Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood

by William J. Mann

An addictive true tale of ambition, scandal, intrigue, murder, and the creation of the modern film industry

By 1920, the movies had suddenly become America’s new favorite pastime, and one of the nation’s largest industries. Never before had a medium possessed such power to influence. Yet Hollywood’s glittering ascendency was threatened by a string of headline-grabbing tragedies—including the murder of William Desmond Taylor, the popular president of the Motion Picture Directors Association, a legendary crime that has remained unsolved until now.

In a fiendishly involving narrative, bestselling Hollywood chronicler William J. Mann draws on a rich host of sources, including recently released FBI files, to unpack the story of the enigmatic Taylor and the diverse cast that surrounded him—including three beautiful, ambitious actresses; a grasping stage mother; a devoted valet; and a gang of two-bit thugs, any of whom might have fired the fatal bullet. And overseeing this entire landscape of intrigue was Adolph Zukor, the brilliant and ruthless founder of Paramount, locked in a struggle for control of the industry and desperate to conceal the truth about the crime. Along the way, Mann brings to life Los Angeles in the Roaring Twenties: a sparkling yet schizophrenic town filled with party girls, drug dealers, religious zealots, newly-minted legends and starlets already past their prime—a dangerous place where the powerful could still run afoul of the desperate.

A true story recreated with the suspense of a novel, Tinseltown is the work of a storyteller at the peak of his powers—and the solution to a crime that has stumped detectives and historians for nearly a century.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, History, Film, Crime, Mystery, Audiobook

463 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Also writes children's books under the pseudonym Geoffrey Huntington.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tinseltown: Murder, Madness and Morphine at the Dawn of Hollywood by William J. Mann is a 2014 Harper publication.

An unsolved murder will always pique my interest. Toss in an old Hollywood setting with lots of famous names, history, and scandal and I’m sold.

The murder of William Desmond Taylor has fascinated true crime aficionados for ages. Taylor, a film director, was murdered in 1922 with a small caliber pistol. His death caused a media frenzy at the time, but to this day, the case remains officially unsolved.

The author takes readers through the various battles Hollywood fought with the moralists who waged war against the movies and the actors who starred in them, highlighting scandals- such as the Fatty Arbuckle trials, which does give readers an idea of the climate in Hollywood in and around the time of Taylor’s death.

It takes a good long while to really get to the meat of the tale, for the book to finally narrow the scope to focus on Taylor’s murder, which is, I think, what readers are most interesting in.

To set the stage, the author examines all the suspects and theories that have been investigated or reported on, as well as what the police were thinking at the time.

While I realize the author was attempting to widen the net and create a book, not only about the titillating murder of Taylor, a man with many secrets, but to examine the entire movie industry, the key players in the tale, and to expose the drug use, power plays, and various scandals in this era in Hollywood.

Unfortunately, this proves to be too ambitious of an undertaking, in my opinion. The organization, despite the obvious research, is extremely poor. While I do enjoy history, especially about old Hollywood, I struggled to remain interested in this book. It is very dry reading, and the portions I was most interested in didn’t take shape until the last quarter of the book. The book is in desperate need of some significant trimming.

That said, the conclusion is quite riveting- and surprising- as it seemed nearly every suspect named had a motive, but there was never enough evidence to arrest any of them. Some of the theories tossed about were quite absurd, which often happens in a high- profile case, and one in which the press wished to steer the investigation a certain way, speculating outside the realm of hard facts in order to sensationalize the case. Despite their best efforts, though, the evidence didn’t back up their conjectures.

Although the author uncovered a stunning story that could solve the case, after all this time, there was really no way to prove the validity of the information. The author’s case, based on the information he gathered, is as plausible as any other presented in this book and I am inclined to agree it makes sense- but, it couldn't be proved after all this time, and that is why the case is still listed as unsolved.

While this case is interesting, this book was bogged down with too much boring information, seriously slowing down the momentum, tempting this reader to skim over large sections to get to the good parts. Once the murder of Taylor became the primary topic, the writing tightened up and things certainly did become quite interesting. I am glad I learned who the probable murderer was, so it wasn’t a total loss.

3 stars

[Karl · Rating 2 out of 5]

A poorly written book.

Thought the concept was intriguing the execution fell flat on it's face.

The author tried to be salacious in the handling of the story the end result was too much repetition of banal events and repetition of the same events over and over and over until one wanted to yell "enough already".

The picture that was painted, and perhaps it was accurate, was of a bunch of drug crazed sex addicts, running Hollywood for their own hedonistic pleasures. And perhaps that was true at the time.

Many of the characters were painted as cartoonish and one dimensional.

It is interesting to realize that perhaps things have not changed much in the studio machine in the last 100 years.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ultimately I found this an interesting and credible solution to the William Desmond Taylor murder. However, it is a bit ripe in the scene setting department--as someone else mentioned, it reads like fiction--pulp fiction padded to up the count as if Mann were being paid by the word. If I read, "Nobody had more secrets to keep than Bill Taylor," one more time, I thought I was going to scream! He must use this phrase, and other similar catch phrases, at least thirty times in the book. Mann is also a bit fatuous in insisting on spelling the word "clue" as "clew," because that is the way it was commonly spelled in the 1920s, when he trots out the expletive "tinseltown," a term that had no currency before the 1940s and was not a common term for Hollywood until the 1960s, what seems like every other sentence. There are annoying things, for example Mann claims that Mary Miles Minter wanted no visitors in later years, well I knew Mary in he early 1970s and visited her home on several occasions, chatting in her living room, and afterward having dinner, prepared by her cook, with her in the kitchen. Several other people I know also visited Mary through the years. So, as I say, ultimately I liked the book. The basic historical research seems solid, but The 384 pages (which do include notes, but no index), could profitably have been trimmed to 250 pages without sacrificing any of the book's virtues.

