Ella Margaret Gibson (September 14, 1894 – October 21, 1964) was an American stage and
silent-film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, wh ...
actress who had leading roles in
Vitagraph
Vitagraph Studios, also known as the Vitagraph Company of America, was a United States motion picture studio. It was founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, as the American Vitagraph Company. By 1907, ...
Westerns, often opposite
William Clifford. She also appeared with
Charles Ray in ''The Coward'' (1915) and later worked in two Westerns with
William S. Hart
William Surrey Hart (December 6, 1864 – June 23, 1946) was an American silent film actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He is remembered as a foremost Western star of the silent era who "imbued all of his characters with honor and integ ...
: ''The Money Corral'' and ''Sand!''. On her deathbed in 1964, she reportedly made a
dying confession to the 1922 murder of director
William Desmond Taylor
William Desmond Taylor (born William Cunningham Deane-Tanner, 26 April 1872 – 1 February 1922) was an Anglo-Irish-American film director and actor. A popular figure in the growing Hollywood motion picture colony of the 1910s and early 1920s, ...
.
Gibson was sometimes credited or otherwise identified under at least seven other names, such as Patricia Palmer, Patsy Palmer, Margie Gibson, Marguerite Gibson, Ella Margaret Lewis, Ella Margaret Arce, or Pat Lewis. She appeared in 147 films between 1913 and 1929.
Taylorology 84
'', December 1999, retrieved June 22, 2010
Family
Gibson was the daughter of Ellsbarry James Gibson, a musician of Scotch-Irish descent, and Celia Ella Fisher, a vocalist of English descent. She had two older siblings, Forest and Edna. By her own account, Gibson's parents had worked in show business.
Career
She began her stage career at the age of 12, apparently when her father left and she remained as the sole means of support for her mother. Gibson appeared on the Pantages Vaudeville Circuit for over two years. In 1909, she became a member of the Theodore Lorch Stock Company in
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
, where she was cast in a wide variety of roles. She entered the film industry in 1912, getting a job with Vitagraph in Santa Monica, where she stayed for three years. For six months during this period, Taylor was acting in the same studio and they made four films together: ''The Love of Tokiwa'', ''The Riders of Petersham'', ''
The Kiss'', and ''
A Little Madonna
''A Little Madonna'' is a 1914 American silent drama film, directed by Ulysses Davis.
Cast
* William Desmond Taylor
* Patricia Palmer
* Charles Bennett
* Jane Novak
* Loyola O'Connor
* Anne Schaefer
Anne Schaefer (July 10, 1870 – Ma ...
''. An article in ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' the following year noted that the 19-year-old budding film star had purchased a cliffside bungalow overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica. In 1915, she left Vitagraph and went to the
Thomas Ince
Thomas Harper Ince (November 16, 1880 – November 19, 1924) was an American silent film - era filmmaker and media proprietor.
Ince was known as the "Father of the Western" and was responsible for making over 800 films. He revolutionized the mot ...
Film Company, where she played a small supporting role in ''The Coward'', the film which made
Charles Ray a star. She subsequently had supporting roles in many comedy shorts and was the subject of several promotional articles in fan magazines.
![Margaret Gibson 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Margaret_Gibson_2.jpg)
Her first starring role after Vitagraph was in
Mutual Masterpicture's ''
The Soul's Cycle'' (1916), in which she played both an attractive Roman maiden and a modern New York heiress. Other noted roles included leads in ''The Riders of Petersham'', ''Back to Eden'', and ''The Outlaw''.
In 1917, Gibson was arrested for
vagrancy
Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants (also known as bums, vagabonds, rogues, tramps or drifters) usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, scavenging, petty theft, temporar ...
under circumstances which included allegations of drug (
opium
Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...
) dealing. After a "largely attended" public trial, the popular actress, who "during intermissions... was the center of a bevy of young women," was acquitted, but the publicity forced her to quietly change her screen name to Patricia Palmer (among other names). She continued to work in films, but had few leading roles. Gibson obtained many bit parts, including a brief appearance in ''
The King of Kings''.
