Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood (72 page)

HOLLYWOOD PHOTOGRAPHS

Will H. Hays was a little man with a powerful voice and an impeccable résumé, brought in by Zukor and others to convince the public that the film industry was serious about reform. But Hays, speaking here at the Famous Players–Lasky studio (Cecil B. DeMille to his right and Jesse Lasky behind him) and at the Hollywood Bowl during a barnstorming tour of the film colony in 1922
(left)
, was never going to be content as Zukor’s puppet.

SPRINGFIELD HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Gibby tried to make herself a star by producing her own pictures, as here in
The Web of the Law
with Ranger Bill Miller.

But by 1923 most of her income came from scams she pulled with her associates Rose Putnam, Don Osborn, and Blackie Madsen, who got caught blackmailing millionaire John Bushnell.
ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES
/
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

Hays and Zukor eventually had to come to terms. An absolute monarch until 1922, Zukor never quite got used to sharing power.
PHOTOFEST

Zukor kept a map not unlike this diagram on his desk
(left)
, keeping track of his theaters and those of his rivals. Zukor’s crown jewel, the Paramount, opened in 1926. Directly opposite was Marcus Loew’s State, which Zukor made sure to overshadow. The Paramount stood thirty-five stories; its opulent interior seated three thousand.
PHOTOFEST

Tinseltown tried to destroy Mabel, but she escaped to New York, where she became a fashion trendsetter and habitué of literary salons and speakeasies.

Mary wasn’t as lucky. Retiring from the screen, she faced a lifetime of legal battles and humiliations. Reporters gleefully noted the increasing size of the once-diminutive actress.