HGB Ep. 557 - Life and Afterlife of Karen Carpenter

Moment in Oddity - Stonehenge Altar Stone

Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England is a prehistoric megalithic structure. There have been various theories as to its purpose. At one time it was thought to be the remains of a Druid temple, or a burial monument, or possibly a meeting place for the people of the time. The most recent studies have proposed that Stonehenge enabled people to measure the skies like a modern day observatory, allowing the users to predict celestial events and the equinox. This enabled the users to better plan for their agricultural, social and religious needs. Nobody knows how the enormous stones were put into place, with the heaviest weighing over 20 tons and the average bluestones weighing about 2 tons. There is an altar stone that lies near the middle of the stone circle. Through chemical analysis it was recently determined to have not been sourced from Wales like the monument's bluestones. Instead, the grey-green sandstone was discovered to have likely come from northeast Scotland. There are various theories as to how the giant stones were brought to the monument. Some were sourced as close as 15 miles away. The smaller pillar stones came from 140 miles away, but the altar stone traveled a distance of over 450 miles and that, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - The Panic of 1873

In the month of September, on the 20th, in 1873, the New York Stock Exchange closed for the first time in its history. The event was caused by the Financial Panic of 1873. The stock market had crashed in Europe which prompted New York to shut down the American Exchange for ten days. These incidents began the first "Great Depression" which lasted from 1873 until 1879. Americans sold their investments, banks failed and the railway industry collapsed. Throughout the time there was a 14% increase in unemployment and almost 20,000 businesses declared bankruptcy. After the Civil War, currency consisted of specie which were metal coins like gold and silver. There were also Greenbacks that were issued by the government and they were not fully backed by gold. Paper money did not have the American peoples' trust behind it and the Greenbacks are thought to have greatly contributed to the Panic of 1873.

The Life and Afterlife of Karen Carpenter

Karen Carpenter was one half of the Carpenters, a brother and sister singing duo that sold over 150 million records and they had 17 hits. She was an amazing drummer and singer. Her voice had no equal. But despite her amazing talent, she was a tortured soul that suffered from an eating disorder at a time when such a thing was misunderstood and it eventually took her life. And quite possibly that may be why her spirit is at unrest. Join us as we share the history and hauntings of Karen Carpenter.

Some people, especially of the younger persuasion, may think of the Carpenters' music as just being cheesy easy listening songs, but the siblings were musical geniuses. Get ready for me to gush. I have loved the Carpenters from the time I was a kid and I loved the fact that Karen was a contralto because I myself sing at a lower level and when we would take music in school, I hated the choir stuff because the teacher always tried to get me to sing higher and it just isn't me. Karen died when I was twelve and I remember not understanding what exactly an eating disorder was. The made-for-TV movie The Karen Carpenter Story featuring actress Cynthia Gibb in the title role came out in 1989 and I remember watching it and being more familiar with eating disorders at that time because they started talking about them more in school. And I realized at that time what a tragic figure Karen had become. I had no idea at the time how personal, eating disorders would become for me. I'm going to talk about some stuff here that I never have before on the podcast, so bear with me for just a minute. I was in a relationship for 24 years with a person who suffered from both anorexia and bulimia. This is something that people don't just get over and it is probably the most difficult type of addiction/mental health issue to deal with because we have to eat to live. So a person suffering from an eating disorder has to learn how to eat in a healthy way while trying to recover. My ex's eating disorder started at the same time as Karen Carpenter's, which was a time where nobody understood why these people wouldn't just eat. Why would they starve themselves? The medical industry had no idea what to do to help these people. They were only really concerned with getting pounds back on people. Eventually, mental health professionals realized that people with eating disorders don't see themselves in an accurate way and that there were very deep psychological issues. For Karen Carpenter, many of her whys for going this route began with her relationship with her mother and for my ex, that was very much the reason as well. For the most part, my ex was able to live a relatively normal life and would speak at schools about the issue, but there were times she would struggle and I can say that when we split up, it was very difficult for me to make that decision because I was worried that the eating disorder would rear its ugly head and it did. But we can't stay in a relationship that isn't working for us because we are worried what will happen to the other person. Many of you have dealt with people who struggle with addictions and there really is nothing we can do. A person has to get well for themselves. And that was the case with Karen. She had to get well for herself and she just couldn't get there and its so sad because one can only wonder how much more amazing music she could have created through the years.  