1923 arrest
On November 2, 1923 (21 months after Taylor's murder), Gibson was arrested at her home at 2324 North Beachwood Drive,
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
on federal felony charges involving an alleged nationwide blackmail and extortion ring. She was subsequently charged with
extortion
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...
and violation of Section 145 of the Federal Criminal Code. George W. Lasher told authorities he had paid Gibson $1155 to avoid prosecution for a reputed violation of the
Mann Act
The White-Slave Traffic Act, also called the Mann Act, is a United States federal law, passed June 25, 1910 (ch. 395, ; ''codified as amended at'' ). It is named after Congressman James Robert Mann of Illinois.
In its original form the act mad ...
. Gibson was also said to be connected to two convicted blackmailers who had pleaded guilty the preceding week to extorting $10,000 from
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
banker John L. Bushnell. Amid all the publicity following her arrest, she was mentioned as both Margaret Gibson and Patricia Palmer. The charges were later dropped by the district attorney's office. Over the next six years, she worked sporadically in bit parts and minor supporting roles, but the industry's transition to
sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...
resulted in the end of Gibson's already thwarted career.
Marriage and later life
In 1935, for unknown reasons, she "fled" to
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
, where she married Elbert Lewis, an auditor for
Socony-Vacuum Oil Company
ExxonMobil, an American multinational oil and gas corporation presently based out of Texas, has had one of the longest histories of any company in its industry. A direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the company traces its root ...
(later merged with
Mobil Oil
Mobil is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil. The brand was formerly owned and operated by an oil and gas corporation of the same name, which itself merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil in 1999.
...
). How they met is unknown. From the available documentation, the assumption is they met on the dock when she arrived in Singapore. However, in a letter to her dated February 8, 1942, Elbert wrote "Do you remember, dearest, the morning of your first arrival in Singapore, seven sweet years ago, when I pushed all the boats out of the harbor so your ship could come in?" which could be either romantic metaphor, or a hint he was waiting for her there (the same letter mentions a clearly metaphorical female character he calls "Elfin", to which Elbert attributes much "good luck" he apparently thinks they had in the past).
Surviving letters indicate the marriage was stable, and she had no intention of returning to the United States. The middle-aged couple discussed retiring in either South Africa or Australia. Meanwhile, they moved about constantly in the
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...
area in the Indian Ocean, staying in Ceylon, India, Burma, Straits Settlements, and Java. In 1940, at the age of 45, Gibson was stricken by a bladder infection, medical treatment for which was not available in the region. With Europe overwhelmed by war and passage to South Africa and Australia threatened by German naval operations, she reluctantly returned without her spouse to Los Angeles and underwent surgery twice at Hollywood Hospital. Her husband Elbert Lewis died when the Japanese bombed Socony-Vacuum's oil facility at
Penang
Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay ...
, Straits Settlements (now Malaysia) on March 15, 1942.
In 1949, Gibson moved to a small, sparsely furnished house at 6135 Glen Oak St. in the
Hollywood Hills
The Hollywood Hills are a residential neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California.
Geography
The Hollywood Hills straddle the Cahuenga Pass within the Santa Monica Mountains.
The neighborhood touches Studio City, Univer ...
near Beachwood Village, close to where she had owned residential property during the 1920s. Living very modestly on a
widow's pension
A widow's pension is a payment from the government of a country to a person whose spouse has died.
Generally, such payments are made to a widow whose late spouse has fulfilled the country's requirements, including contribution, cohabitation, and l ...
under the name Pat Lewis, she reportedly almost never left the house (which was behind thick vegetation), limited her activities mostly to gardening, had a dark grey cat named Rajah, and had her groceries delivered.
Confession and death
On October 21, 1964, while still living in Hollywood, Gibson suffered a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
at her home. Sensing that she was dying, a highly distraught Gibson—a recently
converted Roman Catholic—asked for a priest and then confessed to neighbors the February 1, 1922, murder of Hollywood film director
William Desmond Taylor
William Desmond Taylor (born William Cunningham Deane-Tanner, 26 April 1872 – 1 February 1922) was an Anglo-Irish-American film director and actor. A popular figure in the growing Hollywood motion picture colony of the 1910s and early 1920s, ...
