Mary Miles Minter

Silent film star Mary Miles Minter as featured in the 1921 film DON’T CALL ME LITTLE GIRL. Minter was born Juliet Reilly on April 25, 1902 in Shreveport, Louisiana. At the age of 5 she first appeared in the play "Cameo Kirby" and continued on the stage until 1915, when she started her film career. She was being groomed as a Mary Pickford type star - a child of innocence. Her early pictures carried this theme with such titles as “Lovely Mary” (1916), “Faith” (1916) and “Dimples” (1916). Mary was described by the press as "a sweet, pretty little girl with an abundance of blonde curls, a picture actress slightly bigger than a faint recollection, a little queen with delicate features and endearing young charms". She later worked at Realart Pictures and one of her favorite directors was William Desmond Taylor. While at Realart Mary made a number of films including “Anne of Green Gables” (1919), “Judy of Rogues' Harbor” (1920), “Jenny Be Good” (1920) and “The Little Clown” (1921). At that time she also became involved with Taylor, but it is not known whether Taylor was looking out for his biggest star or if there was any real romance. Then everything crumbled. On February 1, 1922, Taylor was shot to death in his Hollywood bungalow. His unsolved murder was one of Hollywood's major scandals, coming at the same time as the Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle incident. Though she was never considered a suspect in the murder, when the public learned of Mary's involvement with a man who had questionable dealings with women and was more than twice her age, they boycotted her films. The discovery of her belongings in Taylor's bungalow effectually killed her career in pictures. Mary later commented she was content to live without her Hollywood career. Her money had been invested in Los Angeles real estate, and she seems to have lived in relative comfort and prosperity. Mary passed away in 1984 at age 82 from a stroke in Santa Monica.

(www.hollywoodpinups.com)