We haven't touched on the mysterious case of Thomas Harper Ince yet.
Wikepedia
Ince was born November 6, 1882 and died under very mysterious circumstances on November 19, 1924. Ince was known as the father of the Western and was involved with the Hollywood studio system.
Ruby's musings
The
Oneida (Whatever became of the yacht?)
The circumstances of his death was a Hollywood sensation. He was invited aboard
William Randolph Hearst's lavish 280-foot yacht, the
Oneida (the nickname given to the
Oneida shortly afterward: "William Randolph's Hearse.") to celebrate his 42nd birthday. Among Hearst's guests that weekend were his mistress
Marion Davies, film star
Charlie Chaplin, newspaper columnist
Louella Parsons, author
Elinor Glyn, film actresses
Aileen Pringle,
Jacqueline Logan,
Seena Owen,
Margaret Livingston (supposedly Ince's mistress),
Julanne Johnston, actor, choreographer and ballet dancer
Theodore Kosloff and
Dr. Daniel Carson Goodman, Hearst's film production manager (there were at least 15 guests on board).
Wikepedia
Davies welcoming Ince aboard the
Oneida. (Pretty creepy picture when you think about what is going to happen in a few hours).
At dinner on Sunday night the group celebrated Ince's birthday. Shortly thereafter he fell ill. There was liquor on board, Ince did admit to drinking even though he had a heart condition and his doctor recommended he not drink. This was during prohibition, imagine Hearst being busted for having liquor on board his yacht. Ince was taken ashore in San Diego, accompanied by Dr. Goodman, who was still a licensed, though non-practicing physician. He was then put on a train bound for Los Angeles. While en route Ince's condition worsened. At Del Mar, he was taken from the train, and then to a hotel where he was treated by Dr. T. A. Parker and nurse Jessie Howard. Later he was taken to his home at 1051 Benedict Canyon, Beverly Hills where he died the next day, Wednesday, November 19, from some sort of heart ailment. Sounds plausible so far, but...this is Noirish L.A.
The front page of the Wednesday morning
Los Angeles Times, had another story: '"
Movie Producer Shot on Hearst Yacht!," headlines that mysteriously vanished in the evening edition. I would love to read the morning edition!
The story goes that Hearst thought Davies was having an affair with Chaplin. In order to keep tabs on them he invited them aboard the yacht. He found them in bed and had a gun. Hearst was known to carry a diamond-studded revolver on the boat, with which he delighted in shooting seagulls. Davies screams awakened Ince, who came running, and was shot by a bullet intended for Chaplin. (There are several other versions of the tale, most involving Hearst mistaking him for the much smaller Chaplin). There were witnesses on board the yacht, including Charlie Chaplin’s secretary
Toraichi Kono, who saw the bullet hole in Ince’s head when he was carried off the
Oneida.
It was rumored that Hearst provided
Nell Ince (Thomas' wife) with a trust fund before she left for Europe. She refused an autopsy and ordered her husband's immediate cremation. Rumor also has it that Hearst paid off Ince's mortgage on his Château Élysée apartment building in Hollywood. Louella Parsons was rewarded with a lifetime contract with the Hearst corporation.
Wikepedia
At the Culver City studios Ince founded in 1918, several reports have surfaced about Ince's ghost having been seen on the premises. The first to encounter him were two workmen who looked up to see a man in an odd, bowler-type hat watching them from the catwalks above Stage 1-2-3. The workmen spoke to the man, he frowned and then turned and walked into the second floor wall. In 1988, a workman doing renovations was reportedly confronted by an apparition that angrily stated, "I don't like what you're doing to my studio!" before vanishing into the wall. The description of the ghost appeared to fit that of Thomas Ince.
The Culver Studios
Culver Studios 1920.
Here are some additional links.
Give Louella an Ince and she'll take a column
William Randolph's Hearse
Here is an example of a small world: at the end of 1912 Ince hired
William Desmond Taylor to act in his film Counterfeiters (1914). Taylor was murdered in 1922.