Disgraced Minor Female Celebs

[VintageKell]

Kathleen Neill (also known as 'KC') is a model and occasional TV presenter (Co-host of the ”Shane&Shawn” episode on Fashion on SQUA.RE/ra and other such programmes) .... she poses for Photo 'Artists' as well as normal fashion shoots, etc and she seems to offer other services as well (if that's the the same KC Neill?) ..... Hmm. However it all went a bit 'Pete Tong (wrong )' when she took a job with photographer Zach Hyman, who has a habit of shooting nude models in public places ..... this time they chose to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY. As for his other sessions, the model arrived fully clothed, did a quick strip while Hyman clicked away, then got dressed.

As Neill moved to leave the museum, she was detained by an employee until police arrived. The guard explained (without a hint of irony in a museum full of nude portraits) “I had to make sure that girl was turned over to the police. There were little kids in here watching the whole thing.” This was the first time any of Hyman's models have been arrested.

Typically Hyman wasn't charged with any offence, but his model was charged with public lewdness[/URL]. Hyman and Neill said of the controversy: Hyman asked, “Why is this wrong? There were thousands of people in the Met today looking at nudes as art, but as soon as there is a real nude, it’s a big problem.”

Neill had the same question, which she posed to the security guard who detained her. “She told me there were naked statues everywhere,” the guard said. “I said, ‘Those statues are 400 years old. You’re from the 21st century.’ “ .... another case where 'Z' lister meets functionary.

A Judge later dismissed the charges against her .....

Pictures:






With Hyman ....

[VintageKell]

Olive Thomas was an American silent film actress and socialite, who has already featured in passing on this thread ..... so now to do her justice for her own problems. It says a lot about your career, when it can be said that you were best remembered for her marriage to Jack Pickford (brother of Mary Pickford) and her subsequent death. Anyway, lets not leap ahead and recount a bit of a background ... born Oliva R. Duffy into a working class Irish American family in a Pittsburgh-area steel town. Forced to leave school at age 15 to help support her mother and two younger brothers (she later got both of them jobs with Selznick Productions), she worked in a department store for $2.75 per week .... marriage must have looked like heaven, and aged 16 she gave it a try with Bernard Krugh Thomas. She worked as clerk until her not unexpected divorce two years later, and then she found work in a Harlem department store in New York.

Her breakthrough into show business came via the tried and trusted route of a beauty contest when she entered and won "The Most Beautiful Girl in New York City" contest. This gave her a modelling contract with artist Harrison Fisher and led to her featuring on the cover of the 'Saturday Evening Post' ..... enter Flo Ziegfield. Recommended by Fisher to consider Thomas, he took one look when she went and asked him for a job, liked what he saw (what wasn't there to like ), and gave her a role in the 'Ziegfeld Follies'.

Now being a divorced woman wasn't always an advantage at the time, but, in this case, the fact that she was more 'chased' than 'chaste' meant that she could earn more money by performing in the risqué male audience show called the 'Midnight Frolic' .... the show was staged 'after hours' on the roof garden of the New Amsterdam Theatre. .... the girls wore very skimpy costumes but weren't allowed to dance (unlike the main follies shows). The attraction was that these costumes often only consisted of balloons, allowing the all male audience the opportunity to burst the balloons with their cigars.

Whilst this was most definitely a scandalous occupation it paid very well and offered a number of the girls the kinda celebrity in a male society that could take an ambitious girl places (other alumni of these stag shows were Céleste Mogador, who became the Duchess of Chibrillon, Liane de Pougy, who became Princess Ghika, and Sarah Bernhardt, who became a legendary actress and who also has a posting here). With all the very wealthy men who attended these shows, she was soon attracting the kind of admirers who can push a career in the right direction and as well as the expensive gifts she received from her admirers, (it was rumoured that the German Ambassador had given her a $10,000 string of pearls), she attracted more useful contacts ... these included Peruvian artist Alberto Vargas.

