Rockwell met with the Fox public relations department to discuss the possibility of actors modeling for him.
“It’s a parody of an English murder mystery,” he said.
“The scene’s a castle.
There’s an old lady who owns the castle.”
After hearing the description, the public relations team suggested Ethel Barrymore as the old lady, Boris Karloff as the sinister chef, Linda Darnell as the scandalous actress, Loretta Young as the demure maid, Richard Widmark as the wastrel holding the riding crop, Clifton Webb as the haughty butler, and Lassie as the dog.
The legs and feet would be posed for by Van Johnson’s.
With permissions secured, Rockwell began posing and photographing the actors.
He had met Ethel Barrymore earlier when, as an eighth-grader earning money for art school, he had taken her and a friend on a sketching trip.
After reminiscing she asked, “Tell me, Mr. Rockwell, Whom have I murdered?” When he answered “Van Johnson,” she replied, “Superb. I have always wanted to murder that boy.”

Seeing Rockwell’s final drawing, Post editors felt that “not one reader in a thousand would be able to figure out the correct answer.” They called in members of the staff, one by one, and asked them to study the drawing carefully and give their solution. “Not one came within miles of the proper answer.”
In the end, Rockwell admitted the editors were right. In addition to readers being distracted by trying to identify all the movie stars, the broken teacup and the plant were slim clues to figuring out that the old lady had brewed the tea.