HGB Ep. 489 - Pickfair

Moment in Oddity -  USS O'Bannon (Suggested by: Jared Rang)

There's an interesting Navy legend involving the USS O'Bannon which was a Fletcher-class destroyer. It was the Navy's most decorated ship of that class during WWII, having earned 17 battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation. The legend surrounding this ship involves a battle with a Japanese submarine. The event took place in April of 1943. The O'Bannon spotted the Japanese sub cruising on the ocean's surface. Initially the plan was to ram the sub, however the captain was uncertain if the submarine could be a mine layer which would have resulted in blowing up the USS O'Bannon. At the last minute the captain ordered the rudder swung hard to avoid collision. This caused the O'Bannon to align directly along side the sub, making it impossible for the destroyer's guns to hit the submarine. As it turned out, there were several Japanese on top of the sub appearing to have been sunbathing. Many different versions of this legend have the sailors then pelting the submarine with potatoes the Japanese undoubtedly believing the potatoes were hand grenades. The distraction gave the USS O'Bannon enough time to pull far enough away from the submarine so as to take aim and fire upon it. The sub was hit but still submerged, allowing the destroyer to sail over the top of it and deploy a depth charge assault. Of all the battles the USS O'Bannon participated in, employing a strategy of pulverizing a sub by pelting potatoes so proficiently as to gain the upper hand, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - The Eruption of Mount Pinatubo

In the month of June, on the 15th, in 1991, Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted. This was the second largest volcanic eruption of this century. A precursory 7.8 magnitude earthquake in July of 1990 added to the stressors in the earth's crust. Although the volcano had a short period of time with an increase of steam emissions after the earthquake, its 500 year old slumber appeared relatively undisturbed. However, by March and April of 1991, magma began rising towards the volcano's surface, causing several small earthquakes. Steam blasts created three small craters on the northern side as well. Sadly the surrounding communities were densely populated and the eruption was determined to be the largest on record to affect such an area. It was truly a cataclysmic event, ejecting more than one cubic mile of matter. The ash cloud rose 22 miles into the sky and a blanket of volcanic ash covered the surrounding areas. Some ash fell as far away as the Indian Ocean and satellites tracked the ash cloud several times around the earth. The eruption initially killed 350 souls however due to disease break outs in evacuation camps, the total loss was brought up to 722. The event left more than 200,000 people homeless. The impacts of Mount Pinatubo's eruption continue to this day.

Pickfair (Suggested by: Jennifer Almond)

The Pickfair estate was once one of the most lavish properties in Hollywood. This had been the home of old Hollywood stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks and was previously a hunting lodge. Pickford would be the first to talk about haunting activity in her home starting in the 1930s. Stories would continue through the years until Pia Zadora bought the property and demolished the historic mansion, claiming that the paranormal activity was getting out of hand. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Pickfair!

The Golden Age of Hollywood started around 1915 and this launched the Silent Era of film making. The Silent Era would last until 1929 and two of its biggest stars were Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. Mary Pickford went from playing waifish young girls in silent movies to becoming one of the most powerful women in Hollywood. She was born in 1892 as Gladys Marie Smith in Toronto, Ontario. Her father worked odd jobs, but he had a hard time as he struggled with alcoholism. He eventually abandoned his family and died when Mary was seven-years-old. Her mother Charlotte took in boarders to make ends meet and one of those people was the theatrical stage manager for Cummings Stock Company. He hired Charlotte to play the organ and her daughters Mary and Lottie to act in a play called The Silver King. And the Smith family was off and running, touring the US by rail and performing in small theaters. This not only included Mary, her sister Lottie and mother Charlotte, but also brother Jack. Mary, who was still known as Gladys then, would finally land a Broadway play in 1907 and that is when she took on her stage name, Mary Pickford.

D.W. Griffith screen tested Mary and hired her for a part in the silent film "The Lonely Villa" in 1909. Mary was drawn to the big screen because it was simpler than stage acting. Pickford signed with the Biograph Company, Griffith's company, and landed more money than other actors they had signed, $10 a day with a guarantee of $40 a week. Pickford played all kinds of parts, both bit parts and leading roles. In her first year, she appeared in 51 films. Pickford moved onto Universal Pictures for awhile, but eventually went back to Biograph. Pickford was being referred to as "Blondilocks" or "The Girl with the Golden Curls." She was a star and famous by the 1920s and a silent-film journalist wrote of her, "The best known woman who has ever lived, the woman who was known to more people and loved by more people than any other woman that has been in all history." Pickford starred in 52 feature films and managed to score a record-breaking salary. She was the first actress to sign a million-dollar contract. And she became "America's Sweetheart."

Not only was her star rising, but Pickford's power in Hollywood grew as well. In 1919, she formed the film production company United Artists with D.W. Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin. Through the 1920s, her films each grossed over $1 million. She was flying high and then came...the talkies. Pickford won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her first talkie, Coquette, but it was downhill from there. There were many reasons that her star faded. She was taking on older characters and audiences just weren't interested and Mary cut off her famous ringlets and went for a bob. Pickford retired from acting in 1933. She was married three times. Her first husband was Owen Moore and they married in 1911. The marriage struggled with Moore's alcoholism and there were reports of domestic violence. They rarely lived together and divorced in 1920. This was after she had already started an affair with Douglas Fairbanks. 

