Chapter 1 ~ The Blue Dahlia
1946
As summer turned into fall in 1946, Elizabeth Short, a young woman from the east, began to be known around Hollywood. The war was over, and returning soldiers and sailors filled the streets and bars of Hollywood. Elizabeth, or Beth, as she referred to herself, liked men in uniform and she began to spend a lot of time in bars.
In those days, there were the high class night spots and restaurants, like the Brown Derby, the Jade and the Cinegrill. And there were the working man’s bars, such as Steve Boardner’s, Bradley’s 5 and 10 and Jack O’Brien’s. Hollywood was a lonely town for transplants and runaways, but it was easy to get lost in if you joined the bar scene. For Beth Short, who preferred soft drinks over alcohol, Hollywood was a place to meet people and maybe make a future for herself.
The 1940’s was the era of live radio programs and motion pictures. The NBC Radio City studios were at Sunset at Vine, while down the street, CBS broadcast from Columbia Square. There were night spots all along Vine Street, such as Clara Bow’s It Cafe, the Brown Derby, The Club Morocco, the Hangover, Tom Breneman’s and many more. There were nightclubs with floor shows and live entertainment. The Palladium, sandwiched between NBC and CBS, was just across from Earl Carroll’s Theatre on Sunset. The Florentine Gardens was Blocks away on Hollywood Boulevard, and, of course the Sunset Strip was a taxi ride away, with clubs like Ciro’s and the Trocadero.
It was an exciting time and an exciting town. In 1946, five of the top records on the hit parade were different versions of “To Each His Own.” Movie audiences were treated to a banner year of films, such as “The Best Years of Our Lives,” “Blue Skies,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and “The Harvey Girls.”
That year, Nino Frank, a French film critic, dubbed a new style of movie making as “film noir.” 1946 saw the release of such noir titles as, “Gilda,” “The Big Sleep,” “The Postman Always Rings Twice” and a film that had a personal meaning for Elizabeth Short, Raymond Chandler’s, “The Blue Dahlia,” which opened at the Paramount Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard on July 4.
In 1946, actor and producer Jack Webb played a private detective in Pat Novak for Hire on radio. That same month, July, Elizabeth Short would arrive in Southern California. In six months, her name became a center piece in Los Angeles noir.
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After Thanksgiving, the Boulevard dressed for Christmas with lights and decorations. Shops stayed open later at night and Bing Crosby could be heard singing White Christmas again. It was a festive time, but by early December, a frightened 22 year old Elizabeth Short decided it was time to get out of Hollywood.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:39 am
please tell me more about the murder of elizabeth short