[Mara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Self-righteous parents blaming the media for society's moral decay; young starlets vying for the attention of the same man; a once-beloved comedic icon falling from grace following revelations about his sordid past; celebrities suspected of committing murders most foul; stints in rehab being kept on the DL; overbearing stage mothers; and a news-hungry public with“sanity and sympathy” in short supply watching as it all unfolds. Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood has all the makings of an issue of US Weekly (though William J. Mann's writing is, I would argue, of a superior quality).

Unbeknownst to me, the 1922 case around which the book is centered has been famous for quite some time. It has a dedicated following of armchair sleuths obsessed with each and every aspect of Taylorology (yes, that's a thing).

As the headlines suggest, the victim in this case was none other than Hollywood director William Desmond Taylor .

Of course, none of this would be half so intriguing without a lineup of suspected celebrity murderesses, namely: Mabel Normand , Margaret “Gibby” Gibson , and Mary Miles Minter .

Each character has a story all their own– secrets, sordid pasts, weaknesses for an illicit substance or two. Like poor little Gibby, who was driven by a promise made to her mother that someday that would “have nice things.” But, it would seem, that (at least as far as “the Church Ladies” were concerned) all of this was pretty par for the course for young starlets in the den of sin known as Tinseltown. After all, they couldn't risk being cast aside for a newer, younger model by gentlemen of loose morals.



All of this indignation ties into the larger story of the fight for the very survival of Hollywood, and the men (yes, they were pretty much all men) involved. For me, these pioneering movie moguls (primarily Adolph Zukor and Marcus Loew) weren't all that compelling. However, my heart did go out to poor Will Hays , who was charged with the near-impossible task of “cleansing” the movies of their corrupting content to the satisfaction of producers and censorship advocates alike.

As a Serial fan, I found myself impressed by just how much information has been compiled and assembled about the case over the years (see the map of the who, what and where in Alvarado Court the night of the murder, below), all done without the luxury of a single pinging cell phone tower.

A lack of time precludes my giving a more comprehensive tour of all the intrigue involved, but suffice it to say, that if “the Dawn of Hollywood” piques your interest, you won't be disappointed.

Bonus Archer gif:


[Sidenote: This belongs in a series of what I will refer to as “half-baked reviews.” There are more than I care to admit (some from so long ago that I barely remember where I was going with them), but, at this rate, by the time I actually finish them, books probably won't even be “a thing” anymore.]

[Kemper · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you ever thought that writers like James Ellroy exaggerate the corruption of old Hollywood, try reading this.

The murder of influential film director William Desmond Taylor has so many viable suspects and motives that it could be the plot for a sequel to Knives Out. For starters, despite being a well-respected figure in the movie industry Taylor was a man who had secrets like a wife and daughter that he had abandoned years before coming to Hollywood and changing his name. He may have also been gay or bisexual, and there were rumors that he had frequented opium dens.

Taylor had already been burned by one man who found out who he really was. His former butler had learned about his former life before stealing from Taylor and vanishing. He was a prime suspect in the murder, but the press latched on to theories that said that Taylor had been killed by a woman as a result of some kind of romantic entanglement. Mary Miles Minter was a young starlet infatuated with Taylor which made her domineering mother furious even as Taylor didn’t return her affections. Another actress, Mabel Norman, was trying to put her life and career back together with Taylor’s help after breaking a drug addiction, and there was wild speculation that Mabel or one of her former dealers angry at Taylor’s efforts to keep her clean might have done it. Another small-time actress named Margaret ‘Gibby’ Gibson wasn’t implicated at the time, but her deathbed confession to killing Taylor decades later would lead many to believe that it was a blackmail attempt by Gibson and some friends of hers that led to murder.

This book leans into the idea that the crime might have been solved back in 1922 if it wasn’t the studio using its influence to steer the police and the press in certain directions. Powerful executive Adolph Zukor already had his hands full holding off reformers and government regulations in the face of scandal, and his minions took all of Taylor’s papers from his house before the police could read them. Later, the papers they gave to investigators may have been cherry picked to lead the police towards Minter and Norman since letting one or two actresses get pummeled in the press and by ‘moralists’ across the country was preferable to having all of Hollywood’s dirty laundry come out at that critical time.

Overall, this is an interesting look at an unsolved mystery. and Mann seems to do a credible job of sticking to the known facts. The backdrop of Zukor trying to hold onto power as he battled reformers is interesting in itself. I particularly found the story of Will Hays fascinating. It’s weird how things evolved so that he’d eventually have to found the infamous Hays Code which would stifle movies for decades even as he was not a moralizing reformer himself, and he was deeply uncomfortable with the idea that he should be a censor or in charge of doing things like banning Arbuckle from making movies.

Unfortunately, Mann falls into the true-crime trap of falling in love with a theory and presenting it as the only possible solution when that’s not the case. Here, he spends a lot of time following Margaret Gibson and her blackmail accomplices to establish how he thinks they were involved later and how their activities indicate a pattern that might have been used on Taylor. And that’s certainly possible, but there’s no new evidence to prove that. Yet, Mann presents this as the obvious solution while blowing by the parts that don’t fit or point to other people. His ideas about how a conspiracy within the studio to steer the cops wrong and throwing their own people like Minter and Norman under the bus while protecting someone like Gibson seems especially shaky.