She posed nude for Vargas, and this led to a film contract (doesn't it always?) where she was the leading lady in the 'Harry Fox' movie series. Thereafter she made numerous movies ... and during this early part of her career she secretly married into the Pickford clan with 'Jack Pickford'. Oddly the announcement of their engagement came a year after they had actually married (they had eloped in October 1916). She explained this with the statement "I didn't want people to say that I'm succeeding because of the Pickford name."

Many of her roles were as a "baby vamp" and in 1920, Thomas once again played a teenager in the movie 'The Flapper', the term which became her sobriquet thereafter. She would go on to play the flapper role in her final films including 'A Youthful Folly', and her final film 'Everybody's Sweetheart'. The formula proved successful and by the time of her death, Thomas was making $3,000 a week.

As usual, we have to look to the private life to find the reason why she qualifies here .... Thomas was renowned for her wild partying, which increased after marrying the alcoholic Pickford (alcoholism ran in the Pickford family). Increasingly 'sweet lady alcohol' began playing a large role in Thomas' life as well, fueling most of the dramatic and public rows with her husband, and probably the cause of her series of car crashes as well (three automobile accidents in two years, one seriously injuring a nine year old, led to her eventually hiring a chauffeur).

All the drugs, drinking, and fighting, took its toll, and with their marriage allegedly on the point of breaking up, the couple decided to take a second honeymoon and headed on a working holiday in for Paris, France. Returning to their room in the Hotel Ritz after yet another heavy night of drinking and drugs, Pickford either fell asleep or was outside the room for a final round of drugs.

Thomas went to bed, she may have taken cocaine that night, though it was never proven, but whatever, the intoxicated and tired Thomas apparently accidentally ingested a large dose of a mercury bichloride liquid solution. This had been prescribed for Jack Pickford's 'chronic syphilis' ... it was supposed to be applied externally, not ingested. She was taken to the American Hospital in Paris, but died a few days later. Almost immediately after her death, rumors began that she tried to commit suicide, or that she had been murdered. A police investigation followed as well as an autopsy, and Thomas' death was ruled accidental.

Trivia:

• She was a Ziegfeld girl and the original flapper.
• She was also connected loosely to the Thomas Ince scandal because her was one of her directors .... regular visitors to this thread will recognise him as the man who died in mysterious circumstances on Randoph Hearst's yacht.
• According to Mary Pickford, Florenz Ziegfeld never forgave Jack for taking her away from the Follies.
• Thomas' ghost is said to haunt the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York City.

Quotes:

Screenwriter Frances Marion remarked: "...I had seen her often at the Pickford home, for she was engaged to Mary's brother, Jack. Two innocent-looking children, they were the gayest, wildest brats who ever stirred the stardust on Broadway. Both were talented, but they were much more interested in playing the roulette of life than in concentrating on their careers."

Thomas said of her marriage: "He's always sending me something and then I send him something back. You see, we have to bridge the distance in some way. At first I just couldn't get used to the idea of living this way, but I suppose one gets used to anything, given time. When we were together we used to use up the time fighting over things. I'd say, 'You were out with this person or that person,' and he'd come back at me in the same way, and we'd have a lively time of it, but we're over that now. We know that we can't sit home by the fireside ALL the time just because we cannot be together."

Pictures:

She has a thread here already .... so just a few illustrative (apologies if dupes), and any additional pictures should go on her thread.

[VintageKell]

Liane de Pougy (born Anne Marie Chassaigne) was an actress, and as was as mentioned in the previous post, was a Folies Bergères dancer of some renown. She started life being brought up and raised in a nunnery .... this is the kind of start that many of our girls rose above .... or didn't

The first step in the rise up the greasy pole to stardom was the teen marriage which she managed with some aplomb by eloping with Armand Pourpe, a naval officer when she was just sixteen years old. This was somewhat spoilt by the fact that she was pregnant already when they married As might be expected she was a poor mother, ‘My son was like a living doll given to a little girl’, sadly he grew up just in time for WWI where he died as an airman.

