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* T A Y L O R O L O G Y *
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* A Continuing Exploration of the Life and Death of William Desmond Taylor *
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* *
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* Issue 29 -- May 1995 Editor: Bruce Long bruce@asu.edu *
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* TAYLOROLOGY may be freely distributed *
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CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:
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Taylor's "Lost Years" -- 1908-1912
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Wallace Smith: February 25, 1922
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What is TAYLOROLOGY?
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TAYLOROLOGY is a newsletter focusing on the life and death of William Desmond
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Taylor, a top Paramount film director in early Hollywood who was shot to
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death on February 1, 1922. His unsolved murder was one of Hollywood's major
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scandals. This newsletter will deal with: (a) The facts of Taylor's life;
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(b) The facts and rumors of Taylor's murder; (c) The impact of the Taylor
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murder on Hollywood and the nation; (d) Taylor's associates and the Hollywood
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silent film industry in which Taylor worked. Primary emphasis will be given
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toward reprinting, referencing and analyzing source material, and sifting it
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for accuracy.
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Taylor's "Lost Years" -- 1908-1912
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William Desmond Taylor deserted his wife and child in October 1908 in New
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York; he obtained his first film industry job in December 1912 in Southern
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California. Where was he during those intervening years? In Sidney
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Sutherland's 1929 recap of the Taylor case (see TAYLOROLOGY #16) it is stated
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that there is no definite data for Taylor's whereabouts during that time. On
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the contrary, there is considerable specific data, although some gaps remain.
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The following items provide some information on Taylor's whereabouts and
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activities during that time.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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Taylor in Dawson, Yukon Territory
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February 11, 1922
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LOS ANGELES TIMES
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Dawson, Feb. 10--Careful inquiry here indicates that William Desmond
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Taylor, the murdered director, did not arrive in Dawson until 1908 or 1909,
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ten years after the big rush to the Klondike. He was here as a timekeeper for
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the Yukon Gold Company until November 1912, on dredge and hydraulic
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operation...His application with the Yukon Gold Company, filed here May 25,
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1909, shows him to have been an Englishman, then 35 years of age, said he had
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worked for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway during the construction of the
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Skeena River division and gave as reference Manager MacKinnon of the Canadian
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Pacific and the Sulphide Pulp Company of Swanson Bay, British Columbia.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 8, 1922
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LOS ANGELES TIMES
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Dawson City, Feb. 7.--Records of the Yukon Gold Company indicate that
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William Desmond Taylor, motion-picture director who was found dead with a
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bullet wound in his neck [sic] in Los Angeles recently, added to his
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multifarious lists of trades during his sojourn in the Yukon. In Dawson he
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worked as timekeeper and commissary clerk from 1908 to 1913 [sic]. He is
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remembered as an efficient commissary clerk in several creek stations of the
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Yukon Gold Company.
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At Claim Seventy-six "below" on Bonanza creek, he is referred to as a
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record-breaker in holding down grub allowances. He rode horseback for pastime
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and wrote short stories, which were published, it was said, in outside
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magazines. It is believed that he originally came from England. In the four-
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year period mentioned, he was absent from the Yukon one winter when he went to
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Honolulu with a theatrical company.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 5, 1922
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SANTA BARBARA PRESS
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During most of the time after he disappeared from his home in New York in
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1908 and until he went to work for a motion picture company in Los Angeles in
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1912 or 1913, William Desmond Taylor, slain motion picture director, was
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working in the Yukon as an associate of George Morrison, Santa Barbara city
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engineer.
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Taylor, or Tanner, came to San Francisco from New York early in 1909,
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Mr. Morrison said last night, and there was engaged by the Yukon Gold company,
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a Guggenheim corporation, as a timekeeper for one of its Yukon mines. He
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arrived in Dawson, Y.T., in March 1909, and there formed an acquaintance with
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Mr. Morrison which lasted until Taylor left in 1912. Mr. Morrison was
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employed by the same company as hydraulic engineer and Taylor made something
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of a confidant of him. He told Mr. Morrison that Taylor was an assumed name
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and that he had left New York because of an overwhelming burden of debt he had
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contracted while an art dealer in New York. Mrs. Potter Palmer, Chicago
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society leader, he told Mr. Morrison, was his principal backer.
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When Mr. Taylor came here in the employ of the American Film company the
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acquaintance formed in the Yukon was renewed, Mr. Morrison said, and there is
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no doubt in his mind that his friend in the Yukon and William Desmond Taylor
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of motion picture fame were the same man.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 8, 1922
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LOS ANGELES TIMES
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William D. Taylor, slain film director, was the dude of Dawson City,
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according to Adelbert Bartlett of Santa Monica, who knew him in Alaska [sic]
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in 1910.
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He wore tweeds, a soft crush hat, tasteful haberdashery, and was
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immensely popular with the women. He played crack tennis, was a card expert
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and attended most of the big functions in a dress suit, one of the few dress
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suits in the town.
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At that time Mr. Taylor was timekeeper for the Yukon Gold Company at $175
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a month.
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"Mr. Taylor gave me the impression of a man on a mysterious mission. At
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times he would obscure himself and nobody would know where he was and then
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again, he would embark on the heights of sociability. All of the women were
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interested in him. The country was more or less unconventional and he was
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frequently the escort of married women. In a perfectly proper way, of course.
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"There was one case in particular, however, that impressed me at the time
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as liable to lead to trouble. Every morning at 10 o'clock he would have a
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tete-a-tete over the telephone with a woman. One woman was the wife of a high
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employee of the company, and there was some gossip.
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"I used to wonder why a man of his personality and culture should spend
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his time there at such meager pay and the fact that he was always somewhat
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mysterious enhanced this question.
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"He was thoroughly familiar with the Yukon Territory and I understood
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that he had been there in 1898 and 1899. He used to show me many places of
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interest. Robert W. Service, the poet, Mr. Taylor and myself have played
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together.
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"Mr. Taylor was rather a quiet fellow, but always an outstanding figure.
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He attended the society affairs given by the Governor of the Territory and by
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the local celebrities and made himself generally agreeable, too.
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"Lots of us guessed that he was a typical English remittance man. If
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Mr. Taylor was murdered because of any of his actions up there in the Klondike
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the grudge must have been harbored for a long time."
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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Taylor in Bellingham, Washington
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February 3, 1922
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BELLINGHAM HERALD
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William Desmond Taylor, prominent moving picture director who was shot
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and killed under mysterious circumstances a Los Angeles Wednesday night or
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early Thursday morning, will be remembered by patrons of Beck's theater who
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attended the plays produced by the Beck's theater stock company early in the
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winter of 1909. The company was organized by Mrs. S.M. Bruce, who was in
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charge of the theater for a season, and staged several plays here which proved
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to be of exceptional popularity among Bellingham theatergoers.
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Mr. Taylor, who is described by Mrs. Bruce as "a splendid chap to work
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with and to work for," well bred, well educated and of charming personality,
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took the leading parts in some of the stock plays. Although he was not here
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in time to appear in the opening play, "Are You a Mason?" he took the part of
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Don Jose in "Carmen" and also took the lead in Clyde Fitch's "Climbers," as
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well as other production. Victory Bateman was the leading lady and Sedley
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Brown, whose wife is now prominent in character parts in moving pictures, was
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the director. Mr. Taylor came here from Vancouver, B.C., at Mrs. Bruce's
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request and made many friends among local people during his stay in the city.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 8, 1922
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BELLINGHAM HERALD
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It was just twelve years ago last week that William Desmond Taylor, slain
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moving picture director of Los Angeles, closed a stock company engagement in
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Seattle. This is the statement contained in a letter received by Mrs. S. M.
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Bruce, of this city, from her daughter, Mrs. George C. Murphy, known
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professionally as Olive Adair.
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Taylor, known to his friends and the profession as "Bill," was in stock
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company in Bellingham during the early part of 1910--or during part of the
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period following his mysterious disappearance at New York.
