A Mysterious Question

[OscarGuy]

Ok. I'm planning to set the event around the William Desmond Taylor murder.

I need to have a better idea of who were the popular stars at the time and who were the up-and-comers?

I have Tom Mix on my list to include so that I can bring in the teenage John Wayne for a friend of mine. I have John Ford and Carl Laemmle as possibilities of stars to appear and I have an interesting idea to include Will H. Hays.

Please feel free to give me suggestions. It's going to be hard to convey some elements since most of the people involved will be film neophytes, so better known names that might have name recognition to future generations would help.


Thanks, all.

[OscarGuy]

Established stars and neophytes mingling would be the kind of "party" my event could take place during.

What I'm looking for is an actress who, at the time, was a virtual nobody whose death and replacement by another actress would have gone mostly unnoticed. I was thinking the likes of Bette Davis. Sure, she didn't make her first film until 1931 and was mostly a stage actress in New York up to that point, but whose to say that some ingenue of another name who was going to take the moniker Bette Davis were to end up dead at one of these parties and, in order to cover up the ordeal, she were replaced by another who would take on that name.

Pickfair sounds like a decent place, but I'm sure there were producers and others in Hollywood who had even medium-sized English Manor-style estates at the time? And John Wayne was a bit player at that time and might have arrived on the arm of another more important start. After all, as I understand it, Wayne was quite the ladies man and had a number of affairs during his youth in Hollywood.

I want to populate the story with a few important Hollywood players and some recognizable up-and-comers.

[Big Magilla]

Perhaps not socially, but they might have bumped into each other on the Fox lot. Perhaps even been introduced by John Wayne.

I think you mean John Ford. But Gaynor was already a star, and Wayne was not in the 20s. I'm not sure he even met Ford until 1930. However, let the imagination run rampant.

[rain Bard]

Perhaps not socially, but they might have bumped into each other on the Fox lot. Perhaps even been introduced by John Wayne.

Pickfair (Mary Pickford and Doug Fairbanks' estate) was certainly the most famous Hollywood mansion of the twenties. I don't know if it had a reputation for being terribly sordid, but there were certainly great parties held, and an invitation there was highly sought after. By 1927 there were already cracks in the Doug/Mary marriage (rumors of Fairbanks and Lupe Velez dallying on the set of The Gaucho while Mary was filming My Best Girl with her own next husband Buddy Rogers.

[Big Magilla]

I don't think John Wayne and Janet Gaynor traveled in the same circles.

[OscarGuy]

While the Christie case would be most interesting, it takes place in England. I'm planning to set mine in the Hollywood area.

Another question: who during that period would have had a grand estate where frequent parties might have been held? I'm not thinking something as bizarre as in La Dolce Vita, but soirees that might have included some somewhat sordid goings on kept on the qt. Would love someone who had parties that included the likes of John Wayne, Janet Gaynor, etc.

[Big Magilla]

Then of course there's Agatha Christie's mysterious eleven day disappearance in 1926.

[Mister Tee]

No one appears to have mentioned it, but there are at least two books on the Taylor murder. The first, A Cast of Killers, was written by a guy who had access to King Vidor's archives, and found voluminous material on it, and even Vidor's theory on who committed the murder. I don't know if the book's still in print; I have a copy of it.

Then, a few years later, some other writer came out with a book claiming someone else was responsible. Can't remember the details; by then I'd tired of the subject.

[rain Bard]

It sounds like you've got some specific requirements for this party that you aren't revealing to us, which is why it needs to be set in 1926-8. Your comment on "stopping work on sound-on-film" is intriguingly vague.

I don't know if it helps to know that the William Desmond Taylor was still very much in the papers at that time. That case immediately came to my mind upon reading your question as well; it seems like ideal fodder for a murder mystery party of some sort. (and makes me want to try to host one myself sometime). The perfect mixture of glamour, sordidness, and mystery. King Vidor and Colleen Moore became obsessed with the crime for decades (understandably since they were part of the Hollywood world at that time). Kimberly Peirce (who wasn't, obviously) became obsessed too at some point between Boys Don't Cry and Stop-Loss, and was going to make a movie about the case. Apparently she has her own theory on the murder that she hasn't revealed publicly yet, as she's still hoping the film might get made.

Here's an interesting video putting faces to some of the names involved: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0azKQDdWME

If this mysterious crime MUST have been committed in the date range you ask for, you might try the Aimee Semple MacPherson kidnapping: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki....napping Also she was heard from again, so it may be disquailified on that count.



Edited By rain Bard on 1299434587

[OscarGuy]

I'm also ok with other items besides just murders. the Black Dahlia and George Reeves (funny, they never listed his name in that section) as well as the Thelma Todd one happen to late. I'm looking at something around 1926/27/28 if possible. I could probably work with the 1922 if I parlay his death into some reason for them stopping working on sound-on-film for awhile...

And I don't just have to have known murders. People disappearing to never be heard from again work. I could easily use someone who changed their name in that period as a reference point...maybe they were assuming someone else's identity or the like.

[Big Magilla]

Also Paul Bern in 1932.

Writer-director Bern, 42, was found shot in his bathroom two months after marrying Jean Harlow. Although the death was officially ruled a homicide there has always been speculation that he had been murdered, quite possibly by someone at MGM in order to protect Harlow.

[Mike Kelly]

The previous two mentioned plus two others are outlined here: http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... tml?cat=37

There's also Thomas H. Ince's murder covered in The Cat's Meow, and the Lindburg kidnapping and murder reworked in Murder on the Orient Express.

[dws1982]

William Desmond Taylor. Murdered in 1922, and the crime has never been solved even though there were lots of suspects. Don't know of any supernatural elements, but it has a lot of traditional Hollywood scandal elements: Young starlets, stage mothers, drug dealers.



Edited By dws1982 on 1299337609

[Sonic Youth]

Thelma Todd comes to mind.

[OscarGuy]

I am planning a Host Your Own Murder type mystery thing for friends and I was hoping to theme it around the late silent, early sound era, but am admittedly unfamiliar with the data I need for this.

Were there any mysterious deaths, disappearances, disturbances or occurrences during that period? An event or crime that was never solved?

Or, if nothing meets that kind of criteria, were there any silents with that kind of feel?

It should have the ability to carry some spookiness or supernatural influence if at all possible, but I'll take whatever I can get at this point.