The marriage was an utter disaster with a marital rape on the honeymoon followed by violence .... she later said that he was a brute who beat her regularly (in all fairness his version of these events was never recorded) ... in any event, this behaviour was the excuse for her taking her first lover when he was posted away to Marseilles. She aimed high from the start by choosing the Marquis Charles de MacMahon (a military family, of Scots/Irish descent, who had supported Bonnie Prince Charlie and lost their lands when he fled to France) ..... they were caught in bed together by her husband who shot her with a revolver, wounding her on the wrist.

She obviously thought that 'enough was enough', and within an hour, she had sold the family piano for 400 francs, and abandoned her husband and son for a life in Paris ...she had no obvious talents (well she couldn't dance or sing ) so she resorted to what she could sell and she became a part time prostitute with some 'acting' as well, when she could get parts. It is often stated that she became a user of both cocaine and opium at this time (actually not all that unusual for girls in her position in the late Victorian period).

At about this time she was picked up by the Countess Valtesse de la Bigne a well known courtesan (whose monumental bed was made of varnished bronze), and who 'trained' her in the arts of love .... she also cultivated an interest in paintings, books and poetry. She continued with her interest in the stage and made minor appearances in the chorus of Folies-Bergere in Paris, in St. Petersburg, and in cabaret clubs in Rome, and the French Riviera. She retained her role at the Folies, and became a noted hedonist, in a time and city of hedonism, and took as her last name as 'de Pougy', after the last name of one of her paramours, a Comte or Vicomte de Pougy.

She was being tutored in "acting" by Actress Sarah Bernhardt (who also features in this thread) and who advised her that when she was on stage, it would be best to keep her "pretty mouth shut".... she entered into a lesbian affair with writer Natalie Clifford Barney who recounted it in her 1901 novel 'Idylle Saphique'. Barney had apparently turned up in costume as the 'page of love' sent by Sappho and won de Pougy's affections.

Quite late in life, she met and married Prince Georges Ghika (a Romanian nobleman) in 1920 ... and although this marriage ended in separation (though not a divorce), she became Princess Ghika ... not shabby for a convent girl In fact she had already turned back to religion (after the death of the son who she had abandoned), and she had become a tertiary (lay supporter), of the Order of Saint Dominic, known as 'Sister Anne-Mary'. She also became involved in the 'Asylum of Saint Agnes', devoted to the care of children with birth defects.

She died at Lausanne, Switzerland, still a 'Princess' on 26 December 1950 aged 81.

Trivia:

• Late in life she published a couple of light stories (L'Insaisissable and La Mauvaise part-Myrrhille).
• By the time of her lesbian affair, she was one of the most famous women in France.
• It was claimed in the US press that she 'achieved her earliest notoriety by attempting suicide for love of a scientist whose name is famous throughout Europe'

Pictures:

[VintageKell]

Kartika Oktavini Gunawan (aka 'Ika') who was born in Jakarta Indonesia is a model and 'a very naughty girl' ..... well at least as far as the Mullahs of that Islamic paradise on earth are concerned. Her crime? Well in that majority Muslim country (its also has the largest Muslim population of any country) that has produced its own 'Al Qaeda' style terrorism, public nudity (or even kissing in public) is something of a 'no no', although with a large Hindu, Christian, Buddhist and Animist minority population they can't totally proscribe every interaction between men and women (much as they would like to) ... so when in 2006, Pl*yboy announced that it was going to have an Indonesian edition of Pl*yboy, as can be expected there was something of an outcry.

The MMI (Majelis Mujahideen Indonesia) chairman, Irfan Awas, declared that Pl*yboy was pornographic and its publication in Indonesia would damage the nation's morals, even without nudity. Another islamist Alawi Usman, who had led the 2000 attack upon Cikoko police station said: "If within a week they are still active and sell the magazine, we will take physical action."

