Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood (64 page)

The Methodist Preachers Association
:
Los Angeles Times
, December 18, 1922.

“those in authority”
:
Los Angeles Times
, December 20, 1922.

“If Reid’s condition”
:
New York Times
, December 19, 1922.

Hays was hoping
: There were press reports that Hays planned to meet with Arbuckle. Associated Press, as in the
Twin Falls (ID) Daily Times
, December 11, 1922.

“neutral channels”
: Memo, July 8, 1922, WHH.

“very formidable”
: Memo, September 6, 1922, WHH.

“long deliberation”
:
Memoirs of Will H. Hays
.

“I believe that every fair thinking man”
:
Variety
, October 27, 1922.

“unlimited amounts of capital”
:
Variety
, October 13, 1922.

“going stronger than any”
:
Film Daily
, July 10, 1922.

“Roscoe Arbuckle is to have another chance”
:
Los Angeles Times
, December 21, 1922.

“With a membership”
:
New York Times
, December 21, 1922.

“who are helping to pay”
:
Film Daily
, December 23, 1922.

“Arbuckle was acquitted”
:
New York Times
, December 26, 1922.

“This organization”
:
Olean (NY) Evening Herald
, December 27, 1922.

“The wild eyed reformers”
:
Film Daily
, January 3, 1923.

“the Anvil Chorus”
:
Memoirs of Will H. Hays
.

“in any form among the humbler people”
:
New York Times
, July 23, 1922.

“I am sorry if my decision”
: Minutes of meeting of the Public Relations Committee, January 4, 1923, MPPDA.

“a complete loss”
:
Film Daily
, January 15, 1923.

Theatrical producer Arthur Hammerstein
: Hammerstein to Zukor, December 26, 1922, Zukor Collection.

Slowing her car down
: The accounts of Gibby’s escapade with Lasher in Tijuana and their attempts to retrieve the check are documented in FBI records, October 25, 1923, November 2, 1923, and are based on the testimonies of Gibby, Lasher, and Jim Dallas, with Dallas’s account seeming the most accurate and Gibby’s the least. Additional information on Dallas and Edward Rucker from the census and World War I registrations. Rose Putnam’s buying spree was also described in the FBI records.

“Why, sure I fell”
:
Los Angeles Record
, November 5, 1923.

“rounded out”
:
Oakland Tribune
, July 1, 1922. For more on Miller, see
Oakland Tribune
, February 8, 1920;
Film Daily
, July 2, July 26, 1923.

also paid her $585
: According to the FBI report of November 2, 1923, the equity was assigned to Osborn on March 9, 1923. However, there is no record of this in Los Angeles property records.

“The girl’s ma”
:
Los Angeles Record
, November 5, 1923.

“I am a stranger to you”
: FBI records, July 16, 1923; October 25, 1923.

“I know I am a sick man”
:
Los Angeles Times
, March 9, 1923.

“People on the inside of the game”
:
Movie Weekly
, March 24, 1923.

“wrought-iron constitution”
:
Los Angeles Times
, June 7, 1923.

The two women obtained passports
: Passports were issued for both Mary and Shelby on May 17, 1923, with a trip to Japan, China, Hong Kong, and Korea scheduled for June. The trip was never taken.

a tall, rangy Oklahoman
:
Variety
, April 26, 1923.

He sailed off for Europe
:
New York Times
, February 20, 1923.

Independent producer Al Lichtman
:
New York Evening World
, April 27, 1923.

“weekly receipts as large”
:
New York Times
, April 28, 1923.

“The same day we put Zukor on the stand”
:
Film Daily
, May 26, 1923.

“take over Metro”
:
Film Daily
, June 17, 1923.

“When the Sioux started”
: Ramsaye,
Million and One Nights
.

“it countenances government commissions”
:
New York Times
, June 9, 1923.

On the hot, humid morning
: My account of the shakedown and arrest comes from FBI records, July 16, July 18, 1923;
Springfield (OH) Daily News
, July 13, July 14, July 15, July 16, July 17, 1923;
Sandusky
(
OH) Register
, July 14, 1923;
Mansfield (OH) News
, July 14, 1923;
Sandusky Star Journal
, July 14, 1923.

John A. Ryan
: Ryan’s gambling den is described in an FBI report of January 2, 1924.

“numerous prominent motion picture people”
:
Los Angeles Times
, July 16, 1923;
Springfield Daily News
, July 17, 1923.

“as happy as Easter morning”
: Sennett,
King of Comedy
.

Mabel even attended
:
Photoplay
, September 1923.

“It is too bad”
:
Los Angeles Examiner
, August 16, 1923.

With the help of her friend
: I am surmising that McPherson was involved in this scheme as Charlotte Shelby, in “Twisted by Knaves,” blamed her for trying to take over Mary’s career at this point.

McPherson’s story
:
Los Angeles Times
, August 13, 1923.

“Police do not take the matter seriously”
:
Variety
, August 16, 1923.

“as if our love”
:
Los Angeles Record
, August 14, 1923.

“Mother liked William”
:
Los Angeles Record
, August 15, 1923.

“vials of dope”
: Florence Atherton Dickey, oral history, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Mary’s hosts were the screenwriter Philip Dutton Hurne and his wife.

“Please leave me alone”
:
Los Angeles Examiner
, August 15, 1923.

The thought had never occurred to her
:
Oakland Tribune
, August 14, 1923.

Larry Outlaw
: FBI report, March 14, 1924. Although MacLean reported that he had visited Madsen at the St. Catherine Hotel, there was no hotel by that name in Venice. The only “Saint” hotel in Venice was St. Mark, a well-known landmark. I have concluded that seven months after his visit, MacLean, unfamiliar with Los Angeles, confused the St. Mark with the St. Catherine Hotel on Catalina Island.