We've visited the Hollywood Forever Cemetery and we saw Douglas Fairbanks burial. It's a large plot with a reflecting pool. He only lived to the age of 56. He was born as Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman in 1883 in Denver, Colorado. His father was pursuing mining interests in the Rocky Mountains and abandoned the family when Douglas was five-years-old. Douglas' mother decided to name him and his brother for her first husband who had died from tuberculosis, John Fairbanks. Just like Pickford, Fairbanks started acting at a young age and started in the theater. He quit school at 15 and traveled across the country with an acting troupe. In 1901, he settled in New York and got his first Broadway part. In 1907, he married the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, Anna Beth Sully. The couple moved to Los Angeles and Fairbanks signed with Triangle Pictures and he began working with D.W. Griffith. That was in 1915, but by 1916 Fairbanks was ready to be on his own and he formed his own company named for himself. He then got signed with Paramount.

Pickford and Fairbanks met at a party in 1916 and were immediately drawn to each other. The two began an affair and traveled together to sell war bonds in 1917 with Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin and Pickford were the highest paid stars in Hollywood and Fairbanks was the most popular. They all made a force to be reckoned with and their formation of United Artists would solidify that fact. Sully granted Fairbanks a divorce in 1918, but as we mentioned earlier, Pickford wasn't divorced until 1920. Fairbanks would marry her twenty-six days after the divorce was granted. The press referred to the event as "Everybody's Hero" marrying "America's Sweetheart." They were Hollywood royalty and they would own their own noble manor, Pickfair. Clearly named for the both of them.

Fairbanks bought 18 acres in Beverly Hills that held a hunting lodge. This was a building designed by architect Horatio Cogswell for attorney Lee Allen Phillips of Berkeley Square. Lots of renovating needed to be done to transform the lodge into the couple's perfect mansion. They hired architect Wallace Neff and over the next four years he transformed the house into a mock Tudor 4-story, 25-room mansion and a swimming pool was added, which made this the first house in Los Angeles to have a pool. The property also had tennis courts, garages, stables, a large guest wing and servants quarters. The interior was decadent with mahogany and bleached pine lining the halls, frescos on the ceilings, mirrored decorative niches and parquet flooring. Larger windows were installed to let in as much light as possible. There was an underground running track so Fairbanks could run in the nude and there was also an Old West-style saloon, which would later hold a collection of 1907 Remington rifles. The couple filled the house with the finest furnishings - much of it antique 18th-century French and English period pieces - and high quality art with a vast collection of Chinese objects and art that Pickford and Fairbanks had collected on their many trips to Asia. A couple of pieces from that collection include a pair of fine Chinese carved rhinoceros tusks and a Thai damascene silver lotus form covered urn, which the King of Siam had given Pickford.

Life Magazine described Pickfair as "a gathering place only slightly less important than the White House... and much more fun." And everybody wanted to visit Pickfair. The 1920s were a grand time for Pickfair and for Pickford and Fairbanks. The mansion was the social center of Beverly Hills. The house hosted the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Charles Chaplin, Dorothy and Lillian Gish, Greta Garbo, George Bernard Shaw, Helen Keller, H.G. Wells, Lord Louis Mountbatten, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Joan Crawford, Noël Coward, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, Pearl S. Buck, Charles Lindbergh, Max Reinhardt, Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Edison, Gloria Swanson, Albert Einstein, Amelia Earhart, Jack Dempsey, The King and Queen of Siam and the Crown Prince of Japan. Will Rogers even said in 1928, "My most important duty as mayor of Beverly Hills is directing people to Mary Pickford’s house." 

The glamour wouldn't last as the couple's marriage unraveled. Fairbanks and Pickford divorced in January 1936. Accounts we read claimed that Fairbanks continued to live in the house until his death in 1939 and that the couple just lived in separate wings. Fairbanks would remain the love of Pickford's life, but she found companionship again with actor and musician Charles "Buddy" Rogers whom she married in 1937. It seems hard to believe that he would be okay with the ex-husband living in the same house. Buddy and Mary remained married until Pickford's death in 1979 and they resided at Pickfair until her death as well. During that time they held parties and fundraisers for charitable organizations, including an annual Christmas party for blind war veterans. The public got a rare peek inside the mansion during the 48th Academy Awards in 1976 when Pickford was given a second Academy Award for her contribution to American film, which was presented to her in the formal living room of Pickfair. There are accounts that claim Pickford became a recluse towards the end of her life and that she had become an alcoholic like her father. After Pickford passed, Buddy Rogers moved out of PickFair. He had such a fondness for the place though that he built a new home that was a smaller scale version of PickFair.

The property sat empty for several years until businessman and owner of the LA Lakers Jerry Buss bought it in 1980. Buss' daughter recalled when she and her father toured the house, Pickford's Oscar was still sitting there. Singer Pia Zadora bought it in 1988 and in 1990 decided to demolish the historic home. There was huge public backlash and Zadora claimed that there was just too much termite damage to restore the home. Later, however, Zadora claimed that the house had been beautiful and perfect when she moved in, but then weird things started happening. Her family experienced terrifying paranormal experiences, so she and her husband agreed that they should tear down the house and rebuild. UNICOM Global, an IT company bought the rebuilt Pickfair Estate in 2005. This new house is a Venetian styled mansion with an indoor spa, theater, gym, lavish master suite and several bedrooms. The company uses it as an executive meeting center. Parts of the original Pickfair still are part of the newer construction. The original gates are there along with the servants' quarters and the living room, which are part of the north wing. The guesthouse and the pool are still there.

