The glamour and glitz of Hollywood is undeniable and has existed for decades as a place of desire for those seeking fame. It is a place that holds for all of us an outlet into fantasy, dreams, and desires that we all dream of. In the early years it was somewhat of a fantasy land that seemed to be the perfect existence for all that could achieve it. The beautiful people living the perfect life in a place like heaven so it seemed. When you looked at it through the motion pictures produced there and the stars almost Godlike on the screen you were caught up into believing that here was a place on Earth that was grand and unique. It was really hard to imagine anything about life there being abnormal or that evil existed in anyway. Yet behind all the glamour and beauty that Hollywood portrayed there was the reality that actually existed. Sadly the dream world had all the human frailties that existed elsewhere and none were protected from them. The big time Director with all his prestige and power was not immune and was actually just as vulnerable as the young girl walking the streets and living where she could in an effort to secure the dream only Hollywood could provide. Then there is the actress that was at the top of her career and the man who had a good career, but had fallen way short of his dream and aspirations. Four people in separate walks of life all living or hoping to live the glamorous life that only Hollywood could provide. All Instead coming to a mysterious ends and none of which had the happy Hollywood ending of a classic motion picture. These four individuals lives ended tragically and are four cases of the Hollywood dream that did not come true.
William Desmond Taylor was born in Ireland in 1872 and made his way to New York in 1890 and found work as a bit player in several New York stage plays. He was in those days William Tanner and after a few years met and married the daughter of a wealthy Wall Street broker who set him up in a business of his own. He became a popular member of New York society and seemed to have a great life and future. Then he suddenly left his wife and child without even saying goodbye deserting them and making his way to California. Here he changed his name to William Taylor and broke into acting in 1915, but was more interested In Directing and became successful at it and from 1915 to his untimely death in 1922 directed over forty motion pictures. On February 2, 1922 he was found at home murdered, a bullet in the back, in the prime of his career and only fifty years old. The murder has never been solved though nearby neighbors heard a gunshot in the middle of the night and one even saw a young dark haired man leaving Taylor’s house. This suspect was never found and no one was ever arrested for the crime. The motive for the murder was never clear although many speculated that it had something to do with actress Mabel Normand whom Taylor was seeing at the time. Speculation is that Normand was a cocaine user and that Taylor had went to the Feds in an effort to get her drug pushers convicted. The hit was to silence Taylor and seemed to be the only reason why he would be murdered. No clear suspect was ever determined and the case will remain unsolved through all the annals of time.
Thelma Todd was a popular actress who starred in many later silent films of the 1920’s on into when the talkies began in the 1930’s. She appeared in 119 movies and short features throughout her career and was known for her comedy in films with the Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy. She became a leading lady in the late thirties and her career was flourishing at the time of her death. On December 15, 1935 at the Sidewalk cafe which she owned and resided on the second floor, she was found dead. There inside the garage of her Sidewalk cafe she was found in her car, a victim of carbon monoxide poisoning lifeless and alone. Spots of blood were found both on and in the car and on Todd’s mouth. The speculation was that she had been beaten up, knocked out and then left in the enclosed garage with the car running to make it look like a suicide. Who would want her dead? There had been extortion attempts while she was alive as well as a nasty divorce which had involved charges of spousal abuse. To further support the murder theory there was a hand print found on the door of the car which was never identified. In the end the investigation went no where and the death was determined to be a suicide. This was determined on the testimony of many who knew her and said she was depressed and talked of ending it all. Also it was revealed that she owed the IRS a large sum of money and would have to file bankruptcy to meet her obligations. The question remains why there was blood on her mouth and also on the outside and inside of the car? This has never been explained nor the fact that she was a well in demand actress with many good financial years to come so why would she end it? The questions will never be answered unfortunately and what happened to Thelma Todd will never be solved.