.
Gibson had apparently made similar remarks the previous evening while watching a local television program, ''
Ralph Story
Ralph Story (born Ralph Bernard Snyder; August 19, 1920 – September 26, 2006) was an American television and radio personality. He was best known as the host of '' The $64,000 Challenge'' from 1956 to 1958, and as the writer and host of ''Ralph ...
's Los Angeles''. The program featured a short segment about the unsolved murder of Taylor 40 years earlier in which Ralph Story said the Taylor murder is something the police "had better solve in the next 90 days".
[''Ralph Story's Los Angeles.'' Season 1964–65. Episode 35. KNXT-TV]
1964-10-20
(PDF
Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...
) retrieved February 15, 2021. The same broadcast date is given in the OAC catalog listing for th
Ralph Story Papers.
/ref> Gibson "became hysterical and blurted out that she'd killed him and thought it was long forgotten".
In the aftermath of Taylor's murder, newspapers had speculated wildly about possible suspects, and rumors circulated that his death was related to a blackmail attempt. Taylor's neighbor Faith MacLean likely saw the murderer leaving Taylor's bungalow, and said the person with whom she made eye contact (and who smiled at her) may have been a woman dressed as a man, in clothes which were "like my idea of a motion picture burglar".
Gibson was in Los Angeles at the time of the murder, but her name never was mentioned during the investigation and no surviving documentation refers to any association between Taylor and her after 1914. Gibson's reported confession does not conflict with the known historical record. Given her documented arrest record, Taylor's reportedly odd remarks in the weeks leading to his murder, and other circumstantial evidence, the inferred motive would have been related to blackmail in the wake of the Roscoe Arbuckle
Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (; March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked ...
scandal, during which the private lives of most Hollywood celebrities easily could fall under highly sensationalized public scrutiny.
All of the police files and physical evidence relating to Taylor's murder had disappeared by 1940, and aside from circumstantial evidence, no independent confirmation of Gibson's involvement in it has emerged. Margaret Gibson is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.
California Death Certificate 21286
'', retrieved April 15, 2016
Filmography
Throughout her career, Gibson's many movie appearances were credited under at least six different names. However, overwhelmingly, she was credited under only two, first as Margaret Gibson and later as Patricia Palmer.
As Margaret Gibson
* ''The Sea Maiden'' (1913)
* ''The Wrong Pair'' (1913)
* ''The Yellow Streak'' (1913)
* ''The Spell'' (1913)
* ''Old Moddington's Daughters'' (1913)
* ''Sunny; or, The Cattle Thief '' (1913)
* ''The Race'' (1913)
* ''The Outlaw'' (1913)
* ''Bianca
Bianca is a feminine given name. It means "white" and is an Italian cognate of Blanche.
Variants
* Blanche: French
* Bianca: Italian
* Bianka (Polish, Hungarian, Slovak, German, English, French, Icelandic, Finnish, Dutch, Norwegian, Co ...
'' (1913)
* ''Any Port in a Storm'' (1913)
* ''Francine'' (1914)
* ''The Love of Tokiwa'' (1914)
* ''The Old Oak's Secret'' (1914)
* ''Ginger's Reign'' (1914)
* ''Auntie'' (1914)
* ''The Ghosts'' (1914)
* ''The Night Riders of Petersham'' (1914)
* '' The Kiss'' (1914)
* ''A Little Madonna
''A Little Madonna'' is a 1914 American silent drama film, directed by Ulysses Davis.
Cast
* William Desmond Taylor
* Patricia Palmer
* Charles Bennett
* Jane Novak
* Loyola O'Connor
* Anne Schaefer
Anne Schaefer (July 10, 1870 – Ma ...
