Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood (58 page)

“From her French father”
: Fussell,
Mabel
.

“a complexion that makes you”
: The original manuscript of Marion’s memoir,
Off with Their Heads: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood
, cited in Cari Beauchamp,
Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998).

“Skittery as a waterbug”
: Mack Sennett,
King of Comedy: The Lively Arts
(New York: Doubleday, 1954).

“she refused to have anything”
: Telegram to Mack Sennett from Arthur Butler Graham, July 13, 1917, Sennett Collection, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA (hereafter AMPAS).

“never in the least forward”
:
Rocky Mountain News
, February 12, 1922.

“exhausted the incandescence”
: Fussell,
Mabel
.

that the cops were looking for Joe Pepa
:
Los Angeles Times
, November 7, 1920.

“Her life has been one long”
: Unsourced clipping, 1914, fan scrapbook kept by Edna G. Vercoe, AMPAS.

“a house of ill fame”
: My account is culled from
Los Angeles Times
, August 26, August 28, August 30, September 14, September 19, September 20, 1917;
Los Angeles Herald
, September 14, September 19, 1917.

a downtown taproom
: Federal Bureau of Investigation, case file on Don Osborn, et al., October 21, 1923 (hereafter FBI case file).

suing the department for $15,863
:
Los Angeles Times
, February 1, 1917.

Suspecting him of smuggling opium
:
Los Angeles Times
, November 6, November 8, 1916.

two Chicago businessmen
:
Los Angeles Times
, December 1, December 5, 1916;
Day Book
(Chicago), December 1, 1916;
Chicago Tribune
, October 25, October 26, 1915.

Betty died after her stint
:
Los Angeles Times
, January 4, January 5, January 12, 1917.

“acute yellow atrophy”
: Los Angeles death records, Registrar-Recorder, County Clerk.

“he would never be convicted”
:
Los Angeles Times
, September 29, 1917.

“furnished rooms”
: Los Angeles city directory, 1917.

The neighborhood was rough
: A search of “Commercial Street” in the digital archives of the
Los Angeles Times
brings up considerable criminal activity. For examples contemporary with Gibby’s arrest, see
Los Angeles Times
, September 9, September 18, September 21, 1917.

Hahn told Lola Rodriguez
:
Los Angeles Times
, November 11, 1917. Hahn was nearly disbarred over the charge.

“The top was quite low”
:
Los Angeles Times
, September 19, 1917.

“Japanese men entered”
:
Los Angeles Times
, September 19, 1917.

Gibby was cool as an April breeze
: My account of Gibby’s arrest comes from the
Los Angeles Times
, August 26, August 28, August 30, September 14, September 19, 1917;
Los Angeles Herald
, September 14, September 19, 1917.

“one of the most entertaining”
:
Los Angeles Times
, July 25, 1916.

Gardner came off like a starchy scold
:
Los Angeles Times
, September 19, 1917.

“this little girl”
:
Los Angeles Herald
, September 15, 1917.

“severely arraigned her”
:
Los Angeles Times
, September 19, 1917.

“forming a halo”
:
Los Angeles Herald
, September 15, 1917.

“started to leave the witness stand”
:
Los Angeles Times
, September 28, September 29, 1917.

“Underworld gunmen”
:
Los Angeles Times
, September 18, 1917.

there were whispers
: A column in
Photo-Play Journal
, October 1920, made the connection, which no doubt disturbed Gibby greatly.

rather ingloriously fired
:
Moving Picture World
, April 18, 1914.

eight-cylinder Cadillac roadster
: Details of Mary’s car come from
Los Angeles Times
, April 18, 1920;
Los Angeles Express
, May 22, 1920.

“scraps of paper”
:
Los Angeles Express
, September 23, 1920.

They’d just returned
:
Los Angeles Times
, August 14, 1920. The article reported that they’d left on August 13 and were planning to stay for three weeks. That means they would have returned about September 3. According to Leroy Sanderson’s overview of the Taylor case, dated June 13, 1941, Mary’s fake suicide attempt occurred in the “late summer.” Prior to August 13 doesn’t seem to qualify as “late summer.” Also, Charlotte Whitney left Shelby’s employ in the early fall, reported by Sanderson to be “soon after” Mary’s fake suicide stunt. That is why I have placed this incident here.