But, with the same hypocrisy that leads Saudi Princes to come to the West for Alcohol and Prostitutes, and then go home and allow women to be beaten for 'immodesty' or other 'crimes', the Indonesian press and blogosphere, entered into much fevered (and somewhat hopeful) speculations as to the exact nature of its contents, and who would feature as the centre spread.

Well all was revealed when in April 2006, 'Ika' was revealed as the Pl*ymate and the 'Miss April 2006' for the Indonesian edition of Pl*yboy. Indonesian radio stations buzzed with callers, with many of these complaining about Pl*yboy's lack of raunchiness.

Now someone made the statement that 'we have an answer for the question "Where is the world's most boring Pl*yboy?"' .... well I suspect that this edition is 'a contender' with Singapore for that title, because the centrefold posed in non-see-thru lingerie for her photo-spread (because Pl*yboy Indonesia features no nudity ). One caller to a radio station quipped: "It's sinful to read Pl*yboy if there's no nudity!" However by posing even in this modest manner when she became the inaugural Pl*ymate of the Month and centerfold of the premiere issue of Pl*yboy Indonesia. PMOM (issue 1, volume 1), she broke the mold.

However with fame comes risk and 'Ika' also found like others on this thread, that the Indonesian police are quick to act to protect 'Muslim' morals ... they arrested this inaugural 'Miss April' and the Pl*yboy Editor-in-chief Erwin Arnada in June 2006 on indecency charges .... they faced a possible jail term of a maximum of two years, eight months, as it was illegal for sexually explicit material to be filmed or photographed, but they were lucky it wasn't after the introduction of the more controversial '2008 Anti-Pornography law' in Indonesia, which has created much harsher sentences (as much as eight yrs! ).

Her eventual fate was not assured, especially as after less than a week after initial publication, FPI members violently attacked the offices of the magazine ..... however Pl*yboy Indonesia's reaction to this situation (by relocating to Bali (Hindu dominated) and the June edition featured much more scantily models, featuring "Bali-based French beauty Amar Doriane, whose seductive poses in see-through lingerie make her April predecessor Kartika Gunawan look like a naive schoolgirl", as well as also showcasing 'Joanna Alexandra' flaunting "an alluring gaze as skimpy outfits expose her midriff and thighs" ..... well that's how 'AsiaMedia' put it) ... which suggests that she was let off with a ticking off or fine.

A later interview confirmed it

A Jakarta girl, Kartika Oktavini Gunawan, or Ika for short, says she just likes being photographed and doing it for Pl*yboy was no different than for any other magazine. She said her family was fully behind her decision to pose. In her home town of Sorong, Pl*yboy wasn't available so she sent her father a copy. Her father is now famous in the town, she says, and most people there are supportive of her.

After the storm that erupted over the magazine's publication Kartika Oktavini Gunawan says she has no regrets. Her career has benefited and she is happy. The interviewer asks "Have you ever suffered intimidation from those who oppose Pl*yboy" and she responds in the negative saying that even her friends don't recognise the photos of her in the magazine.

Pictures:

Modesty itself lads ..... all done in the best possible taste!

[VintageKell]

Dorothy Sebastian born 'Stella Dorothy Sabiston', was an American film and stage actress. Like many a young gal of the day, she wanted to be a star (come to think of it nothing much has changed ) but her parents weren't much impressed with this ambition so at the tender age of 15 she fled from Alabama to New York hoping to hit Broadway. Nowadays, she would have been trailed by a posse of social or probation workers, but in those days, she was left on her own (more or less) ... so armed solely with a Southern drawl you could "cut with a knife", and a lot of chutzpah, she went the rounds of theatrical agents, until eventually she landed her first job in show business as a chorus girl in the revue "George White's Scandals" in June 1924 as a 'Ziegfeld' girl.