Mary Pickford described many unexplained experiences in the house. These started as loud noises coming from the attic. Pickford claimed it sounded like somebody tramping around very heavily above her bed. She was a heavy sleeper, but these noises never failed to awaken her. Mary even told a newspaper columnist about a conversation she had with the spirit in her house. She said, "I sat up in bed and addressed myself to the ghost, 'I wouldn't treat you this way. It isn't ladylike. I don't expect to be treated in this manner.' The noises ceased." The cook for the couple also claimed to have experiences. Pickford said, "One day our cook, a practical, unemotional Swedish woman, ran out of the kitchen in terror, brandishing a knife, she declared she was being pursued by a strange, dark woman whom she had seen in the kitchen." 

A friend and house guest of Pickford's seemed to have seen this same ghost. The guest said, "I just saw a strange, tall dark woman in the hallway up there. She was looking at the alcove. Her eyes wandered about in a puzzled way as she looked from side to side, as if to say-something has changed here. At first, I thought she was Theresa, your maid; then I saw she was a stranger. I went to speak to her. She vanished." Now while Pickford believed the home was haunted, Douglas Fairbanks didn't and he figured there was some kind of explanation behind the stories. He maintained that he didn't believe in ghosts at all. Although he too heard the mysterious noises coming from the floor above them.

So Pia Zadora bought Pickfair and fairly quickly she realized that the house had ghosts. She appeared on Celebrity Ghost Stories in 2012 and explained that she had put her kids to bed and then went to sleep and had just drifted off when she heard a blood-curdling scream. She recognized it as her daughter and then her daughter came running into the room. She told Pia that she had seen what she thought was a ghost. She described a tall whitish woman above her bed when she woke up. The woman was wearing a white gown and looking at her and laughing. Pia didn't know what to do. She hadn't noticed anything about the house, so she thought her daughter was just having nightmares. Pia took her daughter to a therapist who said that her daughter seemed fine, but may be having a little bit of trouble with adjusting to moving to a new house. Pia said, "Years ago my husband and I tore down one of the most iconic Hollywood mansions because of termites … but that wasn’t the real reason. When we moved into the house it was beautiful, everything was perfect, it was a dream … but weird things started to happen … so my husband and I, after trying to figure out what to do, decided we were going to have the house razed." She continued, "If I had a choice, I never would have torn down this old home. I loved this home, it had a history, it had a very important sense about it and you can deal with termites, and you can deal with plumbing issues, but you can’t deal with the supernatural."
   
A fun story about Fairbanks and the house: One day he was driving home when he spotted an aristocratic Englishman with a familiar face walking along the road. He stopped to give the man a ride and the man accepted. Fairbanks was sure he recognized the man, but he couldn't place the name, so he invited him to Pickfair for a drink. The stranger accepted that as well. The two men drank while Fairbanks peppered him with questions trying to figure out why he knew him. This Englishman even seemed to know Pickfair intimately. Fairbanks wondered if he had been to a party there or something. Fairbank's secretary joined the two men in the room and Fairbanks whispered to him, "Who’s this Englishman? I know he’s Lord Somebody, but I just can’t remember his name?" The secretary replied, "That is the English butler you fired last month for getting drunk."

Pickfair is not like it had been during its Hollywood glory days. That old piece of history is gone. Nobody at UNICOM Global has claimed to have a haunting experience, but that doesn't mean that spirits don't still remain. Is Pickfair haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Podcast, Ep. 105 - The Life and Afterlife of Lucille Ball

 

Moment in Oddity - Mushroom Death Suit

We've featured green burials in our oddity segments before in the form of organic tree pods in which your putrefying body feeds a tree by the roots for a couple years. The latest in green burials is the Mushroom Death Suit. Jae Rhim Lee and Mike Ma are founders of the Coeio company, which has created created the Infinity Death Suit. This is considered to be another eco-friendly alternative to standard burial and one of its positive benefits is that it apparently has the ability to remove the 200+ toxins from your body as it decomposes. The suit is full body, including the head and comes in black and the fibers of the suit are woven with a strain of spores hand-picked for their voracious appetite for human flesh. The key to getting the suit to work effectively is to bury the body early, usually within 24 hours, which allows early decomposition and this activates the spores. The company advertises their suits in this way, "Unlike conventional burial and cremation, they do not use harsh/toxic chemicals, pollute the environment, or waste precious natural resources. The Infinity Burial products also go a step beyond other green burial options, by cleansing and purifying toxins that accumulate in the body. If left unabated, these toxins end up contaminating the surrounding environment." And here we thought that humans made good fertilizer. We guess that's only if mushrooms help with the process. Now that certainly is odd!