“as a glorified servant girl”
:
Los Angeles Herald
, August 10, 1923.

“find a suitable millionaire’s”
:
Los Angeles Times
, October 14, 1919.

“when to go to bed”
: Interview with Mary Miles Minter by Charles Higham, given to Bruce Long, transcribed by Long (hereafter Higham transcript).

Lilla Pearl Miles
: US Census, 1880.

“where Negroes knelt”
: Interview with Mary Miles Minter, by Kevin Brownlow, March 27, 1971, King Vidor Papers, AMPAS (hereafter Brownlow interview).

“When I was a baby”
:
Los Angeles Times
, August 10, 1923.

“These things have an effect”
:
Los Angeles Herald
, August 14, 1923.

“They never would let me”
:
Los Angeles Times
, August 15, 1923.

“the little girl with the biggest”
:
Los Angeles Times
, June 27, 1919.

“matured very quickly”
:
Los Angeles Herald
, August 14, 1923;
Los Angeles Times
, August 15, 1923.

Standing with Kirkwood
: The “marriage ceremony” between Mary and Kirkwood was described in grand jury testimony in 1937, as reported in the
Los Angeles Herald-Express
, May 7, 1937. It is corroborated by a memorandum written by Detective Leroy Sanderson, who had read the letters between Mary and Kirkwood. See Bruce Long,
William Desmond Taylor: A Dossier
(Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2004).

“Heart hungry as I was”
:
Los Angeles Times
, August 15, 1923.

“I recognized them”
:
Los Angeles Herald
, August 14, 1923.

“The man was too wonderful”
: Brownlow interview.

“a nice little girl”
: Harry Fellows, witness statement, February 9, 1922.

she was May
: Mary Miles Minter, statement to the district attorney, February 7, 1922.

“I can’t give you”
: Minter, Brownlow interview.

“He reciprocated my love”
:
Los Angeles Herald
, August 14, 1923;
Los Angeles Times
, August 15, 1923.

“If I ever catch you hanging”
: Whitney, witness statement.

“to kiss and fondle her”
:
Los Angeles Herald
, August 10, 1923.

“Do you really mean that?”
: I’ve taken the following account from the witness statements of Whitney, November 28, 1925, and Charlotte Shelby, April 9, 1926.

to watch the presidential election returns
:
New York Tribune
, November 3, 1920.

Uptown at the Ritz
:
Variety
, November 9, 1920.

“There is no question”
:
New York World
, October 29, 1920.

Abrams working for United Artists
:
Variety
, January 28, 1921.

“because all the people”
: Zukor,
Public Is Never Wrong
.

“never a danger”
: Adolph Zukor, interview by Ezra Stone, William E. Weiner Oral History Library of the American Jewish Committee, NYPL.

“a self-indulgence”
: Zukor,
Public Is Never Wrong
.

“the story of a man”
: Gabler,
Empire of Their Own
.

“his gratitude”
:
New York Times
, November 19, 1926.

On the various affiliated Committees for Better Films
: The names of these women were drawn from various papers in the National Board of Review Collection, NYPL.

one of the first policewomen
: For O’Grady’s career, see
New York Times
, August 16, 1918; February 27, 1919; March 9, 1919; September 11, 1920; April 6, 1921.

“must have the power”
:
New York Times
, May 29, 1919.

a tragedy occurred
:
New York Tribune
, November 15, 1920.

“too strenuous”
:
New York Times
, December 14, 1920.

the Glen Springs Sanatorium
: On November 11, 1920,
Variety
reported: “Mabel Normand is recovering from her nervous breakdown at the Glen Springs Sanatorium near Elmira, N.Y.”

“went to bed when the moon”
:
New York Morning Telegraph
, November 28, 1920.

up to $2,000 a month
: The figure comes from US Attorney Tom Green, in
New York American
, February 24, 1922.

