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ASK AN AVID Irish film fan (someone who considers they really ‘know their stuff’) and they might put forward, say, Neil Jordan as the Irish film-maker with most credits to his name. Maybe Jim Sheridan. Perhaps John Ford — but he was second generation, so does he really count?
William Desmond Taylor is not a name likely to spring to many lips — despite the fact that he’s by far the most prolific Irish director of all time, completing over sixty movies during the ‘Golden Era’ of film. What’s more, he built up that impressive filmography in just the space of eight years, making the first adaptations of the likes of Tom Sawyer and Anne of Green Gables during his brief career behind the camera in the 1910s and 1920s.
The poster for the 1920 version of Anne of Green Gables
Taylor’s remarkable life is the focus of a festival in his native Carlow this weekend. Alongside talk of his accomplishments, in the course of the event you can expect plenty of chatter and speculation too about the manner of the director’s death: Taylor’s murder in February 1922 was a huge international scandal, dominating the headlines of the time and generating hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles over the next decade or so.
Taylorfest
Marc-Ivan O’Gorman — a filmmaker and Carlow native himself — is the man behind this year’s second annual ‘Taylorfest’. He says that when he first came across the director’s story, he was “stunned” that he had never heard of him before.
“Well he didn’t work in Ireland, so maybe that’s one of the reasons he’s not that known”, O Gorman says, speculating that the director’s work may have been overlooked here as he was part of the diaspora. “But that’s like dismissing James Joyce because he wrote Ulysses abroad.”
“Another reason is that he worked in the silent era, and there hasn’t been so much interest among people in general in that time — that’s changing a bit now, so hopefully there might be more of a renewed interest.”
Christened as “William Deane Tanner”, Taylor was born into a British Army household in 1872 — and sailed for America at the age of just 18. He set up a business and married in New York, before upping sticks (leaving his wife and child behind on the east coast) and departing for Hollywood. By 1912, he had changed his name, and was working full time in the nascent movie industry. Making a living first as an actor (he had also treaded the boards during his time in New York), Taylor soon switched to directing, making his debut with The Awakening in 1914.
Filmmakers worked fast in those days, and over the following eight years (bar a brief stint in the Canadian Army during World War I) Taylor plied his trade in comedies, dramas, romances and westerns; directing major names of the time like Mary Pickford, Wallace Reid and Mary Miles Minter, who became his protégée and starred in Paramount’s 1919 version of Anne of Green Gables.
Taylor was also a three-term president of the Screen Directors Guild and had become Head of Production at Paramount by the time of his death in 1922.
The unsolved mystery…
Found with a gunshot wound to his back at his bungalow in downtown LA, the director’s murder was mired from the start in intrigue: more than a dozen suspects were named by police and the media (including Minter, and Taylor’s former valet Edward Sands) but the mystery has never been solved.
“At this stage it’s very unlikely it will be,” O’Gorman says. “Down through the years there’s been plenty of instances of important documents in the case going missing”.
“The LAPD and the district attorney’s office were notoriously corrupt were very compliant at the time with big business pressuring authorities to cover up potentially damaging cases.
“Mary Miles Minter was a startlet whose career he was guiding. She had a history of having relationships with her directors, so there was conjecture that she was besotted with him, and that she went to his place with a gun and said ‘I’m going to kill myself if you don’t run away with me’ and that the gun went off by accident.
“Sands [the valet] had always seemed a bit unhinged, and Mabel Normand [another actress, the last person to see him alive] was known to be a drug addict. Taylor was quite anti-drugs and had made some public statements against drug dealers at the time, so there’s speculation that elements of the criminal underworld may have been involved.”
This weekend’s festival only touches on matters surrounding the murder however: otherwise, there are film screenings, photo exhibitions and theatre performances celebrating Taylor’s life and career. A bar on Dublin Street has even been turned into a 1920s-era speakeasy and is serving as the event’s HQ.
Future plans
If all goes to plan this year, it’s possible the festival could be expanded and some events held in Dublin in September 2014.
O’Gorman says that people’s interest in Taylor tends to be sparked by the sensational tale of his murder — and that they come along to ‘Taylorfest’ to find out more.
“It’s funny — you tell people what happened, and they disappear off and spend six hours on the internet, coming back with a list of leads and suspects.”
So if you’re not busy for the rest of the day, here is a good place to start.
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A list of DB schemes that have solvency problems would be a useful thing…
Mark the solvency of a particular Scheme is none of your business unless you are a Member. Thus you quite rightly have no access to such information.
It would be my business if I was a prospective member; if I can’t find out if the scheme is about to fold and give my contributions to other members, why would I ever invest a cent in it?
And once you accept that; and once you accept that any DB scheme that collapses leaves its members dependent on the State; the practice of keeping open financial healthchecks on pension schemes stops being “none of our business” and starts being a logical requirement to run a pension scheme.
We’ve seen in the US what happens when there’s insufficient transparency around pension funds – they wind up insolvent because a company raids its piggybank for operating capital.
Are there DB schemes out there which still accept new entrants? I was under the impression they are rare as hens teeth.
As for existing schemes it never ceases to amaze me that the pension providers never take a hit on their often exorbitant charges and fees when things start to go downhill.
Expect a push into private pensions or DC schemes from DB schemes and the resulting bonuses to the providers for generating “new business”.
What a con.
Jaysus, Mick, what a bizarre viewpoint.
Tim your bowels are LOOSE regularly but most of your trolls LOSE the interest of readers quickly. Try an education or just give up trolling.
Why would any fool save for a pension?
The government taxes your money on the way in, by not refunding your income tax paid.
