Haunted Hollywood

[KeyserXSoze]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/12/1204_031204_hauntedhollywood.html

Do Real Haunted Mansions Hold Sway in Hollywood?

Stefan Lovgren in Los Angeles
for National Geographic News
December 4, 2003

Whether they're floating through dark castles or hiding under kids' beds, ghosts have haunted Hollywood movies for decades, including the latest ghoul flick, The Haunted Mansion, based on the popular Disney theme park ride.
But are ghosts merely the creation of fantasy filmmakers?

Not if you believe Laurie Jacobson, a Hollywood historian and author of Hollywood Haunted. She says Tinseltown itself is filled with celebrity ghost stories and hauntings.

At Hollywood's Roosevelt Hotel, some people claim to have glimpsed a reflection of a blonde woman in a full-length mirror by the hotel elevators. The mirror once hung in Suite 1200, where Marilyn Monroe used to stay.

"Much of Hollywood's social history has to do with mysteries, tragedies and people dying before their time," said Jacobson. "Many of these restless spirits still linger today."

Unfinished Business

Ghosts, believers contend, are the spirits of the dead who are unable or unwilling to find their way to the next plane of existence. Some spirits may not want to leave family members, others may have unfinished business.

"In Hollywood, there are a lot of unsolved murders," said Jacobson. "That's a perfect reason for people to stick around. They want justice, they want revenge."

Take, for example, Thomas Ince. The founder of Culver Studios, Ince is believed by some to have died in 1924 while celebrating his birthday on board a yacht owned by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.

According to this legendary account, Hearst mistakenly shot Ince dead with a bullet meant for Charlie Chaplin, who Hearst suspected of having an affair with Marion Davies, an actress who was romantically involved with Hearst.

But, say some people, Ince's spirit may have remained. In 1988, while remodeling the studio, workmen said a man in a bowler hat confronted them and snarled, "I don't like what you're doing to my studio," before vanishing into a wall. The workmen later identified Ince from a photo in the studio lobby as the man in the bowler hat.

Then there's Ozzie Nelson. The star of the TV sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, he was a workaholic who lived a clean life before he was suddenly diagnosed with liver cancer and died. His gloomy ghost is said to haunt both his family residence and the studio where he used to film the show.

"All the studios are haunted, and not only by famous people," said Jacobson. "In the old days, people held their jobs at the studios for a lifetime. You can still see ghosts of old security guards, walking their beats."

Chinese Theater

Jacobson says her interest in Hollywood ghosts intensified after she and a group of historians visited the famous Grauman's Chinese Theater in 1994.

At one point, Jacobson walked around the stage behind the movie screen. When she returned to the group, standing in the middle of the auditorium, she suddenly saw the velvet curtain on the stage being shaken by an unseen figure.

"I looked at my friends and I uttered the classic phrase, 'Do you see what I see?'" Jacobson recalled. "I could see the impression his 10 fingers made, and I sensed a lot of anger."

Two years later, a woman approached Jacobson at a book signing and claimed she used to work at the Chinese Theater and had more information about a ghost there.

"She told me his name was Fritz and he used to be an employee of the theater," said Jacobson. "Apparently he was an unhappy man, and one day he went behind the movie screen and hung himself."

Investigating

Jacobson admits she has no training in paranormal activities, but says she has always believed in ghosts. "I don't believe that this life is all there is," she said. "To me, it makes sense that of all the people who die, some of them get lost going to the next place. It's especially true of people who don't believe in an afterlife. They can't hear the spirits who are trying to guide them."

Jacobson has teamed up with a parapsychologist, Barry Taff, for numerous investigations of Hollywood hauntings. In one case, they investigated a run-down Hollywood hotel where the owner had reported a ghost in the basement.

"We asked the ghost to leave us a sign that he was there, and then we left," said Jacobson. "When we returned, the place was filled with the most putrid odor. The ghost did the one thing that we could not explain away. If the lights flickered in an old building, we could have blamed it on bad wiring. But this was an odor that none of us had ever smelled before."

Alas, the television cameras that followed the team could not capture the smell.

But Jacobson dismisses critics who charge that a lack of photographic evidence proves that ghosts and hauntings are merely products of people's imaginations.

"I've heard ghosts explained in every shape and form," she said. "I've interviewed so many people who don't believe in ghosts, yet they can not explain what they have seen. Sometimes, there really is no other explanation."

:eek!!!!:

 

[GNC]

The ghost of Jayne Mansfield is supposed to haunt the mansion she shared with Mickey Hargitay. Dunno if that's true.

 

[Anonymous]

But Jacobson dismisses critics who charge that a lack of photographic evidence proves that ghosts and hauntings are merely products of people's imaginations.

"I've heard ghosts explained in every shape and form," she said. "I've interviewed so many people who don't believe in ghosts, yet they can not explain what they have seen. Sometimes, there really is no other explanation."


Especaly if any other option won't make you money :hmph:

 

[Anonymous]

Rudolph Valentino has been seen stepping through the gate out of the cemetary where he's buried. In broad daylight.

