***************************************************************************** * T A Y L O R O L O G Y * * A Continuing Exploration of the Life and Death of William Desmond Taylor * * * * Issue 14 -- February 1994 Editor: Bruce Long bruce@asu.edu * * All reprinted material is in the public domain * ***************************************************************************** CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE: March 1926: Cyclone around Keyes "The Truth About Hollywood": Part 5 [How Much Do the Stars Earn?] ***************************************************************************** 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. Primary emphasis will be given toward reprinting, referencing and analyzing source material, and sifting it for accuracy. ***************************************************************************** ***************************************************************************** March 1926: Cyclone around Keyes The first major newspaper revival of the Taylor murder took place in March 1926, four years after the crime. Los Angeles District Attorney Asa Keyes and his assistant Harold Davis took a trip across the USA, and the national press soon erupted in a cyclone of contradictory rumors and revelations. The following items are just a few of the highlights. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 11, 1926 John Emge HARTFORD TIMES Taylor Mystery not a Mystery to Hollywood Hollywood, Ca.--The woman who killed William Desmond Taylor, motion picture director, four years ago doubtless smiled grimly when she read in Los Angeles newspapers the report that District Attorney Asa Keyes was in New York investigating new clues bearing on the case. Many persons here are firmly convinced that if Attorney Keyes could persuade certain people right here to tell what they know there would be no further mystery in the killing of Taylor. Many in the movie colony and some police officials here have no doubt that they actually know the name and residence of the matron who shot the debonair director that dark night. According to a motion picture producer who was an intimate friend of Taylor the director was killed by a woman in male attire--by a relative of a young woman rising in the films whom the woman who committed the act believed was being drawn into intimacy by Taylor. The writer has been given this information by a reliable informant, who states that the elder woman had warned the director that she would kill him if he continued his relations with the girl. These alleged relations included the plying with liquor and drugs. Taylor is said to have told friends that he feared vengeance from the woman and meant to be careful. Members of the woman's family and police know the woman left home in male attire the night the director was killed, but she defied detectives who questioned her to produce any evidence against her. Police, though convinced that she shot Taylor, were unable to secure sufficient proof to warrant an arrest. Persistent efforts to build up a case that would stand up in court failed and the attempt was abandoned. The woman is now about 50 years old. She is seen on Hollywood boulevards frequently. She once had many friends in the motion picture industry, but today takes little part in the colony's social life. She is not severely condemned by those who know the facts, the belief being that she was driven to the verge of insanity by Taylor's affair with the young relative. Police who took part in the original investigation are also said to be charitably disposed toward the woman. There is only a remote possibility that she will be called to account by the law. So far as Hollywood is concerned, the Taylor murder has reached a stage where nobody cares, but a number do smile when they read that District Attorney Keyes is seeking new clues in New York. [1] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 18, 1926 LOS ANGELES EXAMINER Highly valuable information regarding the mysterious murder of William Desmond Taylor, motion picture director, is said to have been gathered here during last week by Chief Deputy District Attorney Buron Fitts on direct orders of District Attorney Asa Keyes. Mr. Fitts is said to have brought the case closer to its solution than it has ever been since the director was found murdered on the floor of his bungalow on South Alvarado street February 1, 1922. On orders from Mr. Keyes who is now in New York, Miss Margery Berger, income tax specialist who handles a number of motion picture clients, was questioned during the week by Fitts regarding her knowledge of certain conversations had with her about Taylor. Mr. Keyes, who is working on another phase of the case in New York, admitted yesterday that he had requested Mr. Fitts to question Miss Berger regarding a link in the chain of evidence he is now building up in the case in the East. It is reported that Mr. Fitts gained information which is perhaps the most valuable yet obtained in the case. Mr. Fitts refused to discuss the matter yesterday, saying that he could not disclose any details of the investigation. An investigator from the District Attorney's office and a shorthand reporter visited Miss Berger and took her statement at length. Efforts are now being made to corroborate this statement through numerous other witnesses. "I have nothing to tell about the murder of William Desmond Taylor," said Miss Berger. "I knew Mr. Taylor during his lifetime and made out his income tax reports for him. I also knew several other people in the industry. "I have never made any statement regarding the Taylor murder except shortly after it happened, and I haven't had an attorney. I've been my own attorney." In New York it was learned that Keyes had also made considerable checks to locate Edward F. Sands, the former valet of Taylor, who was at one time suspected of the murder. He also questioned a well-known motion picture star. It was the result of Keyes' investigation in the East that led to the new questioning of Miss Berger. "I cannot discuss the questioning of Miss Berger," said Mr. Fitts. "Mr. Keyes has the entire investigation in his hands and any information regarding that case must come from him. He will be in the East for a week or ten days yet." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 20, 1926 LOS ANGELES HERALD Boston--After a four day investigation in this city into the unsolved murder of William Desmond Taylor, moving picture director, in Hollywood, Cal., four years ago, District Atorney Asa Keyes of Los Angeles was on his way west today with information which he said "would shock the motion picture world and the country." "We have discovered new and highly important evidence that has brought us to Boston and Brookline," said Keyes, "but until we locate and question Edward Sands, Taylor's missing Brookline butler, I can make no further revelations. "We came here directly from New York as the result of what we were told by Mary Miles Minter, who was at Taylor's home a few hours before the murder. "We are very anxious to see Mabel Normand, who was with Taylor just before he died, but she left New York before we arrived. "We have examined New York and Philadelphia witnesses and will do further investigating in Chicago and Detroit before we return to Hollywood. On the secrecy of our investigation hinges our chances of locating Sands and bringing Taylor's slayer to justice." [2] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 21, 1926 LOS ANGELES TIMES Another Day, Another Clew The rapidly shifting locale of Dist.-Atty. Keyes' efforts to obtain clews to the slaying of William Desmond Taylor, film director, yesterday brought Syracuse, N.Y., into the mysterious case. Keyes, who has been in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and various other eastern cities, spent the day in Syracuse in consultation with detectives, but made no definite announcement other than that he intends continuing his investigations in Detroit and Chicago. The police of the New York city, however asserted that the identity of the slayer of Taylor will be announced in less than a week and that "Syracuse detectives will aid materially in the solution." The Los Angeles District Attorney was met at the train in Syracuse by Detective Sergeant Bamrick, who remained with him until the prosecutor left for the West late last evening. Keyes stated that information in his possession will "shock the motion-picture world and the public." From Boston, however, came a less veiled statement from Keyes where he announced with positiveness that the murder which for four years has been an unsolved mystery is "about to be cleared up." "Investigations in Philadelphia and New York were completed before the Boston clews were investigated," declared Keyes. "The new and highly important developments unearthed here have placed a new aspect on the case. I can say this--the Taylor murder case will be cleared up within a fortnight. There is every chance that Taylor's slayer will be brought to justice. I cannot disclose the nature of the evidence obtained at Brookline, but it is more important than I ever dreamed of obtaining." Word came from Chicago last night that Keyes is thought to have come to the belief that Sands is to be found in Chicago or Detroit, and that belief is bringing him to the Illinois city. Local officials of the District Attorney's office disclosed yesterday they know of no new developments in the case. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 23, 1926 LOS ANGELES TIMES Take it from Mabel Normand, she is the most willing little mystery murder witness in the world. Not only is she quite willing to be questioned, but she is about at the point where she will insist upon being interrogated. That much was learned from her yesterday when she was informed that dispatches from Detroit quoted Dist.