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"You know how spooky he always was," the letter to Mrs. Bruce said. "He
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was well liked professionally, but he had few intimates. I have frequently
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spoken to him about the old times in Bellingham and Seattle."
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Olive Adair, then Miss Olive Adair Leonard, was a member of the original
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Beck Theater Stock company, organized here when the old Beck theater was under
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the management of Mr. and Mrs. Bruce. She went with the company to Seattle
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and after a time went into moving pictures. In her letter she said that she
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had appeared in two pictures recently produced by Taylor. Incidentally she
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mentioned the fact that Victory Bateman, who also was a member of the Beck
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Theater Stock company here in 1910, is also in moving pictures at Hollywood.
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Taylor was well liked during his stay here. He appeared to be a
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polished, affable sort of man who made friends of those with whom he worked.
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...Olive Adair played in the stock company, that being her first
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professional work on the stage. The stock company was organized for her
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benefit. She has been in Los Angeles since 1914 and from time to time has
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mentioned Taylor in her letters to Mr. and Mrs. Bruce.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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January 2, 1910
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BELLINGHAM HERALD
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The Beck theater announces with a great deal of pride the fact that it
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has secured one of the handsomest and most talented leading men in the
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profession in the person of William D. Taylor, who will join the company in
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that capacity next Tuesday, to begin rehearsals of "Sowing the Wind," in which
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play he will take the superb role of Brabazon, which is one of the most
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sensationally beautiful parts ever written for a leading man.
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In "Sowing the Wind," a powerful play from the pen of Sydney Grundy, no
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leading man could ask for a better introduction to his clientele than is
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offered in the role of Brabazon. It is powerful in every way and in Mr.
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Taylor the new stock company is fortunate indeed to find a man of heroic
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appearance and splendid intellectual capacity, bully capable of doing justice
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to this magnificent character.
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Mr. Taylor has a splendid record in the profession. He was with Charles
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Hawtrey, the celebrated English actor, in "The Private Secretary," which
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duplicated in England the phenomenal success that characterized Gillette's
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appearance in the same piece in America. Mr. Taylor accompanied Hawtrey
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throughout his entire English tour, appearing with equal success in London and
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the Provinces. He was for many seasons in classic drama with Fanny Davenport,
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appearing with her in "Gismonda," "Cleopatra," "Fedora," "La Tosca" and "Joan
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of Arc," playing juveniles and characters in all of these productions, and
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understudying Melbourne McDowell as leading man. He has played in "La Tosca"
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the different roles of Angelotte, Mario, Cavaradossi and Scarpio; Louis
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Ispanoff in "Fedora," Marc Antony in "Cleopatra" and similar roles. He was
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selected by Miss Davenport to be her special agent in the preparation of her
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renowned production of "Joan of Arc." Miss Davenport sent Mr. Taylor to
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Paris, where he was put in charge of the selection of all the armor and
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similar accoutrements used in "Joan of Arc." He was for several seasons
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leading man with the Castle Square Stock company in Boston, and played leading
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business in such standard attractions as "Butterflies," "Men and Women," "The
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Great Ruby," "The Charity Ball," "Trilby," etc. He was engaged by Daniel
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Frohman to play Morgan's part in "Trelawney of the Wells," and he played with
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Arthur Elliott in stock in Australia, as well as in English melodrama from the
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Adelphi.
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Mr. Taylor is a man of commanding appearance and charming manner, finely
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educated and of excellent English parentage. He has traveled the world over,
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and carries with him the air of a man who knows life in all its phases.
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Beck's theater presents Mr. Taylor to Bellingham as Brabazon in "Sowing
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the Wind," and in all his later work with ever confidence that he will at once
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take and maintain an enviable position in public esteem.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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January 9, 1910
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BELLINGHAM HERALD
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William D. Taylor, new leading man with the Beck Stock company, tells the
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following story on himself:
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"One night during an engagement with Miss Davenport at the Baldwin
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theater, in San Francisco, I went in company with some friends to the Palace
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hotel for supper after the performance. We chanced to be seated at a table
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diagonally across the room from a table occupied by a stag party, the members
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of which had evidently been supping, not wisely, but--very well. For some
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reason one extreme attracted their attention and in the next few minutes we
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overheard several remarks which annoyed us exceedingly.
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"I was on the point of calling the head waiter to expostulate when I
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happened to hear one of their number, a big, blustering fellow, make a
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particularly insulting remark. Involuntarily I jumped to my feed, realizing
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almost immediately the mistake I had made, as there were several ladies in our
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party. Just as quickly my ponderous friend started across the room, while I
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stood there in a quandary.
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"To my utter astonishment, when within about ten feet of he, he suddenly
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stopped short, stared at me a few seconds, then wheeled and left the
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restaurant precipitately. Of course I sat down, vastly relieved, the more so
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as there were no more remarks from the stag party. Shortly afterwards, I
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heard their waiter say to ours in passing: 'Say, that's Jimmie Corbett
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you're waiting on.' I had been mistaken for the redoubtable 'Gentleman Jim,'
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who at that time was in the zenith of his glory." [1]
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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January 11, 1910
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BELLINGHAM HERALD
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Not since Mrs. Patrick Campbell gave her renowned performance of "The
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Second Mrs. Tanqueray" three seasons ago, has the stage of Beck's theater been
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the scene of such fine acting as Miss Victory Bateman offered the patrons of
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that house last night in the superb production of Sydney Grundy's masterpiece,
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"Sowing the Wind," the play selected for the stock company bill of the current
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week. It was a triumph of old for Miss Bateman, whose brilliant career long
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ago accustomed her to the deepest demands and the highest awards of the art of
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emotion depiction. This woman is an artist in every sense of the word and
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worthy of the appreciation of any discriminating public. She did what she
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willed with the audience at Beck's last night and reached a height in the
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climax of the great "Sex Against Sex" scene that has not been approached in
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this city in years.
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...The story of "Sowing the Wind" is sweet and appealing. It held the
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audience bound to its thrill and left them happy and satisfied at its close.
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Its sweetness is like a benediction and its power and purpose challenge the
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best in everyone. It is the kind of play one never forgets. Its lines live
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and grow in the memory like some hardy and sweet-scented perennial. There are
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not enough plays like "Sowing the Wind" seen nowadays. "Sowing the Wind" has
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always been considered too high-class for the West, but its reception at
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Beck's last night proved that idea to be a mistake. It is a splendid play
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done in splendid style, with fine attention to detail that becomes more and
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more prominent in the Beck production.
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The company is much stronger in "Sowing the Wind" than in any previous
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play since they opened and gave a very even and artistic performance. Mr.
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William D. Taylor, the new leading man, appeared in the dominant but kindly
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role of Brabazon and gives promise of becoming an interesting and pleasing
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member of the stock company, though he was the last to be added to it...
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"Sowing the Wind" will run all week without interruption and be followed
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on Sunday night by a big spectacular production of "Held by the Enemy," the
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play that made William Gillette famous.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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January 17, 1910
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BELLINGHAM HERALD
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Another success was added to the increasing list of the Beck Stock company
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in the presentation Sunday afternoon and evening of "Held by the Enemy," the
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big Gillette war drama, which drew a large house to the evening performance
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and scored heavily. Frederick Warde, the distinguished tragedian, who was
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passing through the city and witnessed the play, expressed warm admiration for
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the company and complimented the theater management upon the quality of
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production and ability of the players.
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That the Beck Stock company is becoming solidly recognized in Bellingham
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is proven by the steadily increasing patronage. The receipts last night were
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three times as large as those of any preceding Sunday since the season opened,
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and were second only to the Christmas receipts.
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The exciting realism of "Held by the Enemy" stirred the house to
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enthusiasm, while the dainty comedy furnished by Philip Sheffied and Olive
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Adair, in their respective roles of the magazine artist and Susan, kept
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everybody laughing and made the hit of the piece. The vivid spectacular
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features of "Held by the Enemy," its intense atmosphere of personal danger,
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the fascination of thrilling and unexpected dramatic moments, the tender
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appeal of love and the stern demands of duty, the opposition of affection and
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patriotism in both Northern and Southern hearts, the pathetic struggle of the
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women of the South to protect their lives, loves and homes during the terrible
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period of the early 1860s when the Civil war directed its grim engines of
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destruction through their plantations and their pride alike, are thrown onto
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the stage in brilliant relief in this picture of the South, called "Held by
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the Enemy."
