Chapter 4 ~ Friends & Acquaintances

When Lynn Martin, Marjorie Graham and Elizabeth Short lived together at the Hawthorne apartments on Orange Drive in Hollywood, they socialized with a circle of friends and acquaintance from the neighborhood.

Included in that group were Glynn Wolfe, owner of the Chancellor Hotel on Cherokee Avenue, Dutch Darrin, automobile designer, neighbors Donald Leyes, Harold Costa, Irene Grimes and Rosie Bone. Photographer Clarendon Kinney, aka George Price and bit player and hairdresser, Alex Constance.

After their departure from the Hawthorne apartments on Orange Drive in Hollywood, roommates Marjorie Graham and Elizabeth Short moved to downtown Los Angeles and registered at the Hotel Figueroa. The two girls lived there for about six days before moving into the home of Sid Zaid on Windsor Road.

Zaid’s house was too small and he took them to the Florentine Gardens on Hollywood Boulevard at the end of September, 1946. There, he introduced them to Mark Hansen, a part owner of the nightclub. He told Hansen that the girls needed a place to stay and that his own home was too small to accommodate everyone. Hansen agreed, and according to records, Marjorie and Elizabeth stayed at Hansen’s home until about October 10.

Bill Robinson and Marvin Margolis told investigators that they met “the girls, ” according to district attorney investigators, (presumably Elizabeth Short and Marjorie Graham) on Hollywood Boulevard some time around the first part of October, 1946. The two men went to the Hollywood police station shortly after the victim was identified in the newspapers. They were referred to Central Homicide, the district attorney’s office said.

Robinson and Margolis said they spent from 10 days to a month with the girls. Robinson was using his aunt’s apartment, 726 at the Guardian Arms on Hollywood Boulevard. At first, Bill Robinson was reticent to explain the arrangement, fearing that his aunt would disapprove after hearing her nephew had allowed women to live there.

When the two men showed up at Central Homicide they were reluctant to speak freely. Newspaper photographers immediately took their pictures. At another interview, they opened up, explaining that Beth and Marjorie moved into their apartment on approximate October 10 and stayed there for about 10 days to 2 weeks. Margolis, Robinson and Graham all slept together, while Short slept on the sofa. Both men were cleared after, “an investigation was made which eliminated them as suspects due to their work and where they were during the time the victim was missing.”

During their stay at the Guardian, Marjorie left and returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beth left the same day, leaving her luggage behind. She would return with Glen Stearns, an amateur photographer, who would take her and her luggage on tho the next adventure.

Glen Stearns said he met Elizabeth Short on Hollywood Boulevard in 1946. According to the district attorney summation of her life, they said that Stearns thought, “she was a good subject for photographs.”

He contacted the police shortly after the victim was identified in the newspapers. He brought with him the photos he took of Beth Short about October 22, 1945 at Marshall High School. Stearns told her he was an amateur photographer and asked if he could take her picture. She went with him and he took a series of photos at the high school. In the afternoon, he said he drove her to the Guardian Arms apartments and she picked up her luggage.

After he took her pictures, he drove her out to the San Fernando Valley where she hoped to find a place to stay. According to Stearns, they did not find a place, but drove around all night until first light. In the early hours, of October 23, Beth asked him to take her to Mark Hansen’s home on Carlos Avenue. He dropped her off and left her luggage on the front porch and Anne Toth opened the door and let Beth in.

She stayed with Mark Hansen until Anne Toth found and paid for rent for her at the Chancellor on November 13. Beth stayed at the Chancellor until December 6, 1946, when she began another, this time, final adventure.

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