She eventually got a film test at 'United Studios' and her first movie was a short in 1925, and she went on to make over 60 more movies of which the highlights are 'Anna Karenina' in 1927 (in which she was an uncredited Spectator at Races), and her final film role was 'The Miracle of the Bells' in 1948 (also uncredited as Miss Katie Orwin), which kinda sums up her career .... although I might be being a little harsh as she did star in 'Our Dancing Daughters in 1928 with Joan Crawford, and 'Spite Marriage' in 1929 with Buster Keaton.

She went into semi-retirement after marrying marrying Hopalong Cassidy star William Boyd in 1935 but following the divorce in 1939 she attempted to resume her 'career' but never achieved the heights (or is that lows) of her former roles and by 1947, with offers of movie parts almost dried up, Sebastian married businessman Harold Shapiro to whom she remained married and living in Miami Beach.

Her appearance here is due to the three court appearances and two affairs which titillated the press at the time, starting with the first court appearance in 1929, when she made a brief court appearance after the state tax department charged her with attempting to to evade paying taxes on her film earnings.

Then in 1937 she appeared at a Red Cross benefit in San Francisco, and failed to pay her hotel bill. She later contended that the promoter should have met the $100.00 expense. This was after the Plaza Hotel took out the suit, charging "defrauding an innkeeper", which initially went in her favour when she was awarded $10,000 by a San Diego court in 1940 on the grounds of a malicious prosecution. However an appeal by the hotel to the State Supreme Court of California reversed the decision and she didn't get the $10,000.

And finally in 1938 she was found guilty of a DUI (driving under the influence) in a Beverly Hills Court. She tried to attribute her car crash on an allergic reaction of garlic, with the three or four glasses of wine she admitted she had consumed a few hours earlier at a party in Buster Keaton's house ... the old name dropping and allergic reaction excuse She told the court that she believed that the police had wrongly assumed from this reaction that she had been drinking even more recently but that a meal of spaghetti and garlic had been responsible for "retaining the intoxicating odor of the wine". The excuse got the short shrift it deserved and she was given a 30-day suspended jail sentence and paid a fine of $75.

Then she also had the 'celebrity affairs' as well, with rumours of a liaison with British magnate and politician Lord Beaverbrook, who she met at a party at the Ritz Hotel. The apartment was owned by financier Otto Kahn, one of the backers of 'Paramount Pictures', and it was after this that she was offered a film test She also had an affair with Buster Keaton which lasted from 1929-1935.

Trivia:

• For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Dorothy Sebastian has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6655 Hollywood Blvd.
• Her nickname was 'Little Alabam'
• At the end of her five-year contract with MGM, she asked for a salary raise from $1,000, but was refused and was left out of contract which was when her career faltered.

Pictures:

She has a small thread but with some nice pictures here, so just illustrative pics only. Apologies if any dupes posted here, I try not to post any but it can be difficult. As usual any follow up pictures should be posted on her main thread

[VintageKell]

When you are aiming for the top, then it helps to set your sights high, and so Michelle Marie Gopaul is variously described as a model, singer, or actress ... in any event shes been a very busy girl lately. Gopaul's credits include an 'American Express TV commercial' and a small role in the Nicole Kidman-Sean Penn movie, 'The Interpreter'. Far too busy in fact to have a baby the usual 'Boring' way ... that nine months thing, whats that all about? ... and that unsightly body, the tummy lines .. WTF? Yuk!! So rather than go through all that nonsense like a normal person, special people should be able to bypass the ugly stuff, and jump to the VIP section so to speak

So first you tell your friends that you are pregnant by an ex boyfriend who you want back ..... cue gushing fanfare of congratulation from friends (if not your family who are Indian and would have hoped you were married to a good Indian boy). Then you mention on your 'MySpace page' that you are pregnant and are organizing a baby shower. Maybe you should also register on the 'Babies "R" Us' Web site, for gifts for a child said to be due on October the 30th 2010 .... "It's a girl!! I can't wait until my little pincess [sic] Valentina arrives!!" boasts the message on the site .... and now your set ... just a small pillow in your pants near the date and your ready to be a mummy.

