, white with the wash that movie gold could buy. But the "Landis of the Movies" has spoken. Is his verdict final? We wait. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * CUTE MR. HAYS June 1922 BOB SHULER'S MAGAZINE Mr. Hays is speaking very cautiously, you will note, but very surely. He banned the Arbuckle pictures temporarily. He has since virtually declined proof offered concerning the deportment of that Star and others like him. In a recent dispatch he says: "We must not have censorship of the industry. Our first duty must be to keep the industry free." He further declines "to be the judge of the morals of those within the industry." He affirms that "the morals in this industry are just as good as those in any other." Elder Hays talks indeed just like an old-time brewery attorney. It is all fine if there were any truth in it or hope for an afflicted public. The fact is, it is the first gun of the coming propaganda. Mr. Hays has in this interview given the first signs of the bridle that is in his mouth. Be well assured the big Jew owners are the drivers. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * June 1922 BOB SHULER'S MAGAZINE Rev. Geo. F. Dowey of the Third Presbyterian Church of Chicago suggests that Will Hays organize the Movie producers and their stars into a Sunday School class, since he is a Presbyterian elder and teach them the ten commandments. Now we do not wish to disappoint any expectant admirer of Mr. Hays, but that gentleman has no thought of teaching the Movie folk the ten commandments. Recently an offer went out of Los Angeles to Mr. Hays guaranteeing to give to him not only evidence as to the deportment of "Fatty" Arbuckle, but evidence as to similar deportment of a score or more of the 'greatest lights" of the Movie world, providing he would guarantee to prohibit their pictures, if their guilt was established beyond a doubt. Mr. Hays was kind enough to thank the gentleman who made this offer, but his short letter left no doubt of the fact that the offer would not be accepted. Mr. Hays may be a very good man, but he is in the hands of men who care less about the ten commandments than they do about any other thing of any interest at all. They were willing to temporarily pull "Fatty" Arbuckle off when they found the public would not permit him on, but they will never agree to a general policy in line with the dealing. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "THE SINS OF HOLLYWOOD" June 1922 BOB SHULER'S MAGAZINE "The Sins of Hollywood" have been suppressed--that is, the book of that title has been suppressed. It isn't fit to be read, according to the authorities. Even the United States mails, which now carry some pretty "raw" literature, are closed to this little volume, we understand. The great trouble about "The Sins of Hollywood" is that it is true. This Editor has perused its pages. There is not a story in it but that harks back to genuine fact. Yes, it is nasty. So are the facts. True, it is filthy and vile, but so is the life it pictures. I would not for a moment commend it to any sensitive person. It is shocking. It is terribly frank. It is in fact the unvarnished story of just what happened. That of itself ought to ban it forever from the mails and from the center tables of all decent homes. "The Sins of Hollywood" is a little volume written by somebody who most certainly was no stranger to the movie colony. The writer knew the very inside and his book is the most splendid proof of that fact. At last accounts he could not be located. According to the newspapers, somebody wanted to prosecute him. Whoever that somebody was, we are sure he or she did not belong to the group of celebrities whose first names are given in the stories published. We understand that those who knew the inside of the Taylor murder agreed that it was best not to get it into open court, and we imagine that the stars and producers who are pictured in "The Sins of Hollywood" are of the same opinion concerning the writer of those stories and for the same reason. Courts dig a little too deep at times, you know. In the meantime, "The Sins of Hollywood" is floating about, with its little red devil on the front cover, and is being read by disgusted thousands. The reason they are disgusted is that the book contains nothing new, nor even out of the ordinary. The stories it relates have been known to everybody "close up" to movie scandal and the author does not even make them as nasty as they actually were. More than that, any carpenter who works about the studios can tell a dozen that will eclipse any that are in the book. The casual reader expected to find at least one new one or one of the old ones with a new touch or two. That is why students of the movie "hog-wallow" do not give a rap if the book has been suppressed. They knew it anyway. And they resent the fact that the writer undertook to doctor the stories enough to get them through the United States mails. It so happened that this Editor had a personal "confab" with a very prominent "studio rat;" in other words, a man who knows