So if you’re interested it’s good for understanding the basic facts and context of what happened, but wary of the places where Mann speculates without considering alternatives.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of a murder, which happened over 90 years ago in Los Angeles. In 1922, Los Angeles had become the centre of the fledgling film industry and William Desmond Taylor was one of the leading film directors. One morning, his valet, Henry Peavey arrived for work as normal to find his employer murdered and, once again, scandal hit Hollywood. For this is not just the story of William Desmond Taylor (or William Deane-Tanner, as he was originally known before re-creating himself – as so many did, and still do - in Hollywood) but of the film industry itself. As such, it involves not only those involved with the murder case, but of the characters that were finding their feet, and instilling control, on this new and lucrative business. From Adolph Zukor (known to employees as, “creepy”) the President of Famous Players, to Will Hays, who was brought in by the industry itself to help protect them from accusations of immorality, drug use, drinking (during a time of prohibition) and endless partying; this is a story of power, control, accusations, attempts at censorship and unfolding scandals…

Hollywood itself was under attack at the time of Taylor’s murder. From actors and actresses using drugs, to the all pervading press interest in the Fatty Arbuckle murder trial, the film industry stood accused of affecting the morals of the young and providing bad role models. It was gradually becoming understood that the young looked up to these new heroes and heroines of the screen and that, whether children were ‘swash-buckling’ like Douglas Fairbanks Jr. or dying their hair to look like the newest screen goddess, these people were becoming important and could not be ignored; causing a moral panic to erupt. When Taylor was murdered, those in the business were more concerned with covering up the scandal than in discovering the culprit – like most people in Hollywood, Taylor had his own secrets. A homosexual man who had abandoned his wife and daughter for a new life (although he certainly financially supported them), Taylor seemed to be loved by all who knew him – so, why was he killed?

This book takes us through all the possible scenario’s (before offering a solution at the very end) and these range from disgruntled, criminal former employees, drug dealers that Taylor had warned off, jealousy and possible blackmail. Much of the book revolves around three women in Taylor’s life. Actress Mabel Normand, a dear friend of Taylor’s and a woman re-making her life after drug dependency, Margaret ‘Gibby’ Gibson, an ambitious but fading actress, trying to reinvent herself as ‘Patricia Palmer’ and young starlet, Mary Miles Minter, just eighteen, and her over-bearing ‘stage’ mother, Mrs Shelby. This book takes us through Taylor’s life and relationships, including Mary Miles Minter’s obvious crush on the older man and also the investigation into his murder.

Although I have read many true crime books, this is much more a story of a time and place than of the actual murder investigation itself – although that is obviously covered. At times the book reads more like a novel and the flowery language, while suiting the era the author writes about, can sometimes be a little too much. However, the author is certainly realistic in re-telling how the crime scene was compromised and how the investigation was stalled and evidence covered up. Zukor was so concerned about Taylor – who he considered his spokesman for the industry – being damaged by scandal that he flew to L.A. himself and was utterly calculating and callous when protecting his own interests – sacrificing people with no thought to anyone but himself. In fact, like Hollywood itself, this is often a rather sordid tale. Scratching beneath the surface uncovers jealousy, thwarted ambition, financial desperation and the growing influence of drugs. If you have any interest in either true crime, or the early days of Hollywood, this is an interesting account of both a tragic event and how it was dealt with by an industry just beginning to feel their influence, and flex their muscles, in a fast changing time.

[Madeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the morning of February 2nd 1922, film mogul William Desmond Taylor was found dead in his home at Alvarado Court Apartments. Although he was initially declared dead from a stomach hemorrhage, when police turned the body over they discovered the bullet hole in his back. The list of suspects eventually included three actresses at varying parts of their career trajectories, con men, rival producers, and no shit, Taylor's butler.

Mann's book covers much more than just the life and eventual murder of William Desmond Taylor (a case which, officially, is still classified as unsolved, although Mann offers a possible solution that sounds pretty plausible) - in telling the story of his death and the media circus that followed, Mann is also taking us through the history of early Hollywood, when powerful producers were fighting each other for control of a brand new market, and new film stars were discovered, exploited, and discarded in record time. Film was such a new medium, and the concept of a "movie star" was in its infancy, so everyone involved was really just making it up as they went along - identities were invented and past scandals were buried, and rumors and truth were inextricably muddled together.

Mann has the difficult task of teasing out the truth that's buried under decades of scandals and lies, and its an understatement to say that the research here is extensive. If the book has one downside, it's that the murder of William Desmond Taylor - the story at the center of the whole book - is abandoned by the narrative for long periods of time, because you quickly realize that the true purpose of Mann's book is to explore the personal and professional rivalries of several powerful Hollywood producers, and how they shaped the industry as we know it today. The murder mystery is really more of a Trojan horse to get us sucked into the story that Mann really wants to tell, so be warned that you might find yourself frustrated by how often this book seems to completely forget about the murder. But like I said, Mann does propose a reasonable solution to the mystery, so you don't walk away from this unsatisfied.

[Anthony McGill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly entertaining read in what should be the last word on the infamous William Desmond Taylor murder case in 1922 Hollywood.

I was familiar with one of the previous accounts via the Sidney Kirkpatrick version ("A Cast of Killers") which relied heavily on distinguished director King Vidor's research papers who was also a living witness during these turbulent times.

William J. Mann's account which takes in a much broader scope of the period and many, many more personalities and diversions is impressively researched and captures the film business of the time in detailed, almost epic style. He comes up with different solutions and a different guilty party, all very convincingly, to the Kirkpatrick/Vidor version.

At times I got a little put off by some of the writing and assumptions, particularly by the author's obvious dislike of Adolph Zukor and while his observations of the old Paramount tycoon may well have been correct, continual references to him as "old creepy" became rather tiresome.

Whilst not overly criticizing Mann's portrayal of early Hollywood, I wonder if any of us can truly comprehend this crazy time in show business. Suddenly in a blink of an eye, actors, directors, producers et al, some poorly educated, many barely speaking English, who were suddenly catapulted into the public spotlight and blessed with unimaginable fame and fortune. A nice position to be in but were these people psychologically and physically suited to cope with this rapid transition, with the wisdom and grace expected of them. It makes me wonder how we would have behaved.