Karen Anne Carpenter was born on March 2, 1950 in New Haven, Connecticut. She was the second child of Harold and Agnes Carpenter. Her older brother Richard had been born four years prior. The siblings liked the arts and Karen began ballet and tap dancing at the age of four. She was more of a tomboy and enjoyed playing softball outside, while Richard was quiet and stayed inside learning to play the piano. The piano was something he hated when he was being classically trained, but when he switched to playing by ear and a teacher who gave him freedom, Richard turned out to be a prodigy. The family moved from Connecticut to Los Angeles, California in 1963 because Harold had been offered a job there. When Karen started at Downey High School in 1964, she decided to join the school marching Band and the conductor gave her the glockenspiel to play. This was an instrument that she didn't care for and she longingly watched others playing the drums. One of those people was her friend Frankie Chavez and he convinced Karen's parents to buy her a $300 Ludwig drum set and he taught her how to play.

During these early years, it became clear to Karen that her mother favored Richard. So much so that she didn't feel as though her mother loved her at all. Agnes has been described as a controlling matriarch. It was Richard's talent that the family focused on and the Carpenters did whatever they could to put forward his musical career. Karen's first foray into performing with a musical group was in high school when she and two other girls formed the band Two Plus Two. The band was short lived because when they finally booked their first gig, one of the girls' mothers wouldn't let her go. In 1965, Richard invited Karen to join him and a college friend in a band he formed and named for himself, The Dick Carpenter Trio. They got several gigs in jazz nightclubs and even signed a contract with RCA Records to produce two instrumental records. Those records were never released. Karen and Richard were invited to audition bassist Joe Osborn, who would become part of the Wrecking Crew, a well-known session musician group. Osborn wasn't really impressed with Richard, but he liked Karen on the drums and when he asked her to sing, he got very excited and signed her to his label.

Karen was 5ft 4in when she graduated from high school in 1967 and she was a relatively healthy weight at 150 pounds, but she felt as though she were chubby and so she started something called the Stillman water diet. This was a high-protein, low carbohydrate, low fat diet that called for eight glasses of water a day as well. Basically, a fairly healthy way to lose weight. Karen enrolled as a music major at Long Beach State where Richard was attending and she joined him in the college choir. Karen had also been studying drum technique with Bill Douglass, who was a jazz drummer with Benny Goodman. The choir director immediately noticed the extraordinary instrument that was Karen's voice and he took her under his wing and trained her to have a three-octave range. The Carpenter siblings decided to form a new band at this time that they called Spectrum. They did a lot of experimenting and recording in Joe Osborn's garage studio, but nothing really came out of it record wise. 

The siblings decided to enter a TV talent show in 1968 and performed "Dancing in the Street." It really showcased Karen's drumming talent and the siblings won the finals. And then A & M Records came calling and signed the siblings to a recording contract in 1969. Karen played drums, a little bass and was co-lead singer on their first album "Ticket to Ride." The title song was a Beatles song that became a hit for The Carpenters and it hit No. 54 on the Billboard Hot 100. The next album "Close to You" was even bigger with two hits: "(They Long to Be) Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun." The latter was a song that was written for a bank commercial by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols. Paul Williams was also under contract with A & M Records and Richard ran into him at the studio and asked if there was a full length version of the song. There was and as we all know, that song went on to be one of the greatest hits for The Carpenters and their signature song. It hit No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100, right behind the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" in 1970. May 1971 brought a third studio album "Carpenters" with the songs "For All We Know," "Rainy Days and Mondays" and "Superstar," the greatest Carpenters song of all time! Fight me! June 1972 featured "A Song For You," the fourth studio album with songs "Hurting Each Other", "It's Going to Take Some Time", "Goodbye to Love", "Top of the World", "I Won't Last a Day Without You", and "Bless the Beasts and Children."

Karen saw herself as a drummer who also happened to sing. She even ranked higher than John Bonham in a 1975 Playboy poll about best drummers. So she liked her spot back behind the drums, but because she was fun-sized like Diane, it was hard for people to see her when she was singing and it was decided that Karen needed to get out from behind the drums. Mouseketeer Cubby O'Brien took over at the drums. This put Karen as the focal point on stage and she was uncomfortable with that. On top of that, now she would see pictures of herself. A photo from an August 1973 Lake Tahoe concert made Karen think that she looked fat, so she hired a personal trainer. He suggested she try a low calorie, high carb diet. She lifted weights and started bulking up, which just made her feel like she was fatter. She and Richard sat down and watched themselves on a Bob Hope television special in the fall and she asked Richard if he thought she looked heavier. He said, "Yes." Karen fired her trainer, bought a hip cycle and started limiting her calories. The Carpenters left on tour and she said of eating on the road, "When you're on the road it's hard to eat. Period. On top of that, it's rough to eat well. We don't like to eat before a show because I can't stand singing with a full stomach… You never get to dinner until, like, midnight, and if you eat heavy you're not going to sleep, and you're going to be a balloon."