the very "insides" of Moviedom. He had not read "The Sins of Hollywood." I undertook to tell him of the most outstanding touches. I soon noticed that he was sleepy or sick. He yawned and looked weary. Finally, he turned to me apologetically and said: "Why, is that all he wrote? Those are merely the faults of the movie folk. Webster didn't collect the language that would tell the story of their real sins." So I have decided that it was altogether wise to suppress "The Sins of Hollywood," since the author of the book shows in his writings a disposition to go no further than "Dog Parties," "Paddle Parties," "Duck Blinds," "Dope Evenings," "Great Lover Stuff" and other nastiness that is now altogether tame when it comes to dealing with Moviedom. Certainly, his book is vile, but not one-half as vile as the vileness he is supposed to depict, if in fact he really meant to draw a nature picture of the Sins of the Studios. And even since "The Sins of Hollywood" was suppressed, the photos owned by Taylor, the murdered producer, were sold at auction. The majority of them were photos of women in the nude or with just enough on to make the sex idea emphatic. They were eagerly bought up by Movie luminaries, mostly women. Their value was in that which they suggested concerning the dead Taylor--that is, concerning the kind of life he lived. Among the photos were pictures of some of the most prominent stars and scrawled across the cards, in their own hands, such sentiment as this: "To Billie--with all my love." "I love you; I love you; I love you." There is perhaps no more certain proof of the putrid condition of the Southern California Film Colony than the fact that Bill Taylor, who collected that bunch of photos from his lady intimates, was conceded by them all to be the cleanest and most perfect gentleman among them. Publication of a few of those photos in "The Sins of Hollywood" would have given to the tame volume something akin to a "kick" at least. And to show that "The Sins of Hollywood" was old and out of date and obsolete when it came off the press, one has but to peruse the daily papers anent the Valentino scandal, which is right up to date. Valentino, as film fans know, is "the greatest lover" of the screen. "Oh, the passion of his kiss!" is the way one leading woman who starred with him is heralded to have put it. "To be wrapped in his arms is to live love," is another comment of a much cheaper but just as famous light of the celluloid. Valentino was married to Jean Acker, at one time also famous as a star, but more recently driven from pictures by ill health. Without even waiting for a legal divorce, this "great lover" motors over into Mexico and weds Winifred Hudnut. "The great lover" is arrested on a bigamy charge and them comes the revelation in sworn testimony of "pajama parties," "pajama motor trips," wild life and free love that comes within a neck of going under the wire a winner over "Fatty's San Francisco love fest," except that no undertaker was needed. Valentino's "great love" spree also reminds us that Frank Mayo and Dagmar Godowsky, both prominent in the Movie world, also slid over to Tia Juana, Mexico, the most "wide open" place outside perdition, and were lovingly united in wedlock, before the groom's divorce had been legally executed. Mayo defends his marriage as "a marriage of love, inspired by the highest of motives." My only comment is that he sure was choice in selecting Tia Juana as a fitting place for consummation of such a marriage. A Los Angeles newspaper assures the public that no less than ten other such marriages have been recently effected under like circumstances, with either one or both contracting parties famous in the movie world. All of which shows you how tame and uninteresting such a book as "The Sins of Hollywood" really is. Why, some of its stories are as much as sixty days old and here we are having new movie scandals every morning before breakfast. Certain it is that any book seeking to portray conditions in the Movie world should be written not more than twenty-four hours before going to press and should be published and placed on the book shelves of the stores within twelve hours after the manuscript is completed. Even this well-written article will be stale in all possibility before our readers read it, swift as moves the machinery that brings to the eager public Bob Shuler's Magazine. Movie vice has broken all speed limits. It is a most difficult thing indeed to write and publish the account of one nauseating Movie mess before another scandal completely swallows your story and by processes of comparison makes your efforts to shock the public appear both tame and lame. "The Sins of Hollywood" should be a serial. Each day it should recount the latest. Each morning it should notify the public as to which actor and actress are living together and as to whether the last ones married were married to some one else at the time of their marriage. Only such modern methods in literary production can by any possible process keep pace with the latest nastiness of Moviedom. But