Treasury of Xxth Century Murder: Famous Players, the Mysterious Death of William Desmond Taylor (A Treasury of Victorian Murder) [Hardcover]

Rick Geary (Author)

Book Description

Series: A Treasury of Victorian Murder | Publication Date: August 1, 2009

It s the early days of Hollywood, movies are just starting to come of their own and gain in popularity. New Stars are made. The movies are still silent but their stars certainly are not in the scandal sheets. Amidst this new boiling cauldron, William Desmond Taylor, a successful director at the upscale Famous Players Studio is found shot in his home.. Could it have been the star Mary Miles Minter or a former butler? But then, what about that strange past Taylor had? Another delectable mystery as only Geary can tell em!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The 10th in Geary's ongoing, multi–Eisner-nominated historical murder series, Famous Players tells the story of one of the first major Hollywood scandals. Silent film actor/director William Desmond Taylor was killed in his home in February 1922, not long after popular actor Fatty Arbuckle was also accused of murder. Geary presents the facts of the case in a series of historical chapters, offering up bungled investigative tactics, dead-end leads and a colorful cast of characters, all for the reader to analyze. His quirky b&w ink drawings are full of expression, recalling the melodrama of silent films and giving life to such characters as actresses Mary Miles Minter and Mabel Normand and other early film business insiders. The narrative presents this murder, along with the Arbuckle case, as the beginning of Hollywood's lurid history, which he evokes with a series of plates depicting actors whose tragic deaths are noted beneath. By including not only the Black Dahlia but Natalie Wood, River Phoenix and Phil Hartman, he drives home the point that Hollywood has never escaped its dark past. (Aug.)
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About the Author

An award-winning cartoonist and illustrator, Rick Geary has worked for Marvel Entertainment Group, DC Comics, Dark Horse Comics, and Heavy Metal, and has contributed to National Lampoon and The New York Times Book Review.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 80 pages
• Publisher: NBM Publishing, Inc. (August 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561635553
• ISBN-13: 978-1561635559
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,281,036 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars First dissapointment of the series., October 12, 2009

By 

Allen N. Rubinstein (Long Beach, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Treasury of Xxth Century Murder: Famous Players, the Mysterious Death of William Desmond Taylor (A Treasury of Victorian Murder) (Hardcover)

I've loved every volume of Rick Geary's "murder" series until now. They're always full of a great mixture of dread, wry observation and grisly, juicy details of real life cases, and I heartily recommend them. Sadly, this book is the series' first disappointment. I don't think William Desmond Taylor's story was the best subject because it seems no one has ever come close to knowing who killed him or why. Geary pulls out the various theories, but they all end up going nowhere. Bystanders half-remember some mysterious figure or another who then vanishes without a trace. There's no dramatic tension in it at all.

Geary obviously loves the old Hollywood setting, which he explored before in one of his outstanding Blanche stories, but the details he includes of how Hollywood developed and some of the other Hollywood scandals seem to be padding out a very thin story. In fact, Taylor himself ends up being kind of a blank. Geary needed to find some other kind of hook to make this one come to life.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Lively Dead End, August 2, 2009

By 

Brent R. Swanson "coffee shop inspector" (Crooper, Illinois) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Treasury of Xxth Century Murder: Famous Players, the Mysterious Death of William Desmond Taylor (A Treasury of Victorian Murder) (Hardcover)

One of Hollywood's most enduring legends was born in the shadowless hours between the evening of February 1st and the morning of February 2nd, when somebody entered the bungalow of director William Desmond Taylor, shot him dead, and then carefully laid-out the body on the floor and made a hasty exit. When the news broke the next morning, there were almost more stars in the bungalow than there were in heaven, forever clouding the crime scene in a case that would become foggier as Taylor's past was uncovered.

In the end, Taylor's identity peeled apart like an onion as he was revealed to be William Deane-Tanner. The careers of Mary Miles Minter and Mabel Normand were left in ruins, and Hollywood had another black eye to contend with in the wake of the Arbuckle scandal. And yet the murder was and remains unsolved, with too many suspects and too many motives. It is nearly the American equivalent of the Jack-the-Ripper mystery, except that only one murder victim was at the heart of the story.

Rick Geary has treated this mystery with the expected level of expertise. Look carefully at his deptictions of the characters involved and you'll see worried faces, averted eyes, fear and distrust, a whole roiling lake of dishonesty and distrust lurking beneath the Hollywood facade of the sunny and merry movie making community.

Whether he intended to or not, Geary does draw suspicion toward one of the Famous Players "spin control" team members (who was also close to Taylor), but as in real life, there is no conclusion. This book leaves the case as it is: an impenetrable shadow in Hollywood's labyrinthine history.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very well done, from every aspect., July 9, 2009

By 

B. Long (Tempe, AZ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Treasury of Xxth Century Murder: Famous Players, the Mysterious Death of William Desmond Taylor (A Treasury of Victorian Murder) (Hardcover)

Famous Players is very well done and is highly recommended. The story is presented in such a manner as to be very accessible to readers who have no previous knowledge of early Hollywood or any of the characters involved in the case. The book presents a very broad overview of the Taylor case, contains a relatively high degree of accuracy, and is presented in a straightforward, informative and crisp manner.

As a graphic novel evoking the Hollywood atmosphere of the 1920's, the book holds up quite well. Any affectionado of the Taylor case will naturally find things to quibble about (I wish Geary had included the Margaret Gibson confession), and the book could have been more enjoyable in color. But as an artistic general introduction to the complexities of the Taylor case, Famous Players is a success.