Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood (59 page)

had dynamited a hill
:
Los Angeles Herald
, July 17, 1920.

And in one fantasy
: Hopkins described this scene in his unpublished memoir, “Caught in the Act,” shown to me by Charles Higham.

“[Taylor] was always seeking”
:
Philadelphia Inquirer
, February 4, 1922.

“The men would lie in silk”
: This comes from one of Edward Doherty’s sensational syndicated dispatches, as in the
New York Daily News
, February 9, 1922.

“visiting the queer places”
:
Philadelphia Inquirer
, February 4, 1922.

how his heart had raced
: Hopkins, “Caught in the Act.”

the director’s melancholic moods
:
Los Angeles Examiner
, February 6, 1922.

other gay couplings
: For context regarding the gay subculture in Hollywood at the time, see William J. Mann,
Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910–1969
(New York: Viking, 2001).

“Looking like the Mabel”
:
Los Angeles Times
, December 24, 1920.

“How did you do it?”
:
Photoplay
, August 1921.

interrupted by a knock at the back door
: There is some controversy over when the anecdote of Taylor ejecting Mabel’s dealer from her house actually occurred—and indeed, whether it occurred at all. I believe it did, as it was reported by a well-respected US Attorney, Tom Green. I also believe that it occurred sometime in very late 1920 or very early 1921, as Green said that Taylor had told him that the actress friend he was trying to protect “had been presumed to be cured of the drug habit”;
New York American
, February 24, 1922. This would place the incident after Mabel’s stay at Watkins Glen. Green would tell reporters soon after Taylor’s murder that his meeting with the director had been about “a year and a half” earlier—which, if taken literally, would place it before Watkins Glen. So I have presumed Green was offering only a rough estimate, and I have accordingly placed the incident here, soon after Mabel’s return to Los Angeles in December 1920. See also
Los Angeles Examiner
, February 24, 1922.

Adela Rogers St. Johns recalled
: Fussell,
Mabel
.

By going to Green
: Eyton’s identity is deduced here by statements later made by Green. A man came to his office from “a certain industrial plant” where William D. Taylor was employed;
Los Angeles Examiner
, February 24, 1922. This clearly refers to Famous Players–Lasky, and so the man, as Bruce Long notes in his
Dossier
, must either have been studio chief Jesse Lasky or general manager Charles Eyton. From my study of Lasky’s letters, this does not appear to be something the studio chief would have done himself. Such a chore would more likely have been delegated to Eyton, who was in charge of studio management.

“It was then Green learned”
:
New York American
, February 24, 1922;
Los Angeles Examiner
, February 24, 1922.

“Before she’s through”
:
Chicago American
, February 11, 1922. Although this report, by the notoriously sensational Wallace Smith, did not specifically state that the federal agent investigating the drug gang in Hollywood was associated with Tom Green, it seems very likely that he must have been, as it would have been at the same time as Green’s investigation.

“If I had been a farmer”
: Sennett,
King of Comedy
.

“a big romantic comedy”
:
Los Angeles Record
, February 3, 1921.

Her deal was for
: Given that
Molly O’
was made in the spring of 1921, and Mabel’s long-term contract with Sennett, preserved in the Sennett Collection, AMPAS, was not agreed to until July (and did not commence until September 15), the deal for
Molly O’
must have been separate. Mabel was clearly not working under contract when she made
Molly O’
. Some contemporary reports (such as
Variety
, February 11, 1921) indicated that the deal with Sennett was for “a number of productions.” But that agreement would not be concluded until sometime in the summer, when Mabel decided that she was comfortable signing with Sennett long-term again. The
Variety
report also gave the million-dollar figure.

“very modern and daring”
: Osborn described the project he and Gibby wanted to produce in court depositions,
Osborn
, October 20, 1923.

Although Elsie dies early
: The plot of
Greater Than Love
was outlined in the
Chicago Daily Tribune
, August 3, 1921. The film appears to be lost.