When I look back and learn more about these tumultuous times, I perhaps have much more understanding of these complex characters than I once did.
Rating: probably more like 3.5 than 4.0

[Sketchbook · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Streaks of pink lightened the sky" as an open car driven by a beautiful woman in an evening dress and fur coat (uh-huh, natcherly) sped along Pacific Coast Highway from Los Angeles to Ventura. "Her wild hair was in disarray from the wind" (dear gott) -- Thus opens the 3d or 4th book about the William Desmond Taylor murder in 1922. This is a red herring which we've seen in countless movies and milady disappears from the story.

Last pages (are ya ready?), the author delivers a deathbed "confessional," which we've also seen in countless movies. A Catholic convert, he asserts, wants forgiveness 42 years after the gun went off. Malarky, but there's some seductive writing between the opening and the ending. I still want to know what happened to the dame whose hair was flying in the wind.

[Theresa Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a fabulous book. It was rather long but it had to be long. It tells many stories simultaneously and you learn a great deal, if you're paying attention. The murder of William Desmond Taylor, (who's real name was William Deane Tanner) in 1922 was never an easy one to solve. It remains, technically, unsolved to this day but the author of Tinseltown has his own VERY logical and reasonable theory. I personally trust his ideas far more than the old rumor that it was the conniving Charlotte Shelby, mother of Mary Miles Minter, the young blond silent film actress. When you find out that Taylor was killed in a bungled robbery, it makes far more sense and it also really shows how poor and limited police science was at this time in America. They did the best they could, the police, but they just didn't have the training or the resources that they have today. You learn many interesting things, such as the first production company came to Hollywoodland in the winter of 1909 to film a silent short. At that time they lasted between 10 and 15 minutes. But you learn about the business end too, and how the real pioneer was "creepy" Adolph Zuckor, the Hungarian who came to Hollywood and changed everything. He really was the kind of Hollywood, which was named by the way for an apartment complex called Hollywoodland. The big sign? That was what it was originally called, and it was put up there on the hill because of the apartment complex that was being erected right below the sign there, at the bottom of the hill. That area of California were all orange groves, that was the early business. But in 1909 film came to Hollywood and because of the advantageous weather, more people flocked to Hollywoodland, to film more silent shorts. The book is not only about the murder of Taylor, which is so tragic because Taylor was such a fabulous, smart, and kind person, but its also a great book because so many other things are covered and you learn so much history. I can't recommend this book enough. A great book for all students of film and for all history lovers of Hollywood like me. For me the Golden Age of Hollywood really was from 1915 to 1935. That is when so many fascinating things happened, both on camera and off. When I was in college, I wanted to complete a bachelors degree in cinematic history so bad, but most colleges and universities don't offer that major, so I settled for criminology and criminal justice. So, in my spare time I read about Hollywood history and I love every minute of it. This book goes in my permanent collection. Highly recommended!

[Jill H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that I was rather fascinated by this book because I am an avid fan of early film. Hollywood in the early 1920s was pretty much party-city and drinking and drugs proliferated among some of the cinema stars. Things started falling apart with the deaths of Olive Thomas (drugs), matinee idol Wallace Reid (drugs), the murder trial of popular comic Fatty Arbuckle (he was exonerated eventually) but the topper was the murder of noted actor/director William Desmond Thomas. This finally brought the reformers out of the woodwork and Hollywood was in trouble. The resulting fall-out from his murder which was never solved ruined the screen careers of two leading actresses, Mabel Normand and Mary Miles Minter, both of whom may have not been involved but were close to Thomas. Eventually the Production Code came into being and morals clauses became part of actors' contracts in an attempt to tamp down the hysteria of all concerned.

Although the murder was never solved there were plenty of suspects and theories. The author goes over the top with some of his purple prose and he drops hints and insinuations that are never fully explained. His source material appears quite good but the reader really will never know how much of the "facts" presented are exaggerated. Regardless, this is a rollicking good read of the "good old days" in early Hollywood....a possible mixture of truth and fiction but enough to hold my attention throughout.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Relentlessly repetitious, covering the same ground over and over and over again, and eventually boring. Mann has to learn that once he has descriptively related a characteristic of a person, there is no need to repeat it in every chapter that relates to that person. How many times did he have to tell the reader that Adolph Zukor was short, for example? And he ends his chapters like bad movie serial cliffhangers, The resolution to the mysterious murder of film director William Desmond Taylor in the 20s is supposedly solved by the author and it seems plausible given the clues and evidence, but it takes a LONG time getting there after constant rehashing of the inside doings of the movie studio system and censorship. And speaking of 'clues', Mann tells you he will be spelling the word CLUE as clews to reflect the parlance or spelling of the 20s. Really? Who cares. This sadly just won the Mystery EDGAR AWARD for BEST TRUE CRIME book. It is written like a novel with such description and inner thoughts of these famous people that Mann claims he has researched and has his index to prove. No matter. It reads like it was never edited or fact checked.

[Robert Vanneste · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not an easy read and longer than it needed to be . A lot of might haves and maybes . The book A Cast Of Killers made a better argument .

[Tristan Robin Blakeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I should start by saying I'm pretty easy prey for somebody writing a book about Hollywood(land) in the early part of the 20th century. It has always intrigued and excited me. So, it was no surprise that I was waiting for this book to come out as soon as they announced the future release date of it. And I wasn't disappointed.

There were so many "crimes of the century"in the 20th century - the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, the Hall/Mills murders, the Leopold/Loeb murder case, the Black Dahlia, and fairly regularly right on up to O.J.Simpson.