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The staging of the play is truthful and elaborate. In the first and
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fifth acts is shown the drawing room of the McCreery mansion, and once proud
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room of elegance and luxury, but which at the opening of the play the
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encroachment of poverty caused by the war is seen in the last few remnants
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that remain.
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In the second and fourth acts are shown the forbidding accoutrements of
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strife; the rough and ready details of a fort interior; the rushing feet and
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booming voices of men too intent upon their errands of destruction to know or
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care whether or not speech became either intelligible or offensive. It is all
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very grim and thrilling and when across the black background of tumult and
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confusion there flash the brief episodes of personal sacrifice and devotion
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that grip the heart and make men human and sincere the interest of this play
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culminates and holds the listener bound.
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Miss Bateman played Rachel, and gives an earnest and womanly performance.
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Mr. Taylor makes a heroic looking Colonel Foskett and the remainder of the
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company have excellent support in their various capacities. The work of the
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fourth act is especially commendable in the big scene where Rachel tries to
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smuggle her wounded fiance, who is a prisoner of war, through the Federal
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lines, under the pretext that he is dead, and where, during the suspense of a
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breathless situation, he really does expire.
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Mr. Williams, leader of the orchestra, once more demonstrated himself an
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artist by the sympathetic support he lent the various scenes throughout the
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action. His intermission music is charming and suggestive of the South in
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every way and elicited hearty and repeated applause.
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"Held by the Enemy" runs all week with Saturday matinee. Next Sunday
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afternoon there will be something entirely new, since arrangements have been
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made to present "A Fallen Angel," which will have its first production on the
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Coast in this city.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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January 23, 1910
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BELLINGHAM HERALD
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For the first time in the history of theatricals in Bellingham, a play is
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to be staged here under the personal direction of its author.
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"A Fallen Angel," which opens this afternoon at popular prices with the
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Beck Theater Stock company is the work of Sedley Brown, stage director at
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Beck's theater. This play is a strong, wholesome and interesting melodrama
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with a long reputation for big business behind it. It was selected for
|
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presentation here from a large list of similar plays on account of its deep
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heart interest and strong moral lesson...
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"The Fallen Angel" is a thoroughly impressive and wholesome story. It
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teaches that there are still good men and women and that Christianity in the
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hands of over-zealous bigots is often made the tool of Satan rather than the
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instrument of the Master. Two love stories and a hilarious vein of comedy run
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through the play. There are several strong character parts that give the
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stock company fine possibilities...
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"Mr. Taylor, the handsome leading man, plays a strong role of a minister
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whose fine character and stalwart Christianity arouses audiences to
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enthusiasm. It is an excellent part for Mr. Taylor to which he will
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undoubtedly do justice...
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The first performance of "The Fallen Angel" will be given this afternoon
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at 2:30.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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January 24, 1910
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BELLINGHAM HERALD
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The production of "A Fallen Angel" at the Beck theater this week by the
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Beck Theater Stock company is without doubt the most creditable that not only
|
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Bellingham has had the privilege of witnessing in stock, but that the present
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organization has thus far presented. Two crowded houses evinced the greatest
|
|
delight throughout the play. It combines all the elements of pathos and
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comedy, and in many ways is unique. "A Fallen Angel" is melodramatic in
|
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effect, but without the usual blood and thunder and knock-about accessories,
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and the story is clean, wholesome, and the moral is an exceptionally good one.
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The plot involves woman's unforgiving attitude toward the fallen members
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of her sex; of man's more liberal spirit; of a sister's unselfish love for her
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brother, which prompts sacrifice which would mean the giving up of love and
|
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happiness, and the voluntary surrender to misery; of the cunning and cowardice
|
|
of the villain whose selfish, self-seeking infatuation which runs its baleful
|
|
course and ends in his downfall, and of the fallen woman, womanliness rising
|
|
superior and triumphant to her surroundings, to her happiness. The story of
|
|
"A Fallen Angel" is laid in Pennsylvania, its opening scenes being in a small
|
|
interior town. Later the scene takes place in Philadelphia. As usual the
|
|
scenic and stage effects were perfect, particularly so the churchyard, which
|
|
was very realistic and demanded applause from the audience...
|
|
Mr. Taylor's conception and execution of the minister was excellent...
|
|
"A Fallen Angel" will run all week with a special matinee on Saturday.
|
|
Next Sunday night a fine dramatic version of "Carmen" will be put on here for
|
|
the first time.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
January 31, 1910
|
|
BELLINGHAM HERALD
|
|
"Carmen" swung itself loose last night at the Beck theater into a booming
|
|
and bewildering success. Delightful hardly expresses it, for the play, in
|
|
addition to possessing a great deal of merit as dramatized from the thrilling
|
|
opera, is produced by the Beck Theater Stock company in a superior manner to
|
|
any of the productions that they have thus far offered. They proved
|
|
themselves a stock company of most capable people, in fact, every part was in
|
|
such able hands that even the smallest role in the play was portrayed as in
|
|
real life. It was not only the realistic manner of acting, but so
|
|
convincingly real was the play staged that the large audience enjoyed every
|
|
moment of the drama.
|
|
"Carmen" is a picture drawn in glowing colors and is full of actions and
|
|
thrilling in its situations. It depicts life in the locale of the story as it
|
|
would be depicted only by those intimately acquainted with the passions,
|
|
impulses and motives which inspire the life of Gypsies. Every act is
|
|
represented in a careful and painstaking manner, no expense having been spared
|
|
in furnishing elaborate scenery, and every accessory is in perfect harmony
|
|
with the picturesque surroundings. The stage fairly swarmed with people last
|
|
night, with a beautiful and cleverly acting chorus. They made a dazzling show
|
|
and helped to keep things lively. The costuming is elaborate and the whole
|
|
production was most worthy, and that is saying much.
|
|
Victory Bateman was altogether fascinating as Carmen, with her melodious
|
|
voice and her tempestuous, fiery outbreaks. This is one of the best
|
|
characters she has been seen in here and it is doubtful if one might mind a
|
|
more pleasing presentation...William D. Taylor, as Don Jose, takes advantage
|
|
of his opportunity and was at his best last night...
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 4, 1910
|
|
BELLINGHAM HERALD
|
|
Tonight, tomorrow afternoon and Saturday night will see not only the last
|
|
of the present stock company at the Beck theater, but the last performance of
|
|
"Carmen," the beautiful spectacular drama that has made so excellent an
|
|
impression upon the theatergoers here...