This Day in History - Socrates Sentenced to Death
By: Carbon Lilies

On this day, February 15th, in 399 BCE, Socrates (Father of Western Philosophy) is sentenced to death after being found guilty of  “...denying the gods recognized by the state and introducing new divinities, and, secondly, of corrupting the young.” During his life, Socrates was an artist, a soldier and finally, a philosopher. His methods in his search for happiness through wisdom led to him being loved by many, but vilified by others since high society was not always represented in the best light. Most Athenians at this time were fixated on physical beauty, past glories and the idea of wealth, while Socrates attacked these values in favour of putting more emphasis on the greater importance of the mind. Not everyone appreciated the humorous way that Socrates challenged conventional Greek thinking feeling it was a threat to their way of life. The charge of impiety was believed to have been politically and personally motivated. Trying to distance themselves from the Thirty Tyrants of Athens who had just been overthrown, the accusers used Socrates relationship with his former student Critias (considered one of the worst of the tyrants) as an example of how he corrupted young minds.
Refusing to hire a speechwriter as was customary (even though gifted speechwriter Lysias offered his services free of charge), Socrates defended himself. He would not plea for his life or give a self-justifying defense stating that he was instead a benefactor to the Athenian people. This did not go over well. The guilty at this time were allowed to suggest an alternative punishment to a death sentence. Most would beg for mercy and to be exiled but Socrates suggested that he be held in honour and to have free meals served in the Prytaneum (a place reserved for the heroes of the Olympic games). This was seen as an added insult to the Athenian courts. Socrates was convicted and sentenced to death by drinking a hemlock concoction...which he did without hesitation. Shortly before his final breath, Socrates described his death as a release of the soul from his body.

The Life and Afterlife of Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball was a glamorous actress, producer, film studio head and comedian who was not afraid to get a little messed up if it brought a laugh. Her legacy as one of the funniest women - if not THE funniest woman - on television stands to this day. Like nearly all stars in Hollywood, her life was one of successes and failures. Her greatest success was the television show "I Love Lucy" and it has never been out of syndication. She was the first female to head a major Hollywood studio. The spirit of her comedy endures to today and it would seem Lucy's actual spirit is still here with us in the afterlife. Join us as we explore the life and afterlife of Lucille Ball.

Lucille Desiree Ball was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. Her childhood was not one that would lend itself to success in life as a comedian. Poverty and tough circumstances plagued her early life. Her father Henry, who was nicknamed Had, was an electrician. He moved the family from New York to Montana looking for work. Later, he relocated the family to Michigan, so he could work for the Michigan Bell Company. When Lucy was just three-years-old, Had contracted Typhoid Fever and he died. She always claimed that this was her first real memory.

Her mother, Desiree, was pregnant with Lucy's brother Fred at the time and she moved everyone back to Jamestown, so she could find work in a factory. Desiree met a man named Ed Peterson and married him. Peterson didn't like kids and he wasn't about to raise another man's children. He moved himself and Desiree to Detroit without Fred or Lucy. Lucy was passed off to his parents. They were poverty stricken and her step-grandmother was ironically, a humorless woman. Desiree returned to her children when Lucy was eleven. Lucy got her first taste of performing when she was twelve. Her stepfather was a Shriner and he suggested she try out for the chorus line for their next show. She loved the feeling she got from performing and later decided at fifteen that she wanted to try acting. She begged her mother to allow her to attend John Murray Anderson School for the Dramatic Arts in New York City and her mother agreed. Not necessarily because she wanted Lucy to become an actress. She thought this route would get Lucy away from her boyfriend at the time, who was twenty-three.

Tough circumstances hit Lucy twice more in her childhood. On July 5th in 1927, Lucy's family was out in the backyard shooting a new .22 caliber rifle her grandfather had bought as a present for her brother.  They were aiming at tin cans. A neighbor boy named Warner Erickson came over uninvited. The girlfriend of Lucy's brother was taking aim at one of the cans when Warner's mother hollered for him to come home. The gun went off and Warner was shot. The bullet severed his spine and his family sued the Balls. It ruined her grandfather and they ended up losing the house and having to sell all their possessions. The next circumstance seems to be a case of Rheumatic Fever that hit Lucy in 1928. She was seventeen at the time and working as a Hattie Carnegie model. She ran a fever one day and got horrible leg pains. She ended up having to stay at home with her family and put her acting pursuits on the back burner for three years while she recovered.

Lucy returned to New York City in 1932 and pursued work on Broadway under the name Diane Belmont. She would be hired for a chorus and then quickly fired. She became frustrated and decided to head to Hollywood. Her first job was as a Goldwyn Girl promoting the movie "Roman Scandals" in 1933. It was at this time that Lucy changed the color of her locks. We asked Spooktacular Crew members about their thoughts on Lucy. Michelle DePriest had commented, "I Love her! She was ahead of her time! A great role model for women! I think it's funny, I read something (I think) about she was a blonde who became famous as a red head and Marilyn Monroe was a red head who became famous as a blonde?! If I'm not mixed up, I think it's a neat 'factoid'"! It would seem that Lucy's true hair color was chestnut color and she dyed it blonde at this time.