The government then taxes your money while it is in your pension fund, the pension levy.
The government then taxes your money on exit from your pension fund, income tax again.
One tax is fair enough but only a fool would sign up for three.
Take your money out when you can and get it out of the country so this thieving government can’t take it from you!
Cash-in-hand sounds better. I know people earning cash and they get to keep it all.
This ideally would serve to scare people into actually getting up and doing something!
Tax the top 10% and increase taxes on the rich and corporations to help the working people pay into their pensions. Ireland is loosing tax because of tax breaks under the Fine Gael administration.
eh Tim tell me how exactly taxing the rich and corporations will help working people pay into their pensions?
In detail please?
Any actual figures to go with that, Tim? Or is it the usual “classist” bile?
Right, defined pensions are only a promise with no financial penalty to the administrators if they make a mess of it. My big issue with DB is the culture, everyone in power has one. Civil servants, judges,politicians , hospital consultants, large financial instuitional directors.
My opinion,Is that politicians should be the first to stop getting them. The superannuation scheme is a mess, costs a fortune and is funded directly out of public funds. Also no government levy on their funds, the capitalisation factor of 20 for them is ridicules and is no reflection of the true values of their pensions. Top end civil servants like turkeys don’t vote for Christmas and that is why most of them left if they could when the saw the changes coming in. Still not enough changes made.
The hybrid scheme for new public servants is a step in the right direction but I feel it should be targeted at the lower end of the pay scale in the public sector. I still think the pension is a very important part of attracting good people into the public services and should be protected and valued in equal measure.
When will a government party with real reform ideas lead by example, go dc on their pension benefits. Then they can look on the rest of the pension sector with real conviction and help a sector where the least important person is the pension holder.
The 0.6% levy is a disgrace, for so many reasons. The investment advise around pensions is very poor in general and people will loss far more through bad investment decisions. That is why I feel the first thing the government should do is regulate properly those who have vested interested in the pensions industry. The policy holder should be protected. It is easier to get into selling pensions than it is to get a taxi licence, there is no barrier to entry in the pensions industry. The bar needs to be raised.
one earlier contributor said pensions are not worthwhile, I disagree, it is very simple do the Maths. If you earn enough, there are significant advantages to taking out a pension but contributions should be reviewed on a year by year basis, if you are in a employer sponsored scheme, it makes even more sense, employer contributions are not subject to the USC or BIK.
Sorry for the waffle but rant over now.
You advocate the failed policies that got us into this mess (Tax breaks for the rich).
The idea that the top 10% “create jobs” should be swept aside. Over the past 20 years, taxes on the rich have been falling despite a ballooning deficit due to tax shortfalls on the wealthy.
No I don’t believe in tax breaks for rich but the rules are the rules. The thresholds have been reduced significantly so pensions are no longer the play thing of the rich. Each person should assess their own situation and make an informed decision. Try and save for your future and if there is a tax advantage take it.
I am not making sweeping generalisations just giving an informed decision on an area that I am very concerned about.
“No I don’t believe in tax breaks for rich but the rules are the rules”
lol. So you basically go along like a sheep blindly accepting a corrupt, failed system of tax breaks. The rules aren’t written in stone.
It doesnt surprise me to read this. Ireland has become unbalanced as older people are living longer and thus drawing pensions for longer than ever intended. There are not enough people working to support this therefore pensions will be effected. It doesnt take a masters degree in economics to figure this one out. There wont be a state pension in 10-15 years either as the government are spending it on roads and infrastructure at the moment. The question is has anyone any solutions?
Tax the rich. We currently have the lowest corporate tax take in western Europe. We also have little tax on wealth which the top 10% still hoard. Capital gains and dividends again are low-taxed. We cannot ignore these untouchables. We must sweep aside the irrational notion that taxing them somehow leads to “job losses”. It doesn’t.
Aer lingus defined benefit pension scheme is in the s**t too, a deficit of nearly a billion and want the staff to switch to a defined contribution the worker gets screwed again
Pensions are indeed the worst gamble of the herd mentality. The truth is that only the civil service pensions are worth having as they make every state employee with one an instant millionaire. only the very wealthy could afford such a guaranteed scheme as this and would pay through the nose for it.
Forget tax the rich there Tim, tax the civil service on the market value of this one hell of a benefit in kind !!
My man Eddie, will have to disagree. Forget the word pension for a minute and look at tax advantages. If there are none don’t do one. Plan for your future in some way though. I have seen a lot of people who put nothing in place, save for your future be it a simple savings account, property, your business. Ensure what ever you do that you have structured it to suit you.
Organised people know at the start of the year how much they are going to set aside and make it a priority. Saving is a habit and if you can gain a tax advantage then use products that allow this. If not suitable look else where.
ha ha Robbie don’t you know that 80 is the new 60 :-). I will spend my hoard of green shield stamps and post office savings on a total body transplant and live forever.. …
Rob……you must not get fooled by this old chestnut! Sure by all means put arrangements in place for your twilight years but make sure that the vehicle you set up for this will (to completely murder the analogy) pass the NCT now and in 30/40 years time. Two facts; 1) the value of money halves every10 years (average over last century). 2) the real rate of inflation is much higher than the published figures which DB pensions are pegged against.
Spend your money now at full value or in 10 years time at half value or quarter value in 20 or 12.5 % in 30 years. answer. …buy appreciating assets that have a chance at offering an income while remembering how many of the world top 100 companies from 30 years ago are now even in existence. buy land , Commercial centre city property or share spreads
Eddie you can put you want in a pension. Not just shares, i agree with you. They are not for everyone. By the way you don’t have to wait 40 years. I know how old you are!
have your say