Photo: Man with a slate in footage shot for “Down to Earth.”
My friends over at the 1947project have found some process footage that was filmed about April 1946 for the Columbia feature “Down to Earth.”
It’s unfortunate that they are hyping it as an eerie foreshadowing of the Black Dahlia case, allegedly tracing Elizabeth Short’s path on the night she disappeared, purportedly walking from the Biltmore to the Crown Grill. In truth, nobody knows for certain where she went or what she did.
The Crown Jewel Cocktail Room (also known as the the Crown Jewel Grill, the Crown Grill and the Crown Grill Cocktail Lounge), 427 W. 8th St., was just another downtown bar where people thought they had seen Elizabeth Short. There is a shadow — but only a shadow — of truth because her roommate Ann Toth sometimes met her boyfriend there.
But there’s nothing in any official records to confirm that Elizabeth Short ever set foot in the place, despite a fairly extensive investigation by the district attorney’s office. And it is less than honest to present such a statement so definitively and without attribution.
Downtown L.A. in color | black and white version
But the footage of downtown Los Angeles is worth a look:
The Biltmore, obscured by a bus. Warning: Olive is now a one-way street, so it’s impossible to re-create this drive.
Now obscured by planters, via Google’s Street View.
Construction underway at the United Airlines office at 6th and Olive.
6th and Olive via Google’s Street View.
Aha! Traffic cop!
A bus!
Olive and 7th.
Olive and 7th via Google’s Street View.
Notice the style of streetlights at 7th and Olive.
Maurice Ball Custom Furs!
Now it’s a 7-Eleven!
Olive, turning east on 8th.
Now a parking lot, via Google’s Street View.
It’s Coffee Dan’s!
Look! It’s the RKO Hillstreet Theatre at 8th and Hill!