Lucy landed her first role as an extra in the movie, "The Three Musketeers." In 1937, she got her first big part in "Stage Door" with Ginger Rogers and Katherine Hepburn. She continued getting roles in films that were considered second-tier into the 1940s. She even earned the moniker "Queen of B Movies." It was in 1940 that she met Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz. She was filming the movie, "Dance, Girl, Dance." They starred together in her next film "Too Many Girls" and the couple fell in love. Many felt they were mismatched. Desi was young and considered a "ladies man." People thought it wouldn't last, but they ended up marrying. It was in 1942 that Lucy went from blonde to redhead and she would hold that trademark look for her entire life. MGM had asked her to do it. Things were rough in the marriage and by 1944, Lucy had filed for divorce. They reconciled and were married for twenty years.

Lucy became a mother for the first time in 1947, giving birth to a daughter named Madeline Dee. In 1948, she was cast in "My Favorite Husband" as Liz Cugat, a wacky wife. It was a radio program for CBS Radio. It was so successful that CBS decided to take it to television. They asked Lucy to develop it and she agreed to do it, but only if Desi could play her husband. CBS balked at the request because they thought the viewing public would reject the premise of a red-headed white woman being married to a Cuban. Even though it was actually reality. CBS finally agreed. The year was 1950 and Lucy and Desi founded Desilu Productions to produce the show. Desilu became the second largest independent television production company and in 1962 it become the number one independent production company. It would go on to produce The Untouchables and Star Trek. Lucy actually bought Desi out in 1962 and ran Desilu by herself until she sold it in 1967 making her the first woman to run a production company.

Back to CBS and this television program. Desilu Produced a pilot for the show and CBS didn't care for it and dropped the project. Lucy believed in it and she and Desi took it on the road as a vaudeville act. It was very successful and soon "I Love Lucy" was on CBS Television. CBS was met by another demand from Lucy. She wanted to film the show in Hollywood. Most television was done in New York. The other demand was that "film" part. Television was done as a live medium, but Lucy wanted to tape the show and broadcast it later. This was an expensive process and CBS said they would only agree to it if Lucy and Desi took a pay cut. Lucy got the better end of the deal in the end because she retianed the rights to the shows and CBS ended up paying $1,000,000 to get the shows back. Lucy used the money to purchase RKO Studios and Desilu Studios was founded.

There were other innovations with the show. It filmed before a live studio audience. Listener Jenni-lee Watt commented, "Did you know that the laughter from the audiences for I love Lucy were so genuine and intense that they recorded it for use on other sitcoms. Kinda creepy to think that when you watch shows with recorded laughter that you are literally listening to the laughter of the dead." Other innovations were using multiple cameras and different sets adjacent to each other. "I Love Lucy" dominated the ratings and people became very attached to the characters and story lines. One of those story lines was writing Lucy's real life pregnancy into the show, which was another innovation on television. Not only was pregnancy not suppose to be shown on TV, the word pregnant was banned from use. It was agreed to go forward with the story, but only if "expecting" was used instead of "pregnant." This was Lucy's third pregnancy. In 1951, daughter number two, Lucie Arnaz had been born. This next child would be their son, Desi Arnaz, Jr.

The country was riveted by Lucy's pregnancy. Lucy was going to have to give birth by Cesarean, so the story line was written to coincide with the real delivery, so both Lucy and her character gave birth on the same day. Audiences waited with baited breath. They called CBS for information. The 1952 presidential election had to battle with ratings against "I Love Lucy." Dwight Eisenhower's swearing in had 29 million viewers while the birth episode got 44 million. The show ran for six seasons and was ranked No. 1 for four of those years and won five Emmys. The run ended in 1957 and Lucy and Desi moved forward with a new show called "The Lucy and Desi Comedy Hour." After the last episode of the Lucy and Desi Comedy Hour was filmed in 1960, Lucy filed for divorce from Desi claiming that their real marriage was nothing like what people watched on TV and that living with Desi was a nightmare. He was a philanderer and alcoholic.

In 1960, she married comedian Gary Morton. He was thirteen years younger than her and she got him involved in the production company. In 1967, she sold Desilu to Gulf Western and it became a part of Paramount Pictures. Through the 60s and 70s Lucy made a handful of films and she launched two other sitcoms: "The Lucy Show" and "Here's Lucy." They did alright, but nothing would be like her original genius show. She tried to revive her television career in the 1980s, but nothing really stuck. She made her last public appearance on the 61st Academy Awards on which she and Bob Hope received standing ovations.

On April 26, 1989, Lucille Ball died after having a surgical procedure at the age of 77. She had an acute aortic aneurysm that caused her to have emergency surgery in which she received an aortic transplant from a young man who had died in a motorcycle accident. She started to recover quickly, but by the end of the week, she was complaining of pains in her abdomen and she died shortly after lapsing into a coma. It was discovered that she had another aortic aneurysm, but this one was in her abdomen. She is buried at Lake View Cemetery in Jamestown, New York. Phil and Monica Childers have visited the grave and shared her tombstone with us:

Photo by: Phil & Monica Childers

Before we jump into the hauntings, we should touch briefly on the elephant in the room. This is very timely for Diane as she listens to the "You Must Remember This" podcast and Karina Longworth has just started a series on The Hollywood Blacklist. The House Un-American Activities Committee brought Lucille Ball in to testify before the committee. She was indeed a registered member of the Communist Party in America for a brief time. The Los Angeles Times interviewed her about her secret testimony and if she thought that this revelation would hurt her career. She answered, "Hurt me? I have more faith in the American people than that. I think any time you give the American people the truth they’re with you." Lucy explained that she originally registered to vote and claimed the Communist Party for her grandfather's benefit because he was a zealous socialist. She did host a meeting at her home in the 1930s for new members of the party. She was a member in 1936 and in 1938, but after that Lucy votes for Democrats and Republicans. Desi addressed the issue before one of their episodes when he said, "The only thing red about Lucy is her hair, and even that is not legitimate."

