By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
LA Times' Black Dahlia Archive
The Los Angeles Times has opened up its archive of lurid, fascinating coverage of the 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short, better known as still unsolved The Black Dahlia murder case — just in time to prime audiences for the Sept. 15 release of THE BLACK DAHLIA, Brian De Palma’s film of the James Ellroy novel.
The movie website has more photos (Mia Kirshner plays the unfortunate Miss Short) and a timeline of the initial investigation.
Ellroy’s novel came out in 1987, and it not only launched his career as a modern hardboiled crime writer– it reignited interest in the Short case. The book’s cover carried a haunting, stylized image of Elizabeth Short, based on a real photograph.
There are numerous true crime books and other, lesser novels about the murder, and whenever people cast the role of The Black Dahlia in their minds, I’m pretty sure it’s the ghostly goddess of the cover art that they think of, not the black and white photo. That Betty Short–a cute/beautiful girl trying to look older and tougher than she was, has a troubling expression on her face. Or in-trouble.
Because this stark photo looks so much like a mug shot, and accompanied the January 1947 Los Angeles Times coverage of the murder, I wondered if it was actually a police mug shot. However, a look at the numerous Black Dahlia-dedicated web sites out there told me that the front-and-side head shot was actually done as a work ID card when Short worked a civilian job on a military base. It was the first thing available to police and journalists after she was killed, and that’s how most of us remember her.
THE BLACK DAHLIA premieres at the Venice Film Festival.