why continue? Since starting this article, Peggy Joyce has arrived in town to build a theater. The newspapers are now giving her most of their space, there being a lull in movie vice since Valentino was acquitted on the ground that he didn't live with his new wife after wedding her. Peggy is engaged in giving out long interviews on how women should dress, how brief their bathing suits should be and how tame are the mandates of convention in slow America. Peggy Joyce can get more publicity in Los Angeles today than all the school teachers and preachers within the city combined, which is of itself a pretty sure sign that something wilder than "The Sins of Hollywood" will have to be written before the folk go nutty with enthusiasm. Indeed, it takes the very latest in filth to compete with the daily papers, and so "The Sins of Hollywood" never had a ghost of a show. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Mr. Hays Enters a Confession September 1922 BOB SHULER'S MAGAZINE It is never good to say, "I told you so," and so I will not say it. However, my readers will remember that several months ago when the employment of Mr. Hays by a half-dozen Jews, who control the movie business, was yet young, I stated that this gentleman was employed for the purpose of preventing censorship, securing a tariff on foreign films and fooling the church folks. I stated then that he had no power whatsoever by which he could clean up the films or stop the immorality and vice among the movie cohorts. I affirmed that the very nature of his employers was sufficient proof of the fact that he was helpless and hopeless in any effort at renovation, from a moral angle, of the business. On August 9th the whole community was shocked at the announcement that Bill Hart and his wife had separated, she at the time within a few months of becoming a mother. Bill Hart is the idol of American boyhood, the cowboy actor, the two-gunman, pointed to by movie admirers as the "whitest man ever in the pictures." The newspapers are now full, as I write, of the sensational divorce that is promised. Evidently the hour had struck for Hays to speak, and he spoke. When asked for a statement of his position on this, another tragedy among these people who seem to be absolutely unable to live together as man and wife at all, Mr. Hays states: "This matter is not a thing in any way pertaining to the purposes of this association and myself. It is a matter in which we have no concern whatsoever." At last Mr. Hays has stated the cold, cruel fact. Why he did not deal frankly with the public from the beginning and tell them the blunt truth to start with, this writer does not know, but at least we have it. Mr. Hays has not a thing on earth to do with the morals of moviedom, has never had, and never will have, so long as he remains in the employ of the Jews that are now paying him his enormous salary. Whether the movie people deport themselves morally according to the standards and ideals of American life, "is not a thing in any way pertaining to the purposes" of the association which he heads, and is not a matter in which he has any concern whatever, from a standpoint of his connection with the business. This Editor knew this from the beginning, and hundreds of others suspected it strongly, but at last all men have it straight, fresh and positive from the lips of Mr. Hays himself. Recently Mr. Hays visited Los Angeles and his coming was hailed as the hour for a mighty deliverance that would give to all fathers and mothers a sense of security so far as their children were concerned, educated in idealism as they are being by the films. That deliverance did not come. Mr. Hays was feasted and worshipped as a god among the movie cohorts, and his triumphant entry into Hollywood will not soon be forgotten. The Chamber of Commerce, the position of which organization on moral questions is now historic, took him under its buzzard wing. The fathers and mothers of little children listened in vain. And yet Mr. Hays did make a deliverance. He stated that "Bill Hart was an ideal example of what American home life can be." Mr. Hays also stated positively while in Los Angeles that the terms of his contract gave him no authority whatsoever to deal with the morals of the movies. "The Sins of Hollywood," a book recently published giving a series of the most filthy happenings ever recorded in print, has been read by Mr. Hays and evidence was offered him, while in this city, substantiating every story in that book, but Mr. Hays very frankly confessed that he could not do anything with the evidence if he had it. He confessed that he could not stop the "dog parties" or punish the participants. He confessed that he had no power whatsoever by which he could compel the movie people to live decently or get off the films. He stated very positively that his association with the movie kings was a matter of cold, clean-cut business. So at last we know where we are "at." When Will Hays accepted $150,000 from the half dozen Jews whose names I have published, he did not accept a salary. Especially