Lucille Ball lived at 1000 North Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills at the time of her death. Lucy's second husband Gary sold the house and the new owners had it torn down. Lucy lived in the house for so many years that perhaps it was hard for her to leave it in the afterlife. Or maybe she has remained here because she is upset that her home was destroyed. Many witnesses claim that Lucy is the spirit behind supernatural activity in the home that was built in the spot where her house used to stand. While Lucy's home was in the demolition stage, a friend of her's decided to drive past the place one last time. Perhaps to say goodbye. Several walls were already missing. The friend could see into Lucy's bedroom. Something caught his eye and he noticed a tall redhead looking through the fence that was around the property. He thought to himself that she resembled Lucy and then she turned and looked at him and he had no doubt that it was Lucy. She appeared to be sad and confused. She looked back at the house and then turned and walked away. Once she got to the south corner, she disappeared.

Windows break without reason. Loud disembodied voices originate in the attic as does the sound of furniture and boxes moving around as if someone is rearranging things. Even more eerie is the claim that the tune from "I Love Lucy" is heard playing softly in the attic. The owners come home some days to hear what sounds like a party going on upstairs, but there is no one else in the house.

Lucy's ghost is thought to haunt more than just her former home. She quite possibly might be at one of her home away from home locations, which would be the Desilu Studios. Today, the building is known as the Hart Building and it sits on the property of Paramount Studios. Her disembodied spirit has been seen on the upper floors by night watchmen. After her spirit is seen, the scent of flowers is detected. This is how people know that Lucy has paid a visit to the studios.

Is it possible to get to meet Lucille Ball in the afterlife? Has her legend carried on after death for more than just her personal legacy? Does Lucy still walk among the living? Is Lucille Ball a ghost? That is for you to decide!

Listeners comments on Lucy:

Steven Pappas:  I grew up watching old reruns of I Love Lucy. I still think it is one of the most genuinely funny things to come out of Hollywood! Talented lady.

Phil Childers: A picture of her grave. Monica and I got our marriage certificate in her hometown. The museum is awesome. Highly recommended!

Rhonda Kay Mayfield:  Love love love Lucy!!

Phil Childers

Monica Childers

HGB Podcast, Ep. 95 - Griffith Park

Moment in Oddity - Dark Watchers of Santa Lucia Mountains

The Chumash Native Americans speak of the legend of the Dark Watchers. These creatures even made their way into the cave drawings of the Chumash. The Dark Watchers are seen in the Santa Lucia Mountains that stretch from Avila Beach, through San Luis Obispo, and all the way to Monterey in California. People claim that they appear to be giant human shaped phantoms and they are most commonly seen at twilight. The Dark Watchers usually appear to be staring off and unaware of anyone being near them and as night falls and darkness creeps in, they simply disappear as if swallowed by the inky blackness. John Steinbeck wrote of them in his short story Flight, "Pepe looked up to the top of the next dry withered ridge. He saw a dark form against the sky, a man's figure standing on top of a rock, and he glanced away quickly not to appear curious. When a moment later he looked up again, the figure was gone." Some people have described the Dark Watchers as wearing hats and capes. Are these just Dark Watchers spirits, demons or something else? We may never know, but they certainly are creepy and odd!

This Day in History - Elvis Presley Receives First Guitar
by: Steven Pappas

On this day, January 8th, in 1946, Elvis Presley is given his first guitar. Elvis said his mother rarely let him out of her sight and was hesitant to buy him something like a bicycle or a rifle. So when he was 11 years old, his mother Gladys took him to a hardware store and bought him a guitar for six dollars and ninety-five cents. Elvis viewed this as just one of a few steps during his childhood toward a musical upbringing, but the rest of us know how important it was to put that guitar in his hands. Elvis would go on to set the world on fire. He remains the highest grossing individual musician in history with an estimated 600 million units sold. His 10 number one albums spent a combined 90+ weeks at number one on the charts. He had 18 number one songs, starred in 31 feature films, won 3 Grammys and it all began with one woman putting a guitar into the hands of the man who would be, and remains, the king of rock and roll.

Griffith Park (Research Assistant Lianna Sapien)

The Santa Monica Mountains are one of the most visited natural areas in California and Griffith Park is a favorite location. The most familiar attribute of the park is the famous "Hollywood" sign. The park has been the scene to more than just fun outdoor activities. There is a belief that a curse is tied to the land here and that is why Griffith Park has been tied to urban legends, deaths and hauntings. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Griffith Park.