Karen initially lost 20 pounds and the sister of an old boyfriend told her that she looked fabulous. And she did and that would have been great had she stopped there, but she didn't. Around this same time, Richard himself started taking Quaaludes and he became heavily addicted. Between the issues both siblings were dealing with, concerts started being cancelled. In 1979, Richard checked himself into rehab and took a year off from touring. Karen decided to try her hand on a solo album and she recorded with producer Phil Ramone in New York. A & M Records shelved the album, even though Quincy Jones came forward and asked A & M Records co-owner Herb Alpert if he could remix the album. A & M wouldn't budge and they even charged Karen $400,000 to cover the cost of recording, which was paid out from The Carpenter's future royalties. The solo album was eventually released in total in 1996 under the title "Karen Carpenter." It was received well.

Karen had many friends and enjoyed going out with them and she often would hide the fact that she wasn't eating her food at restaurants by offering lots of tastes to everybody and by pushing her food around and hiding it. She would wear clothes that were too big so that people couldn't see that she was rail thin. She would wear tighter and sexier clothing on stage and her manager Sherwin Bash was horrified when he saw how skeletal she had become. Audiences would gasp when she took the stage because she was so gaunt. Karen's relationship with her mother continued to deteriorate through this time. When Agnes would be eating with Karen, she would scoop food onto her plate when she noticed her passing off her meal to others. Randy Schmidt shares in the biography he wrote about Karen Carpenter "Little Girl Blue" about a time that a family friend spotted Karen sunbathing topless outside. That friend said, "They put this screen around her so nobody else could see her. She loved to go lay out in the sunshine. I don't know whether it was to get a tan or get away from her mother. Anyhow, I happened to go out to the kitchen for something and I saw her out there. She just had on her little bathing suit shorts. You couldn't tell whether it was a girl or a boy. She had absolutely no breasts."

The occasional friend would encourage Karen to get help, but Karen always said she had no problem. And her family was no help as Agnes insisted that the family could take care of themselves. And she certainly didn't want any shame brought on the family. Anorexia is about control and this seemed to be the only thing Karen had control over. She could control what she ate, which probably eased her pain that she couldn't get her mother to love her and Richard controlled the music. And the only time Agnes seemed to pay any attention to Karen was when she was rail thin and in failing health. Agnes would nurse her back to health at those times. 

Karen was terribly lonely in love as well. In 1980, she met a property developer called Tom Burris and the two began a whirlwind romance that led to them getting married within two months. Before the wedding, a friend asked Karen if she was sure about rushing into a marriage. But Karen was desperate for love and she also wanted to get pregnant. The wedding was almost called off when Karen found out that Tom had had a vasectomy. He promised to reverse the procedure, but Karen told her mother that she was going to cancel the wedding. Agnes told her she would do no such thing because this would embarrass the family and all these people were traveling to come to the wedding. And the wedding had already been paid for. So Karen married Burris and it was an awful union. Burris was broke and he spent most of Karen's money while he emotionally abused her saying that she was an ugly bag of bones. He also informed her that he wasn't going to have children with her. Karen filed for divorce in 1981. A devastated Carpenter fell further into her eating disorder and she withered down to just 90 pounds.

Karen was using a variety of techniques to drop weight from overexercising to taking thyroid medication to taking fistfuls of laxatives, up to 90 tablets a night. The Carpenters left for a European tour in October of 1981. While doing an interview on BBC television, Karen was asked about rumors floating around that she had anorexia. Karen just said she was fine, but tired. The interviewer then said that reports claimed she had gotten down to six stone in weight, which is 84 pounds. Karen became agitated and said that that was untrue. But perhaps this broke through a bit because after returning home, Karen set out on a year long recovery. She started seeing a psychotherapist named Steven Levenkron who had written a book on eating disorders called "The Best Little Girl in the World." He took the thyroid medication away from Karen. She started purging to continue her weight management. The Carpenter family flew to New York to do a therapy session with Karen and Agnes refused to tell her daughter she loved her when prompted by Levenkron. Richard for his part, tried many times to help Karen, but he couldn't understand the disorder. He would try to love on her and then he would try cajoling her and then he would try anger and yelling. But after this meeting, the family returned to California and gave up.

