Author: Kim Cooper

Kim Cooper is the creator of 1947project, the crime-a-day time travel blog that spawned Esotouric’s popular crime bus tours, including The Real Black Dahlia. She is the author of The Kept Girl, the acclaimed historical mystery starring the young Raymond Chandler and the real-life Philip Marlowe, and of The Raymond Chandler Map of Los Angeles. With husband Richard Schave, Kim curates the Salons and forensic science seminars of LAVA- The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. When the third generation Angeleno isn’t combing old newspapers for forgotten scandals, she is a passionate advocate for historic preservation of signage, vernacular architecture and writer’s homes. Kim was for many years the editrix of Scram, a journal of unpopular culture. Her books include Fall in Love For Life, Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth, Lost in the Grooves and an oral history of Neutral Milk Hotel.

We Saved the 76 Ball!

The following is a message from the future, 2007 to be precise.

Y’know that little oil company Unocal out Santa Paula way? Welp, round about 1962 they’re going to send an ad executive up to the World’s Fair in Seattle (of all godforsaken backwaters) and he’ll create a sign that the whole world will fall in love with. He’ll call it the 76 Ball, and that’s all it is, a big orange ball with "76" across its belly, but not for 1776, but for some nutty thing to do with octanes.

Anyhoo, the 76 Ball will be a sweet old thing and everyone will love it, especially little kids, and folks’ll even wear little ones on their cars as decoration. Come 2003 and a big Texas company called ConocoPhillips is gonna eat up the little Californnia company and start knocking those friendly balls off their poles and replacing them with red Texas belt buckles. That’s when your time traveling pals at 1947project get involved, with a website and a petition. And would you believe, those Texans listen?

We pretty much just saved the 76 Ball — for museum collections and in a new, red and blue interpretation, and we’re feeling pretty good about it.

This concludes your message from the future. We now return you to your previously scheduled Lemon Fiend.

yrs, Kim
(and Nathan)
(and the rest of the 76 Ball geeks)

Lost Weekend Last Evening in Pictures

And so after nearly a week of extraordinary events, last night’s cocktail party, screening, gallery tour and crime scene tour spelled the end of the Lost Weekend. We were very fortunate to have photographer Meeno Peluce and his assistant Adam on hand to document the glamorous celebrants and festivities at the Biltmore, Laemmle Grand, Regent Galleries and aboard the Crime Bus.

Many thanks to all who turned out to be a part of these happenings, to remember Elizabeth Short and reflect upon why her story continues to resonate so strongly and so widely.  

Below you will find a smattering of images from Meeno’s January 16th gallery, with many more to be seen here. Bye-bye, Dahlia, until next year…

huckster

eleganza

flanking gents

beaming

cheers

shame

 

Kim and Nathan on the radio Friday, candlelit vigil Thursday night

Early risers can hear 1947project’s Kim Cooper and Nathan Marsak talking about the 60th anniversary of the Black Dahlia case on Joe Escalante’s show around 7am Friday on Indie 103.1-FM. That’s on your radio dial in old Los Angeles, or on the interwebs at https://www.indie1031.fm/

And don’t forget, tonight at 9pm, we lead a candlelit vigil in memory of Elizabeth Short. It begins at the Regent Galleries at 446-450 S. Main, where the "Her Name Was Elizabeth" exhibition is opening, continuing on to the Biltmore Hotel. Along the way we’ll provide information about the crime and its connection with the downtown L.A. neighborhood, sort of a mini, walking Crime Bus tour as a preview to the Real Black Dahlia tours this weekend and Tuesday. Seats are still available for all three tours, so please click over/
to reserve if interested.

Lost Weekend – Full Schedule

Simplified Schedule….Printable…Don’t Miss A Minute!

Thurs. Jan. 11, 2pm, "Her Name Was Elizabeth" art exhibition opens at 446-450 S. Main Street. Crime Bus and VIP tickets available in gallery.
6pm-9pm, Opening art reception at 446-450 S. Main Street.
9pm, candlelight vigil to the Biltmore hosted by Kim and Nathan of 1947project departs 446-450 S. Main Street.
10:30pm-midnight, free (donations gladly accepted) screening of Ramzi Abed’s "Black Dahlia Movie" at 446-450 S. Main Street.

Fri, Jan. 12, 7am, Kim and Nathan of 1947project are interviewed on Joe Escalante’s show on Indie 103.1-FM.
6-9pm, "Have You Seen this Girl?" – a woman dressed as the Black Dahlia will glide eerily along Hollywood Boulevard between Argyle and Cherokee, the old stomping grounds of Elizabeth Short. Perhaps she will be found in the Frolic Room or Pig and Whistle, or just cruising the boulevard. This spectral figure carries a basket of flowers, and will give one to anyone who calls her by her true name, Elizabeth. One of these lucky flowers is valid as one free ticket on the Sunday morning January 14 Real Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour, or for half off one seat on the VIP midnight tour and film premiere on Tuesday January 16.

