Photoplay/Volume 36/Issue 2/Lucky Amateur Detectives

THE jury of judges in The Studio Murder Mystery Contest has announced its verdict and checks have been mailed to the lucky amateur detectives who best solved how and why Franz Seibert, the director of Superior Films, killed one of his chief actors, Dwight Hardell.

It was no easy matter to examine and analyze every one of the many thousands of solutions submitted from every state in the Union and nearly every country on the globe. Indeed, the judges were weeks in arriving at their final decisions.

Here it is interesting to comment upon the thousands of solutions submitted. The great majority of Photoplay's nonprofessional detectives picked Seibert as the real culprit. Unfortunately, nearly all of these contestants missed out in the German director's motives, as well as in the state of mind prompting these motives.

The most common error was to say that Seibert killed Hardell in a rage, artistic or personal, whereas the director was absolutely cool, the crime being premeditated and carefully planned. Secondly, most of the amateur detectives forgot the motor-driven camera and were forced to conclude that Scibert was aided in his crime by Serge, the Russian cameraman.

A third error was to have Seibert kill Hardell in physical combat. This missed the real fact that Hardell was lying within the chalk lines on the floor of the set when the director thrust the rapier through his heart.

Every character in the mystery story was suspected by at least a hundred or so contestants. Oddly enough, the unnamed nurse who attended Beth MacDougal was strongly under suspicion, although there was nothing tangible in the story to point to this conclusion. However, Rosenthal, Billy West, Yvonne Beaumont, Lannigan, MacDougal, his daughter, Beth; Serge, the prop boy, the office boy, and even the studio guards were named as the murderer or murderers.

SOME of the contestants believed that Hardell was electrocuted on the wire-charged studio fence while attempting to get back in the studio.

Some of the ingenious contestants, apparently affected by the kind of publicity that emerges frequently from Hollywood, suspected that the whole thing was a publicity stunt—and that Hardell would reappear in the last chapter.

Some of the contestants have written to Photoplay, stating that the final chapter left a number of loose ends. To these inquiries, Photoplay can only point out the foremost mystery story successes of the day. All of these crime novels leave numerous loose ends. This is part of the game of hiding the real culprit, for it sends readers galloping up blind alleys.

A few contestants think that Seibert's occult interest—and his subsequent desire for a visible record of a man's death—should have been pointed out in an early chapter. It is obvious that this would have placed the foreign director definitely as the murderer. Moreover, a consistent study of Seibert's character and background makes this occult angle a logical and understandable part of his mad mental processes. The fact that it was guessed by some of the lucky contestants proves this point.

THE first prize, of $1,000, was awarded to Mrs. Mary M. Hoar, of 31 East Street, Barre, Vt. Mrs. Hoar, a lifelong resident of Barre, is the widow of Richard Alexander Hoar, one of the prominent attorneys of central Vermont and a distinguished criminal lawyer of his day. Mrs. Hoar lives with her 91-year-old mother, Mrs. Lewis Keith, four miles from Barre, her home looking out upon the Green Mountains.

Mrs. Hoar has five children. One daughter, Miss E. M. M. Hoar, is a lawyer.

Second prize, of $500, goes to Cadet Robert W. Goetz, of the March Field Air Corps, of Riverside, Calif. Cadet Goetz is twenty-one years old and was born at Minneapolis, Minn. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Edgar A. Goetz, reside in St. Paul, Minn. Cadet Goetz was graduated from the Mechanics Arts High School of St. Paul and for two years attended the University of Wisconsin. He passed his entrance examinations in the air corps and is now in training in California as a flying cadet.

The third prize, of $350, was awarded to Mrs. B. C. Norment, of Thomasville, North Carolina. Mrs. Norment is a public school teacher. After graduating from college, Mrs. Norment taught the piano for a number of years. She married and took up the career of a housewife. The sudden death of her husband left her with two children to support and Mrs. Norment turned to teaching again, this time in the Thomasville public school.

The fourth prize, of $150, was captured by Miss Clare Rusk, of 1801 Linden Avenue, Baltimore, Md. Miss Rusk, who was born and raised in Baltimore, is ​a secretary to three surgeons. She once sold a motion picture scenario and has literary ambitions. Miss Rusk loves mystery stories, which probably accounts for her success in the Photoplay Contest. Her favorite author is G. K. Chesterton.

Five prizes, of $100 each, were awarded to the following:

5. Kenneth Weaver, 1221 West 46th Street, Los Angeles, Calif.

6. Elizabeth Gaskins, 3240 Osceola Street, Denver, Col.

7. Mrs. Katherine T. Bishop, 803 Colonial Avenue, Norfolk, Va.

8. Mrs. Mary E. Oliver, 1221 Butternut Street, Utica, N. Y.

9. Mrs. Horace Campbell, 5203 Jonathon Avenue, Fordson, Mich.

The remaining ten prizes, of $50 each, were awarded to the following:

10. J. R. Davenport, 71 West 92nd Street, New York City.

11. Mrs. C. H. Monks, 131 Ackerman Avenue, Glen Rock, N. J.

12. Mrs. Chester H. Eames, 224 Union Avenue, Framingham, Mass.

13. Mrs. Sara Loacker, 2413 North Cedar Street, Spokane, Wash.

14. Marion Fay, P. O. Box 8118, Squirrel Hill Station, Pittsburgh, Pa.

15. Phylon H. Cox, c/o The Marlin Grocery Company, Marlin, Texas.

16. E. C. March, 3907 E. 39th Street, Kausas City, Mo.

17. Mrs. Dana B. Reid, Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa.

18. Mrs. J. C. King, 1947 Snowden Avenue, Memphis, Tenn

19. Mrs. Lottie Putnam, 2 Fifth Avenue, Webster, Mass.