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Taylor in Seattle, Washington
|
|
|
|
February 7, 1910
|
|
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
|
|
New Stock Company at Seattle Theater
|
|
The new stock company at the Seattle theater made its first bow
|
|
yesterday afternoon to a packed house and again at night was the announcement
|
|
that nothing was left but standing room. The opening bill is "The Night
|
|
Before Christmas," by that astute dealer in human emotions, Hal Reid, who has
|
|
provided more than one melodramatic success. The entire story is told in the
|
|
third act, where the events of the two earlier acts are rehearsed in a
|
|
courtroom scene that stretches possibility to the limit, and which is so
|
|
technically legal that it threatens in places to become tiresome. In the
|
|
third act a judge is compelled to pass sentence of death upon his own wayward
|
|
son, who has been falsely accused and convicted of a murder. The curtain
|
|
descends upon the last speech of the judge, who is sending the boy to the
|
|
electric chair.
|
|
The final act is that of the governor's office, to which place the
|
|
judge has been elected, and in which he declines to reprieve the boy because
|
|
it conflicts with his stern sense of duty. In the same scene the real
|
|
murderer enters and confesses that he committed the crime, and that it was
|
|
done to revenge himself upon the man who had broken his home and sent his
|
|
child out into the world with a blight upon her name. As a means for
|
|
introducing another interest, Mr. Reid makes the daughter of the murderer the
|
|
sweetheart of the accused Jack Philip, whose marriage had been forbidden by
|
|
his father, the judge, on account of a doubt as to the girl's parentage. The
|
|
only act in "The Night Before Christmas" that is keyed up to the Seattle
|
|
theater notion of things is the second, showing a graveyard, in which the
|
|
murder is committed. The particular interest in the occasion is the return
|
|
to Seattle of a couple of favorite players and some new people who are going
|
|
to make themselves popular down Cherry Street way. The reception of Robert
|
|
Webb Lawrence and Philip Sheffield must have been encouraging in the way of
|
|
saying, "Welcome to our city," or something like that. Each of these players
|
|
acquitted himself creditably, Mr. Webb, as Judge Philip, the dominant figure
|
|
of the play, and Mr. Sheffield, as Billy Pickerell, a character study of a
|
|
blind man.
|
|
Miss Victory Bateman, who is celebrating a honeymoon on the occasion of
|
|
her return to local dramatic activities, found that the old Third Avenue
|
|
theater clientele, before which she played, has been transferred to the
|
|
Seattle theater, and many of the youngsters of her previous days on Third
|
|
Avenue are now grown-ups. Miss Bateman is not afforded any emotional
|
|
opportunities as Marion Williams, a couple of instances, however, requiring
|
|
repression, showing good taste and excellent reading. Mr. Will D. Taylor
|
|
plays the limited part of Jack Philip, the wrongfully accused young man,
|
|
intelligently, and Mr. Kilbride made the long scene in the courtroom less
|
|
tiresome for his good work as the attorney for the defense...
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 11, 1910
|
|
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
|
|
The Hal Reid comedy-drama, "The Night Before Christmas," has served to
|
|
give the Beck Stock Company a very favorable introduction to local play-
|
|
goers, and the size of the house of the opening week is assurance of
|
|
continued popularity during the period of its engagement here..."The Night
|
|
Before Christmas" will close with the performances of Saturday afternoon and
|
|
evening. "Held by the Enemy," the famous war drama, is next week's bill.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 12, 1910
|
|
SEATTLE TIMES
|
|
Beck Players at Seattle to Be Reorganized
|
|
In order to bring it up to the standard demanded by Seattle Theater
|
|
audiences the Beck Stock Company is to be reorganized. Several new players
|
|
will be added, these to include a new leading man. Victory Bateman and
|
|
William Taylor, who have been playing leading roles, will leave the company
|
|
next week and they will be replaced with capable players, whose contracts are
|
|
now being considered.
|
|
Miss Brenda Fowler succeeds to the rank of leading woman for the company,
|
|
and will head the company for the first time in "Held by the Enemy," which
|
|
opens Sunday afternoon. "The Night Before Christmas" continues as the bill
|
|
for the remainder of the present week. This comedy-drama is a play that is of
|
|
general interest, and particularly to women and children.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 14, 1910
|
|
SEATTLE TIMES
|
|
Reorganized, The Seattle Theatre Company, as the players at The Seattle
|
|
hereafter will be known, opened for the week yesterday afternoon in what is
|
|
far and away one of the, if not the, most finished and delightful performances
|
|
offered patrons of the Russell & Draw house in the last six months.
|
|
"Held By The Enemy" has seen many presentations in Seattle within the
|
|
last decade or so. Its treatment at the hands of the new company, it is safe
|
|
to venture, will compare favorably with any that have gone before, for in
|
|
practically every instance the parts are undertaken by men and women to whom
|
|
they are admirably suited, and nothing has been spared in the way of scenic
|
|
investiture to make it thoroughly consistent with the stirring period--the
|
|
Civil War--about which the play is written.
|
|
This week sees Miss Brenda Fowler playing the lead, Rachel McCreery, and
|
|
if she displays the same capabilities in the next few succeeding productions
|
|
shown in the offering now running she very probably will be continued in
|
|
stellar roles. Her worth is brought out strongest in the tense, emotion
|
|
scenes with which "Held By The Enemy" is replete.
|
|
William D. Taylor's "Col. Charles Prescott" is a finished piece of work.
|
|
Unintentional injustice was done this competent player in a recent
|
|
announcement concerning the reorganization of the company. The fact that he
|
|
is to accept a place with another company was accompanied by the comment that
|
|
his place would be filled with a capable leading man. The natural inference
|
|
was that he is not capable, one that is manifestly unfair to him since he is a
|
|
player of recognized ability and one whose services are highly valued by the
|
|
Russell & Drew organization.
|
|
It is in the juvenile and ingenue parts that "Held By The Enemy" carries
|
|
a secondary love theme providing a wholesome brand of comedy that is
|
|
irresistibly winning as presented by winsome little Olive Adair, as Susan
|
|
McCreery, and Phillip Sheffield, as Thomas Henry Bean. Both Miss Adair and
|
|
Sheffield won scores of friends yesterday by their delightfully natural work.
|
|
To Leo Lindhard, as Lieut. Gordon Hayne, falls the work that draws the
|
|
big hand. It is at the end of Act II, when Hayne, on trial for his life as a
|
|
spy, admits his guilt rather than see dishonor attached to Col. Prescott, who
|
|
withholds damaging testimony because of his love for Hayne's cousin, Rachel
|
|
McCreery...
|
|
The cast follows:
|
|
Co. Chas. Prescott............Wm. D. Taylor
|
|
...
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 14, 1910
|
|
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
|
|
"Held by the Enemy" has been raised to the dignified plane of a
|
|
melodrama, and it is doubtful if William Gillette would recognize more than
|
|
the skeleton of his war-time play if he were to drop in and see what is being
|
|
done at the Seattle theater. At the same time he could find, upon
|
|
investigation, that the changes wrought in "Held by the Enemy" have not been a
|
|
tampering with lines or situations, but that the production has been keyed up
|
|
to what the Seattle theater following wants. There are a dozen good
|
|
situations in the five acts, and some exceptionally strong lines, and they are
|
|
emphasized solely with the notion of increasing their melodramatic value.
|
|
Probably the most intense situation is that of the fourth act, in which an
|
|
attempt is made to get the wounded Lieut. Hayne through the lines, upon the
|
|
representation that the man is dead.
|
|
...Mr. Taylor plays the manly Col. Prescott to its advantage...
|
|
[On February 19 the run of this play ended. The subsequent play, "The Cow
|
|
Puncher," did not have Taylor in the cast. From these items it is unclear
|
|
whether Taylor played the full week's run of "Held by the Enemy" or left the
|
|
cast during the week.]
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Taylor in Denver, Colorado
|
|
|
|
May 1, 1910
|
|
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
|
|
Arthur C. Alston's new play, "As the Sun Went Down," will be presented
|
|
at the Tabor Grand [in Denver] this week beginning May 8. The company will
|
|
be headed by Estha Williams, who played Parepa, the Octoroon, in "At the Old
|
|
Cross Roads."
|
|
The supporting company includes Edwin Walter, W. A. Whitecar, Arthur E.
|
|
Chattedon, George A. Cleveland, Arthur W. Bentley, R. F. Sullivan, William D.
|
|
Taylor, Victory Bateman and Flora Byam.
|
|
The scenic production is an elaborate one. [This play was presented
|
|
from May 8 to May 14, 1910.]