Sat. Jan. 13, 11am-4pm, Real Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour, click to buy.
7pm, John Gilmore author of "Severed" will read from his book and offer a Q&A about his experiences and investigation of The Black Dahlia Murder at 446-450 S. Main Street.
10pm, $5 screening of "Black Dahlia Movie" (popcorn and soda included in the price of admission) at 446-450 S. Main Street. Sunday Crime Bus and VIP tickets available in gallery.

Sun. Jan. 14, 11am-4pm, Real Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour, click to buy.
Noon, gallery is open at 446-450 S. Main Street and VIP tickets are available.
6pm, screening of "Black Dahlia Movie" at 446-450 S. Main Street.

Mon. Jan. 15, 9pm, "Requiem For A Dahlia" live music from "Black Dahlia Movie" featuring David J, Ego Plum, Dame Darcy and Death By Doll, Bella Beretta, Courtney Cruz, Eliza Bane, The Great Merlini, Scarlett Letter, Lulu Lunaris, Vixen Magdalene and more, doors open at 9pm, show starts at 10pm.

Tues. Jan. 16, 6pm, Cocktails at the Biltmore Hotel, 5th/Olive
VIPs enjoy their first cocktail on US! For more info or to purchase VIP tickets, click here.
8pm, black carpet processional at Laemmle Grand 4-Plex, 345 S. Figueroa St. World premiere of "Black Dahlia Movie" begins 8:30pm. VIPs enjoy priority seating among luminaries.
10:30pm, Once in a lifetime 60th Anniversary Midnight Real Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour begins after the screening, with stars and creators of "Black Dahlia Movie"! Tickets for just the late evening events, starting with the bus tour, are $100, available by clicking here before Tuesday at 5pm, or just bring cash or check to 345 S. Figueroa at 10:30pm, and if there are seats left you may buy one.

Find The Dahlia, Win A Crime Bus Ticket

The 60th Anniversary Lost Weekend of the Black Dahlia is nearly upon us, and we have two new events to announce.

On Friday, January 12, from 6-9pm, a woman dressed as the Black Dahlia will glide eerily along Hollywood Boulevard between Argyle and Cherokee, the old stomping grounds of Elizabeth Short. Perhaps she will be found in the Frolic Room or Pig and Whistle, or just cruising the boulevard. This spectral figure carries a basket of flowers, and will give one to anyone who calls her by her true name, Elizabeth. One of these lucky flowers is valid as one free ticket on the Sunday morning January 14 Real Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour, or for half off one seat on the VIP midnight tour and film premiere on Tuesday January 16.

And on Thursday, January 11 at 9pm, a candlelit vigil will leave Regent Galleries, 446-450 South Main Street downtown, site of the Black Dahlia-inspired art exhibition "Her Name Was Elizabeth." Those wishing to show their respect for Elizabeth Short and other souls lost to violence will walk from Main Street to the Biltmore Hotel, the last place she was seen alive, then continue south for a few blocks along the route that police believe she took before being abducted. The vigil will be led by Kim Cooper and Nathan Marsak, hosts of 1947project’s Real Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour, and true facts and myths of the case will be shared along the way. The group
will then return to Regent Galleries for a 10:30pm screening of Ramzi Abed’s "Black Dahlia Movie."

The Lost Weekend is six days of art exhibitions, readings, film screenings, live cabaret and Crime Bus tours celebrating the life, myth and legend of Elizabeth Short, The Black Dahlia. For a full schedule, visit https://myspace.com/thelostweekendlosangeles

We have some openings on the Saturday 1/13 Real Black Dahlia tour. To reserve your seat on Saturday, Sunday 1/14 or the Tuesday 1/16 VIP night, please visit https://www.dumplinglab.com/crimebus

Crime Bus to the Atomic Frolic, Las Vegas weekender Jan. 26-28

Gentle rider,

We’ll be crossing state lines and violating the Mann Act next month, when the Crime Bus rolls from downtown Los Angeles to Las Vegas on Friday January 26 to take a luxury coach full of party people to the first ever Mondo Lounge Atomic Frolic weekend at the Aruba Hotel. The price is $130/RT (including your Atomic Frolic ticket), and we’ll have you home late Sunday January 28.

Organized by members of the Los Angeles ModCom architectural preservation league now resident in LV, the event celebrates the style, music, art and culture of the great American cocktail era, with live bands, naked girls, neon and architectural tours, lectures (including one by our own Nathan Marsak), best-dressed Fez contests, beat poetry, documentaries, DJs, pajama parties and similar silliness.