-Atty. Keyes as saying he intended to question Mabel in regard to the death of William D. Taylor as soon as he got back to Los Angeles. Mabel sighed when she heard about the dispatch. A great weariness seemed to descend upon her. Then she spoke, as follows: "Say, if I have to repeat this again, I'm going to set it to music to relieve the monotony. I've already committed it to memory, so here goes: I'm quite ready to be questioned by Mr. Keyes, now or at any other time. I'll tell him the same things I told Mr. Woolwine at the time of the murder, which was everything I know about the case. No one would like to see the mystery cleared up any more than I and no one will be more willing to co-operate to that extent. "Now, please, that's all I can say--what more can I say?" declared Mabel and stretched out her arms expressively. The motion-picture star read the eastern dispatches while on her set at the Hal Roach studio. Dressed in a raggedy Cinderella costume, a character that made her famous, it served to accentuate her attitude. To be frank, Mabel says, life would be one grand, sweet song for her, so to speak, if some one wasn't always dragging out the ghost of William Desmond Taylor and parading it before her. "Here I am just getting started in pictures again, and then they begin it all over again," she says. "Oh, I hope Mr. Keyes is on the right track and that they settle it for good and all this time." Mabel is quite willing to discuss the various phases of the case as she knows them. The night of the murder-- "I went over to his home to give him a scenario to read and he loaned me a book to read. Do I think there might have been another woman in the house all the time I was there? Oh, I don't think so! "I never saw Sands, Taylor's secretary, but once. I know that Mr. Taylor left signed checks for Sands to fill out when he went on a trip. He must have had a lot of confidence in Sands to do that. "But everything was so mysterious about Mr. Taylor. He was so well known, but yet so little known about him! Why I never dreamed that he had been married and had a grown daughter until it was learned after he died. And no one else seemed to know it either; at least, none of the people I knew. "I never knew Mary Miles Minter very well. Mr. Taylor never said anything about her to me. I didn't see her when I was back East." Taylor apparently had been in love with Miss Minter before becoming enamored with Miss Normand. Despite adroit questioning, Mabel insisted that she had no pet theory of her own as to who might have murdered Taylor and why. However, she admitted that various articles of women's clothing found in his bungalow were interesting developments in the case. Also, that the slain director was a fascinating personality, well-read, a wide traveler and extremely interesting. "So that's that," said Mabel, in conclusion. "I'll be here when Mr. Keyes gets back. I'm sorry he didn't find me in New York, but I didn't make any effort to avoid him. I didn't know he was making any efforts to find me or I would have gone to him." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 23, 1926 LOS ANGELES RECORD Chicago--The murder of William Desmond Taylor has narrowed down to two motives--"love and drugs" and the slayer may be in the clutches of the law within a very short time, Asa Keyes, prosecuting attorney of Los Angeles, told the United Press in an interview today. "Our trip east," Keyes said, "has been wonderfully successful, and if our ideas at present pan out, we'll have the solution of the crime in a very short time. "We have learned several things that have given the case an entirely different aspect, since we went east." Keyes and H.L. Davis, chief of the homicide department of Los Angeles county state's attorney's office, stopped over here today after an extended trip to New York, during which time they questioned Mary Miles Minter and several other persons who they thought might know something of the crime. "Miss Minter was very nice to us about answering questions, and I am sure that she is doing all in her power to help us in solving the case," Keyes said. "We tried to get in touch with Mabel Normand while we were in New York, but we failed to do so. I have never yet been able to talk to Miss Normand but I want to. When told by the United Press that Miss Normand had issued a statement on the coast to the effect that she had talked to "Keyes about ten times" about the case and had told him all she knew of it, but would gladly talk to him again, Keyes said: "I never talked to Miss Normand about the William Desmond Taylor case in my life. But I am going to talk to her when I get back to Los Angeles. "Either dope or love is behind the murder of Taylor," he said. "As yet we are not ready to make public what we know. "We have brought the case down, little by little, to where it is and a short time ago we eliminated the 'perversion' angle which has bothered investigators since the murder. Now we know it is either dope or love." Keyes and Davis leave here tonight for Traverse City, Mich., where the prosecutor will spend a few hours visiting with his mother. He will then return to Chicago, from where he will depart for the coast some time Thursday. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 24, 1926 Delos Avery LOS ANGELES EXAMINER Chicago--Two Chicago men known from coast to coast in the film industry have been shadowed day and night for the last month by operatives of a national detective agency employed by Los Angeles authorities in connection with the mysterious murder of William Desmond Taylor, film director, who was shot to death in his Hollywood home four years ago, it was revealed tonight. Both of these men were in Hollywood at the time of the murder. Both disappeared immediately after the murder. One of them not only disappeared, but changed his name. Through information obtained by shadowing these men along the Chicago Rialto and on the North Side, plus information obtained in the motion picture world of the East, Asa Keyes, district attorney of Los Angeles, expects to solve the murder mystery. Keyes and Harold L. Davis, head of his homicide bureau, held two conferences today with First Assistant States Attorney George E. Gorman of Cook County. One of these conferences was a brief preliminary chat at the state's attorney's office. The other was a secret and prolonged consultation at night in a room in a Loop hotel. Mr. Keyes tonight made a statement covering the following chief points: 1--That Mabel Normand, film actress, while not involved in the crime itself, does possess information of such importance that she will be called before the grand jury, if necessary, and asked to answer certain questions. 2--That Mary Miles Minter, a former film actress, whose name was linked with Taylor's after the tragedy, has recently aided Keyes in his investigation. She will be further questioned when she returns to Los Angeles. She is now in New York. In addition, it was revealed, the Chicago men under surveillance are vitally important to the case, as Mr. Keyes now sees it--so important that the shadowing will be continued indefinitely. They are regarded as being "material witnesses at least." Neither Mr. Keyes nor Mr. Gorman would discuss the new Chicago phase of the investigation. "Number one" of the two men under surveillance is a young man from the East, a member of a wealthy family. At the time of the murder he had been for some time a resident of Hollywood, where he was a hanger-on about the studios, occasionally holding some minor position--just enough to justify his presence. He liked the "atmosphere" of the film colony. He was fond of the night life. He was known as a "gay bird." "Number two" was a much more important factor in the industry. He was a camera man, an expert technician, one of the best in the business. The ablest directors were all eager for his services. Immediately after the murder these two men disappeared from Hollywood. The movements of "number one" and "number two" have not been traced as yet in every detail, but it is known they have been in Chicago and connected with the film industry here since some time in 1924. Their movements since the opening of the new investigation are known, however, to the Los Angeles authorities. Mr. Keyes stated positively he expects the complete solution of the mystery in the near future. In reply to a question as to what he believed to be the motive for the murder, he said: "It may have been love. It may have been dope." "If it was drugs, Mr. Keyes," said the questioner, "would that mean some connection between Taylor and the narcotic trade?" "Perhaps--perhaps," Mr. Keyes said. Mr. Keyes and Mr. Davis in their Eastern Investigation visited New York, Boston, Washington and Detroit before coming to Chicago. The progress they have made is such, it was admitted, that grand jury action will be on the program as soon as they reach home. It was admitted tonight one result of the investigation along new lines has been the elimination of Edward F. Sands from the field of inquiry. Sands was Taylor's valet. He has long been missing, but that fact is accounted for, the Los Angeles authorities say, by difficulties in which he was involved entirely aside from the murder case. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 24, 1926 LOS ANGELES RECORD Interviewed by the United Press in New York today, Mary Miles Minter said: "I am sorry, but I don't believe I should enter the discussion at this time. I prefer that anything concerning my recent talk with Mr. Keyes about the case come from Mr. Keyes himself. I thank you for the courtesy of inquiring." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 24, 1926 CHICAGO NEWS A brief containing all the evidence in the William Desmond Taylor murder mystery has disappeared from the rooms of District Attorney Asa Keyes of Los Angeles in the Hotel LaSalle, it was learned today. Harold L. Davis, the prosecutor's assistant, reported the disappearance to State's Attorney Robert E. Crowe as a case of theft, and accused five men. Crowe put Sergt. Thomas O'Malley, the chief of his police detail, on the case, and O'Malley began following up Keyes' suspicions. His first step was to question all employees of the hotel. The theft wasn't inspired by any one under suspicion in the case, Davis said, but all hope of solving the murder mystery will be lost if the records aren't recovered. "If they are destroyed, or if the contents become known, the case will be ruined," said Davis. "All the evidence we have assembled in a year of investigation, including the recent trip to New York and Boston, was in that bag." Keyes had reached the point where he was hopeful of clearing up the mystery surrounding the murder of Taylor, a famous movie director. The evidence he had collected involved, though it did not implicate, Mary Miles Minter and Mabel Normand, actresses of whom Taylor was fond. Keyes brought the stuff here yesterday, on his way back to Los Angeles, from a mysterious investigation in the east. Last night he left the briefcase with Davis, while he went to Traverse City, Mich., to visit his mother. This morning the case couldn't be found. Sergt. O'Malley questioned the whole hotel staff about the case. Clerks, bellboys, porters, waiters, chambermaids--all persons who could have got into the room--were examined. Meanwhile Davis and men from the state's attorney's office were busy by telephone trying to reach persons suspected of knowledge of the vanished briefcase. What the bag contains, no one but Keyes, Davis and the thieves know. Keyes and his assistant had refused to discuss their latest investigation. While admitting that they were on the trail of "something hot," they turned aside all questions. It is known that a long statement made by Mary Miles Minter was in the bag. Just what the actress said is a mystery, though it is presumed that she explained a letter found in Taylor's effects in which she had written "I love you--I love you--I love you." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 25, 1926 CHICAGO HERALD-EXAMINER Several hours after police had begun search for a briefcase, stolen from a room of the Hotel LaSalle and said to contain evidence relied on to solve the four-year-old mystery of the murder of William Desmond Taylor, a messenger boy delivered the briefcase to the Hotel LaSalle information clerk. The boy appeared with the stolen evidence shortly after 6 o'clock yesterday evening. He was immediately seized and questioned. He could only explain, however, that the case had been put in his charge by a man who had called at the main office of the Postal Telegraph Company on Van Buren St. He had been instructed to deliver it at the hotel, he said. The briefcase had been taken sometime yesterday from the hotel room of Asa Keyes, district attorney of Los Angeles, who was in Chicago investigating the possible connection of two men here with the Taylor murder. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 25, 1926 LOS ANGELES TIMES Two prominent Angelenos whose names hitherto had not been mentioned in connection with the case were questioned yesterday by Chief Deputy District- Attorney Fitts and gave him some new information in the investigation being made into the East by Dist.-Atty. Keyes in the murder of William Desmond Taylor, motion-picture director, in Los Angeles four years ago. The names of the two new witnesses, one a Los Angeles real-estate operator and the other an actor, were given to Fitts by Keyes, according to the former's statement. He declined to divulge their names, or the information supplied by them. [3] Yesterday Fitts received from Chicago a telegram from Keyes in which the District-Attorney denied statements attributed to him in Chicago newspapers that he had solved the case; that the slayer and accomplice were under surveillance and their arrest awaited their indictment in Los Angeles. Keyes and Davis are expected to leave Chicago today for Los Angeles, arriving here Monday when Fitts will go into conference with them and turn over to them the information he has gathered during their absence. Fitts has been carrying on the investigation locally under the direction of Keyes, he said, and when Keyes returns he will give him everything he has obtained. During the local investigation five persons have been interrogated by Fitts, three of whom were questioned in earlier investigations. "These witnesses furnished to me certain facts which were not known before and which I feel will prove of much value," Fitts declared. "Mr. Keyes is handling the case and I am working under his direction. Hence I am not at liberty to disclose the nature of this new information or the source." Mrs. Charlotte Shelby, mother of Mary Miles Minter, the film actress who was questioned by Keyes at New York, will not be called to the District Attorney's office to be questioned until Keyes' return, Fitts said. Fitts added that he knows where Mrs. Shelby is and that she can be located whenever necessary. According to dispatches received yesterday from Chicago, papers in the possession of Keyes and Davis were reported stolen from their hotel room. Davis declared later that the papers either were returned or mislaid as they now are in his possession. He was quoted as saying: "If the papers were ever missing they have been returned and if they were I had no knowledge of it. Furthermore the papers were not vital to the Taylor case." Davis also declared in another statement that while the investigation he and Keyes are making and which has taken them to Boston, New York and Detroit, has been marked by "satisfactory progress," he is unable to say whether the mystery will be solved. Keyes' telegram to Fitts was a sweeping denial of published statements to the effect he knew the identity of the murderer four weeks ago and that the purpose of the eastern trip was to obtain corroborative evidence. "My presence in Chicago was purely for the purpose of visiting your State's Attorney and to see how he handles criminal cases and to make train connections," Keyes was quoted in dispatches as saying. "Chicago has no connection whatever with the Taylor investigation and we are not shadowing the so-called 'hangers-on' of the Hollywood film colony in Chicago. These reports were absolutely false." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 25, 1926 Austin O'Malley LOS ANGELES EXAMINER Hollywood Woman Taylor Suspect Chicago--After four years of investigation, some phases of it accomplished within the last few days in Chicago, a mass of circumstantial evidence has been collected that soon may result in the arrest of the slayer or slayers of William Desmond Taylor, Hollywood film director. And with every addition made to the ascertained facts in the case, suspicion has been more directly focused on a woman--a woman who is well known in Hollywood, although not an actress. This woman, it now develops, was the owner of a small automatic pistol, was known to be a good shot, and is said to have made death threats against Taylor. Some of its evidence, it is said, also points toward a man known as a close friend of the woman. This woman, it is reported, had a powerful motive, the strongest yet in the case. During the long trail of evidence gathering followed by Attorney Keyes and Davis in Brooklyn, New York, Boston, Detroit and Chicago, the strange , almost inexplicable hatred of Taylor exhibited by the suspected slayer was encountered again and again, according to latest developments. The woman about whom the circle of evidence is tightening is said to have threatened to kill Taylor a short time before he was murdered. This woman also is said to have visited Taylor's home a few weeks before the slaying, carrying a revolver in her sleeve. [4] Mr. Keyes declined to say whether he expected to ask for grand jury indictments immediately on his return to Los Angeles. He implied, however, that there are some additional angles to be run down before any movement is begun towards positive legal action. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 25, 1926 Morris Lavine LOS ANGELES EXAMINER New evidence that a woman, not a motion picture actress plotted the murder of William Desmond Taylor, film director, has come into the possession of District Attorney Asa Keyes and his chief deputy, Buron Fitts, it was learned from reliable sources here yesterday. A witness who talked to this woman following the murder has been located. Whether this woman actually committed the murder or whether a man did it at her suggestion and instigation has been the subject of the investigation of District Attorney Keyes in the East. According to information said to be in possession of Keyes, this woman actually knew of the murder long before the police officers did and was highly nervous. She talked to a friend about it. "Mr. Keyes will have to discuss this evidence," said Mr. Fitts yesterday, "as it is of such importance to the case that I do not feel at liberty to talk. All the statements must come from him." Coincident with the announcement by Keyes that he will question Mary Miles Minter again, who has been of considerable assistance to him in the case and who will come to Los Angeles for that purpose, he also stated that he will question Mrs. Charlotte Shelby, mother of Mary Miles Minter, and also Miss Mabel Normand, film comedienne, who has also offered every assistance. Mabel Normand, on the verge of hysterics, declared she was ready and willing at all times to assist the district attorney in his investigation. Chief Deputy District Attorney Buron Fitts announced last night that he had received a telegram from District Attorney Asa Keyes instructing him to give out an authorized statement as to the position of the district attorney's office with reference to Miss Normand. "Mr. Keyes has instructed me to say that Miss Normand at no time had any connection with the Taylor murder. She was exonerated by this office after a very thorough investigation of the case and the only things she knows are of a very minor nature and are very general. She has been put in a false position through rumors and innuendoes and gossip and this is indeed very unfortunate. "I am sure that Miss Normand has told everything she knows about the case to Mr. Woolwine, my predecessor and I have been assured that she will gladly co-operate with me in every way in the solution of the case. This is further corroborated by her return to Los Angeles. Without disclosing the evidence in this case any further it is important that this statement be made in justice and fairness to Miss Normand." Keyes probably will leave Chicago today and is due to return to Los Angeles by April 1. At the home of Mrs. Charlotte Shelby, her daughter, sister of Mary Miles Minter, referred all questioners to Attorney G. Mott. Last night Mr. Mott said: "I have known Mrs. Shelby and the entire family for a long time and I am sure they are all ready and willing to help in every way to clear up the Taylor murder mystery. I do not known whether Mrs. Shelby was questioned at the time of the murder, but she was always willing to be of assistance in the case. I have not talked to her recently about it, as she naturally does not want to be harassed with a matter that is now four years old. "I cannot say at this time what her attitude will be in regard to the desire of Mr. Keyes to question her, but I am sure she will help in every way in the case." When told that Mary Miles Minter had made a statement in New York, Mr. Mott said: "Mary is responsible for her own statements, and anyone who places any credence in them will likewise be held responsible." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 25, 1926 Jack Carberry LOS ANGELES RECORD Just where the "Taylor case" stands today is as much a mystery as the four-year-old murder itself. Known facts concerning Keyes' trip to eastern cities and his investigation of the case are extremely interesting, however. The district attorney left Los Angeles without informing the press of his intentions. However, rumors that he had gone to New York to question Miss Minter were circulated about his office. These rumors were carried in news dispatches to New York. Upon Keyes' arrival at the Belmont hotel in that city he found 40 odd reporters waiting for him. Since that hour Keyes has been trailed constantly by newspaper men. When the district attorney left Los Angeles he, like all of his staff, together with detectives and members of the sheriff's force who had worked on the "Taylor case" were of the opinion that Edward Sands, one-time valet for Taylor, had committed the murder. At first Keyes denied that he had gone east in connection with the case. He insisted to reporters that he was in New York to study the methods used by District Attorney J. A. Banton of that city in handling criminal cases. He stated he was to make like studies in other eastern cities. Davis, however, was credited by reporters with the statement that the Taylor case was under investigation. It later developed that Keyes had visited Miss Minter and had secured a signed statement from her. This he mailed to Acting District Attorney Buron Fitts here. Fitts, working quietly, has interrogated several persons in connection with Miss Minter's statement. Fitts, while he flatly refuses to discuss his investigation, is known to have proceeded along the following theory: 1--That a man--a paid assassin--fired the murder shot. 2--That the man was paid to do the deed by a woman, who, although not a motion picture actress herself, was deeply interested in a screen star who was in love with Taylor. That the man who fired the shot may have been Sands, the valet, who has never been seen since the afternoon following the slaying, is quite possible. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 25, 1926 LOS ANGELES HERALD Harold L. Davis, assistant to the district attorney, refused to discuss the case today. "Please remember that neither Mr. Keyes nor I have been quite so silly as to give out all of the so-called important information which has been attributed to us," he said. "After we had been east about three weeks they 'hung' a fresh investigation of the Taylor case on us. I have never admitted it. Mr. Keyes may have. Murderers are not caught with brass bands." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 26, 1926 Morris Lavine LOS ANGELES EXAMINER Blonde Hairs Clew in Taylor Case Two strands of blonde hair were found on the body of William Desmond Taylor, film director, shortly after he was discovered murdered at his South Alvarado street home on February 1, 1922, and have been safeguarded by the district attorney's office ever since that time, it was learned yesterday. The strands of hair were found by Detective Ed King, who was placed in charge of the investigation by District Attorney Thomas Lee Woolwine at that time. They have formed the basis of the new investigation by District Attorney Asa Keyes and Chief Deputy District Attorney Buron Fitts, in the nation-wide search for the slayer, and new evidence regarding him. Coupled with the other evidence in the possession of the district attorney's office, the strands of hair seemed to indicate to the investigators that a woman may have committed the murder or been present when the fatal shot was fired. Further check along this line is now being made. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 26, 1926 Jack Carberry LOS ANGELES RECORD District Attorney Asa Keyes' investigation of the murder of William Desmond Taylor is to be investigated. This startling development in the sensational four-year-old slaying became known today. It was learned that the 1926 grand jury had already secretly made plans to bring the district attorney before it upon his return to Los Angeles from his trip to New York, New Haven, Bridgeport, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Traverse City and Kansas City. The jury's intention of asking Keyes and his aide, Harold L. (Buddy) Davis, to explain their eastern trip, and to show the necessity of the journey, followed published statements from the two men now in Chicago in which Keyes was quoted as declaring the "Taylor case is solved," and attributing to Davis the declaration that "at no time have I ever so much as admitted we have been investigating the Taylor case." The jury's action will be in keeping with its announced policy of interesting itself in all questions of public moment. Keyes, it was learned, will not be formally called but the jury will expect him to offer a full explanation of his trip, its cost and the necessity of making the investigation. He can do this at the same time he presents his evidence upon which, he has already announced, he hopes to secure an indictment. That Keyes, upon his return, will ask the jury to return an indictment against Edward Sands, once the valet for Taylor, appears certain. It was known that Keyes had been in telephonic communication with persons friendly to him here and had so stated. Whether Keyes, on his journey east, has gathered sufficient evidence to warrant a further indictment of a woman now believed to have either hired or inspired Sands to commit the murder is not known. As far as could be learned today Keyes' evidence is of a purely circumstantial nature and is based largely upon the suspicions of an actress now in New York. Upon telegraphic orders from Keyes, Acting District Attorney Buron Fitts yesterday called before him Chauncey Eaton, chauffeur for Mrs. Charlotte Shelby, mother of Mary Miles Minter, whose love notes written to Taylor were found among his effects following the murder. The investigation now being conducted is but a continuation of the theory known to have been held by Woolwine when he was in office and at the time of the killing. However, Woolwine was convinced the evidence available would never warrant an indictment against anybody unless Sands could be taken into custody and made to "talk." Keyes, in Traverse City, Mich., where he had gone to visit his mother, said: "I have talked all I am going to talk on the Taylor case and its solution. There will be nothing more said until after I return to Los Angeles and present the facts to the grand jury. We have made several important discoveries." Davis, in Chicago, where he "lost" the evidence in the case, only to find it again an hour later, admitted he was "hopping mad." It is Davis' belief that a Chicago newspaperman was responsible for the "theft" of the evidence. The reporter, who had interviewed Keyes and Davis the night before the "theft" wrote for his paper: "Davis, patting a well-filled brief case which he carried under his arm, smiled and said: 'The evidence is here--and it would make interesting reading.' " The reporter then succeeded in getting the "interesting reading," Davis believes. As a result of his experience, Davis today flatly refused to have anything more to do with newspaper men. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 26, 1926 SAN FRANCISCO CALL Los Angeles--Virtually all of the evidence in the William Desmond Taylor murder mystery has disappeared from the office of District Attorney Asa Keyes, it was learned today. Including in the missing documents is the dramatic statement of Mary Miles Minter, former motion picture star, stating her undying love for the slain director. The statement of Miss Minter, made to former District Attorney Thomas Lee Woolwine and for a long time the crux in the investigation of the murder, has been missing for many weeks, Ed King, investigator for the district attorney's office, admitted. With the statement of Miss Minter, which consisted of hundreds of typewritten pages in book form, there also had disappeared a stack of fervent love notes, which the actress wrote to Taylor. These notes were found hidden in one of the director's riding boots after the murder. "I don't know what became of this evidence," said King today. "All I know is that it is missing and that after the first investigation of the case had died down persons interested in Miss Minter made strenuous efforts to get it from us." King also admitted that other evidence in the case has disappeared. He declined to state of what this additional missing evidence consisted. "We still have the bullet that killed Taylor, the suit of clothes he wore when he was killed and the statements of several witnesses," said King, "but a large part of the evidence gathered at the time the crime was first investigated has vanished." Indictments in the case, it was said, might be returned, but the chances for conviction were said to be extremely slight in view of the missing papers. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 27, 1926 Morris Lavine LOS ANGELES EXAMINER Poison Death Plans Laid by Woman Startling evidence that the woman--not a motion picture actress-- suspected of plotting the murder of William Desmond Taylor, film director, told a close friend that she would never be taken alive to the district attorney's office for questioning, and inquired from a nurse what poisons she could use to end her life quickly, if necessary, has come into the possession of the district attorney's office. Bert Cohen, chief investigator for the district attorney, yesterday directed his aides to find an important witness relating to this new development in the case. Every effort is being made to locate the witness before District Attorney Keyes returns. It was learned yesterday in dispatches from New York that Mary Miles Minter in a recent statement to District Attorney Keyes asserted that she had heard threats to kill Taylor some months previous to his death. The data which former District Attorney Thomas Lee Woolwine collected during his tenure in office, including the letters of Mary Miles Minter, are not missing, as reported, according to district attorney's office detectives. But the evidence that is missing--two silken strands of blonde hair--is considered of the utmost importance. It has been stated that if the suspected murderer is ever publicly named and brought to trial the hair would be one of the foundations of the state's case. That they were a vital link in the chain of evidence was admitted by officers, as witnesses established the point that Taylor never wore a suit of clothes more than one day at a time and that his valet pressed his clothes and cleaned his suit every day. The suit he had on that day had been thoroughly cleaned the day before and it is the belief of officers that the hair belonged to the person who committed the murder. It was stated at the police station that the two strands of blonde hair which were found on Taylor's coat and which are linked with the hair of the murderer, were placed in an envelope and locked in the police safe, with instructions to keep them specially guarded. When Davis became chief of the homicide department Keyes instructed him to go to the police station and get all the documents on the case and the evidence. Davis obtained several statements and Taylor's suit of clothes, and put them in the district attorney's safe. The clothes showed that Taylor had been shot from a distance no further than one inch from his body, the bullet passing through his chest. The strands of hair were sought, but could not be located at this time. On his return to Los Angeles Keyes will interrogate several persons in connection with the evidence obtained in the East. If the evidence warrants, he will take the case before the county grand jury. At the Hall of Justice yesterday, efforts to make political capital out of Keyes' trip were scoffed at. It is in full accord with the District Attorney in his investigation, and is working harmoniously with the District Attorney's office. Members of the grand jury stated that the only investigation they will take up in connection with the Taylor murder is such evidence as Keyes may present to them regarding the murder. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 27, 1926 LOS ANGELES RECORD Omaha--Nursing a grudge for everybody east of the Rocky Mountains, District Attorney Asa Keyes passed through here today en route to Los Angeles, where he will continue his investigation into the death of William Desmond Taylor, movie director. Keyes was especially peeved at Chicago and Chicago newspaper men. "I'm sure glad I got out of that burg," he said. "It's a terrible place." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 27, 1926 LOS ANGELES RECORD Taylor Slaying Theory of Mary Minter is Told With District Attorney Asa Keyes and his chief assistant, Harold L. (Buddy) Davis, speeding homeward following their search for evidence in connection with the four-year-old murder of William Desmond Taylor, chief interest in the revival of California's most sensational slaying lay today in the contents of a statement made by Mary Minter to the district attorney while in New York. Miss Minter, who left "the pictures" immediately after Taylor was found slain, frankly expressed her "theory" of the crime. Miss Minter, in her statement, it became known today, believes that Sands, enraged at the loss of his position; possessed of a criminal's mind, always bent on revenge' unscrupulous and willing to do anything for money, became a tale bearer. The girl, at that time, frankly admits she was paying visits to the director's home. That Sands carried the tales of these visits to a woman, enlarging upon what was occurring; telling tales of wild parties--and in all probability the whispers of love upon which he had eavesdropped, is Miss Minter's belief. This woman wanted to keep Miss Minter away from Taylor, the former actress told Keyes. And now Keyes believes one of two things happened: 1. That Sands, believing he would receive a rich reward, killed Taylor of his own initiative, depending upon the woman mentioned by Miss Minter to reward him. 2. That he acted as a paid assassin, securing a stipulated fee, part of which he used to flee to a foreign land. But every iota of Keyes' case is known to be circumstantial. Following her retirement Miss Minter entered into a series of disputes with her mother, Mrs. Charlotte Shelby. The former actress, who, while making her home apart from her mother, instituted an accounting action in the local courts seeking to secure large sums of money which, she claimed, she had earned, but which, she said, she had never received. It was learned that Miss Minter's mother, at the time of the murder, employed private detectives and attorneys in an effort to locate the slayer. Checks revealed that she had spent many thousand dollars in an independent search for the slayer in an effort to eliminate her daughter's name from the case. It was also learned today that the "theory" of Miss Minter, as told to Keyes, in New York, was often expressed here. [5] One night, before leaving Los Angeles, police were called to her neighborhood by residents who had objected to Miss Minter's prize dogs being allowed to run at liberty. The officers responded together with a newspaper man, were invited into Miss Minter's apartment. There she told, in detail, the "theory" which she repeated to Keyes in New York. Both Mrs. Shelby and Miss Minter's sister, Mrs. Margaret Fillmore, had also been informed of the former actress' "theory." Assistant Captain William M. Cahill, one of the officers who originally worked on the case, has an entirely different opinion. He "strings with" the love-jealousy motive. Cahill thinks that one of Taylor's feminine admirers, hopelessly in love with him, watched the bungalow, saw Mabel Normand leave, went into an emotional rage, knew that Taylor was alone, and then stepped into the living room, took a gun from her handbag and fired the fatal shot. Cahill declares he believes the woman then ran out the front door, in between the adjoining garage and the house and disappeared in the dark shadows enveloping Alvarado Terrace. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 27, 1926 LOS ANGELES EXPRESS A new and sensational angle of the William Desmond Taylor murder case developed today when a New York newspaper printed a story that a prominent Los Angeles society woman faces indictment. According to the United Press, the New York Graphic today printed a copyrighted story about the society woman. The United Press quotes from this story as follows: "The motive for her crime was mad jealousy, aroused when the director transferred his friendship from her to Mary Miles Minter, young and beautiful motion picture star. "The society woman before mentioned in connection with the many investigations into the mystery was an almost daily visitor at the luxurious Hollywood home of the director until shortly before the murder." The woman, "not a moving picture actress," has figured prominently in the investigation since Taylor was found dead in his bungalow, February, 1922. Whether she will be questioned again is unannounced, since Keyes has stopped talking and started traveling again. Reports credited to Investigator Eddie King, of the district attorney's office, that Mary Miles Minter's love notes and statements in the Taylor case were missing, were punctured and flattened by the investigator. "Just an ordinary lie," laughed King. "No truth in it. Neither did I make any such announcement. The notes are safely in the possession of the proper authorities." Meanwhile at the Hall of Justice, reports tenaciously held that District Attorney Keyes and Harold L. Davis, his assistant, who accompanied the official, will have to make a complete accounting for the trip which caused a national flurry over contradictory reports credited to the pair regarding the Taylor mystery. First they denied they were working on the case. Then they reported "satisfactory progress." Then came a hail of announcements on the case, which were climaxed when they declared the famous mystery solved. But "Buddy" Davis, the aide, lost his suitcase, said to contain the solution, for a few hours and he became angry at newspaper men. The upshot was that Keyes and Davis both denied the whole thing and then shut up entirely. Now they're both coming straight home, more or less cloaked in secrecy. Of Keyes, near and about his own office, it was admitted that "Ace talked too much." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 28, 1926 Morris Lavine LOS ANGELES EXAMINER In the files of the District Attorney's office is a diary, recently discovered, which is said to contain highly valuable information regarding a woman, not a motion picture actress, suspected of plotting the murder of William Desmond Taylor, the film director. How this diary came into the possession of the District Attorney is not known. But its contents are said to reveal the movements of a certain society matron at different times before Taylor's murder, the day of the crime, and all subsequent. [6] The diary is being guarded with the utmost care, to be turned over to District Attorney Asa Keyes upon his return to Los Angeles Monday or Tuesday. The data furnished in the diary now in the possession of the District Attorney's office dovetails with other statements secretly obtained during the past two months by Keyes and his assistants. Keyes, on his return to Los Angeles, will question several persons in addition to those already seen in the case. These will include a nurse to which a woman, not an actress, is said to have inquired regarding various poisons and to whom this woman is said to have stated that she would never be taken alive. In the East Keyes announced that he will question Mrs. Charlotte Shelby, mother of Mary Miles Minter, and will ask her several questions on which she may throw some light. He is bringing back with him a statement by Mary Miles Minter. Mrs. Shelby, the mother, was located yesterday by The Examiner on a plantation several miles from Bastrop, La., where she went to settle up an estate involving the property of her mother, who died recently. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 29, 1926 LOS ANGELES TIMES On board Union Pacific Los Angeles Limited (Milford, Utah)--The well- known Taylor murder mystery, after 5000 miles of travel and 500,000 words of news dispatches, is coming home to roost. It is approaching the California State line in the form of Dist.-Atty. Keyes and his chief homicide deputy, Davis, to say nothing of the brief case containing the Taylor case documents, recently made famous by its amazing theft and miraculous recovery in Chicago. Deputy Davis, custodian of the case, proudly exhibited his trust in all its cowhide glory, but when asked if the Taylor case had been solved, as reported, exclaimed, "so's your old man." Mr. Keyes, who was looking out of the window on the cold snow-covered hills, entered a general denial to the statements accredited to him by eastern dispatches. The 5000-mile transcontinental jaunt can be salvaged through a county expense voucher, but the half million-odd words printed on the case and attributed to him appear to be a total loss. After reading the batch of eastern stories crediting him with all sorts of things said and unsaid, Mr. Keyes consented to make a statement of facts for the Los Angeles Times. He said: "Some of the eastern news dispatches attributed to me and Mr. Davis are so ridiculous and self-contradictory on their face that no categorical denials are necessary. I have been grossly misquoted and many statements were put in my mouth that did not emanate from me. Some of these dispatches came from cities many miles away from my presence at that time. It is unfortunate that the natural anxiety of some reporters to obtain something new on a world- famous case should go that far... "So far as the Taylor case is concerned, from the public point of view it is one of the most spectacular and sensational mysteries in years. From a purely legal point of view, it is a case requiring the most painstaking effort and careful preparation. While in New York I interviewed Mary Miles Minter, one of the witnesses in the case, and have her statement with me. "Some investigation regarding the whereabouts of Edward F. Sands also was necessary. These things had to be done as a legal necessity in our efforts to round out a case and put it into shape to be presented before the proper judicial bodies, should sufficient evidence eventually be obtained. All this was done with satisfactory results. "While in Chicago no work was done on the Taylor case. No interviews were taken and no witnesses were seen. Our efforts in Chicago were along the lines of investigating the District Attorney's office for ideas to put into effect in Los Angeles. "As to Miss Minter's statement and as to the other information gathered from witnesses, nothing at this time warrants the statement that we know the murderer of William Desmond Taylor, and at no time has any such claim been made by me or by Mr. Davis. "In view of the extraordinary amount of publicity, most of it very unfortunate and far from the truth, I do not feel that much additional progress can be made at this time in the orderly reconstruction of the case, and unless some spontaneous occurrence changes my plans no immediate action is expected." The theft of the Taylor case documents and all the circumstances surrounding it will be told the grand jury by Mr. Keyes, the District Attorney and Mr. Davis declared. None of the documents are missing, but the lock on the brief case was jimmied and contents taken out and examined, according to Mr. Davis. He was out to supper and left the case in the room at the hotel in Chicago. In the morning, when he discovered the loss of the documents, he at once instituted a search for them. Investigation showed that while he was away two men obtained and pass-key from the hotel clerk and entered the room. The next day Mr. Davis and Mr. Keyes learned that some of the documents were taken by the thieves to a Chicago newspaper office and examined. The case was returned while Mr. Davis was in conference with some Chicago officials. Nothing was missing. "The most important evidence in the case was not in the bag, when it was stolen," Mr. Davis said, as the train rolled across the Utah valley. "By some act of providence we had transferred the important papers to another place. However, it is very unfortunate the contents of some of the papers were indirectly given publication and used as quotations from Mr. Keyes and myself." [7] Some of the cities in which they were reported were never visited by Mr. Keyes and Mr. Davis, they said tonight. The two officials said they visited Chicago, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Syracuse, N.Y. When the limited train came to a stop at the Union Pacific station in the Utah capital, the two Los Angeles officials were met by newspaper men and shown the clippings of stories published on the Taylor case since their trip east. Five thick envelopes, containing dozens of front-page stories with glaring headlines, and attributing all sorts of interesting but conflicting statements to Mr. Keyes and Mr. Davis, were among the exhibits. Both immediately and heatedly denied that they had said most of the things credited to them. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 29, 1926 Jack Carberry LOS ANGELES RECORD While Keyes has been in the east, it was learned today, private investigation into the Taylor murder, resumed here, revealed that Sands, within three days after Taylor was slain, left San Pedro aboard ship as a steward, sailing for China. Sands, it was learned, told a woman known to police as "Marie" that he was going to spend the remainder of his life in Havana. Before leaving he gave the woman, "Marie," a large sum of money without offering an explanation of where he had secured. Whether Sands has remained in Cuba since the slaying is not known. There were no developments in the case today. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 30, 1926 LOS ANGELES TIMES Dist.-Atty. Keyes and Harold L. Davis, his chief homicide deputy, arrived in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon, after an extended trip through eastern cities and considerable publicity over the reported solution of the William Desmond Taylor murder case. A small army of newspaper reporters and photographers met the two officials on their arrival at the Central Station. There was a clicking of cameras and some milling around, but nothing new was added to the facts already known in the investigation. The murder investigation activity, if any, in the news few months will be directed toward reassembling and co-ordinating material at hand, Mr. Keyes and Mr. Davis said. A study of the transcript of the statement made to them in New York by Mary Miles Minter, Taylor's former sweetheart, will be made by Mr. Keyes and Mr. Davis. They also plan to check over the known facts in the murder case to see how much credence is to be placed in the story of a former convict, given them in a New York State city, during their eastern visit. This story is a reputed "second-handed" confession of a man who says that while he was serving a term in an eastern prison a fellow convict told him that he and another man had killed Taylor. The man is said to be a narcotic peddler. His motive was described as an old grudge against Taylor, grown from a trifling episode years ago. The description of the self-asserted murderer, as given by the convict, is said to answer in a general way the man seen leaving the Taylor home immediately after the shooting in February, 1922. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * March 31, 1926 LOS ANGELES EXAMINER Louisiana justice disappointed Mrs. Charlotte Shelby, mother of Mary Miles Minter, yesterday. It prevented her from obtaining the whole of an estate of gas lands reputed to be worth $1,400,000 and gave half of the estate to a niece. The estate was left by Mrs. Julia B. Miles, grandmother of Mary Miles Minter. Mrs. Miles died recently. It consisted of 1400 acres of valuable gas lands in the Monroe, La., gas belt. The will was contested by Mrs. Hazel Jordan of Mobile, Ala., who announced she was fighting for the share of her deceased mother, who was Mrs. Shelby's sister. Mrs. Shelby hastened from Los Angeles to Bastrop, La., to attend the hearing and oppose the efforts of her niece to obtain a half share in the land. A verdict by the District Court in Bastrop, county seat of Morehouse Parish, awarded Mrs. Jordan half of the estate yesterday. Mrs. Shelby left immediately for New York. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * June 2, 1926 LOS ANGELES HERALD A formal statement by Mrs. Charlotte Shelby, mother of Mary Miles Minter, erstwhile screen beauty, regarding her knowledge of the mysterious circumstances which led to the murder of William Desmond Taylor in 1922, rested today in the files of District Attorney Asa Keyes, the latter announced. The statement is the first ever made by Mrs. Shelby in the history of the case. Mrs. Shelby was questioned to sift the statements made by Miss Minter to Keyes in New York recently, the prosecutor said. Miss Minter's close friendship with Taylor, which she freely admitted after his death and which was confirmed by a long series of love letters between the couple, filed as evidence in the case, was discussed by Keyes and Mrs. Shelby. Mrs. Shelby's statement will be kept confidential, Keyes said. He also declared himself satisfied with its contents. ***************************************************************************** ***************************************************************************** April 9, 1922 Thoreau Cronyn NEW YORK HERALD The Truth About Hollywood, Concluded Part 5 [How Much Do the Stars Earn?] In the old days it was the habit of some producers and their press agents to exaggerate for publication the salaries of their stars, but the chastening of Hollywood has brought about a realization that this was a silly business-- bad for the star, bad for his associates, bad for the whole industry. How much do the picture players get? In many instances it is impossible to learn the real figures. They are a secret between the star and the one or two individuals with whom the contract was made. This secrecy has enabled the imaginative actor and publicity man to soar as high as they pleased without challenge. Also the methods of payment are so diverse as to make estimation of amounts difficult. Some players have a weekly drawing account and a percentage of the profits. Some get a flat weekly salary under yearly or long term contract. Some are paid by the week for the period required for the making of the picture; when the picture is finished the salary stops. Some of the biggest stars produce their own pictures and take all the profit or loss, as the case may be. Of these some finance their own productions and others are financed by the corporations which distribute the films. One thing is certain and that is within the last year there has been a marked lowering of salaries throughout the motion picture ranks, amounting in some instances to more than 50 per cent. A sage of Hollywood thus summarized the present salary situation: "This is an El Dorado for a few, a grub stake for many and a Dead Man's Gulch for many others. I know well-known actors and actresses whose salaries appear to be fabulous but who would be better off if they had steady jobs at $100 a week. One of these is a leading woman who gets $500 a week. That sounds like $25,000 a year. The fact is that the moment a picture is finished she gets nothing, and sometimes she is idle for months between pictures. I know a star who has a Packard car but no money to buy gasoline. A leading woman with a male star got $200 a week for four weeks and then nothing for four months. Sometimes a player of a striking type is catapulted into prominence by one picture, but then she can't find another picture suitable to her peculiar personality and she is out of a job for five months." The highest paid players on continuous weekly salary were Mary Pickford, Charley Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, all of whom are now producing on their own account. William S. Hart, whose salary was $2,000 a week, has also become a producer. A famous opera singer made three pictures and received $50,000 for each of them. The highest paid salaried actor in Hollywood at the present time, according to information given me, is Mary Miles Minter. I was told that her contract with Famous Players-Lasky calls for five pictures at the graded rate of $30,000, $40,000, $50,000, $60,000 and $70,000 a picture. She has made her last production, so that roughly she has earned $250,000 a year. Another top salaried celebrity is Pauline Frederick. She had a contract at $7,500 a week, but I was told that when retrenchment set in she acquiesced in a reduction to $3,000 a week. Betty Compson, on a five year contract at $2,000 a week, also accepted a reduction. I also heard that Wallace Reid had been reduced from $1,750 to $1,250 a week, but this, in view of the fact that he is now one of the greatest drawing cards at the film theaters, seems improbable. Rodolph Valentino, who has recently found great demand for his services, has just signed a contract with Famous Players-Lasky at $1,00 a week for the first year, $2,000 for the second and $3,000 for the third. Harold Lloyd gets a lump sum for each picture and a percentage of the profits over a certain sum. His personal fortune is estimated at $350,000. The public has an impression that Charley Chaplin is under contract at "a million a year." The fact is that the distributor, First National Pictures, agreed to pay him $1,000,000 for eight pictures, and it has taken him five years to make them. This makes his average return only $125,000 a picture and $200,000 a year. Out of this Chaplin pays the cost of production, averaging about $60,000 a picture. At this rate his net return per picture is $65,000, with income tax to be deducted. I suppose he also has a percentage interest in the distributor's profits, which would swell the sum considerably, but even so Hollywood knows that Chaplin's fortune is not what it is generally thought to be. He takes his time in turning out one of his comedies. He is tired of slapstick and meringue pies and doesn't care who knows it, and stays away from his studio as much as possible while the expense mounts up just the same. The dog that he used in filming "A Dog's Life" grew from puppy-hood to maturity before the picture was done. Toward the end they had to fake--that is, to place the camera further away in order to make the dog appear to be the same size as when the production was started. What Mary Pickford makes is a secret among herself, her mother, who is her business manager, and the income tax bureau. It does not amount to $1,000,000 a year. Friends in Hollywood believe that recently she and her husband have each been netting about $500,000. After fifteen years on the legitimate and movie stage Miss Pickford is worth about $3,000,000. She is a wise investor. Fairbanks is not a great saver, or has not been up to this time. He spends enormous sums on his productions. "The Three Musketeers" cost not far from $750,000. Conrad Nagel, one of the newer leading men of considerable experience on the legitimate stage, has a salary of $750 a week. This is above the leading man's average, the reason being that Nagel not only can act but looks like an aristocrat. Katherine MacDonald has her own company and gets $50,000 a picture from First National. Mabel Normand got at one time $4,000 a week. I don't know what her present contract with Mack Sennett calls for. Here are some actual figures that were given me under pledge that the names would not be used: A well known star, a homely man who does homely, heart interest stories but is not just new in the pictures, had a two year contract at $2,000 a week. A well known character man, in constant demand, works by the picture at $2,000 and $3,000 a week. A leading woman who is popular with the public receives $400 a week, but misses a good many weeks between pictures. A noted character actor ranked as a star is paid $1,500 or $2,000 a week. A featured leading woman under a five year contract gets $450 a week the year round. A man who has been before the camera only a year but has a thorough stage training is under contract at $500 a week. A juvenile lead gets $250 a week, with provision for an annual increase. A seventeen-year-old ingenue, one year in the pictures, draws $150 a week. A character woman in steady demand for "grand dame" parts gets $100 a week on a long term contract: character man playing small parts $75. The salaries of stock players under contract range as a rule from $125 to $500 a week. It takes an exceptional man or woman to rise above $500. Fancy salaries are often paid to outsiders engaged to play leads with the regular stock companies. Salaries also vary with the prosperity of the producer and sometimes depend on his personal whim. The present tendency is away from the fancy salary and toward standardization. The day of the $5,000 a week star is passing. The players are also being held to stricter studio discipline. Contracts are being drawn so as to compel the player to give undivided attention to work and to discourage costly vacillations due to temperament or big head. In writing of salaries I have not taken account of the swarm of others besides the leading actors who have to do with the studios. A few directors' salaries go as high as $2,000 and $3,000 a week, really good ones being rarer than really good actors. William Desmond Taylor, who was murdered, got $1,250. He was regarded as an "uneven performer." Some of his pictures were masterpieces; others mediocre. A director's salary is commonly around $500 a week. Players of small parts, who may appear only once and then get killed off, are paid by the day, $15 and up. The extra people get from $5 to $15 a day, the customary rate being $7.50, and the "atmosphere"--persons with no training, who add numbers or color to mob scenes--$3 a day. The best camera men receive $200 a week. Many of them float from studio to studio, but some of the directors and players insist on having the same one for each picture. Mary Pickford always calls for