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 8, 1922
|
|
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
|
|
Fate in one of her capricious moods has made the murder of William
|
|
Desmond Taylor, motion picture director of Los Angeles, particularly tragical
|
|
for one of Denver's popular actors, George Cleveland, a member of the Wilkes
|
|
Players.
|
|
William Desmond Taylor, known to his friends of years ago as Dean Tanner
|
|
[sic], was the best man at the wedding of Miss Victory Bateman and Mr.
|
|
Cleveland in a small town in the state of Washington in 1909. The couple
|
|
whose marriage he witnessed have been separated for years and soon will be
|
|
divorced. [2]
|
|
Dean Tanner, or William Desmond Taylor, and Cleveland had been friends
|
|
for years and were inseparable companions for more than a year and a half.
|
|
"I do not understand all of these things they are saying about Bill
|
|
Taylor," Mr. Cleveland said last evening. "He was always open and above board
|
|
and there was certainly nothing mysterious about him. He made no attempt that
|
|
I know of to keep the fact that he changed his name a secret. We were going
|
|
to open an engagement in New Jersey in 1908 and he took the name of William
|
|
Desmond Taylor. Why, he never said, and we never pryed into each others
|
|
affairs.
|
|
"I have toured the country with Bill Taylor and at one time, years ago,
|
|
we were stranded in Denver, and Bill went to a small town in the hills, where
|
|
he obtained a job as night clerk in a hotel. I have forgotten where it was,
|
|
but I went to California."
|
|
Producing plays with local talent found in the far off cities in Alaska,
|
|
Mr. Cleveland and Taylor toured that part of the country for several months.
|
|
"Bill was a queer chap when he drank, which he did at times, and when one
|
|
of these spells came on him he devoted all of his attention to the job," the
|
|
actor continued. "You ought to know a man pretty well, sharing the adventures
|
|
that come into life in Alaska, but I certainly never knew such a man as they
|
|
have described in the papers."
|
|
During his long acquaintance with the director, Mr. Cleveland never heard
|
|
him mention having a family, and sweethearts and enemies never seemed to enter
|
|
his life.
|
|
"Taylor was the last man in the world to have had enemies, everyone liked
|
|
him," he declared. "Of course, he may have changed when he became very
|
|
prosperous and attained fame, but it does not seem possible."
|
|
Mr. Cleveland is a clever and popular member of the Wilkes players, and
|
|
the circumstances surrounding the death of his friend have affected him
|
|
deeply. It is all a mysterious tangle which he is unable to unwind, and
|
|
particularly is he mystified concerning the manner in which Taylor's character
|
|
has been described.
|
|
"Just before I came to Denver last autumn I heard from Bill," he
|
|
remarked. "He was dropping his work for several months, he informed me, and
|
|
previous to that time I corresponded with him in Australia."
|
|
According to Cleveland, Taylor was an interior decorator of ability and
|
|
he believes that it was because of his skill in this field that he attained
|
|
fame in the motion picture industry. Many of the handsome residences in New
|
|
York have been decorated and designed by Taylor, Cleveland declared.
|
|
"Bill was a mediocre actor, but certainly an artist, he said. "Despite
|
|
the fact he was born in Ireland, he was exceedingly English in his ways, a
|
|
fine fellow, and it is hard to realize all of these things that they are
|
|
saying about him out there." [3]
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Taylor in Telluride, Colorado
|
|
|
|
February 5, 1922
|
|
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
|
|
...In 1910, according to J.A. Segerberg, proprietor of the New Sheridan
|
|
hotel at Telluride, Col., Taylor answered an advertisement that he (Segerberg)
|
|
had inserted in a Denver paper. Taylor wrote in his letter of application
|
|
that he was in Denver without funds, but that he was eager to get located in
|
|
the Telluride district.
|
|
Segerberg forwarded the transportation fare to Taylor, who went to
|
|
Telluride and remained several months as a night clerk in the New Sheridan
|
|
hotel. During his leisure time in the afternoons, he is said to have
|
|
prospected about the hills near the little mining town.
|
|
"He never seemed to have any luck," Segerberg declared. "He was down and
|
|
out all right, but we all liked him. He made friends with everybody at the
|
|
hotel, and was quiet and unassuming.
|
|
"He didn't talk much, but on one occasion he confided in me that he had
|
|
been to Alaska, had made a fortune and had lost it. He said he was just
|
|
trying to get on his feet again. I considered him a most exceptional man. He
|
|
had a fine education and was very much alone, receiving letters but seldom."
|
|
...Segerberg said that Taylor went by the name of William D. Taylor while
|
|
at his hotel, had no one with him and, as far as he knew, had trouble with no
|
|
man. Segerberg considers himself a close friend of the former director,
|
|
having heard from him once since he became associated with the world's largest
|
|
moving picture foundry.
|
|
"When he left Telluride, it was following one of those rare occasions on
|
|
which he received any mail. I believe it was a letter, tho it might have been
|
|
a telegram. He said that he was called to California by the illness of his
|
|
brother. I did not hear from him for several years thereafter, and then only
|
|
a single letter."
|
|
When the press dispatches first began carrying the details of Taylor's
|
|
death, one of the most baffling murders in the history of Pacific coast police
|
|
annals, Segerberg recognized the name of his old friend and sent notice of the
|
|
dead man's previous residence in Colorado to The News.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 5, 1922
|
|
DENVER POST
|
|
Broke, a fortune scattered behind him in Alaska where his numerous mining
|
|
ventures had failed, William Desmond Taylor, slain film director, drifted into
|
|
Denver late in 1909 [sic] and after spending a few days here accepted a
|
|
position as a night clerk in the New Sheridan hotel at Telluride...according
|
|
to the statement of Miss Fannie Ball of 2018 California Street, cashier at the
|
|
Oxford dairy lunch room, Denver, who was cashier at the New Sheridan hotel
|
|
during the time that Taylor was there...
|
|
"I recognized Mr. Taylor's picture the minute I saw it in the paper,"
|
|
said Miss Ball, cashier at the Oxford dairy lunch room. "I was working as
|
|
cashier at the New Sheridan in Telluride all the time he was there as night
|
|
clerk. I never had any idea that he was interested in a career on stage or in
|
|
the movies. He didn't talk much. He didn't associate with anybody and he
|
|
didn't go anywhere, but most everybody that came into the hotel got acquainted
|
|
with him anyway and liked him."
|
|
"I never knew where he went from Telluride, but I remember that we were
|
|
all surprised when we learned he was in the movies.
|
|
"I never heard of his having any kind of trouble with women or anybody
|
|
else while he was in Telluride. He was about 40 years of age at that time and
|
|
was one of the finest men I have known."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 5, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
|
|
...Taylor appeared in Telluride when apparently at the end of one of the
|
|
low ebbs of his financial endeavors. He acted as night clerk for the New
|
|
Sheridan Hotel there from June 10, 1910, until December 15, of the same year.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Taylor in Hawaii
|
|
|
|
February 9, 1922
|
|
NEW YORK AMERICAN
|
|
New light on the past of William Desmond Taylor and his missing brother
|
|
Dennis was thrown yesterday when Harry Corson Clarke, Actor-manager and world
|
|
traveller, arrived from California and gave an exclusive interview to the New
|
|
York American.
|
|
The interview clears up for the first time the whereabouts of Taylor
|
|
following his disappearance from this city in 1908 and his reappearance on the
|
|
Pacific Coast some years later. The missing man was in the Klondike.
|
|
It also furnishes an opinion of Taylor's character from one who knew him
|
|
well. Mr. Clarke declares that "Taylor was one of the finest gentlemen that
|
|
God ever made, and to be with him was an education."
|
|
This opinion was formed after three months with Taylor, who joined
|
|
Clarke's stock company and went with him to the Hawaiian Islands, where for
|
|
the first three months of 1912 they played a variety of popular plays, with
|
|
Taylor as leading man.
|
|
Clarke is now staying in this city preparatory to his fourth tour of the
|
|
world, and is outspoken in his loyalty to his dead friend. He said yesterday:
|
|
"Bunk! That is what I think when I read all this stuff about Taylor
|
|
being mixed up with these hop-heads. I don't believe it.
|
|
"Women? Sure; women would go crazy about a man like Taylor, particularly
|
|
when they had had to associate with the sort of men they are thrown in with in
|
|
most movie studios.
|
|
"I first met Taylor in December of 1911, in San Francisco. He had come
|
|
down from the Klondike and he had been on a spree and he was absolutely down
|
|
and out.