is this true when we consider the circumstances. The movie people wanted a tariff on foreign films. It meant millions to them. They wanted national censorship through Congress prevented. Again it meant millions. They wanted the church people appeased and put to sleep. Again it meant millions. Mr. Hays, as the leader of the party now in power, was the one man who could do this work. They had tried Mr. McAdoo, but when he understood the nature of his work, he had declined. So to Mr. Hays they went with $150,000 per year. I say emphatically that this amount, under the circumstances, did not constitute a salary. If Mr. Hays has a conscience he is to be pitied. Not only has he deceived the people, even the mothers of the nation, but he has sadly sold himself. He is a powerless man, save to serve as a hireling his masters. Already he has served them well. The tariff has been put over. Almost he deceived the church folk. Had it not been for Dr. Breigleb of Los Angeles, he would have delivered the Presbyterian Church to his Jew owners. It now remains for him to prevent censorship and he has earned his money. God pity him. Will Hays ought to be one of the saddest men in America. Oh, God, how have the mighty fallen! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * October 1922 BOB SHULER'S MAGAZINE Mr. Rae D. Henkle has published in the Christian Herald an article on "The Church or the Theater" which is stunning in its conclusions. However, that article is not extreme in the least. When he declares that it is war to the hilt between the church people and the movies, if we are to escape the certain depravity toward which the ordinary picture trends, he but states a commonplace fact and it is surprising indeed that we have not awakened to it sooner. Let any Christian mother's girl attend such pictures as "Wedded But No Wife," "Twin Beds," "Temptation," "Parlor, Bedroom and Bath," "Broken Husbands," "The Married Flapper," "A Wide Open Town" and "His Common-Law Wife" and if that mother's heart is not broken, it will be next akin to a miracle. Such food has never fostered virtue or nourished purity of womanhood. The church of God can only save her sons and daughters by giving relentless battle to such forces and the sooner we whet our swords and get at it, the safer will be our homes. I have never apologized for fighting the movies just as I have fought the open saloon. They may approach the destruction of character from different angles but their common end is sure destruction. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * October 1922 BOB SHULER'S MAGAZINE Will Hays, who has so marvelously succeeded in making saint-like the movie cohorts keeps up the good work of giving out interviews on the "high moral and artistic standards" of the screen favorites. In speaking of his visit to Los Angeles, he says: "I came away convinced. Nothing is wrong with the moving picture--except youth." This editor was one among the number who believed, when Will Hays was employed by his Jew employers, that he had been duped and that like McAdoo he would resign the moment he saw the light and understood the facts. I am indeed sorry to confess that I am at last convinced that Will Hays knew exactly what he was doing. His effort to make the people of America believe that the movie industry is clean is proof sufficient of his duplicity. That he deliberately sold himself to these Jews for $150,000 per annum, such interviews are constantly being quoted from him would certainly lead one to believe. For Will Hays is no fool. He has been offered proof as black as night and as foul as hell, proof that would convince a blind man, born without ears, of the character of the movie crowd. He knows. He knows their infamous immoralities. For him to assure the public in America of the purity and cleanliness of this outfit is the most consummate treason, knowing what he knows. The movies may indeed by young in years, but they are old in crime. Their youth is not all that is the matter. Their vileness is ancient history. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * MORE LIMELIGHT FOR "SINS OF HOLLYWOOD" December 1922 BOB SHULER'S MAGAZINE Ed Roberts, who led the fight against the preachers of Los Angeles when we demanded the censorship of immoral films, has been indicted as the author of "The Sins of Hollywood," an 80-page booklet purporting to give the intimate inside of the slime-like deportment of certain luminous film favorites. The Federal District Attorney, who pushed the case against Roberts, it is understood, states that "the matter in the book is obscene not because of any definite word or phrase, but because the tone and tenor of the book is such as to produce obscene thoughts." This statement is just a wee bit laughable in view of the fact that such logic would force this same District Attorney to proceed against every daily newspaper in this city by indicting them individually at least once each day. This prosecutor further says, "That the statements in the book are untrue goes without saying." That is certainly a most