Coordinates: 34°03′39″N 118°16′24″W / 34.06091°N 118.27336°W / 34.06091; -118.27336
William Desmond Taylor (born William Cunningham Deane-Tanner, 26 April 1872 – 1 February 1922) was an Irish-born American actor, successful film director of silent movies and a popular figure in the growing Hollywood film colony of the 1910s and early 1920s. His murder on 1 February 1922, along with other Hollywood scandals such as the Roscoe Arbuckle trial, led to a frenzy of sensationalistic and often fabricated newspaper reports. In the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, the name Norma Desmond is a reference to both Taylor's middle name and one of his actress friends, Mabel Normand. Taylor's murder remains officially unsolved.
He was born William Cunningham Deane-Tanner into the Anglo-Irish gentry on 26 April 1872, in Carlow, Ireland. He was one of four children of a retired British Army officer, Major Kearns Deane-Tanner of the Carlow Rifles, and his wife, Jane. His siblings were Denis, Nell, and Daisy. The Home Rule MP Charles Kerins Deane Tanner was his father's youngest brother. He sailed for America in 1890, when he was 18 years old.
Mary Miles Minter (April 1, 1902 – August 4, 1984) was an American film actress of the silent film era.
Born Juliet Reilly in Shreveport, Louisiana, Minter was the younger daughter of Lilla Pearl Reilly (née Miles and later known as Broadway actress Charlotte Shelby) and her husband, Joseph Homer Reilly. At the age of five, she accompanied older sister Margaret on an audition only because no baby sitter was available, was noticed by the director and given her first part. After this she was frequently employed, widely noted for both her talent and visual appeal. In 1912, to avoid child labour laws in Chicago while her 10 year-old daughter was appearing in a play, Shelby obtained the birth certificate of a cousin and changed Juliet's name to Mary Miles Minter. She made her first feature film in 1915 at the age of 13, after which her career steadily grew.
Minter specialised in playing demure young women. With her photogenic "registration[clarification needed]", even features, "periwinkle blue eyes" and curly hair, she emulated and later rivaled Mary Pickford.
Mildred Harris (November 29, 1901 – July 20, 1944) was an American film actress. Harris began her career in the film industry as a popular child actress at age eleven. At the age of fifteen, she was cast as a harem girl in D. W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916). She appeared as a leading lady through the 1920s but her career slowed with the advent of the "talkies". She was critically praised for No, No Nanette in 1930, had a few bit parts in the early 1940s, and made her last appearance in the posthumously released Having A Wonderful Crime of 1945.
Harris has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6307 Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles, California. In 1992, she was portrayed by Milla Jovovich in the biographical film Chaplin.
Born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Harris made her first screen appearance at the age of eleven in the 1912 Francis Ford and Thomas H. Ince-directed Western short The Post Telegrapher. She followed the film with various juvenile roles, often appearing opposite child actor Paul Willis. In 1914, she was hired by The Oz Film Manufacturing Company to portray Fluff in The Magic Cloak of Oz and Button-Bright in His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz. In 1916, at the age of 15, she appeared as a harem girl in Griffith's epic Intolerance.
Claire Windsor (April 14, 1892 – October 24, 1972) was a notable American film actress of the silent screen era.
Windsor was born Clara Viola Cronk (nicknamed "Ola") in 1892 to George Edwin and Rosella R. Fearing Cronk in Marvin, Phillips County, Kansas of Scandinavian heritage. Her parents later moved to Cawker City, Kansas when she was a small child. She attended Washburn College in Topeka, Kansas from 1906 to 1907 (15). An early marriage to a man named David Willis Bowes, took place on May 13, 1914 in Denver, Colorado, resulted in the birth of a son, David William Bowes, born on September 9, 1916, and the couple soon went their separate ways. Bowes officially filed for divorce on September 14, 1920.(13)(14) Claire moved to Seattle, Washington with her parents where she entered and won a beauty contest. On the advice of a friend, Claire moved to California in hopes of making a career as an actress in the new medium of motion pictures. Initially receiving only bit parts, she was soon spotted by Lois Weber, a highly regarded and influential director and producer of silent films for Paramount Pictures. Weber immediately signed Windsor to a contract. Windsor costarred with Louis Calhern in Weber's The Blot (1921).
William Taylor was a brisk young sailor
Full of heart and full of play
Till his mind he did uncover
To a youthful lady gay
Four and twenty British sailors
Met him on the king's highway
As he went for to be married
Pressed he was and sent away
Chorus:
Folleri-de-dom, de- daerai diddero
Folleri-de-dom, domme daerai dae
Folleri-de-dom, de- daerai diddero
Folleri-de-dom, domme daerai dae
Sailor's clothing she put on
And she went on board as a man-o-war
Her pretty little fingers long and slender
They were smeared with pitch and tar
On the ship there was a battle
She amongst the rest did fight
The wind blew off her silver buttons
Breasts were bared all snowy white
Chorus
When the captain did discover
He said Fair maid, what brought you here
Sir, I'm seeking William Taylor
Pressed he was by you last year
If you rise up in the morning
Early at the break of day
There you'll find young William Taylor
Walking with his lady gay
Chorus
She rose early in the morning
Early at the break of day
There she spied young William Taylor
Walking with his lady gay
She procured a pair of pistols
On the ground where she did stand
There she shot bold William Taylor
And the lady at his right hand