Mary Miles Minter

Two books have been written about the unsolved murder of William Desmond Taylor. The first by director King Vidor's biographer, Sidney Kirkpatrick, in 1986, theorizes that Mary's jealous mother, Charlotte Shelby, committed the murder and used much of Mary's money to pay off various attorneys. A second book by Robert Giroux suggests that Taylor was killed by a hit man hired by a drug kingpin (Taylor was known for trying to drive drug dealers out of Hollywood).

In 1981 the 79-year-old Mary was brutally beaten and robbed in her home. A former servant was charged with the crime. She managed to recover.

After Mary's death, a second will named Margaret Kozma, a neighbor, as sole beneficiary of Mary's entire estate. Beneficiaries from the first will challenged this second will which was drawn up only two months before Mary's death when Mary was very vulnerable and quite ill. Ms. Kozma ended up claiming she was Minter's illegitimate daughter born in Paris in 1929, which is where Mary was residing at the time. In the early 1990s, the courts invalidated this second will and rejected Ms. Kozma's claim.

After Mary's contract at Paramount was bought out following the William Desmond Taylor scandal (for $350,000) in June of 1923, Mary was broached by other studios such as UFA and Pathe with film offers, but the scandal took its toll on Mary and she emotionally wanted out of the public eye. She never made another picture again.

The 1922 William Desmond Taylor slaying was the third major scandal to present itself in Hollywood. The first two were the drug-related suicide of beautiful young actress Olive Thomas in 1920 and the Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle sex party outrage that ended in the death of actress wannabe Virginia Rappe.

While at Realart Mary made a number of films including Anne of Green Gables (1919), Judy of Rogues' Harbor (1920), Jenny Be Good (1920) and The Little Clown (1921).

Her early pictures carried this theme with such titles as Lovely Mary (1916), Faith (1916) and Dimples (1916). Mary was described by the press as "of the screen as a sweet, pretty little girl with an abundance of blonde curls, a picture actress slightly bigger than a faint recollection, a little queen with delicate features and endearing young charms". She later worked for Adolph Zukor at Realart Pictures and one of her favorite directors was William Desmond Taylor.

She continued on the stage until 1915, when she started her film career. She was being groomed as a Mary Pickford star - a child of innocence.

Her salary, which started at $150 per week in 1915, increased to $2250 per week. At that time she also became involved with Taylor, but it is not known whether Taylor was looking out for his biggest star or if there was any real romance. Then everything crumbled.

The Gerry Society, which policed child performers, induced the over-worked 15-year-old stage star to change her name yet again in 1912 to protect her identity. The name "Mary Miles Minter" came from assorted family names on her mother's side.

Little Mary Miles Minter was a child star who was dominated by her mother. At the age of 5 she first appeared on the stage in the play "Cameo Kirby". From that time on she worked steadily without a single vacation. Her greatest stage success was in "The Littlest Rebel", with William Farnum and Dustin Farnum. In 1911, at the age of 9, a New York paper described her as ". . . a ragged, straight-haired, woman-faced little one".

At the time Mary (nee Juliet Reilly) entered show business around 1907, there was quite a stigma attached to the acting profession. Though Mary's parents were separated, her father forbade his wife and children to use his name of Reilly on stage. All three ended up with the last name of Shelby, which came from relatives on Mary's mother's side of the family. By 1911 "Little Juliet Shelby" became a well-known Broadway child actress.