convenient way to dismiss such a matter, but right there the crux of this whole thing lies. Are the stories within that book untrue? The author, through his attorney, declares that he will prove them. Whether he can or not, the general public had heard most of them before Roberts ever wrote them. The main reason why the book did not sell about these parts was because the stories were too old. To be sure, Roberts has a rather tough job on his hands going up against the money and power of the movie world, but the public will at least await the results with much interest and not a little well-defined opinion of its own. The one amusing thing about the whole thing is that Roberts, intimately connected with the movie people, on the inside of their lives as few other men in Los Angeles, their defender and champion in the censorship fight, should suddenly appear as the man who must uncover them in genuine earnest or take the consequences. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * PREACHERS TAKE THE BAIT AS USUAL December 1922 BOB SHULER'S MAGAZINE We preachers are great suckers and at the same time we are undoubtedly the best bunch of men our size in the world. We are so eager to assist everybody and everything that we walk into the trap almost every time the triggers are set for us. Recently Will Hays came to town on what he termed a "strictly business trip." Mr. Hays is in business for a bunch of Jews who are undoubtedly in business strictly for themselves. Until a howl went all the way to heaven against the corrupt and vicious nature of their business, they went quietly forward garnering the shekels from the most sensual and slimy program ever offered the American public. Then the storm broke and these sons of Isaac saw that it would be good business to deal with the people for a while. Censorship threatened like a storm cloud. So they selected a Presbyterian Elder, paid him $150,000 per year, and proceeded to proceed. Mr. Hays has already stated that he had no authority on earth as to the morals of the movie actors and actresses. He has also stated that he was not employed as a moral guide for the industry. He was employed to further the business of these Jews and that he has succeeded may be best shown by his activity and the results in recent censorship contests in various States and especially in the quieting of the whole matter in Congress, as well as in the tariff he has secured against foreign films. The only thing left for him to do is to put the church people to sleep and that is the task he is now seeking to perform. So Mr. Hays came to Los Angeles, and through the Church Federation, gathered together a bunch of preachers and offered them the hook, bait, line and tackle. From what we hear they swallowed most of it. I was invited to attend, but I've bit enough in my day. This is in no sense a criticism of the preachers. I believe in them. They are the best men in this city. But they are so unsuspecting, so full of trust in deacons and elders and stewards that they are easy prey. In the meantime, the newspapers announce that Mr. Hays will decide while in the city whether "Fatty" Arbuckle is to go back on the screen and also whether Ed Roberts is to be "sent up" for exposing the immoral conditions among certain movie celebrities. It is now certain that Congress, the courts, the preachers, the Republican and Democratic parties and every other factor are to be used for the business success of the big Hebrews who own the movie business, if Mr. Hays can put it over. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * December 1922 BOB SHULER'S MAGAZINE Helen Ferguson and Irene Dalton, two popular Hollywood screen beauties, had their pictures in the same morning paper the other day, the one standing behind the pulpit of the Wilshire Congregational Church, preaching the gospel, as it is preached in that pulpit, while the other was being advertised in a much more common role for movie actresses, that of being the mistress of a young blade by the name of Owens of Toledo, Ohio. A few days later we noted that Will Hays was on his way out here to meet with the pastors so as to reconstruct Hollywood after the pattern and design which has been so widely advertised of late. Being one of the advising preachers we make this suggestion: Bundle up the movie gang that has played the game of sex-filth first hand and whose names and scandals have been the daily mess we have had served us for five years on this coast and kick them out of the business. Take the crowd of actors who have not been the continuous divorce sensations of California, but who have married each other and lived as decent people should, and build an industry. You'll never save the industry, Mr. Hays, unless you save it by beginning with the people who are advertised as your stars. Helen Ferguson has a tremendous tide set against her in her pulpit career, so long as Irene Dalton occupies the columns of the same daily paper. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Tragic Plight of Wallace Reid December 1922 BOB SHULER'S MAGAZINE The Times of Saturday, Dec. 16th, gives its readers an inside glimpse into the secret horrors of dope's hellish touch on the movie world. It contains a story that might have very fitly been added by the author of "The Sins of Hollywood" to his collection, for the writing of which he is now under indictment. A few years ago Wallace Reid, as splendid an upstanding American lad as one would want to see, came to the studios of Hollywood and entered upon his career as a movie actor. He was clean, straight, moral, sober, manly. Today he is in a Hollywood sanitarium, under the constant care of two doctors, who are fighting for his life. He requires two strong male nurses, according to the Times, to keep him on his bed. He is a wreck. The Times declares that dope and whiskey are responsible. His mother-in-law, Mrs. Davenport, declares that "wild liquor parties at the Reid home" did it. She affirms that this home was converted into a veritable "road house" by friends. Most people know what a "road house" is. She further declares: "Party after party in which liquor flowed like water marked the path." Then came narcotics. Through it all his friends, men and women alike, caroused at his expense financially, morally and physically. Now that he tosses upon his bed, trying to break the chains that have bound him, lingering between life and death, his friends are not near. Who are the friends that made a "road house" out of the home of this famous actor? Who are the friends that his mother-in-law declares will never be again welcomed to his home, if he recovers? Who are the friends that assisted him on the road of liquor and dope to ruin? Do not for a moment think that they are the toughs of town, the hop-heads and blighted wrecks of the underworld. If you will place your finger on the friends who assisted Wallace Reid to his doom you will have identified quite a number of the un-named heroes and heroines whom Ed Roberts exposes in "The Sins of Hollywood." They are the stars and even the producers of more than one famous picture. They are the bunch that have made Hollywood smell to heaven, until even Will Hays can scarcely camouflage the stench. Wallace Reid is just a youth today, but they have ruined him, broken him, blighted him, doomed him. And what they have done for him, they have done for others. By all means this city has had enough advertisement of this character. The hour has come for the City Council to constitute a Commission with power to dig to the bottom of the tales, the rumors, the gossip and the talk that has advertised us to the four-corners of the earth. This Commission should have power to summon witnesses. It should be given a lawyer who has brains and nerve. It should find whether or not the movie studios are full of booze, of dope, of sex filth, or whether these stories are untrue. If true, we, for the sake of the good name of this community, should demand a cleanup. If untrue, the good name of this city and of the studios should be vindicated once for all. We do not wish to comment upon the indictment of Ed Roberts, whose book, "The Sins of Hollywood," is a revelation only to those who have not been conversant with current rumor. There are many who think, however, that the movement against Roberts is simply a notification to him and all others that we must close our mouths and in the future not criticize the movie people. We do not say this is true, but undoubtedly the plan is age-old and most effective. Most men are willing to forego even the privilege of free speech rather than face indictment in the courts. We are confident that if Roberts cares to do so, he can literally swamp any court in Los Angeles with evidence, providing legal technicalities are not resorted to for the purpose of preventing him. And this is the very reason why an unbiased Commission, representative of all classes in this city, should at once be given power to make a full, open and honest investigation, free from the tangle and barrier of legal technicalities. Let such a Commission call witnesses and let them testify under oath as to what they actually know. Thus we will get at the real, genuine facts and thus alone we can reach them. If the movie people are genuine they will join me in insisting upon such a Commission. If Hollywood studios have been maligned, here is the road to vindication. Will Will Hays join me in such a demand? Let us get at the facts. We whose families are being reared in this city are sick and tired of such stories as that which the Times carried concerning Wallace Reid. They are either true or false. Let's find out which and let's proceed about it like real American men and women should. ***************************************************************************** ***************************************************************************** Back issues of Taylorology are available on the Web at http://www.taylorology.com For more information about Taylor, see WILLIAM DESMOND TAYLOR: A DOSSIER (Scarecrow Press, 1991) *****************************************************************************