Charles Rosher, as he has proved that he best knows how to attain the effects she desires. Do the actors save anything? Bankers of Hollywood told me that the number of those who do is larger than might be supposed. Charley Chaplin is credited with having the largest deposits. He has a cash balance of $300,000 in one of the Hollywood banks. The returns from each of his pictures are credited to separate accounts. His financial man is his secretary. William S. Hart and Pauline Frederick are among the many others who make regular deposits and fewer withdrawals. The spendthrifts are like so many Coal Oil Johnnies. Without training in the use of money, without taste or imagination, they fling their dollars along the line of least resistance. They overdress, they give garish parties, they put special bodies on the most expensive automobiles (Arbuckle's $25,000 chariot was inlaid with gold), they repair between pictures to the Tia Juana race track, just across the Mexican line, and go broke. I had supposed before going to Hollywood that any star possessing less than nine automobiles was ostracized, but I heard of none with more than four. Chaplin, as heretofore mentioned, has two; Mary Pickford two, Betty Compson two, Harold Lloyd four, one of them a Ford. Lloyd lives in Los Angeles with his father and brother and sister-in-law and their baby. His servants are a cook, valet and chauffeur. Mary Pickford supports a children's home in Los Angeles with the proceeds of her photographs, which her secretary sends to applicants upon payment of 25 cents. Fairbanks never drinks intoxicants. He smokes a pipe when he feels like it. No liquor is served in their home except at formal dinners. They are rarely seen at social affairs. In the evening they see a new film in their own home. Charley Chaplin drops in and plays the violin. Fairbanks amuses the guests with a new acrobatic stunt and when the guests are gone reads history and biography to familiarize himself with the requirements of his next picture. Charles Ray, who married out of the profession (Mrs. Ray sings and paints), has two automobiles. He has the reputation of being one of Hollywood's hardest workers, but is seen at an occasional garden party in the summer. His father was a conductor on the Santa Fe. The jovial Tom Mix has a fortune in fancy hatbands and spurs and drives a wicked car. One of his friends described it: "A cross between a battleship and Sousa's band, with his name on the door, like Painless Parker." Eric von Stroheim has three automobiles, as has Priscilla Dean, who lives in the Hollywood foothills. I promised to report on the night life of Hollywood. As indicated, the streets are pastorally quiet. The two big social mob scenes are the Tuesday night dance at the Ambassador, between Hollywood and Los Angeles, and the Thursday night dance at the Hollywood Hotel. The latter was rather jamboreeish at one time, but has been denatured. The Ambassador dance will be mentioned later. The real cutups go to such places as the Sunset Inn on the road to Santa Monica, miles from Hollywood. Two rather noted actresses played a game of strip poker there last summer but at the next to the last moment an actor in policeman's uniform rushed in and arrested them. The Ship, an eating place in Venice, on the ocean, is also well patronized. No liquor is sold on the premises, I was solemnly assured, but in this bootlegger's paradise that need be no deterrent. Hollywood itself, in addition to a few restaurants, only one of which is open all night, has a few tearooms and that exhausts the list. There is space only for a brief listing of some of Hollywood's many fine activities in which the screen workers share. In the Bowl, a natural amphitheater seating 5,500 persons, outdoor spectacles are staged, and the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra will give forty concerts next summer with the admission fee only 25 cents. There is a community theater, organized and managed by Neely Dickson, where have been seen scores of one act plays written by such authors as Lord Dunsany, Bernard Shaw, Lady Gregory, William Butler Yeats, John Masefield, Sir James M. Barrie and Stephen Phillips. The best of the legitimate players drawn to the studios of Hollywood have taken part. Every night during the summer the Pilgrimage Play, based on the life of Christ, is given in a canyon in the foothills at prices ranging from 50 cents to $2. The spirit of the town is suggested by the fact that the Board of Supervisors appropriated $20,000 a year for three years for the support of this undertaking. Many beds in Los Angeles hospitals are maintained by movie persons. Up in the hills Mrs. Annie Besant presides over the Krotona Institute of Theosophy. Some of the churches of Hollywood, notably the Christian Science, Unitarian and Methodist are particularly attractive. The roll of Christian Science members is a movie who's who. Witness: Bob Ellis and his wife, May Allison; Mr. and Mrs. Tully Marshall, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Hatton, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Graves, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ogle, Paul Scardon and his wife, Betty Blythe; Mr. and Mrs. Jack Holt, Richard Dix, Miss Leatrice Joy, Miss Helen Ferguson, Miss Helen Jerome Eddy, Miss Lillian Leighton, Miss Shannon Day, Mr. and Mrs. Conrad Nagel, Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Franklin and Mr. and Mrs. King Vidor. All the children of C.B. and W.C. De Mille attend the Christian Science Sunday School. Then there is the Screen Writers Guild. It is a distinctly cheering institution. Before going to Hollywood I had never heard of it except through a newspaper announcement that it had offered a reward of $1,000 to the capture and conviction of the Taylor murderer. "That's the crowd that gave the big dinner a while ago, the Writers Cramp," an outlander told me. So it is, and much more. It is a flourishing alliance of the men and women of a new profession--the writers of stories and scenarios for the motion pictures. It is an offspring of the Authors League of America, born two years ago at a meeting in the home of Thompson Buchanan, whom theatergoers remember for "A Woman's Way" and other plays of the legitimate stage. It strives to get adequate recognition for the screen writer, to cooperate with the Authors League in improving copyright laws, to make sounder the contracts of writers and producers and to ply visiting celebrities with food and moral entertainment. It has in Hollywood a $30,000 clubhouse, for which it is paying by the month, without missing an installment thus far. It dispelled forever the impression that writers are poor business men by making a profit of $6,647.54 from its first annual dinner, the Writers Cramp, held in December in the Ambassador Hotel. It has succeeded in settling out of court disputes between producers and writers, so that now its services as arbiter is sought even by the "magnates." And when the scandals threatened Hollywood the Screen Writers Guild leaped to the defense. So far as I know the association of motion picture producers has never offered as much as one cent to spur the hunt for the person who shot Taylor, but when the question came up at a luncheon in the clubhouse of the Screen Writers Guild ten scenario writers guaranteed $100 apiece on the spot. Maybe that merely signifies that the writers have all the money. [The End] ***************************************************************************** NEXT ISSUE: William T. Sherman, Guest Editor: Some Responses to a Number of Points Made in TAYLOROLOGY In Defense of Mabel Normand The Issue of Peavey's Credibility The Credibility of Howard Fellows' Testimony The Time Element Problem Evidence for a Cover-Up Summaries of the Cases against Charlotte Shelby and Carl Stockdale ***************************************************************************** NOTES: [1]This is one of the earliest published rumors directed against Charlotte Shelby. The idea that Taylor was plying Minter with liquor and drugs is extremely doubtful. [2]This was the first statement attributed to an official which supposedly asserted that Minter "was at Taylor's home a few hours before the murder." In view of that fact that other portions of this statement were later strongly denied by Keyes--he denied that he was anxious to talk with Mabel Normand, denied that his visit to Chicago had anything to do with the Taylor murder-- and due to his subsequent and obviously true statement that "I have been grossly misquoted and many statements were put in my mouth that did not emanate from me", it seems unlikely that this statement about Minter was actually made by Keyes, and the entire statement may have been fabricated. [3]The "Los Angeles real-estate operator" was Harold Fellows, who had been Taylor's assistant director at the time of his murder. [4]The visit of Charlotte Shelby to Taylor's home, with a revolver hidden in her sleeve, actually took place nearly two years prior to the murder. [5]Minter's statement to Keyes has never been made public, but in later interviews she strongly denied ever suspecting either her mother or Sands of having killed Taylor. [6]This diary belonged to Chauncey Eaton, chauffeur for Charlotte Shelby, and had details of where he drove her on each day. [7]Based upon the revelations appearing in the Hearst press in the days immediately following the theft of the briefcase, the following information may possibly have been contained in the briefcase: a. That Shelby supposedly knew of the murder before the police did. b. That Shelby visited Taylor's home once with a gun in her sleeve. c. That strands of blonde hair were found on Taylor's coat. ***************************************************************************** ***************************************************************************** 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) *****************************************************************************