One of the first crimes of the century was the murder of movie actor/director/producer William Desmond Taylor, which remains unsolved to this day. It has everything a crime needs to grab the public's attention: movie stars, millionaires, barely credible eye-witnesses, sex, strict mothers of jazz-baby starlets...and, lots and lots of money.

There have been four books (to my knowledge - they could, of course, be more that I haven't discovered!), all taking very definite stands on why four completely different suspects were the "true" guilty party. On final analysis, what I really like about "Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood" is that Mann brings out all the suspects, gives all the reasons they would/could/should have done it - and all the reasons they couldn't have done it. He doesn't pretend to have a crystal ball and is able to solve a hundred year old murder case and call it a day.

Often, true crime books are remarkably dry and not very fun reading. This books is fun. Because of the cast of characters, there is room for lots of juicy Hollywood(land) gossip about the people involved and those who traveled in their individual circles. It almost reads like a novel - there is a chronological organization to the book that makes it seem like a story. Which is not to say that it's not filled with the prerequisite police reports and coroner reports, etc. - only that it's written for the reading public and doesn't try to be a forensics class textbook.

There were twelve suspects whose names were given to the news media as serious contenders for arrest (none ever were). The chief suspects were:

Convicted forger, embezzler and serial army deserter, Edward F. Sands, who spoke with a feigned (and poor) Cockney accent and worked as Taylor's valet until 7 months before the murder. While Taylor was in Europe, Sands forged his name on checks and burglarized his home (leaving footprints from Taylor's bedroom window to his own lodgings above the garage). After the murder, he was never heard from again.

Henry Peavy, who replaced Sands as Taylor's valet wore flashy golf ensembles - but didn't own clubs or play golf. He had a criminal record, and just three days before the murder was arrested for "lewd and dissolute" behavior. He died in 1931 of syphilis related dementia.

Mabel Normand was a popular comedic actress and frequent costar with Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle. According to author Robert Giroux, Taylor was deeply in love with Normand, who had originally approached him for help in curing her cocaine dependency. Based upon Normand's subsequent statements to investigators, her repeated relapses were devastating for Taylor. According to Giroux, Taylor met with Federal prosecutors shortly before his death and offered to assist them in filing charges against Normand's cocaine suppliers. Giroux expresses a belief that Normand's suppliers learned of this meeting and hired a contract killer to assassinate the director. According to Giroux, Normand suspected the reasons for her lover's murder, but did not know the identity of the triggerman.

On the night of his murder, Normand left Taylor's bungalow at 7:45 pm in a happy mood, carrying a book he had given her as a loan. They blew kisses to each other as her limousine drove away. Normand was the last person known to have seen Taylor alive. The Los Angeles Police Department subjected Normand to a grueling interrogation, but ruled her out as a suspect. Most subsequent writers have done the same. However, Normand's career had already slowed and her reputation was tarnished by revelations of her addiction, which was seen as a moral failing. According to George Hopkins, who sat next to her at Taylor's funeral, Normand wept inconsolably throughout the ceremony.

Ultimately, Normand continued to make films throughout the 1920s. She died of tuberculosis on 23 February 1930. According to her friend and confidant Julia Brew, Normand asked near the end, "Julia, do you think they'll ever find out who killed Bill Taylor?"

Mary Miles Minter was a former child star and teen screen idol whose career had been guided by Taylor. Minter, who had grown up without a father, was only three years older than the daughter Taylor had abandoned in New York. Love letters from Minter were found in Taylor’s bungalow. Based upon these, the reporters alleged that a sexual relationship between the 49-year-old Taylor and 19-year-old Minter had started when she was 17. Robert Giroux and King Vidor, however, dispute this allegation. Citing Minter's own statements, both believed that her love for Taylor was unrequited. Taylor had often declined to see Minter and had described himself as too old for her.

However, facsimiles of Minter's passionate letters to Taylor were printed in newspapers, forever shattering her screen image as a modest and wholesome young girl. Minter was vilified in the press. She made four more films for Paramount, and when the studio failed to renew her contract, she received offers from many other producers. Never comfortable as an actress, Minter declined them all. In 1957, she married Brandon O. Hildebrandt, a wealthy Danish-American businessman. She died in wealthy obscurity in Santa Monica, California on 4 August 1984.

Charlotte Shelby was Minter’s mother. Like many "stage mothers" before and since, she has been described as consumed by wanton greed and manipulation over her daughter's career. Mary Miles Minter and her mother were bitterly divided by financial disputes and lawsuits for a time, but they later reconciled. Shelby's initial statements to police about the murder are still characterised as evasive and "obviously filled with lies" about both her daughter's relationship with Taylor and "other matters".

Perhaps the most compelling bit of circumstantial evidence was that Shelby allegedly owned a rare .38 calibre pistol and unusual bullets very similar to the kind which killed Taylor. After this later became public, she reportedly threw the pistol into a Louisiana bayou. Shelby knew the Los Angeles district attorney socially and spent years outside the United States in an effort to avoid official inquiries by his successor and press coverage related to the murder. In 1938 her other daughter, actress Margaret Shelby (who was by then suffering from both clinical depression and alcoholism), openly accused her mother of the murder during an argument. Shelby was widely suspected of the crime and was a favourite suspect of many writers. For example, Adela Rogers St. Johns speculated Shelby was torn by feelings of maternal protection for her daughter and her own attraction to Taylor. Although (like Sands) Shelby feared being tried for the murder, at least two Los Angeles county district attorneys publicly declined to prosecute her.Almost twenty years after the murder, Los Angeles district attorney Buron Fitts concluded there wasn't any evidence for an indictment of Shelby and recommended that the remaining evidence and case files be retained on a permanent basis (all of these materials subsequently disappeared). Shelby died in 1957.

