Even without the Internet, he had time as a student in the Berkeley-Oakland area to follow her trajectory. Hodel followed the whereabouts of his little rival, including that she later lived westward of him on Franklin. Though on the same property the young genius private residence had its own separate address: 6511 Short Way.Įlizabeth and Josef married for thirty years.įrom so many clues and evidence beyond circumstantial everywhere one looks, including Rachmaninoff being a fan of both prodigals Master Hodel and Miss Short, surely Dr. hired famed architect Zelenko to design and built a separate “Tea House” for his young son’s, fifteenth birthday. SKH Note: And least we forget in 1923, George Hodel Sr. THANK YOU ISLA BROWN FOR FORWARDING THE ARTICLE. * Eleven years after this article appeared in the newspaper, Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short would be born in the East Coast and in 1947, at age twenty-two, would become the torture/murder victim of George Hodel and her body buried near her sister’s home in OAKLAND, California. _ Play below Twilight Zone theme The 8-year-old child prodigy’s name?ĮLIZABETH SHORT, from Oakland, California* San Francisco Call September 27, 1913 She is taught at home with her mother for teacher and companion and Miss Cora Jenkins as her musical supervisor.”
When Josef Hoffmann visits the coast this winter she will be given an audience before the world-famous pianist.īut with all her natural talent and the splendid gifts which set her apart from her playmates, the little pianist and composer is a charming, merry-hearted child, devoted to dolls and baseball. Two years ago _ played before the Damrosch school in New York and was accorded the honor of being perched on the great stool before the magnificent organ which was the gift of the late John Jacob Astor to the Episcopal church in Rhineback-on-the-Hudson, a signal recognition to the gifts of the 6-year-old girl. She has grown up with the piano as her plaything and in her small arms is a wonderful power which is unafraid of the most trying of the old masters. Her ear was perfect for tone values and she could lisp the names of each more easily than she could read them. When other children were conning their A B C’s _ was dreaming fairy songs in sound and learning to put them in concrete form. At the present time, several of her musical writings are being used in the classes of one of the music schools of the city. This tiny lass of eight summers has sent a collection of compositions to an eastern publishing house and in the next few months the interesting group of piano numbers which local authorities assert are of exceptional merit will be given to the public. James _of Sycamore street, Oakland, may claim the distinction of being the youngest musical publisher on the Pacific Coast. Isla Brown I quote the 1913 article in full: “_, the diminutive daughter of Mr. She was thought to ” claim the distinction of being the youngest musical publisher on the Pacific coast.” The Sacramento Daily Union also printed an article two years later on September 24th, 1916, with the title: “YOUNG PIANIST TO APPEAR HERE-, Ten Year Old, Will Be Presented at Tuesday Clubhouse October 13.” This article describes her as “the youngest pianist on the Pacific coast.” How ironic! There is a similar article to the one about your father that was printed in the San Fransisco Call on September 27th, 1913, with the title: “GIRL GENIUS OF 8 IS PLAYER, COMPOSER, MUSIC PUBLISHER” about a little girl from Oakland. Isla references one of my earlier blogs in which I posted an article written in the Los Angeles Evening Herald of July 14, 1917, entitled, “Boy Of Nine Chief Soloist At Shrine Holiday Exercises” ( See link to that article here.) (SKH Note: I have taken the liberty to insert minor edits to Isla’s email as well as the below original article that appeared in the 1913 San Francisco Call newspaper.) Hi Steve,
Los Angeles I received the following email yesterday from one of my readers, Isla Brown.