Chapter 9 ~ Small Town Hollywood
Hollywood has always been a small town to those who live there. Seems you always run into someone you know when you’re walking down Hollywood Boulevard or sitting in a coffee shop.
In the 1940’s, Harry Carpenter’s was a popular drive-in restaurant in Hollywood, located at the five points, where Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, Virgil Avenue, Hillhurst Avenue and Sunset Drive all converge. One in a chain of four drive-ins, this Carpenter’s sat on the southeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and Virgil Avenue, where locals stopped for a soda or a sandwich.
You could stay in your car or dine inside. The building was circular in design so automobiles could park facing the restaurant and drivers and passengers could order from car hops, who would bring your order on a tray to the window. Inside, you could order from the counter man, dressed in white and wearing a paper hat. There were stools where you could sit down and order coffee, served in a cup and saucer, a milk shake or fried chicken.
Arthur Richman and Bob Granas were regulars at Carpenter’s. Lynn Martin, Margie Graham and Beth Short were also regulars at the sandwich stand. The five points was a busy intersection and the drive-in was a popular stop for motorists and pedestrians. Arthur introduced Bob to Lynn and Margie. Later, Bob introduced the girls to George Bacos. Bob never met Beth, but George did. He took her up to the Hollywood Hills, where they parked and talked. But, he wasn’t interested in her, he said.
“I didn’t want to kiss her because of all that ‘goop’ she used on her face. I’m used to nice, cultured girls.”
When he was shown a photo of her after the murder, George said, “Yeah, that is a pretty good picture of her. Looks a lot softer there than she usually does. She looked pretty hard.”
George said, “Lynn seemed to be a nice girl. She was quieter; not as flashy.” He had a brief sexual affair with her, unaware, until after the murder, that she was underage, he said.
John Egger, the head usher at CBS on Sunset boulevard, knew George when George was head usher at NBC, down the street. John said, “I don’t like him very well. He is very conceited; I just don’t care for him myself. Never very close to him, just speaking acquaintance.”
John recognized Beth from the times when she would wait in the CBS courtyard to see a radio broadcast. George knew Beth from Brittingham’s, next to CBS in Columbia Square. “That used to be my hangout – Brittingham’s Restaurant.” “I’d see her in there. I’d say hello, be as nice as possible; try to get away.”
Bob Granas and George Bacos knew each other since “about the time of high school,” Bob said. He was in the publishing business. He put out the The Beverage Bulletin. George was in show business. He supplied talent to clubs, including the Crown Grill near the Biltmore downtown. George also worked at Jay Farber Associates in “Cosmo Alley” in Hollywood. He worked on commission, promoting records and handling publicity. Frances Campbell, his sister, was a waitress at the Crown Grill.
When investigators asked Ann Toth about George, they told her, “You see, George Bacos went out with her and that’s not far from where she disappeared, you know, from her last being seen there at the Biltmore.” And, “Bacos ducked us when we first looked for him.”
Beth used to go to the Crown Grill, where Ann was a regular. Ann said that Beth never told her she went there. “-as a matter of fact, I used to go down there all the time, so I imagine she would mention it to me if she did.” Ann said she did not recall Bob, George or Frances Campbell. She said, “- I used to meet Leo there quite often down at the Crown Jewel. Seemed to me that she always repeated a lot of things I said to other people and she may have gone down there because of my going down there with Leo, but I never saw her there.”
Leo Hymes knew the Crown Jewell bartenders Gil, Harry and Al. He remembered Carol Fisher, a friend of Beth’s from Camp Cooke, but he couldn’t recall Marjorie Graham, whom investigators described as a heavy-set, light blond who worked at the Pig Stand on Sunset Boulevard.
Paths crossed and friendships and acquaintanceships were formed that lasted weeks or months. Just ships passing in the night.
