Dear Reader #218

Dear Reader,

I’m pleased to say that the writing of Sunshine, book two in my Golden Age of Hollywood series, is going well, and that we hope to bring the publication date forward from April 2024 to earlier in the year. Watch this space 🙂

Sunset Boulevard: Notes on a Classic

”No one ever leaves a star. That’s what makes one a star.” – Norma Desmond, just before shooting the man who rejected her, Joe Gillis.

📸 William Holden as Joe Gillis and Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.

Along with H.B. Warner and Anna Q. Nilsson, Buster Keaton (pictured) appears as himself in Sunset Boulevard, as one of Norma Desmond’s bridge players. In a derogatory comment, Joe Gillis refers to the bridge players as “the waxworks”.

A Hollywood Murder

Continuing my investigation into the 1922 murder of movie director William Desmond Taylor.

Edward F Sands (pictured) worked as William Desmond Taylor’s valet prior to his current valet, Henry Peavey. A known embezzler and forger, Sands was also a serial deserter from the the U.S. military. In the summer of 1921, while Taylor was in Europe, Sands forged the movie director’s cheques and wrecked his car. Shortly after the murder, Sands disappeared and was never seen again. 

One theory suggests that Sands knew about Taylor’s past life as William Cunningham Deane-Tanner, antique dealer and wife deserter, and was blackmailing him. Another theory suggests that Sands knew that Taylor was bisexual (an aspect of Taylor’s life strongly hinted at, although not definitively proved) and was blackmailing him over his affairs with men.

As with Henry Peavey, one is tempted to ask why did Taylor employ such a person in the first place?

Nancy Olson

Nancy Olson made her movie debut in a Western, Canadian Pacific (1949). In a curious piece of casting, this colour movie featured Nancy, a blue-eyed blonde with her family’s roots firmly entrenched in Scandinavia, as a ‘half-breed’ Indian. Furthermore, her fiancé, Randolph Scott, was old enough to be her father. Welcome to the wonderful world of the movies, Nancy Olson.

August 1948. Nancy Olson “discovered”.

Nancy Olson certainly put her heart and soul into her movie debut playing Cecille Gautier in Canadian Pacific (1949). She appeared in ten scenes (plus minor continuity scenes) where she either hugged Randolph Scott or was involved in feisty exchanges with the other characters. In the whipping scene with Victor Jory (Nancy held the whip), she literally left her mark.

Why Nancy Olson became an actress, August 1948.

Columbo

Season One, Episode Seven: “Blueprint for Murder”. Patrick O’Neal played the murderer in this episode and Forrest Tucker the victim. The murder was not depicted, which led me to think that the “victim” would reappear later in the episode. The story contained a neat plot centred on a construction site. This was the only television episode of any series that Peter Falk directed.

Social media https://toot.wales/@HannahHowe

As ever, thank you for your interest and support.

Hannah xxx

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