And that's just the beginning of a long list of fascinating and shady/exotic characters that populate this story. Even William Desmond Taylor, the victim, had abandoned his family, changed his name, and went to Hollywood(land) to start a new life with a new identity.

I heartily recommend this book to anybody who is fascinated with cold-case unsolved murders, jazz-age Hollywood at it's nouveau riche gaudiest, or shady underworld characters and denizons of the sordid side of the movie business.

[Rama Rao · Rating 5 out of 5]

Murder mystery of Hollywood’s golden era

William J. Mann is a well-known Hollywood historian with many books to his credits. He has researched in this field widely and written several books about the role of gays and lesbians in Hollywood during golden era. In this book he focusses on the well-known murder mystery of director and actor Desmond Taylor during 1922 that has been discussed and opined upon by numerous authors, investigators and close associates of Taylor himself. This homicide has all the intrigues of a typical Hollywood film that makes the reading this book even more fun. The murder occurred around the time of another celebrity Roscoe Arbuckle who was on trial for the murder of a young actress named Virginia Rappe. A spate of newspaper-driven Hollywood scandals included the death of Olive Thomas, the mysterious death of Thomas H. Ince and the drug-related deaths of Wallace Reid, Barbara La Marr, and Jeanne Eagels was bad for the image of Hollywood studios which were struggling to establish themselves as the leading players in the world of movie industry. Studios were too powerful, Los Angeles Police Department was too corrupt and the newspapers were too scandalizing and in some cases fabricating the circumstances of murder. This did not help to solve the homicide and hence Tayler's case went cold. Several suspects were named in this mysterious killing, the leading names were Desmond Taylor's much younger girlfriend, Mary Miles Minter and her mother Charlotte Shelby. Shelby was the chief suspect for a long time. She was consumed by the greed and the career her daughter in a highly competitive world of movie business. Learning that Taylor had no interest in marrying her daughter or helping her career, Shelby took matters into her own hands. The most compelling evidence was her rare .38 caliber pistol with unusual bullets that were similar to the kind which killed Desmond Taylor. The author discusses in light of many recently acquired FBI files and police records. This is certainly a good book to read in light of author's own investigation but does little to solve this 1922 case where all witnesses have passed on. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Hollywood and murder mysteries of the golden era.

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think the butler did it so he could wear the pretty pink garment (which was never identified as a nightgown or robe or silk boxer shorts or..anything...). End of story. But my review: On page 111, Mann writes, "Snyder ended up in Los Angeles, that place of last resort for so many fugitives." Oh, really? On the same page, Mann puts 4 other statements in quotes and offers source information: "servant for life'' and "there never was a more devoted man serving another" and "defrocked priest" and "In every way possible." So the most sweeping statement on the page, that about Los Angeles and fugitives, isn't footnoted. And that makes everything else suspect. Later in the book Mann states that many people on the run hid out in Wyoming. Well, which is it? (I'd say both and anywhere and everywhere.) Yes, there is a murder. Yes, there are drugs. Yes, there is madness mainly in the form of power struggles and massive egos. But it's all so sloppy and repetitive. Mann keeps telling us that the murder victim had many secrets, but all we find out is what we're told early in the book: that he is gay and had a lover who was a set designer. IF the author had stuck with William Desmond Taylor's murder, this might have been a good book. But he throws in people who had NOTHING to do with Taylor or his murder, like Fatty Arbuckle, Adolph Zukor, Will Hays (developed the Hays code) and more. When Mann divides his Epilogue into 2 parts ("A Confession" and "What Happened to Everyone Else") he sums up the problem: "What Happened to Everyone Else" should have been omitted, starting at page 1. There is a good murder mystery here but unfortunately it takes up about 200 of 426 pages and it's all so muddled by page 400 or so a reader might not even care about the solution. But I liked the photos. I just finished a non-fiction book about Bette Davis and Joan Crawford and while it, too, is packed with EVERY SINGLE FACT the author could find, it's ONLY about Bette and Joan, thus making for a more interesting book.

[Dr. Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

This was a pretty interesting non-fiction story! It vibes really well with Wild Women and the Blues, so highly recommend reading these two together. Tinseltown is all about the start of movies in Hollywood, how they spread, changed and revolutionized the arts. One thing I didn't know was that a Jewish man was one of the big successful bosses of the movie industry. There are a lot of antisemitic sentiments and comments in this book from Hollywood while Adolph Zukor amasses his empire--so CW for my Jewish readers.

The politic machinations of this book were pretty interesting. I loved the friendly rivalry between Zukor and Lowe. However, this book was quite long, there were times where the book just went on and on and lost my interest for brief times. Some of the storylines kind of wandered away from the main murder plot, or barely seemed related. I will say that I didn't guess the real murderer.

[Badseedgirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. The author William Mann makes his theory sound like it is the end all answer to this mystery, but a little research shows there have been no less than four books specifically about this murder. Each giving its own theory. So I say again, Meh.

[ꕥ Ange_Lives_To_Read ꕥ · Rating 2 out of 5]

With such a great title I expected to be absorbed in a fascinating murder mystery, bathed in the glamour of the fledgling movie industry. This was a meticulously researched book, unfortunately it was also a boring, muddled mess. Neither the victim William Desmond Taylor, nor the murder itself, were all that interesting. In fact the description of the murder took up very little of the book.

The rest of the time was spent on the activities of every person Billy Taylor ever met, longwinded explanations of studio politics and movie distribution channels, attempts at censorship, etc. People who are obsessed with the William Desmond Taylor murder (according to the book, there are legions of them) may have found more to like here.

I listened to the audiobook in my car, and Christopher Lane is the only reason I made it through the whole thing (14 CDs.) He is the perfect narrator, his voice is soothing, cultured and delightful to listen to. I was so bored with the actual contents of the book that I sort of zoned out and just let his voice wash over me. Sometimes a particularly boring passage would penetrate my brain and I would shriek, "Who cares?!! What does this have to do with anything?!"