So where does the Crime Bus come in? We’ll be transporting many of the Los Angeles attendees, with the weekend’s celebration starting the minute the bus doors close. There will be cool tunes and films, good company, games and surprises, with a detour through historic and scenic Route 66, a meal stop at a suitably retro establishment, and the debut of a new Crime Bus tour featuring tales of high weirdness from the high desert.

The crimes of old Route 66 are nothing like the citified tales told on previous Crime Bus tours. For more than a century, bad people have done terrible things under the vast desert sky, and all too often they’ve gotten away with it. High desert crimes are also odder than city crimes. On the Crime Bus, passengers will boggle at the tale of the Indian guide who cleverly spirited a new bride away from her young husband in 1920, giggle at the hijinks surrounding the premature 1890 death announcement of Wells Fargo messenger Ed Knickerbocker, shudder at the ghastly 1946 RV vacation of 10-year-old John Oedekerk, bit by a rabid dog in Indiana and chased across the country by needle-wielding public health officials, gape at the courage of cross-dressing 1930s teen Martha Adams who ran away from her religious maniac family with 53 cents in her pocket, and marvel at the miraculous tale of the 6-year-old girl kidnapped, bound and left in the hills in 1983 who was rescued when an airsick helicopter searcher landed to vomit and saw her Raggedy Ann doll in the dirt.

The Atomic Frolic is a benefit for the support of protecting modernism in Las Vegas, something that’s long overdue. And tickets are just $30. We hope to see many of our Crime Bus friends in Las Vegas during the last weekend of January. For more info on the Atomic Frolic, please visit
Want a spot on the bus? me to reserve. Again, it’s $130 R/T for the bus and the event.

L.A. Alternative Publisher Martin Albornoz stiffs 1947project

(See update below) 

Gentle reader,

How pleased I was, during Sunset Junction week in late August, when the L.A. Alternative published an issue of their free weekly featuring my three-page pull-out crime map detailing the historic oddities and horrors of the Sunset Junction neighborhood. I heard from folks who attended the street fair that it was a big hit, with people walking around checking addresses and shuddering. (The Sunset Junction story can now only be seen right here at 1947project.)

A month after my story came out, publisher Martin Albornoz announced the paper was folding, but that he hoped to continue publishing online. Although at this point I was wondering where my payment was, I still dashed off a friendly email telling Martin that my husband Richard and I would be happy to meet with him and give him some ideas about how to pull this off, as we believed he and his writers had a lot to offer the community. He never replied.

Nor did Martin reply to my repeated emails, as the weeks ticked away with no sign of the $250 payment for the feature. I sent a certified letter demanding the money, which went uncollected. So I finally phoned and left a message, which resulted in the following email on November 27:

Hello Kim,
 
I just heard your message and Lesley had forwarded me your email last week. I’m not sure how much you know about the office and the state of LA Alternative but we aren’t in business anymore. We stopped publishing the print and online version about a month ago. I haven’t been in the office for about a month, I started a full time job, so I haven’t had a chance to pick up any mail or cut any checks. We are trying to cover as many outstanding obligations as possible when money trickles in from our advertisers.
 
You are on the list of people who need to be paid. I will be writing some checks in the next few weeks. Thanks for all your help and thanks for your understanding.
 
Best,

Martin
 
To which I replied:
 
Hi Martin,

Yes, I am aware that you stopped publishing. In fact, you may recall
that I emailed you offering to advise you about your online options,
but received no reply.

Nonetheless, I wrote a story several months prior to the LAA closing,
and am owed $250 for it. I would appreciate your putting me high on
the list of people to be paid. I will extend the courtesy of
additional three weeks to you before pursuing other options. Please
ensure I receive payment by December 18.

I heard from Michele that Lesley thinks she remembers sending me a
check. So it is possible that you have already tried to pay me and the
check was lost in the mail. I would appreciate your checking on this,
and recutting the check if that is the case.

I would also appreciate it if you would mail me a stack of copies of
the issue with my cover story. Bulk rate is fine.

Thanks, and best regards,

Kim Cooper
 
He did not reply. Two days ago, I emailed to remind Martin it has been three weeks, and I have still not been paid.
 
Hi Martin,

It has been three weeks since I last heard that "in a few weeks" you
would be writing checks, and there has been no sign of payment for my
cover story, nor of the copies of that issue that I asked for.

Are you prepared to make good on this debt now, or must I go forward
with the plan for publicizing the non-payment and filing in small
claims court that I spelled out previously [in the certified letter that I later emailed to Martin]?

Please spare us both any additional bother and awkwardness and send me
$250 now, or let me know exactly when you will be doing so. I am
willing to work with you, but not to wait indefinitely for payment,
especially if you don’t keep me informed of the situation.

thanks,

Kim Cooper
 
He ignored that email, too. And so it is with no pleasure that I am going public with this dishonorable tale, in hopes that it will inspire Martin to take responsibility for his debt and to let any other writers in the same situation know that they are not alone.
 
