“Tree of Life-Shangri-LA 1948”- Dorothy Bowman 75-Years Later Past and Present Reunited Through Internationally Recognized Artist’s Vintage Serigraph

April 28, 2023
Birch Bay, Washington

The below photograph was taken “inside the palace walls” at our Sowden/Franklin House in 1948.  (Unknown photographer possibly tenant and later star/DA informant, Joe Barrett.)

It was sent to me by artist/tenant Chris Dawn (“C.D.” in the photo, lower left) who was a friend/roommate of Barret’s at the home both of whom were living/renting the large studio room at the far end of the home. I received it in 2004 about a year after my book, Black Dahlia Avenger was published.

Sowden/Franklin House tenants 1948 (top-down)

1) Suzanne D’Albert, 2) Gladys Krenek, 3) Dorothy Bowman
4) Fuji Walker, 5) Tony Walker, 6) Chris Dawn, 7) George Hodel,
8) Ellen Taylor  (Tenants artist Joe Barrett and Actress Carol Forman
not shown in the photograph.)

Dorothy Bowman enlarged

Past (1948) Meets Present (2023) Through Artist’s Serigraph

A few days ago, I was fortunate to find and purchase the below serigraph made by Dorothy Bowman Bradford in 1960, some twelve years after she resided with us at the Franklin House where the “Tree of Life” photo was taken.

Signed serigraph “Summer Colt” by Dorothy Bowman Bradford (1960)

I would have been 7 or 8 years old when the Shangri-LA photo was taken at our home in Hollywood. I recall the two budding artists, Chris Dawn and Joe Barrett, but not the other tenants. (Several, Suzanne Dalbert and Carol Forman (not in photo) went on to become successful film actresses. Ellen Taylor was our maid and would figure prominently in the 1950 DA/Hodel Black Dahlia Files Bugging Tapes as sexually servicing George Hodel, or as the late-night stakeout detective candidly put it, in the transcripts, “Ellen just gave George another blowjob.”

1949 Life Magazine article/photo of “future Hollywood stars”
which includes Franklin House tenant, Suzanne D’Albert and a then relatively unknown,
Marilyn Monroe

Excerpt from Black Dahlia Avenger II (Thoughtprint Press 2014)
Chapter 10 – Hollywood Roomers pages 165-166:

…

DOROTHY BOWMAN

At the time Dorothy Bowman was renting a room at the Franklin house, she was twenty-one and was already a recognized Los Angeles artist. Her works had been shown at galleries throughout the Southland and she most certainly would have been a friend and acquaintance of fellow artist and regular houseguest Fred Sexton and his wife Gwain.

Dorothy attended L.A.’s Chouinard Art Institute, where she met fellow painter Howard Bradford. The two also studied together at the Jepson Art School in Los Angeles. This is the same school where Fred Sexton was an art instructor and was fired, because according to Joe Barrett, who also attended the school, “He (Sexton) was hitting on all the young girls and half the class left, so Herb Jepson fired him.”

Dorothy Bowman and Howard Bradford relocated to the California coast of Big Sur around 1950, where they became part of that community and befriended writer Henry Miller, another famous Franklin house visitor. The two artists eventually married. Both Dorothy and Howard became internationally respected and their paintings and serigraphs can be found in museums throughout the world. End of excerpt Chapter 10.

SKH Note-
To put Dorothy Bowman’s 1948 tenancy at the Hodel Franklin House in historical perspective:
Just a year earlier (Jan 1947) her landlord, Dr. George Hodel had slain and surgically bisected victim Elizabeth “Black Dahlia” Short in the courtyard perhaps 75′ south of where the “Tree of Life” ladder is placed. In the same year Dorothy is residing at our home, George Hodel commits the brutal bludgeoning/stabbing murder of real estate agent, Gladys Kern, just two miles away from the residence. And in the following year, 1949, George will commit the kidnap/murder of Louise Springer, followed a month later by the incest and child molestation crimes with his fourteen-year-old daughter, my half-sister, Tamar.

For those desiring a more detailed backgrounding I have included the full Chapter 10 ‘Hollywood Roomers” as a PDF HERE: BDA II Chap 10

Here is an updated biography of Dorothy Bowman courtesy of The Annex Galleries

My purchase of  Dorothy’s “Summer Colt” was on Ebay sold to me by her son, Tal Bradford. Tal kindly included an interesting article on the Bradford family with the serigraph which I reproduce below:

In closing below is a link to a family-made YouTube interview with Dorothy Bowman Bradford made by her daughter, Heather.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKYDZ0izF20

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