TURN OFF THE SPOTLIGHT.Byline: - Bob Strauss One person who would like to put the Black Dahlia
Elizabeth Short (born 29 July 1924) was a 22-year-old American woman who was the victim of a gruesome and much-publicized murder. case behind him is James Ellroy James Ellroy (born Lee Earle Ellroy on March 4, 1948 in Los Angeles, California) is an American writer. He is one of the world's best-selling crime writers and essayists with a unique "telegraphic" writing style, which omits words other writers would consider , who wrote the novel on which the film is based. ``This film tour is it,'' declares James Ellroy. ``Court TV did a documentary about me that will appear in November or December, and when all that is over, no more Dahlia dahlia (däl`yə, dăl`–) [for Anders Dahl, 1751–89, Swedish botanist and pupil of Linnaeus], any plant of the genus Dahlia , no more mother, no more personal questions. ``Every single (expletive) story written about me includes my mother and the Dahlia, and it has to stop.'' That story, as Ellroy mechanically recounts to this reporter for the last time, is indeed the stuff of literary/Hollywood legend: ``On June 22, 1958, when I was 10 years old, my mother was murdered. ``The crime occurred in El Monte El Monte (ĕl mŏn`tē), city (1990 pop. 106,209), Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1912. A residential, industrial, and commercial city in the San Gabriel Valley, El Monte manufactures furniture, electronic equipment, semiconductors, , 14 miles east of downtown L.A. It was a botched botch tr.v. botched, botch·ing, botch·es 1. To ruin through clumsiness. 2. To make or perform clumsily; bungle. 3. To repair or mend clumsily. n. 1. rape-homicide. It went unsolved. I became obsessed ob·sess v. ob·sessed, ob·sess·ing, ob·sess·es v.tr. To preoccupy the mind of excessively. v.intr. with crime. Seven months later, on the occasion of my 11th birthday, my father got me Jack Webb's book `The Badge.' It contained a haunting, 10-page summary of the Black Dahlia murder case. I became obsessed -- my mother and the Black Dahlia became as one. Big surprise -- many years later, I became a crime novelist and wrote my novel `The Black Dahlia,' now Brian De Palma's film.'' The author emits a low whistle. ``Go out and see the movie. Read the book. I'll be performing on numerous occasions throughout the L.A. area, reading from `The Black Dahlia,''' Ellroy adds. And then he will stop. Ellroy's life has been marked by extreme behavior -- addictions, homelessness, wild-man antics to promote his books -- that, like much of his literary success, may be traced back to the loss of his mother. Following a divorce, he says he recently cracked up again. ``I'm back, yeah,'' a calm and focused Ellroy says with as much confidence as he can muster. ``I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. much about Carl Gustav Jung Noun 1. Carl Gustav Jung - Swiss psychologist (1875-1961) Carl Jung, Jung image, persona - (Jungian psychology) a personal facade that one presents to the world; "a public image is as fragile as Humpty Dumpty" . But Helen Knode, my ex-wife and dear friend, does, and her quote always was, `What is not brought to consciousness comes to us as fate.' There are a great many things in my life that I had not brought to consciousness, and I hope that I have now.'' Certainly the Mom/Dahlia thing, ad nauseam, as he acknowledges. But will he ever really come to terms with it? ``I've been over it for a long time,'' Ellroy insists, then qualifies. ``I mean, it's there. But it's not like I get up in the morning and go, `Boo hoo, my mother was murdered and I read about the Black Dahlia.' I'm a little saner now. But I do want this behind me.'' CAPTION(S): photo Photo: - James Ellroy |
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