Finally in the very last chapter, the author presents his theory of the solution to the murder. My reaction was, "Okay." It wasn't really surprising and seemed believable enough. But it was impossible to prove and certainly not worth the time it took to get there.

[LibraryCin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

William Desmond Taylor was a silent movie director into the 1920s when he was murdered. His killer was never found, or at least, never tried or convicted. There were suspicions on who might have done it, but no arrests and nothing proven. This book looks at his murder, along with other Hollywood business practices, crimes, and scandals. There is some focus on Taylor’s friend and actress, Mabel Normand, as well as another young actress who was in love with him, Mary Miles Mintner, whose mother was very protective of Mary and didn’t like Taylor at all. There was also some focus on Adolf Zukor, who ran a number of (Famous Players) movie theatres, and his business practices.

I found the murder mystery part of this book interesting, but wasn’t as interested in the cut-throat business practices of Hollywood at the time, so I did lose focus at times. Overall, the murder story was enough to keep my rating at “good”. There are a number of photos included in the book, which was nice, as I don’t know and can’t picture most of the people mentioned (though I certainly recognized prominent names from Hollywood at the time!).

[Leslye❇ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tinseltown is a true crime book about the murder of actor-director William Desmond Taylor. This was a legendary crime that has remained unsolved (until now?). Mann brings to life Los Angeles in the "Roaring Twenties"...a town filled with party girls, drug dealers, religious zealots, and starlets already past their prime. The author makes a good case, and does capture the spirit of early Hollywood. It also tells how powerful and manipulative the movie studios were, which was definitely one of the stories here.

This is an interesting tale, and it starts out strong, but staggers to a finish. The book is very detailed- to the point where that could be it's weakness. It was just too long, and too digressive for my taste. Once the conclusion was obvious, let's just get on with it and finish! However, the depiction of early Hollywood is engaging. The author paints a good picture of how Hollywood, and our obsession with it, has not changed.

[Jammin Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was a really good and interesting story about the dawn of Hollywood and the murder of William Taylor. It centered around three silent film stars and the people they hung out with including some con-men that were probably responsible for the murder.

[Lindsay Underwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not finishing this one people. I don't like it. And quite frankly, I don't care. This book started out interesting and intriguing. Now I wish everyone was murdered instead of just the one guy.

[Beth Cato · Rating 5 out of 5]

In February 1922, director William Desmond Taylor was murdered in his home. Hollywood already suffered beneath a barrage of calls for censorship in the aftermath of the Fatty Arbuckle case, and Taylor's murder--followed by a frenzy of tabloid muckraking about the sex lives of Taylor and everyone around him--only exacerbated the woes of the fledgling industry. Despite the press attention on the crime, though, no one was ever prosecuted. Various theories emerged then and over the decades since. Author William J. Mann presents the Taylor case, explaining the circumstances around the suspects and convincingly argues who is truly guilty of the sensational crime.

And wow, does it make for an enthralling read. This is a nonfiction book full of passion and energy. It truly reads like a novel. Mann laced fantastic details throughout. He goes beyond the actual murder to explore the lives of three women in satellite around Taylor as well as film czar Will Hays and media mogul Adolph Zukor. I've been reading a lot of books set in this era of Hollywood, and this is one of my absolute favorites. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy the read, but I culled tons of notes to help me in my own writing.

[Anna Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who loves film history, and has more than a passing interest in the Silent Film Era, some of the names in this book weren't unfamiliar to me (Adolph Zukor, Mabel Normand, Marcus Loew, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Will Hays) - others I had never heard of until this book (William Desmond Taylor, Mary Miles Minter, Margaret "Gibby" Gibson). Considering I had never even heard of this murder/scandal except in passing when watching Kevin Brownlow's excellent documentary, "Hollywood: Pioneers," it sounded fascinating to me personally. It reads just like I want my non-fiction to: like a novel instead of a textbook. The scene is well set, with Mann traveling sixteen months back in time, to the events preceding the murder in the lives of those involved, and the other major players in Hollywood either affected by scandal (movie stars) or trying to avoid it (moguls). There is some especially interesting stuff about the pursuits of Adolph Zukor, the co-head of Famous Players-Lasky who eventually founded Paramount Pictures, to monopolize the profits of the industry. The view into the "boy's club" of the moguls, who were in competition often and didn't even like each other really, and the way they banded together against the censorship of the women's church groups and temperance unions was especially interesting to read about. The power plays to avoid the collapse of the movies based on censorship (and their considerable fortunes) eventually led to the moguls hiring government official Will Hays to be the voice of morality in the movies (really their way of circumventing the govt. actually)!

The chain of events leading to the murder leaves us with a few scenarios. Did teenaged actress Mary Miles Minter, practically delusional in her affections, kill Taylor? Or was it her raging stage mother, Charlotte Shelby, who had threatened Taylor on a few occasions, and who was known to become violently angry? Also in the pool of suspects, a former valet who had played fast and loose with Taylor's property and knew some of his secrets (including a secret family and possible male lover), another actress Mabel Normand (although not so much her as her former cocaine dealers), and Margaret "Gibby" Gibson, a former colleague of Taylor's who had fallen on hard times after an arrest in a brothel ruined her career, and in with a group of low-life, petty "bunco" thieves. We are given plenty of background on everyone, their interactions with Taylor, the evidence the police were going on, and all of them had reasons to committ the murder. But the investigation was doomed from the start. Before the house was even declared a crime scene, the body had been moved around, studio people had stolen all of Taylor's personal papers from upstairs and the D.A., a possible lover of Shelby's, protected her & Mary from questioning, tampered with the evidence in lockup (lots of it disappearing). Shelby's mother disposed of her gun, possibly a murder weapon, before the police could get ahold of it. None of the people in this book led happy lives, most of them being semi-tragic to completely tragic figures of film history.