'' (1914)
* ''Tony, the Greaser'' (1914)
* ''Mareea the Half-Breed'' (1914)
* ''Out in Happy Hollow'' (1914)
* ''The Mystery of the Hidden House'' (1914)
* ''The Last Will'' (1914)
* ''Only a Sister'' (1914)
* ''Prosecution'' (1914)
* ''His Kid Sister'' (1914)
* ''Detective and Matchmaker'' (1914)
* ''The Horse Thief'' (1914)
* ''Brandon's Last Ride'' (1914)
* ''When the Gods Forgive'' (1914)
* ''Mareea, the Foster Mother'' (1914)
* ''Anne of the Mines'' (1914)
* ''Kidding the Boss'' (1914)
* ''Sisters'' (1914)
* ''Love Will Out'' (1914)
* ''The Navajo Ring'' (1915)
* ''The Girl at Nolan's'' (1915)
* ''The Taming of Rita'' (1915)
* ''A Child of the North'' (1915)
* ''Almost a Hero'' (1915)
* ''An Intercepted Vengeance'' (1915)
* ''The Sea Ghost'' (1915)
* ''His Mother's Portrait'' (1915)
* ''The Hammer'' (1915)
* ''All on Account of Towser'' (1915)
* ''The Golden Trail'' (1915)
* ''A City Rube'' (1915)
* ''The Siren'' (1915)
* ''The Protest'' (1915)
* '' The Coward'' (1915)
* ''Could a Man Do More?'' (1915)
* ''The Arab's Vengeance'' (1915)
* ''The Winning of Jess'' (1915)
* ''The Homesteaders'' (1916)
* ''Marta of the Jungles'' (1916)
* ''The Bait'' (1916)
* ''A Soul Enslaved'' (1916)
* '' The Soul's Cycle'' (1916)
* ''The Heart of Tara'' (1916)
* ''The Hidden Law'' (1916)
* ''Public Approval'' (1916)
* ''The Leopard's Bride'' aka ''Nadje's Sacrifice'' (1916)
* ''Avenged by Lions'' (1916)
* ''Highlights and Shadows'' (1916)
* ''A Kaffir's Gratitude'' (1916)
* ''Clouds in Sunshine Valley'' (1916)
* ''The Lion's Nemesis'' (1916)
* ''The Star of India'' (1916)
* ''A Siren of the Jungle'' (1916)
* ''The Good-for-Nothing Brat'' (1916)
* ''The Ostrich Tip'' (1916)
* ''Fate's Decision'' (1916)
* ''Destiny's Boomerang'' (1916)
* ''The Island of Desire
''The Island of Desire'' is a lost 1917 silent film adventure directed by Otis Turner, produced and distributed by Fox Film Corporation and starring George Walsh.
Cast
*George Walsh - Bruce Chalmers
*Patricia Palmer - Leila Denham
* Anna Luther ...
'' (1917)
* ''With the Mummies' Help'' (1917)
* ''The Milky Way'' (1917)
* ''A Lucky Slip'' (1917)
* ''The Fourteenth Man'' (1917)
* ''He Fell on the Beach'' (1917)
* ''Skirts'' (1917)
* ''The Honeymooners'' (1917)
* ''Her Merry Mix-Up'' (1917)
* ''Green Eyes and Bullets'' (1917)
* ''Hearts and Clubs'' (1917)
* ''Local Color'' (1917)
* ''Almost Divorced'' (1917)
* ''Betty Wakes Up'' (1917)
* ''Their Seaside Tangle'' (1917)
* ''Rowdy Ann'' (1919)
As Patricia Palmer
* ''The Fifth Wheel'' (1918)
* ''The Moment of Victory'' (1918)
* ''Dismissal of Silver Phil'' (1918)
* ''The Home Trail'' (1918)
* ''By Injunction'' (1918)
* '' A Woman in the Web'' (1918)
* ''The Girl from Beyond'' (1918)
* ''The Coming of Faro Nell'' (1918)
* ''A Gentleman's Agreement
''A Gentleman's Agreement'' is a 1918 American silent drama film directed by David Smith and starring Gayne Whitman, Nell Shipman, Juan de la Cruz, Jacob Abrams, and Hattie Buskirk. The film was released by Vitagraph Company of America on July 2 ...