Once, on a train
: Berg,
Goldwyn
.

“Look at him”
: Frances Marion,
Off with Their Heads: A Serio-Comic Tale of Hollywood
(New York: Macmillan, 1972).

“a movie star at Seventh and Vermont”
: Julia Brew’s story comes from Fussell,
Mabel
. Although she is quoted as saying “a movie star at Seventh and Ventura,” Mabel actually lived at Seventh and Vermont, so I have changed the quote accordingly.

“Mabel Normand has a pair of callused”
:
New York Morning Telegraph
, October 17, 1920.

They’d gotten to know each other
: Testimony,
United States vs. Don Osborn, et al.
, District Court of the United States, Southern District of Ohio (1923) (hereafter
Osborn
, 1923).

Williams renewed his contract
: Details of Williams’s contract renewal with Pathé are stated in his biographical entry in William Allen Johnston,
Motion Picture Studio Directory, 1921
(New York: Motion Picture News, 1921).

He was six foot three
: Description of Don Osborn comes from the FBI records of the case against him, his World War I draft registration, and newspaper photographs. Although the FBI description says that Osborn had brown eyes, I’ve trusted the draft registration, which says they were blue, since it was compiled during an in-person interview.

When he was nineteen, Osborn had masterminded
:
Los Angeles Times
, March 8, 1914.

suing for child support
: FBI case file, November 2, 1923.

registered for the draft
: Registration card, Don F. Osborn, June 5, 1917.

name would not be found
: The Triangle records held by the Wisconsin Historical Society and the New York Public Library were exhaustively checked for any mention of Osborn.

“drinking parties”
: George Weh, statement, August 2, 1923, FBI case file.

“the prettiest working girl in the city”
:
Chicago Tribune
, March 31, 1912. Also see March 3, 1912; December 11, 1913; US Census, 1900, 1910, Chicago.

“the kind of man who liked to work”
: Mabelle Osborn (Rae Potter) to Don Osborn, July 31, 1923, FBI case file.

“longed for the love”
:
Los Angeles Times
, May 14, May 15, 1919.

the opening of the Mission Theatre
:
Los Angeles Times
, November 14, 1920; December 2, 1920;
Los Angeles Express
, December 11, 1920.

“I am very, very happy”
: Mary Miles Minter to Adolph Zukor, October 11, 1920, Zukor Collection, AMPAS.

“until the end of my life”
: Higham transcript.

“that halfbreed Indian”
: Shelby, witness statement. Charlotte Whitney also recalled the incident in her statement, though she placed it in Mary’s dressing room. Shelby’s statement, by and large, is more accurate, so I’ve gone with her account. This anecdote is sometimes told with Shelby driving the car herself. But in her interview with Kevin Brownlow, Mary reported that her mother didn’t drive.

“big, fast roadster”
:
Los Angeles Examiner
, December 26, 1929.

“Who is there?”
: Details of this encounter come from a long interview with Charlotte Shelby published in the
Los Angeles Examiner
, December 26, 1929.

Charlotte Whitney noticed
: Whitney, witness statement.

“with all the trimmin’s”
:
Los Angeles Express
, November 24, 1920.

“The heads of the motion picture”
:
Los Angeles Express
, November 1, 1920.

Greeting him was his valet
: My description of Sands comes from the
Daily Bulletin
, February 7, 1922, a publication of the Los Angeles Police Department; the more detailed police description sent to the press, as published in the
Los Angeles Times
, February 8, 1922; Sands’s World War I draft registration card; and Earl Tiffany, witness statement, February 17, 1922. Mary’s description comes from the Higham transcript, as well as the Brownlow interview. There are some contradictions in these accounts. The
Bulletin
description, presumably provided by people who knew Sands, reported him as having a “light complexion.” But Tiffany called Sands “ruddy,” which he clarified to mean “healthy looking, very healthy.” Tiffany also reported that Sands had blond hair, where the
Bulletin
and the draft registration both state he had brown hair, making me question Tiffany’s reliability. I have gone with the description provided by the
Bulletin
.