Chapter 6 ~ Mark Hansen
Mark Hansen was born in Aalborg, Denmark in 1892 and moved to the United States in 1919, where he settled in Scobey, Montana. He bought a theater in Scobey and later moved to Williston, North Dakota, where he bought two more theaters. He moved to Minnesota for about nine months where he was also engaged in the theater business. In 1921, Hansen relocated to Los Angeles. He lived at Melrose and Larchmont and owned the Larchmont Theatre. He also had a theater in Whittier, one in San Pedro, one in Walnut Park, three in Oxnard and three in downtown Los Angeles.
In 1926, Hansen built the Marcal Theatre as a playhouse. He moved to 6024 Carlos Avenue in Hollywood in the mid 1930.’s. He and his wife separated from each other in the mid 1940’s and she remained in their apartment in Los Angeles with their daughters.
When he knew Elizabeth Short in the 1940’s, Mark Hansen was a Hollywood resident and a successful businessman. At the time, he was described as 55 years old, 5′ 9′, 175 lb, with graying hair and an accent.
Hansen owned two rooming houses, one at 6048 Hollywood Boulevard and another at 1771 Van Nuys. He was part owner of the Florentine Gardens, a successful nightclub on Hollywood Boulevard. He and silent screen actress Alice Calhoun built the Marcal Theatre on the same block at 6025 Hollywood Boulevard in 1925.
Hansen’s friend, actress Ann Toth, lived with him off and on at the house on Carlos Avenue. Beth Short also stayed at Hansen’s house for two weeks in October and ten days in November, 1946.
Ann told investigators that Mark Hansen “really liked her, he had a yen for her,” but when interviewed, he acted as if he had no interest in her. When asked if she was a sexy-type girl,” Hansen replied, “Well, I don’t know if she was sexy-type girl. She appeared to be a very nice girl.” He also said, “she appeared to be a more domestic type girl.”
Hansen said, “Well, I thought she was fair looking, average. If it wasn’t for her teeth. She had bad teeth. Other than that she would have been beautiful.”
Inspector Jemison’s report says, “Ann and her friend Leo Hymes state that Mark was crazy about her [Elizabeth Short] and jealous of her, that he is a man who must have what he wants.”
Lt. Jemison’s report also states, that Beth “told Ann Toth that Mark was trying to make her, that he was jealous so she had to leave boy friends at the corner so he wouldn’t see them.”
Hansen apparently liked Beth, although he played down his interest in her. Hansen had one of his tenants “who was in the dressmaking business,” according to Jemison, make two dresses for her “which she fitted and made, but never delivered to the victim.”
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According to Mark Hansen’s timetable, Beth and Marjorie Graham were first brought to his home by Sid Zaid in October, 1946. They stayed, “Perhaps about a week or ten days; something like that.” After awhile, he asked them to leave, “-because this Graham girl, she was inclined to be liquored up and I didn’t like it at all; and this Short girl, she had always some undesirable looking character waiting for her outside and bringing her home.” After they left, Hansen said he believed they moved into the Guardian Arms with Bill Robinson and Marvin Margolis. Beth and Marvin both told Mark that he, Margolis, was her cousin, Hansen said. After Beth and Marjorie moved out, they came back a few times. “-they came over there one day and say they want to leave town; they were going to go east and this cousin, he was along with them- this Margolis.”
“The next day he came around there and carried the suitcase up and I says, ‘What’s this?’ He says, ‘Can she leave this here overnight? She’s going away tomorrow and would like to leave these until tomorrow.’” Hansen said he agreed, but, “That night I come home Beth Short was there.” He said, “I thought you were just going to leave your suitcases,” and she said, ‘ I didn’t have no place to stay.’” “She kept staying and staying.” After awhile, unknown to Hansen, Ann moved Beth to the Chancellor.
Again, Beth showed up at the Carlos Avenue house, Hansen said.
Margolis and Beth and Marjorie came over one night. “I wasn’t home but she was sitting there with Ann when I came home. They were sitting, eating dinner, and she [Beth] was sitting eating dinner and crying.”
Hansen said he asked, “What’s the matter with you now?”
She told him, “- she moved in with some bad company [at the Chancellor] and she was scared and she wanted to move,” he said.
Hansen said Beth had dinner at his home on December 6 and he drove her to the Chancellor, “at which time she cried and said she was leaving this hotel and going north to see her sister in Oakland.”
That was the last time he saw her, Hansen said. “She say she was going to Oakland during the holidays with her sister. When she comes back she says she would call me to see if I changed my mind, to see if she would stay at the house.”
“I never saw her again.”
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On January 25, 1947, authorities interviewed Mark Hansen in his home in the presence of Ann Toth. He denied dating Beth.
“Several girls have rented rooms here at the house, but I never went out with them. She had lots of dates. There was a language teacher that I know of, and with other persons, mostly hoodlums whom I wouldn’t even let in my house.”
He said that the address book that was recovered by postal authorities belonged to him. He also indicated that another memorandum and calendar book was missing. “I believe Miss Short stole that, too,” Hansen said.
Ann objected to Hansen’s depiction of Beth Short, saying, “She was a nice girl. She was quiet, she didn’t drink and she didn’t smoke and we ought to look on the good side of people.”
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In 1949, Lola Titus, the 25 year old blond taxi dancer, aka Beverly Alice Bennett, and “The Lady in Gold,” shot Mark Hansen while he was shaving in the bathroom of his Carlos Avenue home. The bullet pierced a lung and missed his heart by 7/10 of an inch and was later found embedded in the wall. Lola said afterwards, “I made up my mind that he was either going to love me, marry me or take care of me or I was going to kill him.”
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The Carlos Avenue house was razed years ago. The Marcal Theatre became the World Theatre in 1963. It since closed. Mark Hansen died in 1964. The Florentine Gardens is still open for business.
January 19th, 2010 at 4:09 am
The Carlos Ave. house was said to have been razed in 1977 if I remember correctly…