|
|
"He was fierce to make money. Craved money. Had to have money, and he
|
|
told me a story about a claim that he and his brother Dennis had in the
|
|
Klondike that he said would sure make them fabulously rich if they could
|
|
develop it. He had come down to collect the money to make it a winner.
|
|
"Well, I wasn't staking any Klondike claims, but Taylor could act, and I
|
|
was just starting for the islands with a show and I took him on.
|
|
"I don't remember where they say Taylor was in the first three months of
|
|
1912, but I can tell you just where he was. He was playing leads with me in
|
|
Honolulu nights and working as a carpenter by day in a theatre which we were
|
|
building there.
|
|
"We had a great three months.
|
|
"Taylor played leads in all the old favorites. 'Why Smith Left Home'
|
|
(that must have made him do some thinking); 'Christopher, Jr.'; 'Lost 24
|
|
Hours' and a number of those shows which had been popular on Broadway some
|
|
seasons before, but went big with the Hawaiians.
|
|
"And don't forget that Taylor went big, too. He was a gentleman and we
|
|
were received by the best English and American people in the islands. We went
|
|
big with the natives, too.
|
|
"Once the Princess (I forgot her name, but she was the daughter of Queen
|
|
Lilluokalani) and Cleghorn, the Scotchman, received us at Alulua and gave us a
|
|
native party. Taylor charmed the natives just as he charmed everybody else he
|
|
met.
|
|
"After the Islands I was headed for Australia and I wanted him to go bad,
|
|
but he wouldn't hear of it.
|
|
"All his mind was focused on his old mine in the Klondike, and every cent
|
|
he got went up to brother Dennis to develop it, and I left him at the boat for
|
|
San Francisco, headed back toward the Arctic.
|
|
"Six months ago I met him again in Hollywood. He was riding down the
|
|
avenue in a big car, and when he saw me he pulled up. I told him it was not
|
|
much like December 1911. He told me for God's sake to forget it.
|
|
"I never knew him to have anything to do with any women and I don't
|
|
believe he did.
|
|
"Oh, yes, there's one other thing I remember about him. He was a mighty
|
|
fine actor. And I guess that sums him up. A good man, a fine gentleman and a
|
|
good actor. It's a complete characterization, and it sums up Bill Taylor."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
January 13, 1912
|
|
HONOLULU ADVERTISER
|
|
CORSON CLARKE TO COME NEXT WEEK
|
|
"I am going to bring as nice a company of actors as ever visited
|
|
Honolulu, so don't be afraid to say so," writes Harry Corson Clarke, the
|
|
comedian, to D. W. Douthitt, his local representative. Mr. Clarke said also
|
|
that although he was to bring only thirteen people, he is bringing eighteen.
|
|
His letters indicate that he is coming to Honolulu largely as a matter of
|
|
sentiment, because of his visit here in the latter part of the nineties. He
|
|
wants to renew old acquaintances, and to see the Islands once more.
|
|
...Mr. Clarke and his company will leave San Francisco next Wednesday
|
|
[January 17, 1912] on the Wilhelmina.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
January 25, 1912
|
|
HONOLULU ADVERTISER
|
|
PASSENGERS
|
|
Arrived.
|
|
Per M.N.S.S. Wilhelmina, from San Francisco, Jan. 24--..Mr. and Mrs. H. C.
|
|
Clarke...Wm. D. Taylor....
|
|
|
|
ACTOR TALKS OF HOPES AND AIMS
|
|
"I had the pleasure of taking Will Lewers of Honolulu back to the mainland
|
|
when I was last here in 1897," said Harry Corson Clarke, the comedian,
|
|
yesterday. "I am very glad to say that he has risen high in the theatrical
|
|
profession and has been leading man in many of the most notable American
|
|
successes. He has latterly been in Maude Adams' company."
|
|
...Mr. and Mrs. Clarke are stopping at the Young while others are at the
|
|
Pleasanton, the Donna and the Hawaiian, the scarcity of hotel accommodations
|
|
compelling them to break into small parties.
|
|
"I know that we'll do well in Honolulu," says Mr. Clarke. "I have kept
|
|
in touch with the sentiment here and knows that the newspapers have expressed
|
|
the hope that clean, wholesome drama could be given. I have always desired to
|
|
return here with my own company, and still believing that what the papers said
|
|
was true, selected a company which I believe is one of the best to be picked
|
|
up anywhere. In all my stage career I have never descended to slapstick
|
|
methods and I trust I never shall. It is my intention to close with the
|
|
presentation of a play I have called 'Vollendam,' and this will be the first
|
|
production of it in English on the American stage. This is something I
|
|
reserved especially for Honolulu.
|
|
...The prominent members of the company are Margaret Dale Owen (Mrs.
|
|
Clarke), Betty Tracy, Alma Murphy, Nell Franzen, Vail Hobart, Bernice Pierson,
|
|
William L. Taylor [sic], Richard S. Barbee, Joseph Cox, Robert Ryles and
|
|
William Morris.
|
|
The company attended the Kaai Hawaiian musicale last night as the guests
|
|
of W. D. Adams.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 1, 1912
|
|
HONOLULU ADVERTISER
|
|
The Harry Corson Clarke company will present for the first time in
|
|
Honolulu, Logan Fuller's and W. A. Tremayne's clever farce, "Lost--Twenty-Four
|
|
Hours," beginning tonight and for the remaining performances this week. The
|
|
play is full of laughs and is a worthy successor to "What Happened to Jones."
|
|
Originally played by Robert Hilliard at the Madison Square Theater, New York,
|
|
it ran for three hundred nights. This play will introduce to the playergoers
|
|
of Honolulu Mr. Clarke's clever leading man, William D. Taylor.
|
|
Mr. Taylor will appear as Richard Swift, the part originated by Robert
|
|
Hillard, while Mr. Clarke will play the younger brother, "David," and it goes
|
|
without saying he will create the usual amount of merriment. Mr. Taylor only
|
|
recently was induced to return to the stage after having spent a winter or two
|
|
in Alaska. He was in the Boer War [sic] and is to some extent a "Soldier of
|
|
Fortune"...
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 6, 1912
|
|
HONOLULU ADVERTISER
|
|
Beyond question one of the best comedies ever presented in Honolulu is
|
|
now on at the Opera House, in "Why Smith Left Home," put on by the Harry
|
|
Carson Clarke Company. The comedy is new in Honolulu and is not only worth
|
|
seeing, but worth going to see again. It is an amusing skit upon trade
|
|
unionism, one at which the fieriest union man may laugh as heartily as the
|
|
plutocratic employer, while marital complications include every member of the
|
|
cast and add to the success of the piece.
|
|
Mr. Clarke appears at his funniest in this play, taking the part of the
|
|
"cook lady," who combines in her one red-headed person a tyrannous domestic, a
|
|
walking delegate of the Cook Ladies' Union, a schemer and a danseuse. His
|
|
appearance last night was always the signal for merriment, the laughter at
|
|
times being so general that some of the lines were drowned out.
|
|
This play, which is handsomely staged, gives the whole company an
|
|
opportunity to really show itself, while a surprise was presented through the
|
|
appearance in the case of Marion Dunn, a local favorite. W. D. Taylor was
|
|
first-class as the misunderstood husband who cannot get a chance to enjoy his
|
|
honeymoon, while Margaret Dale Owen, as his wife, completed the captivation of
|
|
those among her audience who had heard and seen her before. As the bride,
|
|
anxious to believe her husband in the face of strong evidence against him, but
|
|
egged on to rebellion by her shrew of an aunt, she was a picture of charming
|
|
irresolution...