The Santa Monica Mountains parallel the Pacific Ocean along the coast of southern California. The mountain range stretches from Point Mugu in Ventura County to the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. This was home to the Chumash and Tongva Native American tribes. They lived here for 8,000 years and then the Spanish arrived and their numbers dwindled. The Santa Monica Mountains today are home to Griffith Park. This park is the largest municipal park with urban wilderness area in the United States and it stretches over 4,200 acres. Adults and children come to the park for camping, biking, horseback riding, interaction with animals and the chance to climb aboard a steam train. The adventurous types can hike along the mountain and get a closer look at the iconic “Hollywood” sign and scientific minds can visit the Griffith Observatory and take in the Los Angeles skyline.

Don Antonio Feliz was a rancher who had inherited the property that would later become Griffith Park from his mother Maria Verdugo de Feliz. He shared the ranch with his sister Soledad and his niece Dona Petronilla (don-ya pe-tro-ni-ya) who was blind according to some accounts. Petronilla had been orphaned by Feliz's brother, so Feliz took her in. The ranch was named Rancho Los Feliz. In 1863, small pox swept through and Don Antonio Feliz came down with the dreaded disease. Petronilla was sent to the pueblo to prevent her from becoming sick. While on his deathbed, Feliz was visited by a friend named Don Antonio Coronel. This so called friend coveted the ranch and he coerced Feliz into signing a will that left his extensive land holdings to Coronel and a few modest jewelry pieces to his sister Soledad. Feliz died and his niece returned to find Coronel in charge of the property. She had been left nothing. She was enraged and she cursed the land that a great misfortune would befall whomever owned the land of Rancho Los Feliz and that included Coronel.

Then something bizarre occurred. Petronilla, who was only in her twenties, dropped dead. At least, that is what the legend claims. Historical documents indicate that she married, had a son and died thirty-four years later. But the curse does seem to be very real. Don Coronel didn't believe the curse until his family members started dropped like flies in violent ways. Coronel became a believer and he sold the land before he himself was caught up in any more misfortune. The next owner had cattle and a dairy farm. The cattle sickened and the property flooded and the owner was heavily in debt. Fire swept through the timberline as well. This owner decided to sell what did seem to be cursed property. The property was then purchased by Colonel Griffith J. Griffith in 1882.

The Colonel made his money in coal mining and started an ostrich ranch on the property.  Though ostrich feathers were popular in fashions at the time, Griffith's primary interest in the farm was to draw people to his nearby property holdings. He was a notorious land baron and hoped to lay out the land in suburban tracts. Then in a sudden turn of events, Griffith donated the land to create a park named for himself in 1896. People wondered what would make a man poised to make a lot of money in development to all of a sudden donate the land. Rumors of the curse really fired up at this time and a party celebrating the transfer of the land would lead to claims of more than just a curse. This place appeared to be haunted.

Major Horace Bell was a frontier writer and newspaperman who was known for embellishment. He founded "The Porcupine" in Los Angeles, which was a paper dedicated to social commentary. He popularized the story about the Feliz Curse and he related that Griffith seemed to be tormented by visits from the spirit of Don Antonio Feliz and demons. He wrote that at the party where the city's influential people had gathered in Griffith Park to celebrate the transfer of the land from Griffith to the city, the ghost of Feliz took a seat usually reserved for Griffith and proclaimed, “I come to invite you to dine with me in hell. In your great honor I have brought an escort of sub-demons.” The lights went out and a cacophony of gongs and cymbals filled the room. All of the guests fled before the demons would have arrived.

The curse did seem to attach to more than just the land in the case of the Colonel though. It was either that or the alcohol. In 1903, he had accused his wife of conspiring with the Pope to poison him, so he shot her. He didn't kill her, but he did blind her in one eye and disfigured her face. He was sentenced to two years in San Quentin for the attack. Despite his grand donation of the Griffith Park land, when he was released from jail, he was damaged goods and rejected by society. He died in 1919 from liver disease and only a handful of people attended his funeral.

The park has been in the hands of the government since the time of the Colonel, but it seems to be sharing control with supernatural forces as well. There is no shortage of haunting experiences and other high strangeness in this park. Despite the fact that Petronilla died in her son's home decades after she supposedly cursed the land, there are claims that her apparition is active. The spirit is described as a young woman in a white dress, sometimes riding a white horse. At midnight, she is reportedly often seen in an adobe house, watching from the adobe’s windows on dark and rainy nights. Her uncle Don Feliz's ghost is reportedly still seen wandering his former ranchland on horseback. The ghost of Griffith J. Griffith has often been spotted, also on horseback, checking on the upkeep of the land.

Actress Peg Entwistle is a tragic figure. She was born Millicent Lilian Entwistle on July 1, 1908 in Port Talbot, Wales. Loss came early for her when her mother died when she was a child. She and her father moved to New York after that and her father remarried. Then her father was killed when he was run over by a car on Park Avenue. Her younger brothers went to live with an uncle, but Peg decided she wanted to be an actress and she stayed in New York. She made her stage debut with the Boston repertory company at 17 and then she moved onto working on Broadway with the prestigious Theater Guild productions. She was unhappily married to a man that was a dead beat dad to a child from a previous marriage and they ended up divorcing when she found out. Stage work started to dry up, so she decided to head to Hollywood. She was signed by RKO, but she went absolutely nowhere and depression set in.

