Blind Item #13 - Old Hollywood - Mr. X
This former B- list actor was under contract to the alliterate billionaire when our actor was killed. Our actor was closeted, but married. The actor's wife knew the actor was gay because the wife was too. It was for convenience. Our actor was killed and to her final breath, the wife believed it was the alliterate billionaire who killed the actor or at least had someone do it to stop the actor from talking about the affair the actor had with the billionaire.
Howard Hughes and?
ReplyDeleteRamon Navarro?
Deletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramon_Novarro
DeleteNot married
DeleteHoward Hughes for the billionaire ???
ReplyDeleteHoward Hughes and???
ReplyDeleteHoward Hughes for the billionaire.
ReplyDeleteHoward Hughes for the billionaire
ReplyDeleteSal Mineo maybe but he wasn't married. If it's him the actress is Jill Haworth. But I doubt it's him
ReplyDeleteRamon never married, I don't think
ReplyDeleteJack Buetel for the actor.
ReplyDeleteActor David Bacon and Howard Hughes
ReplyDelete+1. Everything fits.
Deletewho was Navarro married to?
ReplyDeleteNever mind, Jack Buetel almost works, but he died after his wife and in his 70s.
ReplyDeleteNavarro was never married.
ReplyDeleteRichard Cromwell, who was Angela Lansbury's husband for a brief stretch, and supposedly was one of Hughes' favorite playmates for his BDSM activites.
Jack Buetel for the actor ?
ReplyDeleteJack Buetel for the actor ?
ReplyDeleteRamon is a good guess but wasn't married. Same with Sal Mineo.
ReplyDeleteDavid Bacon for the actor.
ReplyDeleteI went through the RKO Pictures Contract Players list at Wikipedia, if this happened when Howard Hughes owned RKO that means the married actor had to die between 1948 and 1955, Steve Clemente, Richard Dix and George MacQuarrie are the only three on the list that died in that period, Richard Dix is the only name I knew, he died 8 Days after a heart attack, Gerorge MacQuarrie was 77 whgen he died and Steve Clemente retired in 1942 before Hughes bought RKO, so if the billionaire is Hughes, and it sorta has to be, then it must be Richard Dix.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Desmond Taylor
ReplyDeleteI like the David Bacon guess better I was thinking the RKO years but Hughes had contracts with actors throughout the 30's and 40's before buying RKO. It even has the wife's claim on Bacon's Wikipedia page.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bacon_(actor) +1 David Bacon
ReplyDeleteYes, David Bacon. Very interesting story, too.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely David Bacon.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Paul Muni? He started in Hughes’ original version of “Scarface.”
ReplyDeleteDang you guys are great at these. I got HH but the rest? No idea. Great job!
ReplyDeleteMoose has it.
ReplyDelete"During the freewheeling heydey of West LA nightlife in the late 30s, Cromwell is said by author Charles Higham to have carried on a sometime, though obviously very discreet, affair with aviator and businessman Howard Hughes."
http://nolimitboy.blogspot.com/2011/01/richard-cromwell.html
Wow. Ya'll are good. I guess HH but not David Bacon or Greta Keller. That has to be it. Very interesting life on Keller's Wikipedia page. "If You Go Away" was written for her or adapted. Marlene Dietrich modeled her singing style after Greta. She also hung with Neil Coward and the other gays of the day so I'm thinking it's got to be her. Hughes was the Geffen of the day I guess and got away with anything.
ReplyDeleteIt's William Desmond Taylor.
ReplyDelete"Hollywood 1921: Bisexual film director William Desmond Taylor, Mexican born film star Ramon Novarro, Spanish born star Antonio Moreno, and a teenaged Howard Hughes were all involved with each other sexually – sometimes all at the same time. Taylor was mesmerized by Hughes, who was attending a private school east of Santa Barbara, and planned to star him in a film custom tailored for him. Howard’s uncle, Rupert Hughes, a powerful Hollywood screen writer, was to write the script. It was Uncle Rupert who had introduced Howard to William Desmond Taylor. Included in their circle was silent film star Blanche Sweet, who regularly gave Howard blow jobs, marveling at the young man’s generous endowment. But it was Taylor who became completely obsessed with Howard. He knew he could make Hughes the biggest star in all of Hollywood, and he couldn't keep his hands off him. Unfortunately, Taylor was murdered in 1922, and the case remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of Hollywood."
No wonder howard got so messed up later in life!
DeleteWilliam Desmond Taylor. I posted once but it completely disappeared.
ReplyDelete"Hollywood 1921: Bisexual film director William Desmond Taylor, Mexican born film star Ramon Novarro, Spanish born star Antonio Moreno, and a teenaged Howard Hughes were all involved with each other sexually – sometimes all at the same time."
https://gayinfluence.blogspot.com/2011/08/howard-hughes.html
It's not really a blind item if it's all documented on another site is it?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/mysterious-death-cape-cods-david-bacon/
Not William Desmond Taylor. He had an ex wife for many years.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely David Bacon
ReplyDeleteGood going Ann!
ReplyDeleteRichard Cromwell.
ReplyDeleteDavid Bacon seems to fit. He was murdered and in a lavender marriage. He worked for and/or knew Hughes.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea, but went off everyone else's geusses. No way could it be William Desmond Taylor, as he's more director than actor. Also, there's no indication his wife was gay. and it's just too long ago.
ReplyDeleteRichard Cromwell wasn't murdered.
David Bacon seems to fit the bill for this blind.
Countervail - but who would know that other than members of that society?
ReplyDeleteIf a lot of the 'blinds' are collated gossip from other sites, that's fine w/me. I appreciate the service. I don't want to do deep dives hoping to find a pearl even if it's a fake one. I appreciate the entertainment being served in one spot on a platter.
Thought Taylor was killed by Mabel Normand's mother.
ReplyDeleteGood work CDan sleuths, perhaps there is more than one murder to by laid at Hughes's door step.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt Kevin Bacon is mixed up in this.
ReplyDeleteWealth makes people so pathetic they know their place
ReplyDeletetake away his money and hollywood wouldn't have pissed on Howard Hughes
Did Rudolf Valentino ever marry?
ReplyDeleteSorry not Mabel Normand. Mary Miles Minter.
ReplyDeleteOn the day of his death, David Bacon's pregnant wife Greta Keller didn't join him on a day trip to the beach because she wasn't feeling well. Usually, they took their three dogs, but this day David Bacon went by himself to the beach. He was only wearing a swimsuit when he crashed his car and they found a man's school sweater in the car that was consistent with the type used at a local school a few years previous. He suffered a single knife wound to the back and the coroner estimated the wound to have been inflicted 15-20 minutes before he died after crashing his car on Washington Blvd. There was a camera in the car and when the film was developed there was supposedly only one picture on the roll and that was a naked smiling David Bacon at the beach. The photo no longer exists, if it ever did. He had $13 and two expensive rings on him which were not stolen. To me this this sounds like a beach pick-up that took a violent turn but it could also be a premeditated murder orchestrated by Howard Hughes. It's not likely that HH would've known David Bacon would be by himself at the beach since that all seemed very impromptu but David could've called Howard trying to arrange a date and either Howard met him at the beach and killed him or sent someone to do it. Intriguing!!!
ReplyDelete