Hang on ain't there just one glaring hole in this cunning ruse? Yeah the baby, you definitely need one of them. Adopt? nah, too much paperwork and references, and besides as we have seen before, minor functionaries and celebs just don't mix ... they may not understand the need to keep it quiet .. or the pillow stuffed up your jumper.

So what else can an aspiring superstar do? Why its obvious, why didn't I think of it from the off? Firstly you set up set up a phony casting call for an infant in a foreign country - Toronto in Canada looks good. Then you advertise for parents to bring an infant to "star" in a 'Bollywood movie' with a bounty of $7,500 for a baby girl "of Indian background." Once you have got a number of couples to apply, you con a workman (note the use of great acting skills?) into letting you into a video company's office space by claiming you'd rented it, but had lost your key and needed to get in .... then pick a likely looking child, get it away from the star struck parents and make your getaway. Where could it go wrong?

Well the getaway has a flaw ... you need unidentifiable wheels but renting is risky, still a taxi driver might work .... so you carry out your plan, sneak out a back door, and whisk the child away in a cab. Then things start going wrong. You order the cabbie, to step on the gas and run red lights (just like the movies) but the cabbie one Jaswinder Singh, says no. As he later reports to the Toronto Star "I refused and told her that she was out of her mind," but he drops you at a restaurant, where four friends (three girls and a man) are waiting for you in a car. By now the alarm is out, a full police hunt is underway and when a man reports a suspicious sighting the police swoop, your arrested, the baby is recovered and you are charged with kidnapping. Your mother attends the Toronto court hearing and cries throughout the proceedings and tells the papers that she was "very sad" but declines to make furthers comments. You are arraigned without bail.

All a bit far fetched?

Nope, that is the tale of the darkside of a minor celebrity lifestyle and is taken from the news and celebrity gossip sites that reported the events ..... Gopaul, pleaded guilty to abducting an infant in court in April 2011 and was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, on top of the three months she has spent in custody since her arrest on Dec. 31, 2010. In mitigation she told the court in a written statement that her actions were the result of a spiralling string of lies in which she had told to keep her boyfriend from leaving .. she was sorry and that "More than anything, I wish I could go back and erase it all.” ... I bet.

Trivia:

• Her Myspace page is still up and you can hear her music and her asking for you to "spread the word" .... etc if you have the mind to.

Pictures:

[VintageKell]

I am finishing off the informal series of postings surrounding the girls touched by the scandal surrounding the murder of William Desmond Taylor with the Shelby's (mother and daughter) starting with Margaret Shelby.

She was an American stage and motion picture actress, and daughter of actress Charlotte Shelby, older sister of silent film star Mary Miles Minter ... she was born Margaret Reilly (and aka Alma M. Fillmore) and was pitched into theatre at a very early age as a successful child actress, hitting Broadway in the play 'The Fibber'. ... By 1916 she and her sister Mary, both still in their teens, were acting together in the film 'Faith' and were both quite well known.

Although the older sister, and with a lot of experience on stage, she spent most of her film career in supporting roles in some of her younger sister's films .... I should imagine that this must have been difficult at times So when her sister was swept up in the scandal surrounding the murder of noted film director William Desmond Taylor in 1922, and was driven out of Hollywood by the press revelations about her long running affair with the older man, it was a tragedy for Ms Shelby and left her career in tatters, with just small bit parts in various productions. By the time of the talkies in the late 1920's her career was finished.

A brief marriage to Hugh Fillmore, a grandson of President Millard Fillmore, ended in divorce in 1927 and by the late 1930's she was an alcoholic and was on drugs for her clinical depression, and this may explain some of her later actions and statements. First she ran off to Yuma, Arizona with one Emmett J. Flynn in March 1937 where they married, but this marriage was annulled a month later (April 27, 1937) with Flynn dieing the following June.