|
|
Taken altogether, Mr. Clarke appears to have struck the gait that pleases
|
|
in "Why Smith Left Home." The piece is one that should fill the Opera House
|
|
while it runs and which should set a standard for his company to ensure a
|
|
successful engagement. It is a good, clean comedy, worthy of all the support
|
|
this city can give it.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 9, 1912
|
|
HONOLULU ADVERTISER
|
|
American equality, as typified by a Chicago millionaire pork-packer, and
|
|
German aristocracy, personified in a Graf whose family history ran back to a
|
|
Crusaders' battlefield, clashed on the boards of the Opera House last night in
|
|
the opening production of "Mr. Foster of Chicago" by the Harry Corson Clarke
|
|
Company. A marriage between the heiress-daughter of the pork-packer and the
|
|
only son of the aristocrat brought the irresistible force and the immovable
|
|
body into frequent contact, with the result that the audience heard much that
|
|
was instructive and a great deal that was mirth-provoking.
|
|
The play proved another success for Mr. Clarke and his company, the
|
|
former adding to his laurels in the name role. Mr. Clarke did not come on
|
|
until well towards the end of the second act, but his frequent appearances
|
|
thereafter were the signals for the many gusts of laughter that swept the
|
|
Opera House.
|
|
In this play, which is splendidly staged, only seven of the cast have
|
|
parts that amount to anything, and of the seven there are only three that
|
|
really count. Those three were enough, however, to make the piece a go and
|
|
satisfy the audience. Mr. Clarke is immense, the second best part that played
|
|
by Margaret Dale Owen, the widow of a wealthy brewer, who concealed her wealth
|
|
and landed a German Captain. The third leading part was that of the irascible
|
|
man of family, played by William D. Taylor.
|
|
It was noticeable that the Opera House was much nearer to being filled
|
|
last night than on any night since the opening, showing that Honoluluans are
|
|
waking up to the fact that an exceptionally good company is in town. As a
|
|
matter of fact, were it not that there is also a good show running at the
|
|
Orpheum, the Clarke company would be playing to capacity.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 15, 1912
|
|
HONOLULU ADVERTISER
|
|
Christopher Jr. has been selected by Mr. Clarke as the bill for tonight
|
|
and the remainder of the week with a matinee on Saturday. This play has
|
|
always proved a popular one with ladies and it is for that reason that it is
|
|
put on for the end of the week, giving the ladies an opportunity to witness it
|
|
at a matinee performance. It is a delightful comedy with a charming love
|
|
story running through it. It had a long run at the Empire Theater New York
|
|
when first presented there by John Drew and Maude Adams.
|
|
Harry Corson Clarke will assume the part of Mr. Glibb, a most original
|
|
part and one that gives full play to the comedian's undeniable talents. Mr.
|
|
Taylor will appear as Christopher Jr. and Miss Owen will be seen as Dora, the
|
|
part originated by Maude Adams. But one more week remains of the present
|
|
theatrical season at the opera House and it is expected that capacity houses
|
|
will hold sway for the remainder of the time.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 16, 1912
|
|
HONOLULU ADVERTISER
|
|
Dragging through the first two acts, waking up in the third and
|
|
concluding with a splendid fourth, "Christopher Junior" was played before a
|
|
slim house at the Opera House last night, the first production of the piece by
|
|
the Harry Corson Clarke Company. The dragging of the opening scenes appeared
|
|
to be as much the fault of the audience as of the players. The occupants of
|
|
the chairs simply would not enthuse, although the stage setting was good, the
|
|
orchestra had played excellently as usual and the actors began with plenty of
|
|
ginger. When the house refused to warm up, the actors began to cool down and
|
|
at the second curtain it seemed that the play was going to be a dismal
|
|
failure.
|
|
It was Robert McKim who saved it. When he came on in the third act the
|
|
audience came out of its trance and applauded. The applause woke up the
|
|
actors, and then, having broken the silence, the crowd kept on applauding, the
|
|
company struck its gait again and all was well.
|
|
In this play, Mr. Clarke has a walking part which he makes one of the
|
|
leading parts. The fact that he doesn't say anything, even when the dialogue
|
|
appears to corner him, makes his playing a feature of the comedy. William D.
|
|
Taylor carried the bulk of the work and did it well, while the rest of the
|
|
company played up to their general good standard.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 24, 1912
|
|
HONOLULU ADVERTISER
|
|
Opera House
|
|
Last Performance Tonight
|
|
8:15 o'clock
|
|
|
|
Harry Corson Clarke
|
|
and Margaret Dale Owen
|
|
Supported by the
|
|
Harry Corson Clarke
|
|
Stock Comedy Company
|
|
|
|
The Three Act Comedy
|
|
"Strategy"
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 28, 1912
|
|
HONOLULU ADVERTISER
|
|
PASSENGERS
|
|
Departed.
|
|
Per str. Mauna Kea, for Hilo, via way ports...Harry Corson Clarke and
|
|
wife...W. D. Taylor....
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
March 21, 1912
|
|
HONOLULU ADVERTISER
|
|
PASSENGERS
|
|
Departed.
|
|
Per O.S.S. Sierra, for San Francisco, March 20...Wm. Taylor....
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
Summary of Taylor's Whereabouts 1908-1912
|
|
|
|
October 1908 -- Leaves New York
|
|
Early 1909 -- in San Francisco
|
|
May 25, 1909 -- Begins work for Yukon Gold Co., in Dawson, Yukon
|
|
January 5 - February 5, 1910 -- Acting in Bellingham, Washington
|
|
February 6-13, 1910 -- Acting in Seattle, Washington
|
|
May 8-14, 1910 -- Acting in Denver, Colorado
|
|
June 10 - December 15, 1910 -- Working at New Sheridan Hotel, in Telluride,
|
|
Colorado
|
|
1911 -- Returns to Dawson
|
|
January 17, 1912 -- Sails for Honolulu from San Francisco
|
|
January 24, 1912 -- Arrives in Honolulu
|
|
January-March 1912 -- Acting with Harry Corson Clarke in Hawaii
|
|
March 20, 1912 -- Sails for San Francisco from Honolulu
|
|
mid 1912 -- Returns to Dawson
|
|
November 1912 -- Departs Dawson, goes to San Francisco
|
|
December 1912 -- Obtains first job in the Southern California movie industry,
|
|
acting in "The Counterfeiter" for Thomas Ince's film company in Santa
|
|
Monica
|
|
|
|
There were also reports that Taylor was working in Ouray, Colorado and
|
|
Cheyenne, Wyoming, presumably during the early part of 1910. Several of the
|
|
clippings imply that Taylor was with his brother during part of 1910-1911,
|
|
however Denis Deane-Tanner did not desert his family in New York until
|
|
August 4, 1912, which would indicate that Taylor and Denis could not have been
|
|
together until Taylor's last few months in Dawson late in 1912.
|
|
|
|
Thanks to William Sherman for providing some of the clippings.
|
|
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
|
|
Wallace Smith: February 24, 1923
|
|
|
|
The following is another of Wallace Smith's sensationalizing dispatches on
|
|
the Taylor case.
|
|
February 25, 1922
|
|
Wallace Smith
|
|
CHICAGO AMERICAN
|
|
Hired guards, armed with pistols and clubs, were rushed to the home of
|
|
the one woman suspect in the murder of William Desmond Taylor today,
|
|
following the report that detectives investigating the weird case were ready
|
|
to mutiny, ignore their superiors, seize the famous player and submit her to
|
|
a real examination. [4]
|
|
They were prepared, it was said, to storm the house in which the woman
|
|
is hiding, overpower the guard and kidnap their quarry. The report declared
|
|
motors were to carry the kidnapping party into the foothills for questioning
|
|
-- for the "third degree," such an extreme if it was found necessary, to
|
|
unlock the screen beauty's stubborn lips.
|
|
Officials were quick to deny that such a mutinous plot existed. But it
|
|
was known that they had checked carefully on the activities of their men
|
|
supposed to be running down various angles to the strange case and it was
|
|
known, too, that the mutinous spirit has been seething.
|
|
Word of the heroic plan, at any rate, was not slow in reaching those
|
|
most interested in the protection of the woman. And the guards were placed
|
|
on duty, alert for any attempt to pierce the barrier they made and under
|
|
order to fight to the last any officer who attempted to force his way into
|
|
the refuge without a warrant for the woman's arrest.
