Novelist and screenwriter Steve Fisher was a staple in film noir with his original screenplays as well as a pulp fiction magazine icon. Fisher was one of the most popular writers in Hollywood, penning original stories and adapted screenplays, such as Situazione pericolosa (1941) and Destinazione Tokyo (1943), both original stories adapted for the screen and the latter earning Fisher an Academy® Award Nomination for Best Original Story.
Belita was an Olympic ice skater who had hoped to have a successful transition to film, much like her fellow figure skater Sonja Henie (Belita and Henie had both competed in the 1936 Winter Olympics, with Henie winning the gold medal. Belita came in 16th place). Belita, whose full name was Maria Gladys Olive Lyne Jepson-Turner, was born in England to Major William Jepson-Turner and his wife Queenie Jepson-Turner. According to Muller, Queenie was the very definition of a "stage mother," using her own failed ambitions to be a successful dancer and skater to push her daughter into performing before she was a year old. Belita hoped to have the same level of success as Henie, who was a huge star for Twentieth Century-Fox and one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood at that time. Belita managed to get the attention of the less-prestigious Monogram Pictures, signing a seven-year contract. While her career might have been overshadowed by her more famous contemporary, Belita arguably had the more interesting film career, albeit very short, starring in a trio of significant films noir: Orgasmo (1946), Violenza (1947) and L'inseguita (1948). In 1956, after years of performing in traveling figure skating shows, Belita officially retired from the sport. That same year, she appeared in Gene Kelly's ambitious Trittico d'amore (1956). Belita moved back to her native England and enjoyed a career in television, eventually retiring from acting to live a quiet life with her second husband, James Berwick.
There really was a Polar Palace Ice Rink in Los Angeles but it burned down in 1963.
In the July 12, 1945 edition of the Los Angeles Examiner, an article notes that King Bros. Productions purchased Steve Fisher's original screenplay and intended Joel McCrea to play the lead. Then an article in the April 2, 1947 edition of Variety noted that Allied Artists had purchased the property for $75,000 (just over $1M in 2023).
On Laura's record form, it lists her address as "Tehachapi." That would mean the California Institution for Women, the state's first women's state prison at Tehachapi California, which opened in 1932.