Almost unbelievably, Karen starved herself down to a low of 77 pounds. She was hospitalized in September 1982 with an irregular heartbeat and dizziness. The hospital got her up 30 pounds and she maintained a steady weight after this, but her heart had clearly been damaged by the starvation and medication abuse. She returned to California after being released. Carpenter attended a gathering of past Grammy Award winners in January of 1983 and Dionne Warwick said that she seemed upbeat and exclaimed, "Look at Me! I've got an ass!" She also said she had a lot of living to do and was excited to start working on music. She met with Richard on February 1, 1983 to discuss new projects and this would be the last time the siblings saw each other. On the morning of the 4th, Karen got up early to prepare for the signing of her divorce papers and she collapsed on the floor of a walk-in closet at her parents' house. Her mother found her and called 911. Paramedics found her in cardiac arrest with a heart beat every 10 seconds. She was rushed to Downey Community Hospital where she was pronounced dead. She was 32 years old. The coroner ruled she died from emetine cardiotoxicity, which was basically ipecac poisoning. Ipecac is a drug used to induce vomiting and Karen had apparently been using it to control her weight. That kind of abuse causes the heart muscle to dissolve.

We can never know, but if Karen had suffered from her eating disorder today, she would probably not have died. Paul McCartney said of Carpenter, She had the best female voice in the world: melodic, tuneful and distinctive." Many female artists claim to have been influenced by Karen and there is no doubt that she was one of the greatest voices in history. Drummers heap praise on her for her drum skills as well. Her death was not in vain as it brought Anorexia Nervosa onto center stage and her family started the Karen A. Carpenter Memorial Foundation to raise money for research on eating disorders.

One can't miss the Jim Henson Company Lot that is located at 1416 N. La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles. Kermit the Frog towers above the front gate and he's wearing a Charlie Chaplin's The Champ suit, holding a cane and tipping his bowler hat. And thers's a reason for that because this property was established as Charlie Chaplin Studios in 1917 by the actor. Chaplin wrote in his autobiography, " I decided to buy land in Hollywood and build one. The site was the corner of Sunset and La Brea and had a very fine ten-room house and five acres of lemon, orange and peach trees. We built a perfect unit, complete with developing plant, cutting room, and offices." Chaplin built his studio in the English cottage style and a large orchard was torn out for a backlot where large outdoor sets could be built. There was already a large home on the property that Chaplin was going to use as his personal residence, but it instead was used by studio personnel and his brother Sydney. Most of Chaplin's classic films were shot here. Chaplin sold the studio in 1953 to a group that planned to tear down the studio, but they decided to lease to television production company Kling Studios. The adventures of Superman with George Reeves was filmed here. Red Skelton bought the studio in 1960. In 1967, this became A & M Records and served that purpose until 1999. Jim Henson's kids bought the studio in 2000 to be the new home of The Jim Henson Company.

For thirty years, the A & M Studios were one of the top studios in Hollywood. Studio 2 was the favorite studio for Richard and Karen Carpenter. Christopher Ward is a songwriter who has written songs for Hilary Duff, Diana Ross, The Backstreet Boys, Wynonna Judd and Alannah Myles, which was her song "Black Velvet." On his website he shares, "A few years before that, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers had been recording in Studio 2 and things just kept going wrong. Nothing major, but enough to derail the process and necessitate a series of calls to studio maintenance. A buzz here, a faulty patch there, funky headphone sound. Death by a thousand cuts. The band didn’t want to abandon the room they were comfortable in but eventually it was beyond nuisance level. And no one had a solution. Then someone suggested consulting a spiritual advisor. 'Karen Carpenter’s ghost is unhappy', they were informed by the consultant and as a remedy it would be necessary to install a sizeable crystal in one of the studio walls. And the crystal had to be lit 24/7. Done! Tech issues solved. Happy Heartbreakers. Recording resumed. I found myself working there because Diana Ross asked me to record a gospel choir for the song 'Hope is an Open Window' which Tim Tickner and I wrote with her and were producing for Diana. Since the album was done and time was tight, Diana wanted the choir recorded by Friday. The call came on Wednesday. Our project coordinator booked us into the Crystal Room at A&M. Fortunately, the session went off without a hitch. The crystal did its job. The choir sang beautifully and Diana loved it. I don’t know if the crystal is still there but somehow I suspect it is. It seems to me it would fit in nicely in Muppet world." A former employee at the Jim Henson Studios said, "...when I worked there I was told specifically never to turn off the light on the crystal in B because Karen's ghost would get mad."