“undaunted by the fact”
:
Springfield Daily News
, July 16, 1923.

“You can imagine”
: FBI records, August 11, 1923.

“a former Paramount star”
:
Oakland Tribune
, June 5, 1923.

“I intend to expose”
: George Lasher to John L. Bushnell, August 28, 1923, in FBI report, October 25, 1923.

Gibby went back to Jesse Lasky
: The timing can be determined fairly precisely. In June, Gibby called herself a “former Paramount star,” so she was clearly not on an ongoing contract. Lasher wrote to Bushnell on August 28; he had already given Gibby the ultimatum for September 4. The
Film Daily
reported on August 29 that Lasky had decided to move ahead with
To the Ladies
; on September 9, it was reported that Cruze would begin shooting on September 17. So Gibby likely got the assignment during the first week of September.

Lawrence MacLean took the letters
:
Springfield Daily News
, October 10, 1923.

Hays had decided on a legal separation
: Not until 1929 would the facts become known. See, for example, the
Moberly (MO) Monitor-Index and Democrat
, June 21, 1929.

sailing off for England
:
Variety
, September 20, 1923.

“wined and dined”
:
Film Daily
, September 24, 1923.

contemplating a return to politics
:
Variety
, September 13, 1923.

“Motion picture people”
:
Film Daily
, December 2, 1923.

discussing a “readjustment” of the industry
:
Film Daily
, November 6, 1923.

“to discuss his recent trip”
:
New York Daily News
, October 27, 1923.

officially a married woman
: Marriage certificate, Arthur McGinness and Patricia Palmer, October 27, 1923, Orange County Courthouse.

“blackmail ring”
:
Los Angeles Examiner
, November 3, 1923. The FBI had interviewed George Weh on October 25, two days before Gibby’s marriage.

“these gentlemen are officers”
:
Los Angeles Herald
, November 3, 1923. The account of Gibby’s arrest and court appearances are taken from this source as well as the
Los Angeles Times
and
Los Angeles Examiner
.

“became very busy”
:
Springfield Daily News
, November 3, 1923.

“a put-up job”
:
Los Angeles Examiner
, November 3, 1923.

“She gained the limelight”
:
Los Angeles Times
, November 3, 1923.

“never attained stardom”
:
Los Angeles Examiner
, November 3, 1923.

“insufficient evidence”
: FBI case file, November 13, 1923.

“violated the Mann Act”
: Mark L. Herron to L. C. Wheeler, November 10, 1923, reproduced in FBI case file, November 13, 1923.

“This poor girl has lost her job”
:
Los Angeles Examiner
, November 9, 1923.

“the federal brigade”
:
Los Angeles Times
, August 19, 1922.

Rose Putnam was released from jail
:
Springfield Daily News
, March 31, 1924;
Sandusky (OH) Star Journal
, April 1, 1924.

“throw away the key”
:
Zanesville (OH) Star Signal
, April 6, 1924.

For the first shakedown
: Final Commitment, US District Court, Southern District of Ohio, Indictments 2608 and 2610, April 5, 1924.

C
HAUFFEUR
S
HOOTS
M
AN
:
Los Angeles Times
, January 2, 1924.

“An unvoiced, passionate”
:
Chicago Tribune
, January 3, 1924.

“Dear Mabel may be very sweet”
:
Ogdensburg (NY) Advance and St. Lawrence Weekly Democrat
, January 10, 1924.

N
ORMAND
C
ASE
U
PROAR
:
Variety
, January 10, 1924. Bans were reported through January 17.

“the Normand temper”
:
Los Angeles Examiner
, June 17, 1924.

“The majority of Illinois club women”
:
Los Angeles Times
, March 20, 1924;
New York Morning Telegraph
, March 23, 1924.

“There is a limit”
:
Los Angeles Times
, October 12, 1924.

M
ABEL
I
S
C
LEARED
:
Syracuse Herald
, January 13, 1925;
Hammond (IN) Times
, January 14, 1925.

play wasn’t as bad as all that
: I’ve based my reassessment on the actual newspapers that reviewed it. There were some pans, but the show was not the disaster many have described. See
Washington Times
, September 8, 1925;
Variety
, September 9, 1925;
Charleston Gazette
, September 16, 1925;
Providence Evening Bulletin
, September 23, 1925.

“magic at the box offices”
:
New York Times
, September 13, 1925.

her otherwise sympathetic biographer
: Fussell,
Mabel
.

fashion columnist Betsy Schuyler
:
Cumberland (MD) Evening Times
, October 9, 1925.

“looking well and happy”
:
Photoplay
, February 1926.

“Don’t get too big”
: An anecdote told several times by Dwan. See
Milwaukee Journal
, January 21, 1982.

Out at the windswept corner
: Details of the construction of the Paramount Building come from the
New York Times
, May 24, 1925, August 2, 1925, January 7, 1926;
New York Evening World
, May 26, 1925; and various unsourced clips in the Zukor file, NYPL.

“surpass in capitalization”
:
New York Times
, March 24, 1924;
Los Angeles Times
, April 8, 1924.

F
ILM
W
AR
L
OOMS
:
Elyria (OH) Chronicle Telegram
, April 23, 1924.

“they get eaten first”
: Unsourced clipping, circa 1920, Zukor file, NYPL.

“the most beautiful home”
:
New York Times
, October 16, 1924.

“Zukor is about the wisest manipulator”
:
Variety
, March 26, 1925.

“conspired to seize”
:
New York Times
, August 25, 1925.

Neither a merger nor a sale
:
Wall Street Journal
, September 25, 1925. Also see Douglas Gomery,
The Hollywood Studio System
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986).

On August 2, 1926
:
New York Times
, August 3, 1926.