|
|
FROM THE BOOKS
Trouble was dark-haired and
gorgeous. She was born Estelle Boylan in Wilmington, Delaware,
into a working-class Irish and (reportedly) Jewish family, and
left home to marry a banker when she was fourteen years old.
Now, at the age of twenty-four, she had metamorphosed into Ida
Estella Taylor, and acted in films under the briefer name of
Estelle Taylor. She had played prominent roles in Blind
Wives, A Fool There Was, and Only a Shop Girl. Most
recently she had played "Miriam, Sister of Moses," in Cecil B.
DeMille's astonishing epic The Ten Commandments. DeMille
kept his actress clothed, but watching a slit-skirted Estelle
writhe in lust beneath the Golden Calf certainly called forth
testosterone.
One day Jack Dougherty, who starred in cowboy movies, called
(Teddy) Hayes aside at Universal and said, "Would the champion
like to meet Estelle Taylor? She's very beautiful." Hayes said
Jack was free and not at the moment in training. Dougherty drove
Dempsey and Hayes to a Paramount back lot in the San Fernando
Valley where Taylor was acting in Tiger Love. The group
arrived outside Taylor's dressing room at lunch break and she
walked straight to the car, smiled at Dempsey, and said, "We
have so many mutual friends here and in Philadelphia and
Wilmington."
"I'm sure we do, Miss Taylor," Dempsey said. He offered a shy
and boyish grin.
That night Hayes dropped off Dempsey at Taylor's duplex
apartment on Formosa Street near Hyland Boulevard, two blocks
from the Charlie Chaplin studio. Dempsey said he would call when
it was time for Hayes to fetch him.
No call came that night. Hayes went to sleep. He woke up to a
ringing telephone at 8:30 the following morning. Dempsey said,
"Bring me a clean shirt, will you, Teddy?"
Roger Kahn-A Flame of Pure Fire
|
|
|
|
|