73 Years Later the Black Dahlia Honored with Luxury Perfume | Luxury Perfume

Perfume commercial makes debut 73 years to the day that Elizabeth Short was last seen with her murder suspect.

Prior to the release of her new film, Night Rain, filmmaker Jeanne Marie Spicuzza is launching a new luxury perfume “Night Rain” as the product’s commercial is being released to the public. The commercial was shot at the Biltmore Hotel, in the Rendezvous Court and just outside the entrance on Olive Street. The perfume oil came about while Spicuzza was working on her film that details the mystery of the events leading up to Short’s disappearance and death. She had been consulting with Tiffany Henning at Eden Botanicals. Elizabeth Short was dropped off at the Biltmore Hotel by suspect Robert “Red” Manley on January 9, 1947, at 6:30 pm PT. According to witness reports contained in the D.A. files, Miss Short left the Biltmore Hotel that night through the Olive Street exit and headed south. It would be the last time she was seen alive. On January 25, 1947, Red Manley identified Miss Short’s belongings, which were “recovered,” according to an L.A. Times article, by the scent he recognized as the one she wore while they were driving up from San Diego.

According to Spicuzza: “I wanted to capture her mystery, her dignity. I also wanted to combine the highest quality organic oils and absolutes, to reflect that character. ‘Night Rain’ luxury perfume oil, with notes of vanilla, tobacco and rose, is a darkly glamorous, unisex fragrance, dedicated to Elizabeth Short. I hope that her family will find some justice from our treatment of the subject.”

Check out the Night Rain Commercial:

After shooting “The Scarapist,” Spicuzza began writing a screenplay about independent filmmaking. She wanted the motion picture within the story to be set in the 1940s and read “Childhood Shadows: The Hidden Story of the Black Dahlia Murder” by Mary Pacios, a friend of Elizabeth Short. In the book, Pacios recounts an interview with Elizabeth Short’s sister, Muriel. “Mama” Muriel said, she does believe that someday the truth will come out and Bette will be exonerated. As a victim of violent crime, these words haunted Spicuzza. Spicuzza says, “A victim or survivor in need of redemption, blamed for trusting the wrong person. The shame must stop. It became a mission for me, to contribute to that cause. I visited the grave of Elizabeth Short in Mountain View, and was devastated to discover that the family is still mourning her death.

“It seemed that the best way to soothe the grief was to treat the subject with truthfulness and respect. I watched L.A. Times writer and editor Larry Harnisch on James Ellroy’s BBC documentary ‘Feast of Death,’ and found Mr. Harnisch’s research to be solid and humane. I contacted him, and he helped a great deal in realizing ‘Night Rain.’ Named after my granddaughter, Amaya, ‘Night Rain’ is a motion picture about a group of independent filmmakers in Los Angeles hired under nefarious circumstances to make a low-budget period film about Elizabeth Short. After filming, I met James Elroy at a screening of ‘L.A. Confidential’ at the Egyptian Theatre. His first words to me were, ‘You look like Elizabeth Short.’ May she rest in peace.”