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

Summary (from the publisher): The Day of the Locust meets The Devil in the White City and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil in this juicy, untold Hollywood story: 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.

 

Review: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this book from HarperCollins.

 

Told in the style of The Devil in the White City, and countless other recently written non-fiction tales of the sensational and the gripping, this novel details the unsolved murder of William Desmond Taylor, president of the Motion Picture Directors Association in 1922, by focusing on three young actresses who were all linked to Taylor in different ways. These include his good friend, the actress Mabel Normand, the young star who believed herself to be in love with him, Mary Miles Minter, and an actress down on her luck, reduced to blackmail schemes, Margaret "Gibby" Gibson.

 

The murder of Taylor itself was a fairly cut and dry event. Someone shot Taylor at point blank range in his home. His valet discovered the body the next morning. However, in the period before DNA evidence and in the absence of stringent crime scene protocols and investigations, his murderer was never identified.

 

In addition to covering the details of the murder, Mann does an excellent job of setting the scene, and portraying the world of the early film industry. The individuals in this book are historic in that they were part of an industry whose rules were just being written. For instance, Mabel was so early to the film scene that some of her earliest work was posing for advertisements holding "a strangely shaped glass bottle of a fizzy new drink called Coca-Cola" (45). The film industry was so new that its future scope, and the regulation of what it could and could not do, was still very much up for debate. I found it interesting learning more about this early period in movies. For instance, Los Angeles grew in prominence for the industry for the simple fact that, "before the invention of high-intensity arc lamps, movies had to be shot in the open air or in studios with retractable roofs. So the moviemakers had come west in search of light during the dreary eastern winter months. Eventually many of them settled down, opening storefront studios in the land of the eternal sun" (19).

 

In many ways, its no wonder that Taylor's murderer was never apprehended. In addition to the primitive crime detection of the period, the individuals involved in the film industry were masters of subterfuge and deception. Nearly every major character in this account went by multiple names. In fact, William Desmond Taylor's real name was actually William Deane-Tanner. Mary Miles Minter was actually born Juliet, but took over a dead cousin's identity because she was initially below the legal age to star in productions. Gibby Gibson was trying to launch a new career under the name Patricia Palmer after being scandalously caught in a brothel ruined her career.

 

In general, I really enjoyed this book, especially learning more about the history of the film industry, and found it a quick read. However, I did feel that at times the author spent copious time on relatively extraneous details. For example, the early film giant Adolph Zukor figures prominently in the book, even though his involvement is limited to working hard to keep the film industry from being heavily regulated and keeping film scandals to a minimum in the press. I think including Zukor and an overview of the history of the battle over film regulation with William Hayes was interesting, but not necessarily pivotal for Taylor's murder.

 

Additionally, the author categorically identifies the killer. Although this is based on extensive research, true confessions, and confirming details of the actual crime scene, the killer was never confirmed by police officials or convicted in any court of law. In light of the status in the judicial system, I was surprised by Mann's definitive pronouncement that the mystery had finally been solved. On the other hand, he doesn't specify all sources, so maybe he has reason to be as confident as he seems.

 

This was a compelling work of non-fiction that combines fascinating history with scintillating details of sex, drugs, fame, and murder.

 

Stars: 4