But Osborn was feeling
: In his court deposition, Osborn described banks “discouraging independent production on the grounds of theaters being held by trusts.” Other would-be producers described similar frustrations, as Senator Jimmy Walker would describe in his speech to exhibitors in June 1921.
Wid’s Daily
, June 3, 1921.

“made inquiries about setting up”
: Unsourced clipping, October 10, 1921, Patricia Palmer file, NYPL. Gibby said she had prepared outlines and budgets, but the producer (who she did not name, though it seems likely, given the timing, to have been Read) did not back her. This must have been the same project Osborn mentioned in the court record. As Gibby also stated to the reporter that she had brought forward the proposal on her own, her partners having “not come through,” I have concluded that Osborn dropped the ball, given his preoccupation with Rose and his emerging blackmail schemes.

At his five-hundred-acre estate
: Zukor’s estate and trap gun were described in the
New York Times
, May 3, 1921.

“the devil and 500 non-Christian Jews”
:
Variety
, December 31, 1920.

“I do not ask autocratic”
:
Variety
, March 4, 1921.

“The sex thrill”
: Various newspaper reports, including the
Mansfield (OH) News
, January 18, 1921;
Kingston (NY) Daily Freeman
, January 19, 1921; and
Uniontown (PA) Daily News Standard
, January 19, 1921.

the California legislature
:
Los Angeles Times
, January 8, 1921.

“No picture showing sex attraction”
:
Variety
, February 25, 1921. The trade paper published the complete code of rules as provided by Lasky.

“an attack upon the sanctity”
: W. D. McGuire to Harry Durant, Famous Players–Lasky, June 13, 1921, National Board of Review Collection, NYPL (hereafter NBR).

“to cleanse the ‘substance’”
:
New York Evening World
, March 15, 1921;
New York Tribune
, March 21, 1921.

“If [a producer] cannot”
: W. D. McGuire to Adolph Zukor, June 9, 1921, NBR.

“un-American, dangerous, misguided”
:
New York Times
, February 15, 1920.

On the night of May 1
:
New York Evening World
, May 3, 1921.

on board the SS
Aquitania
:
New York Tribune
, March 23, 1921.

“Let’s go up”
: Earl Tiffany, witness statement, February 17, 1922.

It was a big, boxy thing
: Detective Herman Cline would recall a garment “resembling a nightgown” being found in Taylor’s dresser, and said it was “filmy” and “flesh-colored”;
Los Angeles Times
, February 4, 1937. It took the sensationalist writer Edward Doherty to turn something “resembling a nightgown” into a “dainty pink silk nightie”;
New York News
, February 6, 1922. Wallace Smith, Doherty’s comrade in purple prose, added, without any basis in fact, that it was “frilled with lace”;
Chicago American
, February 6, 1922. This was picked up by other papers, including the
Los Angeles Times
, which pluralized the nightshirt into “silken things so strange to a man’s wardrobe”; February 7, 1922. None of these newspapermen actually saw the garment. (And it certainly had no initials; that appears to have been a press invention.) If Cline said it only “resembled” a nightgown, then it could very well have been a large nightshirt; the fact that it was made of silk merely confirms Taylor’s love of fine clothes. It seems unlikely that the garment belonged to any of the women Sands suspected: neither Mabel nor Mary ever spent the night at Taylor’s, and Gerber and Taylor had been broken up for some time. So if Sands was correct that the nightshirt was being used, it seems almost certain that it was Taylor wearing it. In fact, a photo exists of Taylor wearing what might very well be the garment in question, a long, boxy, light-colored nightshirt. The black-and-white photo is reproduced in Charles Higham,
Murder in Hollywood
.

“in a trick manner,” “paid particular attention”
:
Los Angeles Times
, February 6, 1922.

The valet told Tiffany
: Tiffany, witness statement.

Columnist Hazel Shelly
:
Motion Picture Classic
, June 1921.

would soon be christened
: The Cocoanut Grove officially opened at the Ambassador on May 25, 1921.
Los Angeles Times
, May 26, 1921.