On September 18th in 1932, Peg had been drinking and she was in the grip of depression. She told her uncle who she was living with at the time that she was going to walk up to a drugstore to meet friends, but instead she crawled her way up to the "Hollywoodland" sign. She took off her coat and folded it neatly placing it on the ground along with her purse. She climbed the ladder up to the top of the letter H and jumped to her death. She was 24 years old. People staring at the sign after dark have reported seeing a young woman jumping from the letter H and that they hear her scream on the way down, vanishing before hitting the ground. Other sightings include those of a woman matching her description and period clothes wandering the parks trails, as well as walking up the path between the sign and her former residence. The smell of gardenia, her perfume scent of choice, has been reported to linger near where her apparition is seen.

On  Halloween night in 1976, 22-year-old musician Rand Garrett and aspiring actress Nancy Jeanson, 20, were having sex on a picnic bench near Mt. Hollywood Drive when they were crushed by a falling tree. The lovers had been childhood sweethearts and their distraught families spread their ashes around the picnic table. A group of workers that were hired to clear the tree fell sick or were injured before they could finish the job, including a supervisor who was found dead of an apparent heart attack at the scene. His chainsaw was bent and his hair had turned white. Sightings of a ghostly couple in the area persist and people familiar with the tale make pilgrimages to the site in the hopes of witnessing paranormal activity. The picnic table and tree still reside in the same spot. The LA Times reported the following:

 "People thought I was damn crazy," says retired city tree trimmer Morris Carl when he tried to explain what happened to him a few days after authorization had been given to clear the fallen tree and he was tapped for the duty. "I drove up there with a job to do and I aimed to do it. What I didn't figure on was getting scared out of my wits!"

Carl is quick to add that up to that day he never gave much thought to whether ghosts were real. "But from that point on I certainly don't give any thought that they aren't," he says.

According to the incident report he filed with his supervisor later that evening, Carl arrived at the site at 11:40 a.m. on November 7. He was to be joined by two other Bureau of Street Services Tree Division workers with a large truck and loader to remove the material later in the afternoon but until then he was charged with sawing up the branches and trunk of the large sycamore tree into more manageable pieces. Only a few minutes into it he wrote that was overcome with a strange sensation.

"In my statement I said that I felt funny. What happened was I'd sawed off the crown of the tree when from out of nowhere I got hit with these real strong chills so hard it was as if I was coming down with the fastest flu ever. I tried to shake it off and get back to work, but each time I'd fire up the saw and get near the tree I'd get real cold and hear this weird moaning and crying. So I'd stop the saw and listen and it would go away. But then I'd start her up again and it would come back. Finally I was freezing so bad I had to go to the truck and get my coat."

That's when Carl wrote that the fallen tree started shaking violently.

"I set down the saw on the picnic table and headed over to the truck, and that's when I heard it start shaking from behind me. The tree just went crazy! Not just lightly shaking, but bouncing up and down as if someone was picking it up and dropping it."

It landed repeatedly on the table with such force as to knock the heavy powersaw off the table to the ground.

As soon as that happened," he wote in the report, "the tree stopped moving."
But then the moaning started up again, accompanied by a warning from an ominous voice that Carl says sounded as if someone was sitting right there in the cab with him and whispering into his ear.

"It told me 'leave us alone' very insistently," Carl says. "So I tried, but the engine wouldn't turn over. Next thing is this rubbing sound along the windshield and letters are being written across the fogged up glass. First there's an "n" and an "e" and the first word is "next." Then there's a "t" and an "i" and then that ends up being "time." Then a "y" and an "o" and a "u."

The last word was "die."

"Man, but did the truck engine finally fire up right then and I burned rubber, Carl says. "Left the saw right there on the ground in broad daylight and just got the hell out. I still get chills, and no there never was a next time. I never went back."

One of the stranger stories to come out of Griffith Park is a story about some kind of creature that is described to be similar to a werewolf. Some claim it is one of those demons promised by Don Feliz. The story has been around for decades. In October of 2005, three men allegedly retreated from a late night excursion into the park after an encounter with a beast that had green skin and red hair. The men visited a friend immediately after their experience and to prove they weren't making the story up, she had each of them draw the creature separately. With minor variations,  the men’s sketches all matched. The monster's legs were very long as were its feet and they claimed it was taking huge strides as it made its way down the street. Its back was bent backwards and its neck was very long and bent forward in a way that no human could be bent. More recently, an 11 year old boy named Jack said that on a 2009 visit, he was chased by an unusually large coyote. Reaching the top of a hill, he saw another kid around his age, and warned him about the coyote. “I’m quite glad you warned me,” the kid told Jack, then handed him an old firecracker. “Here, take this. Its good luck.” The kid then ran through some bushes and onto a small path. Fearing the coyote, Jack tried to follow him, but never caught up, and never saw the kid, or the coyote, again.

Did Horace Bell embellish the story of the Feliz Curse? We know that some of his facts are not backed up by history. But the misfortune surrounding ownership of the land is very real. And there are many witnesses who have experienced strange things here. Is there a curse? Do demonic entities roam about in the park? Is Griffith Park haunted? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes:
Haunted Hayride at Griffith Park Old Zoo in October: http://losangeleshauntedhayride.com/