|
|
Reports of the mutiny started when it was found that all trails
|
|
uncovered in the hunt for Taylor's assassin led finally to the door of this
|
|
woman. She remained the one tangible thing -- beside the fact that a man was
|
|
murdered -- in all the fog of rumors, theories, bungling and misinformation.
|
|
Whatever the motive advanced -- the woman lurked in the back of it.
|
|
Jealousy, revenge, the drug hunger, a mad quarrel -- always this woman.
|
|
Despite these discoveries, the officials have been lenient, to state it
|
|
mildly. The woman was questioned secretly and most politely, according to
|
|
all information obtainable.
|
|
And it is quite certain that she lied.
|
|
She denied that she ever used "dope," although her slavery to drugs has
|
|
been notorious for years. She swore that her friendship with Taylor was that
|
|
almost of daughter and father, although it is known that he was madly in love
|
|
with her and although it has been narrated that she was observed in
|
|
passionate love scenes with him.
|
|
The weary hunters on the trail of the murderer were disheartened and
|
|
desperate by the apparent immunity of the woman. They made an effort to
|
|
conceal their discontent as each suggestion of clue or evidence forced them
|
|
to the belief that she, if she can be made to talk, can solve the mystery.
|
|
They feel, too, that there is a way of "making her talk," -- if not to
|
|
confess the murder herself at least to reveal who did the murder.
|
|
These investigators have found that ten weeks ago she received a
|
|
consignment of forbidden heroin. They have long been aware of her reputation
|
|
as a dope slave. Through their experience with such persons, they are
|
|
convinced that she would speak freely after being deprived of her drug ration
|
|
for a short time.
|
|
If she actually knows the secret of the crime, the woman can easily be
|
|
considered concealing the information to save her own reputation. Just as
|
|
well, she can be reasonably pictured fearing the exposure of her slavery to
|
|
dope.
|
|
Regardless of the truth or falsity of the story told by "Harry, the
|
|
Chink," Fields in Detroit -- whose yarn, by the way, has not been entirely
|
|
discarded as yet -- the dope ring that has been growing wealthy in Los
|
|
Angeles becomes more deeply involved as the investigation goes forward. [5]
|
|
Wong Lee, named by Fields as the tong hatchet man who Killed Taylor,
|
|
remained a shadowy mystery in Chinatown. The slant eyed Celestials did not
|
|
"sabe" Wong Lee. Nor was there any trace of "Johnny Clarke" or "Jenny
|
|
Moore," also named as death plotters.
|
|
But it was reported that two sisters, known as dope peddlers employed by
|
|
the ring, had fled to Bakersfield and, it is believed, farther north
|
|
following the crime. Both of these young women, according to police
|
|
information, had been most violent in the underworld in urging the killing of
|
|
Taylor.
|
|
Back of this appeared another story of Taylor's personal encounter with
|
|
a drug ring agent -- this time at the home of the woman he sought to save
|
|
from the grip of the ring. Taylor was visiting at the woman's home, it was
|
|
said, when the peddler arrived. Taylor threw him bodily from the house.
|
|
This peddler seemed inclined to "let it go at that." But he told his
|
|
story to the two sisters, one of whom was his sweetheart. They were less
|
|
forgiving. They dinned into his ears the gospel of revenge. Their best
|
|
argument was the fact that he would lose a "customer" who paid him as much as
|
|
$2,000 a month if he allowed Taylor to protect this woman.
|
|
The report of the flight of the two sisters seemed to dovetail with the
|
|
story of Assistant United States District Attorney Green that Taylor had
|
|
started a fight against the drug ring to save the woman he loved.
|
|
The police of Bakersfield and cities to the north were warned by Los
|
|
Angeles officials to be on the watch for the two sisters. [6]
|
|
At the same time Detective Sergeant Herman Cline hurried to San
|
|
Francisco on a secret mission. It was stated that he was attempting to trace
|
|
the telephone call sent by the suspected woman from Los Angeles to San
|
|
Francisco the night of Taylor's assassination.
|
|
She is known to have telephoned a friend in a San Francisco hotel. She
|
|
was heard to cry out:
|
|
"I'm in trouble; I'll need all the help I can get."
|
|
District Attorney Thomas Lee Woolwine assigned two detectives to the
|
|
motion picture studios after hearing the report of Federal Attorney Green.
|
|
Other men were assigned to seek a wealthy Los Angeles man, named in a letter
|
|
from a New York attorney as the man who did the crime.
|
|
Deputies under the direction of Undersheriff Eugene Biscailuz undertook
|
|
the search of Chinatown to trace the very loose threads of Fields' story.
|
|
They were interested in the sudden return of a Chinese smuggler who
|
|
disappeared abruptly the day Fields was arrested in Detroit.
|
|
The returned Chinese turned to them a bland, unsmiling countenance.
|
|
"No sabe," he replied to all their questions. He didn't understand what
|
|
they were talking about.
|
|
From the home of Mabel Normand, the subject of Taylor's "blessed baby"
|
|
letters, it was reported today that the actress was "considerably improved,"
|
|
following the relapse reported by her physicians yesterday. Shortly after
|
|
the report was made public word came from the Mack Sennett studios, where
|
|
Miss Normand has been performing, denying that she was "gravely ill."
|
|
According to physicians, Miss Normand was suffering from an attack of
|
|
influenza and her condition was aggravated by the shock she suffered
|
|
following Taylor's death.
|
|
It was to be remarked that William Davis, chauffeur for Miss Normand,
|
|
has been questioned for a fourth time by detectives. He clung, they
|
|
reported, to his corroboration of Miss Normand's story of her visit to
|
|
Taylor's study.
|
|
Edward F. Sands, alias Edwin Fitz Strathmore, [7] also was sought. The
|
|
newest clue was a pair of shoes found in Taylor's home, an especially wide
|
|
pair, from which, detectives said, Sands' feet could be picked out in a
|
|
crowd.
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
NOTES:
|
|
[1] James Corbett was at that time the boxing Heavyweight Champion of the
|
|
World.
|
|
[2] Note the above item from the SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER (February 7,
|
|
1910) which refers to Victory Bateman's recent marriage.
|
|
[3] It appears that Cleveland and Taylor may have indeed been together from
|
|
1908 to 1910. The press reviews of the Bellingham and Seattle plays do not
|
|
mention George Cleveland, but they do mention George Clawson, perhaps he
|
|
changed his stage name between Seattle and Denver; George Clawson and Victory
|
|
Bateman were also in the first Seattle play, "The Night Before Christmas,"
|
|
and were both absent from the Seattle cast of "Held By The Enemy."
|
|
(Coincidentally, Carl Stockdale was also acting on stage in Seattle during
|
|
February 1910.) Taylor was never an interior decorator, but during his work
|
|
in an antique shop he undoubtedly learned a great deal about the subject.
|
|
Taylor was probably never in Australia; Cleveland's statement can be
|
|
interpreted to mean that Cleveland was in Australia at that time. Could this
|
|
George Cleveland be the same actor with that name who later had an extensive
|
|
career playing character roles in films during the 30's and 40's, and who is
|
|
today best remembered for his role as "Gramps" in the Lassie television
|
|
series?
|
|
[4] Once again, Smith is referring to Mabel Normand.
|
|
[5] As stated in previous issues, Harry Fields was not Chinese, and it is not
|
|
known why this derogatory nickname was applied to him. It is included here
|
|
only for historical purposes, to reprint Smith's article as it originally
|
|
appeared.
|
|
[6] The two sisters were reportedly Jessie and Maudie Cooper. See
|
|
WDT:DOSSIER, pp. 353-355.
|
|
[7] The correct alias was Edward Fitzwilliam Strathmore.
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
For more information about Taylor, see
|
|
WILLIAM DESMOND TAYLOR: A DOSSIER (Scarecrow Press, 1991)
|
|
Back issues of Taylorology are available via Gopher or FTP at
|
|
etext.archive.umich.edu
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in the directory pub/Zines/Taylorology
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