Screenland (Oct 1923-Mar 1924)

SQREENLANB 99 The Tragedy of Mary Miles Minter (Continued from page 30) of that and it never occured to Mrs. Shelby that Mary ought to learn. It took the poor old dumb and halfwitted public to discover what was wrong with Mary Miles Minter. Mary Meets Taylor ^r^RS. Shelby is the only person in the world who out-generaled Adolph Zukor. Mary got the contract and was nicknamed a Realart star. One of her first pictures was Anne of Green Gables, directed by William Desmond Taylor. • Mary's Ma could out-manoeuvre Zukor but she couldn't battle with a growing girl. The best thing that a growing girl does is to fall in love. The off-screen drama of Mary Miles Minter began to take on a sex interest which was forbidden in her films. Mrs. Shelby felt that a husband would considerably wreck the public's illusion of Mary as just a simple little girl. Moreover, a husband with brains and with ideas of his own about Mary's career would interfere with Mother's management. Murder Brings Climax f Taylor hadn't been mysteriously murdered on Feb. 1, 1922, there would have been no grand, fifth reel climax to Mary's career. There would have been no "love drama" played up in the newspapers. There would have been only the story that Adolph Zukor had dropped another unprofitable star. For it was well-known that Famous Players-Lasky considered Mary too expensive a luxury even before the Taylor case brought her name into the limelight. But Mary herself can't forget the Taylor case. While before the murder she had been rumored engaged to one Thomas Dixon and while since the affair she has been rumored engaged to Louis Sherwin, the scenario writer, Mary still insists that Taylor was the one big love of her life. That he has come to her since his death and assured her of his love. That her mother blighted the romance. That she is out tc get the million, earned while she was legally a minor, and to avenge the death of the man she loved. The Lost and Dead Love The lost and dead love. That, according to her own story, is the tragedy of her life. But the real tragedy is something more extraordinary, something even FREE Book nore hateful. The tragedy of Mary Miles Minter is one of stunted youth and innocence gone wrong. One impossibly sweet story after another has left her with a desire to star herself in a lurid drama, the sort of thing she couldn't act on the screen. Mary Miles Minter now is pursued by villainous and unnatural relatives. She is surrounded by gun men who are out to shoot her. Her mother ill and in the hospital? It is so much hokum, so much movie stuff to fool the public. Mary is hard. She wants her money and she wants the world to know she has been badly used. She isn't playing in any more pictures. She is simply playing a leading role in another one of those sensational stories. William Taylor never directed such a melodrama nor did Louis Sherwin ever invent such a scenario. Hokum, Love and Passion §)he talks glibly of Hokum and love drama and deathless passion. She rattles off all the ingredients of a scenario. As for the tangible issues at stake between her and her mother, they include an interest in a laundry in Hollywood md a house, now converted into apartnents, where the family once lived. Mary has been hiding in Altadena with Mr. and Mrs. Philip Hum. Mabel Normand, another figure in the Taylor ;ase, also lives in Altadena. Mabel las never said what she thinks of Mary. Mrs. Hum is a granddaughter ■>i Gertrude Atherton and Mr. Hum is a friend of Mr. Sherwin. Also around he premises is Hunter Kimbrough, 3rother-in-law of Upton Sinclair. Waiting somewhere for Mary are her nother, her sister, who couldn't be urned into a movie star, and an elderly ;randma who probably wonders what t is all about. Nearly Did "The Covered Wagon" ^M[eanwhile, to make things harder for Mary, a picture called The Covered Wagon is making a tremendous hit. It was originally purchased for Mary Miles Minter. But Mr. Lasky decided it would be too expensive to produce with such a high-salaried star. He offered Mary a chance to appear in it, with a reduction in salary, it is said. But, so the story goes, Mary refused the reduction. Or her mother refused it. Anyway, The Covered Wagon went on to glory without her. (Cont'd, p. 100) Containing complete story of the origin and history of that wonderful instrument — the Anyone Can Learn to Play SAXOPHONE This book tells you when to use Saxophone— singly, in quartettes, in sex . tettes, or in regular band; how toplay from cello parts in orchestra and many other things you would like to know. The Buescher Saxophone is the easiest ^ of all wind instruments to play. With1 the aid of the first three lessons, which are Bent without charge, the scale can be mastered in an hour; in a few weeks you can be playing popular masic. 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