Dahlia Noir
In Greek mythology, there is the story of a young girl named Persephone, daughter of the goddess of the harvest, who was stolen away by the king of the dead one fine spring day. She wandered alone through the vast grey gardens, and without thinking, she ate a few pomegranite seeds. Her mother, heartbroken, refused to let anything bloom until her daughter was returned to her. Hades laughed, because even though he had to let her go, Persephone had eaten the food of the dead. She must return to him for six months of the year. Though she could walk again in the sun, she would always be his. This archtypal story has been told for thousands of years. It could easily be the story of Elizabth Short, told slantways. Though she has died, she has fired the imaginations of so many that she lives on in a funny way -- as an icon, perhaps enduring longer than she would have had she lived. We don't mean to diminish of the suffering or the life of Beth Short, but when we still laud her beauty, and wonder at the circumstances of her death nearly sixty years later, we have to look at the deeper meaning. Why is she so enduring? Why her and not young heiress, Georgette Bauerdorfer, who died around the same time and whose case went unsolved? Or Jeanne French, whose death was often linked to the Dahlia case? Or countless others since?
The easy answers are that Beth is very beautiful, and the press picked up an excellent nickname for the case. But it also tapped into the dark side of Hollywood, and the Hollywood dream that very few cases do. A young girl comes west, full of dreams and finds only pain and death. It's a worst case scenario -- certainly much worse than many of those that exist today, not getting into the right clubs, not having your agent do anything for you, getting fired. What happened to the Black Dahlia exists on an entirely different plane than everyday life. Yet, we all know that Los Angeles, despite its endless sunshine, its lush foliage, and friendly grin, will gut you if it gets the chance, and never look back. This is why the Black Dahlia, in her own way, belongs to each and every one of us. She embodies those dark moments where you think you might not make it out alive.
posted by kuaptic. @ 9:01 AM
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