The Ghost of Rosy Taylor, Mary Miles Minter Plaque

original production material

A round plaque of the star by noted artist Charles Joseph Rider (1880-1955) signed and dated 1918. Rider also produced the disc in bronze and was awarded a prize for it in San Fransisco. The following year it was exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts show from Feb 9th to March 30, 1919. In 1920, Rider became the resident artist for the newly found National Film Service who issued trailers and print ads and art for the studios.

Miss Minter (1902-1984) was but 10 years old when she broke into pictures and was being groomed to become the next Mary Pickford by Paramount when her career came to an abrupt halt when she and her Mother were implicated in the shooting murder of director William Desmond Taylor in 1922 - a case still unsolved. Three books have been written about this sensational crime with the latest claiming she was indeed the shooter. Others think her Mother or drug interests in LA, who feared Taylor, were the real killers.