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Hollywood is yours. To unlock the secret history of Hollywood, simply go to patreon.com

slash ataboy's secret or follow the link in the show notes of this episode. The year was still young.

The year was still young.

1922 had swept in with frost and promise, giving way to brighter evenings.

But the chill of scandal was keeping everyone on their toes.

In November just passed, Hollywood had been rocked by the news that one of their gods,

Roscoe Arbuckle, had been shaken from his pedestal by an accusation of rape and assault,

and Hollywood had fallen with him.

Olive Thomas' accidental death in 1920, a mere case of mistakenly drinking mercury bichloride had turned

from tragedy to transgression, as her and husband Jack Pickford's notorious private lives had been prized

open like a clam and spread across the front pages in its wake.

The purists have been the first to speak out, their conservative minds eager to denounce

the film industry as immoral, corrupt, and now dangerous. Stars were under strict orders to keep their lives clean and in order. Pecadillo's

were discouraged until the situation was under control. Paranoia was hanging on the air like

cigarette smoke. The last thing anyone needed was another scandal. On Alvarado Street, actor and director William Desmond Taylor was on his best behavior,

almost. It was the height of prohibition, and yet there was gin and sweet vermouth in the cupboard,

enough to keep the orange-blossom gin cocktails flowing. His companion for the evening was Mabel Normand,

the comic actress with whom Taylor had been in love for years. They'd bonded over

their love of books, and many evenings have been spent discussing words on the page over drinks.

But something was holding them back from the grandest of love affairs. Perhaps it was the

troubles, her troubles, the ones he'd been working so hard to solve, the ones that

...