Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-02-14
Death of Director Taylor Is
Likely to Remain UnsoIved
Mystery-Effort to Clear
Stars Likely
BY SAMUEL WHITE
(Leased Wire Service to The Journal.)
(CODyright 1927

SAMUEL w
(Leased Wire Service to The Journal.)
Copyright, 1929
LOS ANGELES, Cal, Feb. Ii
Will II. Hays, now postmaster gen.
eral, but soon to become the supreme
arbiter of the film, has announced
his purpose of coming to Hollywood
to spend a month in the film colony
studying the lives and the morals
of the motion picture folk. Even
before the battling murder of Will
liam Desmond Taylor toppled some
more movie idols from their place on
the beautifully ornamented shelf of
responsibility so carefully set up
and maintained by the picture pro-
ducers, Mr.. Hays is said to have had
a plan for transferring the movie
colony to Long island. There, in a
new environment, and with a great
community church (Mr. Hays is an
elder as the axis about witch the
life of the colony would revolve,
the actors and actresses would be eX-
pected to lead normal and respecta-
BILE lives just like the workers in any
other industry who have been colon
lied with good effect.
If Mr.. Hays has any such plan in
mind now, it's first meaning is that
he is new to the motion picture
world and has much to learn.
The movies for many reasons will
remain in Hollywood and the movies
| would continue to be the movies
whether they were located in Long
island, the Cape of Good Hope or
GrooT1on6'c
The men at the head of the indus
try-those most Influential in bring
! ing Mr.. Hays into it-have taken
the liberty of denying at long range
that he has any such idea in his
head as the obliteration of the Holly
wood colony. If Mr.. Hays did per-
NIT the impression to get abroad
that he cherished such a plan, they
have denied it for him and there the
matter will end.
Favorable Conditions
The movies are made in and about
Los Angeles because it is claimed
that in no other part of the coun-
try, or even the world, are conditions
of light and climate and scenery so
favorable. The motion picture
colony is in Hollywood because the
pictures are made in the studios
| there. The studios will remain in
Hollywood, and so will the picture
folk.
The men now in command of max
ing and distributing the pictures are
not worrying greatly about the scan
dalS that have grown out of the
murder of Taylor except as thew
may affect their property interests
the money they have invested in the
pictures of Mary Miles Minter and
Mabel Normand and the earning
power of these stars of the screens
in productions already made or con
tracts entered into.
Since the Arbuckle case and the
many divorce scandals involving the
picture stars began to threaten the
popularity of the industry hundreds
of thousands of dollars have been
spent in propaganda to show that
those stars always, nearly always
reposed on that beautifully orna-
mented and frosted shelf of respecta-
bility which is now. so nearly de-
populated that it might be used as
a practical "set" for mother hub
bard's cupboard.
Motion picture colony in Holly
wood is just where it was when the
commissions which have attracted
such wide attention began. And
! there it will remain until what ap-
pears to be an immutable law of self
and sex is destroyed by the coming
of another generation and another
| era in the making of plays for the
| screen.
Of the murder of Taylor there is
little to be said except that it bids
fOi IN toll ifc. 1o1n h.
crimes of mystery that tame fiction
in its useless striving against the
strangeness and fascination of truth
I 1t has furnished the nine days won.
! der without which Hollywood would
be tame and uninteresting, and which
is the breadth of life to the nontrils
! of its bizarre colony of movie folk
[ II has revealed unsupported chap.
| tiers in the life of the victim of the
asSassin's bullet, that his career was
| one of unusual adventure and ro
nance, and that he was beloved
| many women. From these facts the
! trained investigator is able to build
up his theories, but up to the present
| time is without a real, tangible clew
| which in any way suggests the iden-
tity of the person who fired the shot
in the night that brought Bill Tay'
| Ior to the end of the trail.
\ Love Crime
The generally accepted theory is
that the Staying of Taylor was a love
| crime, which is to say that in this
! particular crime such a theory is
! little better than a blind lead. The
fact that several young women
prominent in the motion picture
| world are known to have had more
| than q passing affection for this
! man, whose age must have been
wei past the half century mark anC
! that each one of these motion pic
! ture actresses had her admirers
/ known and unknown, who may have
! been inspired by jealousy, and that
| they are known to have quarreled
| with him about his attention tC
| others, leads into a love labyrinth
| that makes a solution of the crime
an almost hopeless task of detective
! cunning and utterly blanks the proc.
cess of elimination by which sc
ess of elimination by which sc
solution.
Letters of Mary Miles Minter to
William Desmond Taylor were found
among his effects. One has been
| published in facsimile. 1t was
enough. Others probably will soon
see the light of day. A dainty hand
1 L. toll NJ