Hunter's Cocktails Gets Its First Newspaper Write Up...

July 1922

CAPT. BILLY'S WHIZ BANG

One of Whiz Bang's investigators just "stumbled" upon an innocent little dope party one Sunday afternoon not so long ago. In a modest little bungalow on Santa Monica Boulevard, not so far from the big studios, a San Francisco man has recently become domiciled. One can go there and take a party offriends for afternoon "tea." Several men and women who play in pictures were there on the day in question, including Gloria Swanson, who perhaps didn'tknow just what sort of a party she was attending. One young man had completely "passed out." The coterie calling at this cottage is not large,and you must be very properly introduced to gain admittance. It's there, all the same!

The Wickedest Man In The World "Fingered" In The Taylor Murder I Think Kenneth Anger Did It!

February 10, 1922

DETROIT NEWS

A clue that may mean much in the mystery of the slaying of William Desmond Taylor was uncovered in Detroit today when it was discovered that several well known motion picture people, including one named in the investigation, had secured copies of The Equinox, the official organ of the O. T. O. from the Universal Book Stores in this city. The O. T. O. is said to be a "love cult" believed similar to the one mentioned in dispatches from Los Angeles, whose weird faiths and rituals areset forth in the book, all known copies of which have been seized by the prosecutor following the opening of an investigation into its activities. Frank Murphy, assistant U. S. district attorney, today admitted that orders for the book were among the effects seized in the Federal investigation, and that among these orders was one from a famous motion picture actress, whose name has been mentioned in the Taylor investigation. Murphy said he would forward this information to Los Angeles immediately. Descriptions of the meetings of the love cult in Los Angeles fit in soclosely with instructions given in the Equinox for the O. T. O. gatherings that there is reason to believe the Los Angeles crowd is a branch of the organization. That members of the O. T. O. would not hesitate at anything is indicated both by the governing rule of the order, "Do whatsoever thou wilt," and by a page in which the cult sent greetings and praise to Arthur Waite, the Grand Rapids dentist, executed for murder in New York, following his conviction inconnection with the deaths of his father-in-law and mother-in-law by poison,and his attempts to work a similar death on his wife. This page is in the back of the book and is so worded as to indicate theauthors of the book not only held the slayer in high esteem, but were insympathy with his acts. Photographs of cult members show men in kimonos such as described in the Los Angeles investigation of the California cult, and paragraphs in the bookdeclare it is the duty of members to go to any length to guard the secrets of the organization. The O. T. O. came into public notice when the Universal Book Stores wentinto the hands of a receiver and, at the bankruptcy trial, it was shown thousands of dollars had gone into the publication of The Equinox.

I Have NEVER Known Drugs To Be At Wilcox And Hollywood....That Was A Hooker Corner!

September 19, 1920

LOS ANGELES EXAMINER

It was so soothing--that first whiff--that Mildred Lee Moore, young and pretty actress, soon found herself taking deadly dope every day until yesterday, when she was arrested and placed in jail for violating the State narcotic law. Heroin was found in her possession. With her was arrested R. Jay Belasco, an actor in whose apartment at Wilcox and Hollywood Boulevardshe was found. The amazing story told to an Examiner reporter last night by Mildred Moore reads more like a sensational novel than that of a girl scarcely out ofher teens, pretty and well educated. It starts with her desire to be one ofthe merriest in the merry set in which she found herself in New York nightlife. Where it will end she herself confessed no one can tell. "I had gone to New York City to make a name for myself in the world,"she said. "I obtained a small part in a play on the Amsterdam roof garden.For a while I thought I was going ahead, and I was, too, in my work. But off the stage I went with a merry crowd of young people. We had wonderful parties, but I noticed that I was not as vivacious and confident of myself asthe rest of the girls and therefore not so popular. Everybody drank or took dope. I disliked drinking. The taste was unbearable. I felt that I had to do something to make myself other than what I was fast slipping into--a wallflower. "So, one night when a young man offered me a whiff I took it. I was amazed at the result. My nerves relaxed, I became less self-conscious and was soon one of the sprightliest in the crowd. It seemed such a simple thing to do--place a little powder on your finger and inhale it--that I wondered why I hadn't started sooner. The powder gave me wonderful powers. Instead of being a wall-flower, I was soon one of the leaders in all our parties. I was petted and spoiled until I became intoxicated with the adulations of others. I could not resist such a position, although I knew that dope would get me some time. "I feared dope. I was afraid of it before I took that first whiff and Ihave never lost that fear. I said after I took my first one that I wouldnever take another--that if I did it would soon make me look old and sap mystrength. But the pleasure it gave me and the fun I had at our parties mademe take it. Do not think that I fell into the habit of taking it every dayright at the start. One doesn't get the habit that way. I went for several days, maybe several weeks, before I took my second powder. I remember well why I took it. We were to have a party and I wanted to dazzle the rest with my personality--the false personality that dope gives. "But it was not long before I got to taking it fairly regularly. Then fear gripped me in earnest. I decided that the only way to get away from dope was to get away from New York. I came to Los Angeles, where I got a position with a film company, last year. "I was amazed after I had been here but a day or two when I learned that dope users are as common in Los Angeles as in New York. You may be sure that with my environment, the same here as it was in New York, that it was not long before I was using dope again. It got to be a daily dose, and it was not until I began to feel the dreadful reactions that fear again drove me into another attempt to stop using dope. I went to the mountains and tried to cure myself of the habit. I came back feeling fine and thought I had overcome the desire. I was mistaken. Dope came back insidiously and gripped me once again. I couldn't help myself. Everybody uses it and I simply had to go along. "Why, some girls spend as much as $100 a week for dope. I couldn't afford that much, but my weekly dope bill has always been around $20. "I feel the disgrace of my arrest keenly, but if it results in curing me of the use of dope, the price will be cheap. I am only one of hundreds of girls who are slaves of dope in Los Angeles. I know many girls with whom I associate, who feel that they are little better than slaves of the habit." Belasco is also an employee of a film company. Police who arrested them said they found a bottle of opium in liquid form in Belasco's possession. Fred L. Boden, inspector for the State Board of Pharmacy, who is co-operating with Detective Sergeants O'Brien and Yarrow in suppressing the useand sale of dope in Los Angeles, said that it is becoming more common daily here. He said that scores of young girls are using deadly narcotics. Charles McCurtle, who resides at the same address Miss Moore does, 5636 Delongpre Avenue, was found guilty yesterday of violating the State Narcotic Act. He was convicted on two counts by Judge Chambers--one for possessing cocaine, and the other for having heroin. He may receive a maximum of six months in the city jail for each count, or a total of one year.