Elizabeth Short was a young woman raised in a middle class family in the city of Bedford, Masachusetts. Her dream was to be an actress and with this determination she set out to live with her father in Los Angeles in 1943. Once there residence with her father didn’t last long as he asked her to leave. He considered her lazy and did not like her coming into the house at all hours of the night. Out on her own she ventured to Santa Barbara, California was picked up by police and returned to Bedford, Massachusetts for underage drinking. During the next three years she resided between Massachusetts and Florida where she met a man in the Military Lieutenant Matthew M. Gordon Jr. who proposed marriage. He was killed in a plane crash in 1945 before he could return home to marry her. Shortly thereafter in July 1946 she was back in California hunting for another serviceman she had met in Florida Lt. Gordon Flicking. The meeting never worked out and during the last six months of her life she lived in Los Angeles in rooming houses, Hotels, apartment buildings and even private homes. She was short on cash and in many cases just stayed wherever someone would let her. During this time she had met a young man, a married salesman named Robert Manley who turned out to be the last person to see her alive. He dropped her off in front of the Biltmore hotel and she was never seen alive again. What happened to Elizabeth Short is probably the biggest mystery in Hollywood history. She was called the Black Dahlia mainly because of her dark hair and she almost always dressed in black. There were plenty of suspects, but the most prominent one was Dr. Walter Alonzo Bailey with whom Elizabeth had an acquaintance with his daughter Virginia. It is believed needing a place to stay Elizabeth made her way to the residence and was murdered by the Doctor who suffered from a degenerative brain disease. The perfection at how the body was dissected and Bailey being a top surgeon of the time makes him a top suspect. His house was only one block from where the body was dumped by the murderer on a vacant lot. Another Doctor who was a prime suspect was Dr. George Hodel who had been accused by his 14 year old daughter of molesting her. He also was accused by witnesses of knowing Elizabeth Short and she had been one of his girlfriends. He seemed to be in the area of the Biltmore Hotel the night that Elizabeth Short disappeared and was out all night supposedly at a party. There were several other suspects including the actor Orson Welles, who at the time had an act where he cut a woman in half. It was quickly proven that Orson didn’t do it as well as many other falsely accused. The murderer sent letters to police, but no one was ever arrested. The mystery of what happened to Elizabeth Short rages on today with several websites, books, and even a new movie telling her story. A story about a girl who wanted to be a star in Hollywood, but instead met a tragic end.
He was Superman in the very popular tv series and well before that had been in well over 50 feature films. Never reaching the fame he desired he reluctantly moved into the new medium of television in 1949. After appearing in several tv series episodes he read for and was cast as Superman in The Adventures of Superman in 1951 through 1958 and 104 episodes. During this time is when he took up with Toni Mannix who was married to MGM executive Eddie Mannix. Eddie did not seem to mind the relationship and even seemed to endorse it as he himself had affairs during this time. All seemed to be fine as the couples Eddie and his mistress and George and Toni sometimes had lunch or dinner together. Some speculate that all the trouble actually began when George broke off the relationship with Toni in 1958 and took up with Lenore Lemmon. The speculation continues that Toni was still in love with George and in response to his announcement of an engagement to be married had George murdered. The facts are that she did have a key to his home, but one wonders how any person could get in the house when guests were there . In order to get upstairs you would have to go right past them to get to the bedroom where George had went to bed. The other speculation is that George was accidentally shot by Lenore who had to cover it up as a suicide when the gun they were wrestling with went off and shot George in the head. The fact that there were other shots fired and bullet holes in the ceiling would seem to add some reason to this claim. Finally there is the speculation that the gun had been lying on the night table and Reeves not knowing it was loaded had picked it up and playfully held the gun toward himself pulled the trigger which had killed him. This does not explain the other shots which he could not have fired himself. Whatever happened on June 16, 1959 in the early morning hours causing his death remain a mystery. A mystery never likely to be solved as the years pass by.
Four people from different walks of life all in a way hoping for the same thing fortune and fame in the world of fantasy and make believe. Finding instead a mysterious ending to their lives and proving that dreams don’t always come true especially in Hollywood.
