Movieland Mystery Photo -- Updated

Los Angeles Times file photo

Well, this should be fun – for me, anyway. What’s the mystery? That’s for you to figure out. A typical room of a certain era, eh? [Update: Oct. 13, 10:56 a.m. Everybody seems to recognize this as William Desmond Taylor's apartment on Alvarado. Stay tuned for more photos!] Mary Mallory, Donna, Carol Gwenn, Steven Bibb, Anne Papineau, Allison Francis, Gregory Moore, Lee Ann, Thom and Megan, Zabadu and RJ are on the case! Periwinkle, James Curtis, Bruce Long, Elsie, Pamela Porter, Pete Nowell, Patricia van Hartesveldt and Rinky Dink are on the right track!    “Remember, you do not have to fight, you do not have to struggle, you only have to know.” "Know what?"

Hullo? What’s this hanging ’pon the wall, Holmes? “Remember, you do not have to fight, you do not have to struggle, you only have to know.”  What d’you spose that’s  all about? Let’s do this orderly like, Watson. On the table, a tray with a cocktail shaker and two cocktail glasses and two pieces of stemware. A plant and what appears to be a ‘phone book What’s this on the wall, then? Some sort of proclamation, eh? Appears to be a bit mussed or torn. Hum! What do you make of these photos? Theatrical people, I’d say. But I don’t recognize a single one of them, eh? Odd sort of cabinet, I must say. Very neatly kept, though. And this bit of bar apparatus? Looks like a kitchen to the rear. With some sort of mangy looking plant on the counter, wouldn’t you say? Wait a moment – what’s this? Looks like a jacket on the back of that chair. Hullo! What’s this, then? In the midst of this neat, tidy home, where nothing is out of place,  we find a burned match, ashes and a cigarette butt in this fancy tray? Someone must have forgotten their manners. Or isn’t there an ashtray about? My dear Holmes, it says Chesterfield! Here's our mystery chap with a mystery companion. Pity we can't find the original, but this is the best we can do.

Comments

[Pamela Porter]

The room in Greystone Mansion where Edward Doheny Jr & his "secretary" - Hugh Plunkett committed murder/suicide in 1929.

[Mark Heimback-Nielsen]

Is it Claude Rains apartment in 1933? :)

[Mary Mallory]

The room where William Desmond Taylor was killed.

[Donna]

William Desmond Taylor's bungalow?

[Carol Gwenn]

...or maybe it's William Desmond Taylor bungalow on Alvarado Street? That'd be my guess.

[Anne Papineau]

This is most challenging. It's a perfectly nice room, too small to be a dedicated movie set, approx. 1920. There are some theatrical associations from the photos displayed. Films were then silent, and the open book seems too big to be a theater script. A telephone book or some such? Could it be the home of the aforementioned Robert Warick? Or some dressing room bungalow? There appears to be a bath beyond. I don't recognize the portraits, so to attach a name is very tough. There appear to be drinking accoutrements -- does this belong to a man?

[Donna]

Oh and as for the mystery, William Desmond Taylor was murdered on 2-1-1922, still unsolved!

[Steven Bibb]

OOH! I have been hoping one day you would get around to the William Desmond Taylor murder case. That's his dining room area. On the table is the shaker where he made Orange Blossoms for himself and Mabel Normand. She was the last person to see him alive. I hope you publish some Times photos from the inquest. There are images, such as of actor Douglas Maclean and his wife, who heard the fatal shot, at the inquest, as well as other images that I have never seen before.

[Anne Papineau]

William Desmond Taylor?

[Allison Francis]

William Desmond Taylor's house.

[Gregory Moore]

Could it be William Desmond Taylor's apartment on Alvarado Court?

[Lee Ann, Thom, and Megan]

Here's a wild guess. Is this the William Desmond Taylor crime scene?

[zabadu]

William Desmond Taylor's house?

[Stacia]

It doesn't have the feel of the usual photos of a "murder room" or a room where some crime was committed, and the room itself looks decorative rather than lived-in, so I'm going to say it's from some 1930s article on an entertainer of yesteryear. Yesteryear as compared to the 1930s, not today.

[RJ]

William Desmond Taylor murder room? Didn't King Vidor figure out who did it before he passed away?

[periwinkle]

Could this be the Alvarado Court cottage where William Desmond Taylor breathed his last in 1922?

[James Curtis]

I'm wondering if this is the home of William Desmond Taylor--the scene of his still-unsolved murder in 1922.

[Anne Papineau]

Now I'm wavering between Bronco Billy Anderson and Francis X. Bushman. Was William D. Taylor wrong?

[Bruce Long]

The group photo (beneath the two partially obscured photos) is the cast and crew of "The Diamond From the Sky". There is a full page version of the photo on page 89 of Robert Giroux's "A Deed of Death."

[elsie]

William Desmond Taylor's bungalow?

[Arye (Leslie) Michael Bender]

Drinking rings prominent in the room, but there is little evidence of excess. The room's occupant, it would seem, is a person of orderly manner.

[Pamela Porter]

William Desmond Taylor's bungalow at the Alvarado Court?

Gah. :)

[pete nowell]

Wm. Desmond Taylor's crib

[Patricia van Hartesveldt]

I think this has something to do with the William Desmond Taylor murder case. It does not seem to be the room in which his body was found--no couch, no piano, no writing desk--but maybe another small room in Taylor's house? I seem to remember something about a cocktail shaker and two glasses being found...

[Rinky Dink]

William Desmond Taylor's bungalow (where he was murdered)?