Another Good Story Ruined -- The Black Dahlia

The Black Dahlia has become so thoroughly transformed into a myth about what happens to nice, small-town girls in big, bad Hollywood  (“achieving in death the fame that eluded her in life”) that it’s almost impossible to write about the killing or the investigation with any accuracy.    It’s a complicated case to begin with, and  matters have been made even worse by highly fictionalized “true” crime books and a craze of “daddy did it” claims -- I know of three purported “killer dads” but this is a thriving cottage industry and there may be more.   The latest errors appear in a Jacket Copy post on the videogame L.A. Noire: On the movie “The Blue Dahlia”: “And it was playing in theaters when actress Elizabeth Short was murdered in January 1947; journalists looking for a hook to talk about the unusual killing called her the Black Dahlia.” Well, no. First, Elizabeth Short wasn’t an actress – it’s a stretch to even call her anything but a wannabe  actress. Elizabeth Short wanted to be an actress the way people want to win the lottery. Second, “The Blue Dahlia” was long gone from theaters by January 1947. Third, and this is one of our beloved myths: Reporters nicknamed the case. The Herald-Express frequently nicknamed killings, like the “Red Hibiscus Murder,” and in fact tried to nickname the Black Dahlia as “the Werewolf Murder.” Elizabeth Short got the Black Dahlia nickname from customers at a drugstore lunch counter in Long Beach as a takeoff on the title of “The Blue Dahlia.”  Then we have: “we know the Black Dahlia was left naked, washed of all blood, elegantly coiffed and cut in two.” No. Another favorite Black Dahlia myth is that the killer gave her a complete makeover: hair, nails, etc. Unfortunately, morgue shots of Elizabeth Short are all over the Web and it’s easy to determine that this is ridiculous.

Another Good Story Ruined -- The Black Dahlia

I received a news alert the other day about an upcoming play titled “The Chanteuse and the Devil’s Muse” in which Daniele Watts will portray Mady Comfort, at left, purportedly “Elizabeth Short's best friend.” I honestly don’t know how such nonsense gets started. Mady Comfort was not Short’s “best friend.” There is nothing in any original newspaper accounts or in any official documents to show they ever met.  Comfort did nothing more than pose for photos for Dr. George Hodel, according to “Black Dahlia Avenger.”     Any attempt to link Comfort and Short is nothing but lunacy.

Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! -- Part 7

These days, many of The Times photos and negatives are held at UCLA. Here’s one of two negatives that Scott Harrison of our photo department got from the archives. As I said at the beginning, the searchlight photo has been heavily retouched, but it is authentic to some extent. ALSO Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 1 Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! -- Part 2 Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 3 Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 4 Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 5 Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 6 Another Good Story Ruined: The Battle of Los Angeles

Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! -- Part 6

July 8, 1947: The first links between the searchlight photo, the Battle of Los Angeles and flying saucers seem to have emerged in the late 1940s.  A Times editorial dismissing UFOs compared them to the mystery object targeted during the 1942 air raid. “…antiaircraft bursts caught in searchlight beams were magnified into 27 twin-engined Japanese bombers, majestically flying in formation," The Times said.  In 1952, Times columnist Bill Henry  referred to "the Battle of Los Angeles of 1942 in which something resembling a flying saucer -- it was really an errant weather balloon -- touched off the gosh-durndest artillery barrage that our community has witnessed before or since."   Today, an Internet search reveals a vast number of websites devoted to the searchlight photo and UFOs. Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 1 Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! -- Part 2 Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 3 Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 4 Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 5 Another Good Story Ruined: The Battle of Los Angeles

Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! -- Part 5 [Updated]

[Update: The Times published this photo with a story about the Battle of Los Angeles, but the photo was actually taken another time and used in error, according to Scott Harrison, who researched it for The Times'  Framework blog.]

Feb. 25, 1962: As the years passed, the Battle of Los Angeles became a local curiosity. For the 20th anniversary, The Times attempted to unravel the incident, but only uncovered confusion and chaos. Quoting a military report, The Times said: “At 3:06 a.m., an object resembling a balloon was sighted over Santa Monica and four units were ordered to fire. "Thereafter, the official records are so confused and contradictory -- and the subsequent testimony of eyewitnesses, both civilian and military, complicates, rather than clarifies them -- that it seems impossible to reconstruct accurately the story of the next few hours." Jack Smith wrote about the incident for the 1967 anniversary and Donna Scheibe  revisited the incident in 1979.   ALSO Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 1 Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! -- Part 2 Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 3 Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 4 Another Good Story Ruined: The Battle of Los Angeles

Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! -- Part 4

Oct. 29, 1945: The Times publishes the searchlight photo to accompany a story about the Air Force account of the incident. Almost as soon as the shooting stopped, people began arguing over whether the 1942 air raid was a genuine sighting.  Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson insisted that 15 planes had been seen over the city while Secretary of the Navy William Franklin Knox dismissed the incident as a false alarm. After the war, the military was more forthcoming with information and in preparing its official history, the 4th Air Force stated that there were unidentified airplanes, possibly Japanese, over Los Angeles that night. However, a Japanese Navy official dismissed the account, saying that no Japanese aircraft were involved. ALSO Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 1 Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! -- Part 2 Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 3 Another Good Story Ruined: The Battle of Los Angeles

Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! -- Part 3

Photographs by Larry Harnisch/Los Angeles Times   The original 1942 print of searchlights over Los Angeles. The back of the print, showing editors’ notations and the publication date Feb. 26, 1942.

