Telly Savalas' Ghostly Encounter

[DrPaulLee]

From "Fun to know about Ghosts" (a children's book) by Sean Richards in 1979.
Mods - I've previously put this is another thread before coming across this one, where it seemed more appropriate. I don't know if you want to delete that message or keep it?

 

[Ronnie Jersey]

Blimey, I'd be scared stiff. -A friend of mine said a similar thing often happened in his old house where an entity of some sort got in bed with his Mother. (No jokes please.)

I've heard this same exact story from a few people, always women renting a new apartment, and something gets into bed with them! They swear it's the truth, and they move right out again.

 

[Ronnie Jersey]

Here is the next part to the story (starting at 5.20);

OMG - Thank You for posting that video, hadn't heard that story from Telly Savalas about JFK, it's really creeping me out!

 

[Paul_Exeter]

Thank you so much for posting these videos You can see how bewildered Telly is by it all and yet he 'knows what he saw (and heard)'

 

[ChasFink]

I've only just heard this story, in a reference on another thread. I'm very interested, since it happened not far from where I now live. Yes, there is significant variation on the details in the various retellings, including the "Fun to know about Ghosts" account, which - despite the quotation marks - was obviously watered down for kids.

Assuming Savalas, in the television segment, was (a) telling the truth and (b) fairly accurate in the details he seems certain about, I want to clarify some obvious inaccuracies in the version that Diabolik8 related at the beginning of this thread. (It looks like a number of other posters were aware of a more accurate version of the story but didn't directly address these details.

Savalas was not traveling from a friend's house on Long Island to New York City. He was coming home to his home on Long Island after dropping off a woman he had a date with. Presumably she lived somewhere in New York City, which could be in Staten Island, the Bronx, or Manhattan, but might also be in Brooklyn, or in Queens (where he ran out of gas) - both of which are actually on Long Island. If he was still living in his childhood home (he mentioned he spoke to his mother) Telly was living in Garden City, a little farther east in Nassau County.

It wasn't an all-night café, it was a White Castle. As mentioned by genex17, this was a popular early fast-food chain.

Harry Agganis was not the name of the mysterious driver. The driver identified himself as James Cullen, according to Savalas. Although Savalas doesn't specifically say so, many have come to the conclusion that Harry Agganis was the baseball player that Cullen said he knew - and who apparently died that day.

Savalas's wallet wasn't missing, but he was apparently short on cash.


And a few observations:

Although Savalas says he thinks it happened in 1958 or 1959, Agganis's death was in 1955, which I think is more in line with Telly's time working at the State Department.

The White Castle closest to the Grand Central Parkway near where it meets the Cross Island Parkway is at 175-28 Hillside Ave., about a mile and a half from the intersection where the gas station was. I wonder if anyone out there can confirm the surrounding area was more wooded than it is now. It seems strange that he was on a busy local road, rather than on one of these expressways, when he ran out of gas, but the location of his home and the possibility his date lived nearby makes this less questionable. Of course there may have been a closer White Castle back then; the chain has lost some market share. Again, maybe someone can research this.

It would be interesting to see exactly how the Journal-American - the paper Telly mentioned - covered Agganis's death. It's possible he confused it with the Long Island (Daily) Press, another popular broadsheet in the area.

I find it interesting that Savalas's full first name was Aristotelis, and Agganis's was Aristotle. Maybe Cullen was just trying to say he had Greek friends.

I haven't read much on the 1963 addendum to the story, but will soon.

 

[ChasFink]

Okay, I'm beginning to become obsessed with this story.

Coincidentally, I had need to be in the vicinity of the Hillside Avenue White Castle yesterday, and got to thinking about how it would fit into the story if it was, in fact, the one Savalas stopped at. I need to do some more online research, but I had to share some observations right away.

Grand Central Parkway is situated north of Hillside Avenue. The White Castle is on the south side of the street, and Telly would have just navigated a gentle downhill S-curve to arrive there - he may have coasted downhill. Therefore, the "wooded area" would have been across the street, not behind the restaurant as stated in some accounts.

I don't think the woods would have been immediately across the street; I'm not sure when the buildings that are there now were built. But just beyond them is an area known as Jamaica Estates. In contrast to the bustling atmosphere of Hillside Avenue, which has a distinct low-income feel, Jamaica Estates is a once-gated community that is quiet, upscale, and deliberately planned in the early 1900s to retain many of the trees of what was once a true woods. It might be a stretch to say it's "wooded", but I guess it is by comparison to the surrounding area.

Savalas may have been told to walk up Edgerton Boulevard, which would have taken him past several Catholic schools and other religious buildings, or he might have been directed to walk up the main road of Jamaica Estates, Midland Parkway, just a little further east. This street has a tree-lined median strip, and is where the gatehouse still stands, although the gates are gone. (I'm not sure when they were removed, but I'll speculate that it was probably possible to get into Jamaica Estates without passing a guard in 1955.)

If Savalas walked - or was given a ride - up Midland Parkway he would have passed the house of a little boy named Donald Trump. But more interesting is the fact that Jamaica Estates was also once the home of the inventor of the modern supermarket - Michael J. Cullen, who had a son and a grandson named James. Was the ghost of Boston's Jimmy Cullen visiting the neighborhood of some relatives, or did one of Michael Cullen's descendants just bear a striking resemblance to Jimmy, and want to play an elaborate practical joke?

