 Smith picked up a tip that Elizabeth Short had frequented a Long Beach drugstore.Upon calling and speaking to the pharmacist, Smith was told that the kids around the soda fountain called her the Black Dahlia, on account of her black hair and in reference to a then current movie The Blue Dahlia.In his book, "Jack Smith's L.A.", he described the discovery of the nickname as "a rewrite man's dream" and said he "couldn't wait to get it into type."