John Wayne is rumored to haunt his old yacht, which has been sold and re-named, but I don't know the name.

Montgomery Cliff haunts the halls of the Roosevelt Hotel also. He stayed there while making a picture in which he had to learn to play something on the trumpet. So he rented one whole floor and would stroll the halls at night, practicing. The desk still gets complaints from guests, late at night, about the nut playing the trumpet in the halls.
Just a few that come to mind....

 

[chris_in_LA]

Lemme know if anybody wants me to run up to Hollywood and check on any reputedly haunted locales. I live near there.

 

[Anonymous]

Lemme know if anybody wants me to run up to Hollywood and check on any reputedly haunted locales. I live near there.

Is it realy as much of an...erm...unnice place as I've heard (though I'm sure where you live is lovely if only because you live there.)

 

[Anonymous]

Not hollywood but...

The Old Vic's suposed to be haunted by a 'mist' that apears on the side of the stage and a man in a whatdoyoucallthem trianguler hat with a large feather in it who walks around up in the cheap seats.

 

[chris_in_LA]

Is it realy as much of an...erm...unnice place as I've heard (though I'm sure where you live is lovely if only because you live there.)

Yeah, Hollywood definitely has it's seamy side- junky shops catering to tourists, low-income housing covered in grafitti with broken down cars and stray dogs running around. Cheap divey bars. Very atmospheric!

It's the old (almost eighty years!) architecture and of course, rich history that contributes to its 'haunted' status. That and the specific tales of Valentino or Marilyn Monroe or whoever being seen in spirit form.

 

[Anonymous]

It's the old (almost eighty years!) architecture

80 isn't old!

I live in the West End of Glasgow where buildings over 200 years old are so comon noone bothers sliping a conversation order on them.

I heartly recomend a book of poetry by Tracy Heard (or is it Herd...) called Dead Redhead (Bloodaxe Books.) She has all those who would be ghosts delivering monologs from beyond the grave...

 

[MrRING]

Hollywood Sign Ghost

I had long ago heard of the suicide from the Hollywood sign, but I hadn't heard it was haunted!

Suicide Was Not Her Final Act
In the years following Peg's suicide, hikers and park rangers in Griffith Park have reported some pretty strange happening in the vicinity of the Hollywood sign. Many have reported sightings of a woman dressed in 1930’s era clothing who abruptly vanishes when approached. She has been described as a very attractive, blond woman, who seems very sad. Could this be Peg’s ghost, still making her presence known? Could she also be linked to the pungent smell of gardenia perfume which has been known to overwhelm sight-seers in the park? Perhaps it is, as the gardenia scent was known to be Peg’s trademark perfume.

In 1990, a North Hollywood man and his girlfriend were walking on a Beachwood Canyon trail near the Hollywood sign with their dog when the animal suddenly began to act very strange. Instead of running around on the trail and through the brush as he normally did, he began to whine and hang back near the couple. They had never seen him act that way before and could find no cause until they spotted a lady walking nearby. One thing they noticed about her was that she was wearing clothing from the 1930’s. However, thinking that you could see anything in Hollywood, they didn’t pay much attention.

The lady however, seemed to be walking in a daze. Thinking that perhaps she was drunk or on drugs, they started to steer clear of her when she suddenly just faded away before their eyes. At that time, they had no idea who Peg Entwhistle was, nor that she had committed suicide nearby, or even that her ghost reportedly haunted the area. Imagine their surprise when they found out!

Another eyewitness to this haunting was a Griffith park ranger named John Arbogast. In an interview, he revealed his own encounters with the ghost of Peg Entwhistle. He stated that she normally made her presence known very late at night, especially when it was foggy, and always in the vicinity of the Hollywood sign. He also claimed to have encountered the scent of gardenias in the area as well.

“I have smelled it several times,” he said, “and always when any flowers around have been closed because of cold weather. I don’t think I have ever smelled it in the summer time.”

Arbogast’s duties as a ranger often involved the Hollywood sign itself. He explained that in recent years, alarms systems have been installed near the sign to keep people away from it. There is always a danger of vandals... and of course, suicides who want to go out the same way that Peg did. The alarm systems incorporate the use of motion detectors and lights to keep intruders away.

Arbogast recalled a number of times when the alarm system stated that someone was close to the sign, even though a check by the ranger revealed no one was there. “There have been times when I have been at the sign,” he said, “and the motion detectors say that someone is standing five feet away from me... only there’s nobody there.”

So, what could have made Peg Entwhistle choose to end her life in such a dramatic and violent way? No one knows, but we have to wonder. The Hollywood slogan states that the sign exists as a symbol of hope, so that those who answer the siren call of Hollywood will know that anything in the city is possible. But did Peg glimpse that sign one evening, after spending the day going from one pointless casting call to another, and see it not as a symbol of hope, but one of despair? Did she feel that sign mocking her, laughing that so many others had made it in the movies... so why couldn’t she?

Did the glowing lights of the sign remind her of why she had come to Hollywood, chasing the bright lights she would never catch up to? Or perhaps she just wanted to go out in a way that people would remember?

Probobly not a direct link, but got it off this site