Ghost Hunters investigated the studios in 2007 and one piece of evidence they captured was an EVP of what sounded like a woman muttering. Charlie Chittenden Paranormal did a ghost box session in 2016 and tried to contact Karen. There was a female voice that came through and he said it sounded like "I love them." I heard the love but not sure what the rest was. It could've been her voice and it might not have been. Jim Harold had a listener join him on the Campfire in 2012 and this listener saw the full-bodied apparition of Karen.

Tim Jackson was filming a video at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in which Ksenia Buzina and Leonid & Friends were performing the song "Superstar." Jackson writes, "A very odd thing happened when I was videoing the newest song from Ksenia Buzina and Leonid & Friends, Ksenia appeared to be a ghostly figure while the other members did not! Ksenia mentioned that Richard Carpenter had heard their version and loved it and maybe this was the way of Karen making her presence known on stage with Ksenia!!" It probably was just a lighting thing, but it was very odd looking.

 

Karen Carpenter once said of her anorexia, "It's like being haunted. It's the worst thing in the world." Clearly she was very haunted by the spirit of anorexia. Is that why she may still be around in the afterlife? Is the ghost of Karen haunting places? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 526 - The Life and Afterlife of Superman, George Reeves

 Moment in Oddity - Convict Baseball (Suggested by: Chelsea Flowers)

Baseball is a popular sport with so many fans invested in how their team will perform and whether they will make it to the World Series. Back in 1911, there were only 16 major league baseball teams. In Wyoming, an avid fan of the game was Big Horn County Sheriff Felix Alston, whom the governor selected to be the new warden of Wyoming State Penitentiary. Alston decided to create his own baseball team with the inmates that were in his charge. The lineup consisted of a shortstop convicted of manslaughter, first baseman for rape, third baseman for grand larceny, a center fielder for forgery, second baseman for breaking and entering and a right fielder by the name of Joseph Seng who was convicted of first degree murder and was facing the hangman's noose. As shocking as it may be, this team of convicts was quite impressive on the baseball diamond. The Wyoming State Penitentiary All-Stars had the proper uniforms and looked like professional ball players in every sense. The team played their first game on July 18th in 1911, the same date that Joseph Seng was granted a stay of execution due to his appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court. The team of convicts played the Rawlins Juniors with a win of 11-1 with Seng hitting 2 homeruns during the game. The game itself was held on prison grounds along with the next two games the All-Stars played against the Juniors. It was said that the outside team may have been intimidated by playing within the prison walls. The game was reported on in various newspapers with headlines like "Slayer Scores Home Runs". After 3 games of the Convict All-Stars beating the Rawlins Juniors, the fourth and final game was played outside of the prison walls. The house was packed and again, the convicts bested the Juniors with a final score of 15-10. This would be the final game for the Wyoming State Penitentiary All-Stars. Joseph Seng still had a stay appeal out with Governor Carey in hopes that his execution would be commuted. Despite his performance and success with the penitentiary's baseball team along with good behavior, Seng's stay of execution was denied and he was hung on May 24th, 1912. The sport of baseball is ingrained in much of American culture, but the thought of a penitentiary team beating and exceeding any state teams certainly is odd. 

This Month in History - Daytona 500m Inaugural Race

In the month of February, on the 22nd, in 1959, the inaugural Daytona 500 NASCAR race was held. It was the second race of the 1959 NASCAR Grand National Series season and was the first race to be held at the Daytona International Speedway. Previous Daytona races consisted of the Daytona Beach and Road Course where competitors would race on pavement and then the beach, returning to the pavement to finish the race. The Daytona Speedway is a race track which consists of a four turn superspeedway. The inaugural race boasted 41,921 spectators. Of the 59 cars that began the first race, 20 were convertibles. Many vehicles dropped out due to various issues. Initially Johnny Beauchamp was declared the winner but due to the photo finish, Lee Petty was ultimately declared the winner of the first Daytona 500.

The Life and Afterlife of Superman, George Reeves

Superman is a beloved comicbook hero. He's all about truth and justice. Clark Kent, his alter ego, is a lovable nerd. Filling his shoes isn't easy, but George Reeves managed to do it and he did it well. But not because his own life reflected the ideal that Superman exuded. Reeves' life was complicated. And it came to an abrupt end when he was just 45-years-old in 1959. The death of George Reeves is a controversial topic. The coroner’s report ruled that the final results indicated that Reeves had committed suicide. Many people do not agree with that assessment. Could this have been murder? And is that mystery possibly why George Reeves' spirit seems to be at unrest.