'' (1918)
* ''The Marquis and Miss Sally'' (1918)
* ''The Wooing of Riley'' (1918)
* ''By the World Forgot'' (1918)
* ''You Couldn't Blame Her'' (1919)
* ''Sea Sirens'' (1919)
* ''The Money Corral
''The Money Corral'' is a 1919 American silent adventure film directed by Lambert Hillyer and written by William S. Hart and Lambert Hillyer. The film stars William S. Hart, Jane Novak, Herschel Mayall, Winter Hall, Rhea Mitchell, and Patricia P ...
'' (1919)
* ''Sally's Blighted Career'' (1919)
* ''Tell Your Wife Everything'' (1919)
* ''Oh, My Dear!'' (1919)
* ''Mary Moves In'' (1919)
* ''The Faith of the Strong'' (1919)
* ''Into the Light'' (1920)
* ''Sand!
''Sand!'' is a 1920 American silent Western film directed by Lambert Hillyer and written by Lambert Hillyer based upon the Russell A. Boggs short story "Dan Kurrie’s Inning." '' (1920)
* ''Blondes'' (1921)
* ''His Bitter Half'' (1921)
* ''Mixed Bedrooms'' (1921)
* ''The Desert Wolf'' (1921)
* ''Turkey Dressing'' (1921)
* ''Greater Than Love
''Greater Than Love'' is a 1921 American silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo. An incomplete print of the film exists in the Library of Congress.''Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection a ...
'' (1921)
* '' Across the Border'' (1922)
* '' Rounding Up the Law'' (1922)
* ''Cold Feet'' (1922)
* ''The Cowboy King
''The Cowboy King'' is a 1922 American silent Western film directed by Charles R. Seeling and starring Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams, Patricia Palmer and Elizabeth De Witt.
Cast
* Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams as Dud Smiley
* Patricia Palmer as Ethel ...
'' (1922)
* '' The Cowboy and the Lady'' (1922)
* ''The Web of the Law'' (1923)
* '' Mr. Billings Spends His Dime'' (1923)
* ''A Perfect 36'' (1923)
* ''To the Ladies'' (1923)
* ''A Pair of Hellions
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...
'' (1924)
* '' Hold Your Breath'' (1924)
* ''The Part Time Wife
''The Part Time Wife'' is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Henry McCarty and starring Alice Calhoun, Robert Ellis and Freeman Wood.Munden p.590 The film was produced by the independent company Gotham Pictures. It was based on a sh ...
'' (1925)
* '' Without Mercy'' (1925)
* ''Who's Your Friend'' (1925)
* ''The Waster'' (1926)
* ''Naughty Nanette
''Naughty Nanette'' is a 1927 American comedy film directed by James Leo Meehan and written by Doris Schroeder. The film stars Viola Dana, Patricia Palmer, Eddie Brownell, Helen Foster, Roger Moore and Sidney De Gray. The film was released on A ...
'' (1927)
* ''The Little Savage'' (1929)
As Marguerite Gibson
* ''Polly at the Ranch'' (1913)
As Margie Gibson
* ''The Hammer'' (1915)
As Helen Gibson
* ''Hearts and Clubs'' (1917)
As Patsy Palmer
* ''Dummy Love'' (1921)
Uncredited
* '' The King of Kings'' (1927)
* ''The Godless Girl
''The Godless Girl'' (1928) is an American dramatic silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, shown for years as his last completely silent film. The cast features Lina Basquette, Marie Prevost, Tom Keene and Noah Beery.
Plot
This drama feat ...
'' (1929)
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, Margaret
1894 births
1964 deaths
20th-century American actresses
Actresses from Colorado
American people of Scotch-Irish descent
American people of English descent
American stage actresses
American Roman Catholics
American silent film actresses
Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City
Converts to Roman Catholicism
Actresses from Colorado Springs, Colorado
Vaudeville performers
Western (genre) film actresses
American film actresses
People acquitted of crimes