 

[Floyd]

I've only just heard this story, in a reference on another thread. I'm very interested, since it happened not far from where I now live. Yes, there is significant variation on the details in the various retellings, including the "Fun to know about Ghosts" account, which - despite the quotation marks - was obviously watered down for kids.

Assuming Savalas, in the television segment, was (a) telling the truth and (b) fairly accurate in the details he seems certain about, I want to clarify some obvious inaccuracies in the version that Diabolik8 related at the beginning of this thread. (It looks like a number of other posters were aware of a more accurate version of the story but didn't directly address these details.

Savalas was not traveling from a friend's house on Long Island to New York City. He was coming home to his home on Long Island after dropping off a woman he had a date with. Presumably she lived somewhere in New York City, which could be in Staten Island, the Bronx, or Manhattan, but might also be in Brooklyn, or in Queens (where he ran out of gas) - both of which are actually on Long Island. If he was still living in his childhood home (he mentioned he spoke to his mother) Telly was living in Garden City, a little farther east in Nassau County.

It wasn't an all-night café, it was a White Castle. As mentioned by genex17, this was a popular early fast-food chain.

Harry Agganis was not the name of the mysterious driver. The driver identified himself as James Cullen, according to Savalas. Although Savalas doesn't specifically say so, many have come to the conclusion that Harry Agganis was the baseball player that Cullen said he knew - and who apparently died that day.

Savalas's wallet wasn't missing, but he was apparently short on cash.


And a few observations:

Although Savalas says he thinks it happened in 1958 or 1959, Agganis's death was in 1955, which I think is more in line with Telly's time working at the State Department.

The White Castle closest to the Grand Central Parkway near where it meets the Cross Island Parkway is at 175-28 Hillside Ave., about a mile and a half from the intersection where the gas station was. I wonder if anyone out there can confirm the surrounding area was more wooded than it is now. It seems strange that he was on a busy local road, rather than on one of these expressways, when he ran out of gas, but the location of his home and the possibility his date lived nearby makes this less questionable. Of course there may have been a closer White Castle back then; the chain has lost some market share. Again, maybe someone can research this.

It would be interesting to see exactly how the Journal-American - the paper Telly mentioned - covered Agganis's death. It's possible he confused it with the Long Island (Daily) Press, another popular broadsheet in the area.

I find it interesting that Savalas's full first name was Aristotelis, and Agganis's was Aristotle. Maybe Cullen was just trying to say he had Greek friends.

I haven't read much on the 1963 addendum to the story, but will soon.

Here's the JFK tale:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/telly-savalas-ghostly-encounter.67511/#post-2141140

 

[Ronnie Jersey]

Here's the JFK tale:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/telly-savalas-ghostly-encounter.67511/#post-2141140

I just listened to that again -
gave me chills!!
I wonder if Telly Savalas ever told anyone the rest of the story, he said that wasn't the end of it!

 

[ChasFink]

Hmm. It seems the White Castle I identified is more like 4 miles from the gas station. Not an impossible walk, but not an easy one, either. I'm writing to White Castle to see if any restaurants used to be closer.

 

[ChasFink]

I've received an answer from White Castle, and unfortunately the restaurant I mentioned did not exist at the time. Of the four White Castles in Queens back then, none seem to match the geography of Telly's story. He may have misremembered the highways he was told to follow, but there is another possibility.

There was another hamburger chain called White Tower. It was so similar in style to White Castle that the latter successfully sued them for trademark infringement. Rather than force them to change the name, however, they made White Tower pay a royalty, build their restaurants less castle-like, and keep a distance from White Castle locations.

Since White Tower has gone out of business - one restaurant remains in Toledo, Ohio, but the parent company is defunct - I thought this would make further research difficult. But I did a quick online search for New York White Tower locations this morning, and - unlike when I did the same a few weeks ago - found a picture of a White Tower at 219-44 Hillside Avenue that was there from at least 1938 until 1970:

Not exactly castle-like, but close enough to a White Castle that someone could make the mistake. This location, a little further east of the present-day White Castle, is very close to the Grand Central, and only about a mile from the intersection with the Cross Island. This looks like the place!

Now to write to Mr. James Cullen Jr. to see if the story rings any bells with him!

By the way, White Castle also sent me some coupons for free food. I should do more restaurant research!

 

[Victory]

View attachment 59604



By the way, White Castle also sent me some coupons for free food. I should do more restaurant research!

Great work @ChasFink

On a tangent, but as a child I remember malted milkshakes being on sale in the UK.
I have not seen them for sale here for at least 20 years now.
Are they still popular in the USA?

Enjoy using your vouchers.

 

[EnolaGaia]

... On a tangent, but as a child I remember malted milkshakes being on sale in the UK.
I have not seen them for sale here for at least 20 years now.
Are they still popular in the USA? ...

They're rare nowadays. You have to go to a dedicated ice cream parlor or a retro-themed diner to find malted milk shakes offered.