“the precious cargo”
:
Los Angeles Times
, March 1, 1970.

“Mabel Normand has caught”
:
Los Angeles Times
, September 2, 1921.

born in Ohio
: 1900 and 1910 US Census; World War I draft registration. For Sands’s background, I also consulted Higham,
Murder in Hollywood
, which contained material shared with the author from Sands’s family.

While on board
: Court-martial proceedings of Edward F. Snyder, November 22, 1915, US Navy, reproduced on Taylorology, www.taylorology.com. Other information pertaining to Sands’s military career comes from his various US Navy and US Army files, National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis.

“servant for life”
:
Los Angeles Examiner
, February 26, 1922.

“there never was a more devoted man”
:
Los Angeles Times
, February 3, 1922.

“defrocked priest”
: Hopkins, “Caught in the Act.”

“In every way possible”
: Tiffany, witness statement.

the .45-caliber Colt revolver he carried around
: Sands’s friend George S. Brettner confirmed that the valet had a Colt .45;
Los Angeles Times
, February 10, 1922.

“Without a word”
:
Chicago Herald-Examiner
, February 10, 1922.

“I wrote letters”
:
Los Angeles Herald
, August 14, 1923;
Los Angeles Times
, August 15, 1923.

“Oh, there is little Mary”
: Minter, witness statement, February 7, 1922.

“as if she were about to cry”
: Tiffany, witness statement.

“all of the time”
: My description of Hopkins’s relationship with Taylor, as well as the anecdote about the performance of
Otello
, comes from Hopkins, “Caught in the Act,” and from notes made by Charles Higham, who was in possession of the memoir.

“Everyone has been telling”
:
Los Angeles Times
, April 5, 1921.

On his desk lay a financial statement
: A description of Famous Players’ finances, including a hand-drawn chart, was sent to Zukor from George G. Dominick on June 24, 1921. Zukor Collection.

“Motion pictures is the only industry”
:
Los Angeles Herald
, July 15, 1921.

“a clean sweep”
:
New York Times
, April 6, 1921.

“sex plays moral lessons”
:
New York Tribune
, April 6, 1921.

“Her idea of such a lady”
:
New York Times
, February 8, 1921.

“narrow-minded bigots”
:
New York Tribune
, April 6, 1921.

“matter had been handled”
:
New York Times
, June 2, 1921.

“one of the greatest legal battles”
:
Boston Globe
, May 28, 1921.

“to defraud certain men”
:
Boston Globe
, May 28, 1921.

“Well, so we move again”
: Gabler,
Empire of Their Own
.

Gibby watched the man
: Rose Putnam told police that their “first marks were traveling salesmen pointed out” to them at the Melrose Hotel in the spring of 1921. She did not say that it was Gibby who pointed them out to her, but the reference to the Melrose makes Gibby’s involvement likely. Given their involvement in each other’s schemes later, and Gibby’s residence at the Melrose, I believe this is a fair assumption. FBI case files, October 1923.

“Patricia Palmer is back”
:
Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger
, June 18, 1921.

Rae would come home
: Mabelle Anderson (Rae Potter Osborn), FBI case files, August 11, 1923.

Madsen was on the lam
: FBI case files, August 11, 1923. Madsen was being sought for the crime, which had occurred on May 15, 1919. At the time, he went by the alias John C. Sheridan.

“looking around for victims”
: FBI case files, August 1, 1923.

every contact she’d ever had
: Gibby told a reporter she approached “everyone she knew in the business who might give her a job”; unsourced clip, September 15, 1920, Locke Collection. Since Taylor was one of her most important contacts, I have taken her at her word and assumed she approached him and asked for his help. Obviously, looking at her filmography, he either did not assist her or his help was ineffective.

When he directed Judge Ben Lindsey
:
Los Angeles Examiner
, February 5, 1922.