Then in June 1937 Shelby filed a lawsuit against her mother Charlotte Shelby, alleging financial mismanagement. In the suit she claimed that Mrs Shelby had stolen $48,750 (roughly almost $2 million in 2007 inflation-adjusted terms) belonging to her from her childhood earnings, from a safety deposit box in bank in Los Angeles .... the case went to trial, to much publicity, and the jury awarded her $20,000 in compensation.

And finally, in a last stab at her mother, to whom she had never reconciled on September 13, 1938, she publicly accused her mother of having killed William Desmond Taylor in 1922, because of the long affair with Mary. This accusation was unproven, and may have just been malicious speculation and trouble making, and perhaps thankfully, the increasingly erratic Margaret died of alcohol related illness in 1939, aged just 39.

Trivia:

• In 1916 the Sisters set up a widely publicized "hotel" for stray dogs on the ample grounds of their Santa Barbara, California home.

Pictures:

[VintageKell]

Finally, in the penultimate posting on the ladies of this thread touched, by the scandal surrounding the murder of William Desmond Taylor, finishes with the Charlotte Shelby, mother of both the actresses, Mary Miles Minter and Margaret Shelby. Born Lily Pearl Miles, she was a successful and popular Broadway actress in her youth, although not a star, and echoes of her striking beauty can still be seen in her pictures .... she made three films in 1915 and 1916, before she gave up her own acting aspirations in order to manage both of her daughter's blossoming Broadway (mainly Margaret), and resultant film careers (Both Mary and Margaret).

When Taylor was killed suspicion turned first to Mary Miles Minter, and then her mother, and the press produced a string of sensationalized and often fabricated newspaper reports which fed the scandal for decades. She was perhaps the most directly implicated in the murder, as it was her daughters reputation which risked ruination, if news of the caddish Taylor's long term dalliance with Mary Miles Minter ever leaked to the general public.

She fled to Europe during the initial investigations, but as she knew the Los Angeles county district attorney socially, he may have already have discounted her as a suspect. She ended up spending many years in Europe, both to escape the efforts of his successor to question her and to avoid much of the adverse press attention. It turned out that Mrs Shelby owned a .38 calibre revolver, along with an unusual brand of bullets, which were similar to, but not identical to, the one which had killed Taylor. Such was the press hysteria when this was eventually leaked to the public years after the murder, that Mrs Shelby reportedly threw the pistol into a Louisiana bayou. This just roused the press to another bout of interest, but nothing further came of it.

She however seems to have been singularly resilient, with a very strong personality and self belief ... so unlike her daughters, she appears to been able to handle the long running bad publicity without any outward sign of a problem. This personality was often displayed in her domineering and manipulative management of her daughters' Broadway and Film careers. For many years after the events of 1922 she and her daughters were entangled in bitter legal disputes over how she had handled their earnings as young actresses. Margaret died of alcohol related illness in 1939, after winning $20,000 in compensation for her lost childhood earnings, but Mary reconciled fully with her mother.

Almost twenty years after the murder, Los Angeles district attorney Buron Fitts concluded there wasn't any evidence for an indictment of Shelby and recommended that the remaining evidence and case files be retained on a permanent basis (all of these materials subsequently disappeared).

She died 13 March 1957, Santa Monica, California .... apparently unrepentant about anything ... 'it was all circumstantial' could have been on her tombstone

Footnote: In 1999 it was reported in some quarters that in 1964 actress Margaret 'Gibby' Gibson had made a deathbed confession to Taylor's murder, however no independent confirmation has ever emerged so the speculation goes on.

