Mary Miles Minter

Watched “Our America with Lisa Ling.” The episode is called “Sparkle Babies” and the subject is little pageant queens and their stage mothers. I anticipated the episode would make me sick for the same reason I don’t watch “Toddlers and Tiaras.” It was actually very interesting. The episode reminded me of the old Hollywood story of Mary Miles Minter and her mother and that how some things are always the same, such as desperate Hollywood dreams of parents being projected onto their children and the often sad consequences down the line.

Mary was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on April Fool’s Day in 1902 named Juliet Reilly. Her parents divorced when she was 5. Her mother, Charlotte, fancied herself to be a talented actress and moved with her two daughters, Juliet and Margaret, to New York and changed both their last names to her maiden name of Shelby. Charlotte worked on the New York stage in supporting roles. Juliet Shelby caught the eye of Broadway producer Charlie Frohman and began a stage career at the age of 6. Charlotte realized her daughters had the talent in the family and both girls began auditioning and being cast in films. Little Juliet caught the attention of the Gerry Society, a child protection agency of the era. This was when Juliet Shelby became Mary Miles Minter. Charlotte actually borrowed the birth certificate of a deceased niece to make her daughter officially 17 years old, instead of her actual age of 9. She was initially hired by Paramount to replace Mary Pickford as their star ingenue, at Mary Pickford’s recommendation. Her body of film work was fairly sparse, but she received good reviews for that work.

She is most famous for her connection to Paramount director William Desmond Taylor. Her first film with him was “Anne of Green Gables” in 1919. She claimed she had a romantic relationship with him, even though he was 30 years older than she was. He allegedly ended their affair for the same reason. In 1922, William Desmond Taylor was found dead, shot in the back. Mary and her mother Charlotte were both suspects at the time. Other suspects included Taylor’s valet, who had a history of embezzlement, forgery and U.S. military desertion and disappeared after the murder; silent film star Mabel Normand, who was the last person to see Taylor alive; and Normand’s drug dealers, who were supposedly angered by Taylor’s attempt to help Normand with her cocaine addiction. This came on the heels of the Fatty Arbuckle scandal and Hollywood was already knee-deep in tabloid gossip and embellished media coverage. A neighbor claimed to have seen a man leaving Taylor’s bungalow the day his body was discovered who smiled at her. An actress named Margaret Gibson confessed to the murder many years later, and although she appeared in films with Mary Miles Minter subsequent to the murder, there is no indication she had any connection to Taylor at the time of his death.

Mary did four more films for Paramount, but when her contract was up in 1923, they did not renew. Although the studio chose not to renew her contract, she received many other offers for work. She declined them all, stating she was never happy as an actress. She sued her mother in 1927 alleging faulty accounting of the money made in her Hollywood years. They settled out of court and Mary went on to invest in California real estate, making enough to live comfortably.

She proclaimed her love for Taylor until her death in 1984. The murder of William Desmond Taylor remains unsolved to this day.