Feb. 26, 1942: Marvin Miles, The Times aviation correspondent for many years, files a color story on the night of the air raid: “Explosions stabbing the darkness like tiny busting stars. ... Searchlight beams poking long crisscross fingers across the night sky.... But the objects in the sky slowly moved on, caught in the center of the lights like the hub of a bicycle wheel surrounded by gleaming spokes.” “Like lethal firecrackers, the antiaircraft blasted above, below and seemingly right on the target in the tenacious beams. Other shots fell short, exploding halfway up the long climb. Tracers sparked upward like Roman candles.” “…The target inched along high overhead, flanked by the cherry-red bursts. And the householders shivered in their robes, their faces set, watching the awesome scene.”   ALSO Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 1 Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! -- Part 2 Another Good Story Ruined: The Battle of Los Angeles

Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! -- Part 2

 

Feb. 24-25, 1942: Two days before the so-called Battle of Los Angeles, a Japanese submarine shelled the Elwood oil fields,  12 miles north of Santa Barbara, according to The Times, which added that the attack came halfway through President Roosevelt’s weekly “fireside chat.” The only damage was rigging and pump equipment a quarter of a mile from the beach, The Times said, but Southern California residents were warned to be extremely vigilant in case of another attack the next night. "Particularly heavy reinforcements were reported assigned to guard the huge oil tank farm area of El Segundo, a few miles southwest of Los Angeles, from which all alien Japanese have been ousted for the duration of the war," The Times said on Feb. 25. ALSO Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 1 Another Good Story Ruined: The Battle of Los Angeles

Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! -- Part 1

Los Angeles Times file photo

Searchlights rake the nighttime sky over a blacked-out city on Feb. 25, 1942, in the so-called Battle of Los Angeles. A powerful image, to be sure. But is it real? That is a short question with a long answer. The best we can say is that the photo has been greatly altered, but beneath the paint, some portion of it may be authentic. We don’t know who took this Times photo. We don’t know which Times artist retouched it and we don’t know what editor decided to use it. What we do know is that the photo was published in the Feb. 26, 1942, editions of The Times to illustrate  what was believed to be an air raid over the city.  I have the old and battered 1942 print in front of me as I’m writing this and I can confirm without question that much of what you see in this photo is painted: The beams from the searchlights are airbrushed. The supposed bursts of antiaircraft shells are blobs of paint. And the entire bottom quarter of the picture, supposedly showing a darkened skyline, is a combination of black paint outlined with the faintest edge of airbrushing. First, some background…. ALSO Another Good Story Ruined – The Battle of Los Angeles

Pages of History -- Morrow Mayo's 'Los Angeles'

The Evening Express, Dec. 17, 1927       The Evening Express, Dec. 20, 1927       The Times, Dec. 17, 1927     The Times, Dec. 20, 1927

I haven’t forgotten about my little project on Morrow Mayo’s “Los Angeles,” but there are so many stories and only one Larry Harnisch. I spent part of Tuesday at one of my favorite places in the city, the Los Angeles Public Library’s History and Genealogy Department, going through microfilm of the Los Angeles Evening Express coverage of the Marion Parker killing. (Sorry about the quality of the scans. The readers at the library can only make printouts.) I will delve into Mayo’s treatment of the Parker killing in the days to come, but I was left with some immediate impressions after reading the Evening Express. First of all, notice the screamer headlines. The Express brought out extras nearly every day in the Parker case, unlike The Times, which mostly kept the killing on the cover of the second section. (Which is why there is nothing about the case on the Dec. 17, 1927, front page, above). And second,  I think we tend to forget that this tragedy occurred during the holiday season. Putting  the murder in its historic context in the pages of a newspaper adds a haunting contrast between the horror of the killing and the ads for Christmas gifts and pictures of Santa Claus. Finally, I am always thankful that I can go to my local library and have access to such a wealth of historic resources.      ALSO Fact-Checking “Los Angeles” – Part 1 Fact-Checking “Los Angeles” – Part 2 Fact-Checking “Los Angeles” – Part 3

Another Good Story Ruined -- The Battle of Los Angeles

Los Angeles Times file photo

I haven’t talked to a movie publicist since Brian De Palma’s ghastly “The Black Dahlia” came out, but I was recently bombarded with pitches to do some sort of story about the rather comical February 1942 “Battle of Los Angeles” to hype the upcoming science fiction shoot ’em up “Battle: Los Angeles.”  And frankly, if the publicity campaign wanted to establish UFO research as nothing but lies and fakery, it couldn't have done a better job. In case you don’t know, every year about this time, someone revisits a rather ridiculous episode of wartime hysteria that occurred shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor in which more than 1,000 rounds were fired at strange objects in the sky over Los Angeles. The objects were later suspected to be weather balloons – although  nobody was ever really sure. In later years, the reporters who lived through the Battle of Los Angeles treated the whole thing as a big joke. And if the incident sounds familiar, that’s because it inspired the movie “1941.” ALSO Battle of Los Angeles on the Daily Mirror 2008 Battle of Los Angeles on the Daily Mirror 2009

Paul Coates and Matt Weinstock, Feb. 18, 1961

Feb. 18, 1961: Young persons, note the sophisticated, pipe-smoking college man in a letter sweater.  Such folks would be extinct on college campuses by the end of the decade. Matt Weinstock ruins another good story, this one about Washington and the cherry tree. (Young persons, note that this was before Presidents Day, when Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays were celebrated separately). Paul Coates has the story of a veteran who had been fighting with the government since 1943 for disability coverage after he contracted multiple sclerosis in the Army. DEAR ABBY: "Cold wives" are often the subject of discussion in your column, but I don't recall having seen any mention of "cold husbands." I am interested in this subject because I am married to one....