I’ve known Martin socially for more than a decade. I’ve consigned zines in his former zine shop in Silver Lake and had a Scram release party there. I’ve had nice conversations with him, publisher-to-publisher. I’m really shocked by how this has played out, and apologize to all of you for airing his dirty drawers here on 1947project. But I do think it’s important to shine a light on wrong-doing, and so here’s a blast of pure white.
 
Martin, send me my money, and pay off your other contributors. It’s the honorable thing to do, and it will make the next stage of your life more tolerable. Otherwise, I guess I’ll see you in small claims court. What A Drag.
 
*
Email received from Martin, 2pm December 20:
 
Hello Kim,
 
I just got word from someone that you’ve sent out an email about L.A. Alternative owing you money. I really am sorry about us owing you money, but we can’t pay with what we don’t have. We are owed money by some large advertisers and we owe lots of vendors money, hence, we went out of business. So, other than looking kind of petty, I’m not sure what you’ve accomplished. Like I mentioned to you, the newspaper will be filing for bankruptcy, which means you’ll get a letter stating that you’re owed money and once the process goes through, you’ll get your $250 out of the sale of the assets. With what’s owed to some vendors, I don’t believe there will be much left over but I do hope that you won’t be affected too harshly by this outcome. It really is unfortunate when a business can’t survive, but considering the hostile business environment that newspapers are currently in, this may become more common. Our self-published paper did give the huge corporate weeklies a run for the their money and thank you for being a part of that.
 
Good luck with your project, which btw, we supported in free ads announcing your readings and in the article which prominently mentioned your website.

 
–Martin
 
My reply:
 
Dear Martin,

Why is it that the only way I can get you to communicate with me is to
send out a mass email and post on my blog? You have had several weeks
in which to respond to my polite request for information on when I
would be paid, and you’ve ignored me. You never mentioned bankruptcy.
You actually said you would be sending checks out within several
weeks, which did not happen, so I emailed you again, waited two days,
and then went public.

I’m very appreciative of the support of the local press for the
1947project, and am always willing to give time and assistance to
reporters who have questions. But I worked for two weeks writing and
researching a huge story for your paper, which is something very
different.

I wish you only the best, and hope that you will see fit to honor your
promise to pay for this story. And it would be quite a nice gesture of
goodwill if you were to send me those extra copies of my feature that
I have asked you for several times.

I will update the blog entry with any good news you can send, which
should be an added incentive to you to do the right thing.

best regards,

Kim Cooper

 

All About the Weird West Adams Tour

WHAT: 1947project Weird West Adams Crime Bus Tour, Saturday 12/16/06, 11am-4pm. $47 cost includes snacks, beverages and five-hour luxury coach tour.
 
LOS ANGELES- Since January, the bloggers at 1947project have taken their Los Angeles crime history research on the road with their lively, mysterious and very popular Crime Bus tours. Past routes have explored the dark side of Pasadena, the secret history of downtown and the real story of the Black Dahlia case. In December, 1947project offers a new tour celebrating the Beverly Hills of the early 20th century, that grand swath of city just west of downtown: Weird West Adams.

On this five-hour tour, Crime Bus passengers will be treated to detailed descriptions of some of the most notorious, strange and fascinating forgotten tales from the past hundred years, each told at the scene of the crime. They’ll thrill to the carjacking horror of silent film starlet Myrtle Gonzalez, shiver as Dream Killer Otto Parzyjegla chops his newspaper publisher boss to pieces with the paper-cutting blade, shudder at the pickled poignancy of the murder-by-brandy of Benjamin Weber, marvel at the Krazy Kafitz family and their litany of murder-suicides, attempted husband slayings, Byzantine estate battles and mad bombings, then gag at terrible fate visited on kidnap victim Marion Parker by The Fox. There will be some celebrity sites along the route, including the death scenes of Motown soul sensation Marvin Gaye and 1920s star Angels baseball catcher Gus Sandberg.

And in a special treat for the holiday season, the Crime Bus will toast the Winter Solstice by visiting the city’s shortest street and remembering 2′ 11" Angelo Rossitto, the charismatic cult actor / newsstand operator ("Freaks," "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome") who famously visited the spot in his teeny-tiny car on 12/21/37.  All this, plus a robbery by Pretty Boy Floyd, Prohibition-era houses transformed into secret distilleries, fumigations gone terribly wrong, mashers, bad marriages, rotten drivers, assorted weirdos and a mummified teenage cult priestess.

Upcoming Crime Bus Tours include the 60th Anniversary Real Black Dahlia (January 13, 2007).

Want to reserve a seat for West Adams or the Black Dahlia? Just email us with the number of spots you’d like.