Trivia:

• A book written by Sidney Kirkpatrick, director King Vidor's biographer, about the unsolved William Desmond Taylor slaying, theorized that the highly jealous Charlotte, may have disapproved of her daughter's passionate relationship with Taylor because she was losing control of her daughter's career. However, all the evidence is that Taylor had finished with Minter long before he was murdered and she would surely have known that.
• On September 13, 1938, Margaret Shelby publicly accused her mother of having killed William Desmond Taylor in 1922, because of the long affair with Mary. This accusation was unproven, and may have just been malicious speculation and trouble making as they had a very poor relationship.
• She was originally buried in a private and locked section at Forest Lawn Memorial cemetery but later Mary had her remains cremated and scattered (possibly because of ghoulish interest generated by the Taylor murder)
• Mary was visited by King Vidor and in a Sunset Boulevard moment, surrounded by picture memoirs of her ruined film career, is tearfully said to have alleged that her mother had 'Killed everything I loved' .... read into that what you want

Pictures:

[VintageKell]

This is a one off information posting, to collect in one spot, all the girls who have featured on this thread in relation to this famous murder and the long running resultant scandal (as well as for other matters in many cases ).

• Actress: Charlotte Shelby
• Actress: Margaret Shelby
• Actress: Kathlyn Williams
• Actress: Edna Purviance
• Film Comedienne & Actress: Mabel Normand
• Stage and Silent Film Actress: Margaret "Gibby" Gibson
• Early Silent Diva: Mary Miles Minter

I hope this satisfies any interest the previous two posts have generated

This thread is not a true crime thread as such ... the Taylor murder has thousands of forums elsewhere for those who want to discuss it ... Can I Ask You To Please Use Them. Here is the full story with evidence etc

[VintageKell]

May Anderson is a Danish model who is perhaps best known (where she is known at all), for her modelling for 'Victoria's Secret' lingerie and the 'Sports Illustrated Swimsuit' Issue. A photographer spotted her on a Copenhagen street at age thirteen (Hmm?), anyway when she was 18 she relocated to New York. She has made all the correct minor celebrity manoeuvres to qualify here ....

Firstly, there was the court battle after she sustained injuries when a garbage truck bumped the car she was in and she broke her collarbone, her wrist in three places, and received injuries to her pelvis ... she eventually was awarded undisclosed damages (but likely to be a large amount) from the City of New York.

Then there was the controversy .... she persisted in modelling real furs which made her a target of animal rights activists, who used various tactics, including notably in 2003, when she was sprayed in the face with tear gas during Fashion Week in Paris.

And finally the deportation ..... when in April 2006, when aboard a flight to Miami she was, according according to the Miami-Dade police "loud and disruptive all throughout the flight" and when challenged by a flight attendant she hit him. She was arrested but continued her abusive towards police officers as they took her to hospital to check for signs of alcohol or drug abuse, then booked into Miami-Dade County Jail, where she was charged with battery, resisting arrest and disorderly intoxication.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials deported her to the Netherlands after she spent two nights in jail and if she returned to the United States, she would have to stand trial. She then did the obligatory defence by TV with interviews in which she claimed the she had somehow lashed out accidentally at the flight attendant while she slept, because he was bent over her attempting to adjust her seat ... and as for the police, well obviously she did not understand the charge, and was separated from her girlfriend (oh, yes she has one of those too ) and still sleepy etc. Yeah, right ... 'Tired and Emotional'!

Of course if this had been me or you, I would never be allowed back to the US, but even minor celebs can get better treatment than 'Josie nobody' and she was offered a deal to take an anger management course, and all charges would be dropped and her immigration status would be untouched. She was even allowed to take the course in the US and therefore carry on her career.

Trivia:

• She continued to be 'the face of the Danish tourism program: "Who doesn't like a Dane?".
• Her agency tried to distance her and themselves from the bad publicity by changing her official booking name to 'Lykke May'.
• Her agency Elite Model Management is also the same group who manage Karen Mulder and Jessica White who have both also featured here for anger issues.

Pictures:

I didn't spot any existing thread, apologies if there is one ....