Bus Tour Rolls On the 65rd Anniversary of the Black Dahlia’s Disappearance on Saturday January 7, 12pm-4pm
WHERE: Departing from The Millennium Biltmore Hotel, 5th & Olive, L.A.
COST: $58/person. Call: 323-223-2767. esotouric.com
It was January 9, 1947 when Beth Short left the Biltmore Hotel for a nearby bar and vanished, only to be found cut in two in a vacant Crenshaw District lot six days later. Since January 1947, this one iconic murder mystery has lingered unsolved at the forefront of the American imagination, with dozens of books and films dedicated to solving the slaying of the Massachusetts girl who came to Hollywood hoping to make it.
Suspects in the Black Dahlia murder have included L.A. Times publisher Norman Chandler and Orson Welles, crazed lesbians, twisted drifters and more than one writer’s father, but still the mystery abides.
The Real Black Dahlia tour dedicates itself to revealing who victim Elizabeth Short really was by exploring her life in Los Angeles from mid 1946 to her January 1947 murder through examination of the police investigation and news coverage. The tour begins at the Biltmore Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, where Beth Short went after checking her bags at the Greyhound Terminal. Passengers will tour the beautifully restored hotel before heading south, to the low rent Olive Street bar where she met her murderer. The Downtown portion of the tour includes the Examiner newspaper offices, where the crime became
myth as pioneering female City Editor Aggie Underwood spun the case for weeks, and the Figueroa Hotel, where Short stayed in happier times.
The bus then heads west towards Leimert Park and the formerly vacant lot where Short’s bisected body was discovered on January 15, 1947. The tour includes a cop-approved snack stop for coffee and donuts near
the body dump site. The tour concludes at the Biltmore, where passengers may choose to linger over a late afternoon tea to remember Beth Short.
Also featured: a special presentation from cosmetics historian Joan Renner exploring Beth Short’s unusual proto-goth make up, so different from the popular girl next store look of 1947, and a key to understanding her psychology.
Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule
Sat Jan 7 – The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat Jan 21 – Charles Bukowski’s Los Angeles
Sat Jan 28 – The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain’s Southern California
Nightmare
Mon Jan 23 – The LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank featuring Dan Fante (info at
lavatransforms.org)
Sat Feb 4 – Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66
Sat Feb 25 – Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown
Sat March 3 – Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat March 10 – Weird West Adams crime bus tour
Sat March 17 – Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sun March 18 – East Side Babylon crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Esotouric’s Richard Schave, Kim Cooper and Joan Renner are proud members of
LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association.