I will not spoil the conclusion that Mann comes to, suffice it to say that I think it is kind of a convenient leap, but at the same time it makes sense. Also, the deathbed "confession" would make no sense as a false one. The person had absolutely NOTHING to gain from it at that point in time! All the connections are there, whereas the evidence for the popular favorite suspect doesn't quite add up the way it should, if it were the correct answer to the question (at least the way the evidence is presented). I will agree with other readers that the over-stressing of Zukor's short stature, megalomania, and absolute base lack of any human emotion (according to Mann anyway, from what I can tell) did get overused and annoying. It did diminish my enjoyment of the narrative at several points. It became redundant. Althought the juxtaposition of Zukor with his rival Loew, and even Will Hays when it came to dealing with the scandals, Arbuckle's ongoing trials especially, was an intriguing piece of psychology. I also think that Desmond Taylor could have been more fleshed out, even if that meant sacrificing some of the side-narrative. I didn't feel like I really knew him, even by the time the end of the book rolled around. All in all, a highly enjoyable read that will not necessarily leave you with the answers promised in the blurb. But I had such a darn interesting time I didn't really care. Besides with all the tampering and how many years have passed, it's probably unsolvable at this point, at least with true evidentiary certainty of any kind. On a side note, now I want to read more from Mann, at least one biography on Mabel Normand, and one on Fatty Arbuckle! I also need to get ahold of a non-review copy of this to look at the pictures! Recommended for fellow lovers of true crime and the REAL Old Hollywood (before the talkies). :D

VERDICT: 4/5 Stars

*I received this book from Harper Collins, on Edelweiss. No favors or money were exchanged for this review. This book was published on October 14th, 2014.*

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure about the author's conclusion as to who committed the murder, but this was a fascinating read.

[celine]

not feeling the murder mystery when, more than halfway in, said murder has yet to take place

[Katherine Addison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book about the murder of William Desmond Taylor was solidly on track for "quite good," which is my 4-star rating, until the epilogue, wherein Mann veers off into wild speculation, promoting a theory that COULD be true, but is based on (1) eyewitness testimony, (2) the dying confession, 40 years later, of a woman who may not have been entirely sane, (3) a VERY STRETCHY hypothesis about the ammunition used.

None of this is evidence any better than that for the primary suspect, and frankly, while the scenario he constructs is plausible enough, it has the kind of plausibility I expect in detective fiction , not in real life. It could be true, but there's absolutely NOTHING that persuades me that it is.

Otherwise, this book was quite good. Mann examines the (still unsolved) murder of William Desmond Taylor in 1922 through the lives and careers of three women: Mabel Normand, Mary Miles Minter, and Margaret Gibson (a.k.a. Patricia Palmer). Mabel was probably Taylor's best friend, Mary had a crush on him the size of Gibraltar, and Margaret (Mann claims) was responsible for his death. It's also a book about Adolph Zukor and Will Hays and Hollywood between 1920 and 1924, so the Arbuckle scandal is loomingly present (Mann thinks Arbuckle was innocent of wrong-doing, but the excellent Room 1219: The Life of Fatty Arbuckle, the Mysterious Death of Virginia Rappe, and the Scandal That Changed Hollywood has a much more nuanced take). I'm interested in early Hollywood, so found the details of the lives of directors, ingenues, comediennes, and failures fascinating, but in retrospect, it's really NOT a book about William Desmond Taylor's murder, even though that's the event it's (more or less) organized around. At this distance, with the evidence lost, stolen, or destroyed, we're not GOING to solve Taylor's murder; I certainly don't think Mann's elaborate scheme is the answer.

(I could be wrong.)

So if you want a long, in-depth discussion of early Hollywood, this is a fine book. If you want any of the other things this book might have been, not so much.

[Russell Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

The whimsical vintage cover design of William J. Mann’s Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood is cleverly inviting and promises a rollicking good tale of greed and all those other things listed in the sub-title. Mann’s book draws you into its clutches and refuses to let go. A book of this length (424 pages) usually takes me a week or more to read, as I confine my reading to bedtime. But I could not let go of Tinseltown. I found myself stealing time during my day to pick up the book once again and get mesmerized by the murder of director William Desmond Taylor and all the intrigue surrounding it. But this is not only a story of murder; it is a portrait of the Hollywood scene in the 1920s, when much of the country was lawless, and the movie capital was in its infancy, feeling it oats, paying (as it has continued to do) enormous salaries to its stars, which they spent lavishly on furs, cars, prohibited-by-law booze, and a veritable smorgasbord of drugs. In my time, I’ve devoured many, many biographies and histories of Movieland, telling of its beginnings to the present. Never have I read anything as exhaustively researched as Mann’s book, nor have I been as satisfied with the myriad of details given and the conclusions made. Mann grips the reader from the first page, and, weaving a tale of three luscious young movie stars, two or three scandals, lots of blackmail, plenty of ambition and one murder, he never lets you go until he sums it all up with updates on every “character” in the book. I say character, not because they are fictional, but because these very real people are “characters” in the sense that they always give you the unexpected, fly through life with loose morals, and live recklessly, but colorfully. Never have I enjoyed a Hollywood book as much. William J. Mann, with Tinseltown, has proven himself to be a marvel.

[Samantha Glasser]

The author goes on long flowery tangents to pad the writing. There are lots of facts but he spends a lot of time trying to build atmosphere as in fiction writing. If you are somewhat unfamiliar with Hollywood at this time, the excess may be helpful, but as this is the third book I've read on the William Desmond Taylor murder, I find it to be aggravating.