The Death of Superman was big news in 1992. Mainstream media covered the death of Superman in the DC comic book and people were shocked that the impossible had happened. How could Superman die? He was invincible. For those of us who grew up watching reruns of the original Superman series starring George Reeves and the various Superman movies starring Christopher Reeves, we knew it was possible for Superman to die. Both of the Reeves were forever associated with their roles as Superman. And both were cut down way too early. Comic book Superman was resurrected, but Christopher and George both moved on to whatever there is after this life. 

Life for George Reeves began on January 5, 1914. He was born George Keefer Brewer to Donald Carl Brewer and Helen Lescher. His mother Helen had become pregnant out of wedlock and she and Donald eloped. The marriage did not last long, ending shortly after George was born. Helen eventually moved to California and married a man named Frank Bessolo who adopted George when he was thirteen-years-old. That marriage lasted for 15 years, but Helen grew tired of it and left Frank while George was away visiting family. When George returned home, his mother told him that Frank had committed suicide, which was not true. Lying to George seemed to come easy for her. She not only lied about the divorce, but she even lied to him about his birth date, probably to conceal that she was pregnant before marriage.

George discovered acting in high school and really enjoyed performing. He also took up boxing and really enjoyed that as well, but his mother forced him to quit, so that his face would not be damaged. George attended Pasadena Junior College after high school and he continued acting there. He then studied acting at the Pasadena Community Playhouse where he met Ellanora Needles. The couple started dating and married on September 21, 1940. Ellanora stuck mostly to theater acting, but George wanted bigger things. In 1939, he got a bit part as one of the red-headed Tarleton twins who tried for Scarlett O'Hara's hand in "Gone with the Wind" and then he got the lead in a play at the Pasadena Playhouse that led to Warner Brothers offering him a contract. It was Warner Brothers that changed his name to George Reeves.

Old Hollywood was a hard place. Contracted actors did not have much freedom when it came to the roles they played. Reeves was very disappointed with the work offered to him by Warners Brothers. Most of the roles were in B films and forgettable. Warner Brothers and Reeves mutually agreed to dissolve his contract and he moved on to 20th Century Fox. Things weren't much better here and the studio released him after a few films, so George set off as a freelancer. His main desire was to make westerns and after a screen test with Harry Sherman, he was signed to make several Hopalong Cassidy films. Paramount Pictures then signed him to do two films a year. Making the war film "So Proudly We Hail!" inspired him to join the military. World War II had started and Reeves was drafted in 1943.

Reeves was assigned to a performance crew with the U.S. Army Air Forces and spent most of his time entertaining troops and making training films. After his time in the Army was up, he returned to Hollywood and continued to have small parts in films. He traveled to New York and tried radio for a while, but Hollywood always called him back. Television was starting to really take hold during this time and the film industry was feeling threatened. Most actors would find that if they started doing television work, they could kiss their film career goodbye. And this seems to have happened for George when he was cast as Superman. 

The Adventures of Superman TV series launched in 1952. This would be the first TV series to feature Superman. George Reeves was hired to play Clark Kent/Superman with Phyllis Coates as Lois Lane. Producer Robert L. Lippert, Director Lee Sholem and Scriptwriter Robert Maxwell worked together to make a 58-minute black-and-white film called "Superman and the Mole Men," which served as a pilot for the series. Production continued on the first season, but money ran out before anything was aired. Kellogg's had sponsored the Superman radio series, so they agreed to sponsor the TV series. Everything was back on and the first episode dropped in September. This wasn't the pilot. That would later be split into a two-parter and became the unofficial season one finale. The cast was stunned with how popular the series became. The series ran for six seasons and produced 104 episodes and burned into the collective American memory, "Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman!"

This part would bring Reeves the fame he had been seeking and he even directed three episodes. A fondly remembered moment for George Reeves' Superman was his appearance on the "I Love Lucy" Show. This was a crossover episode titled “Lucy and Superman,” and it aired on January 14, 1957. Reeves adapted his character to the comedic setting perfectly. And yet, Reeves had real fears about what playing the character would do to his career. The show was catered to a younger audience, making leading man roles difficult to get. On top of that, the filming schedule was grueling and the stars were locked into the series, having to be available on a 30 day notice of a new season starting. This made it impossible to take any parts, if they were offered. Reeves referred to his Superman costume as a “monkey suit” and he was poorly paid, only receiving a small raise after threatening to leave after three seasons. Despite not being crazy about being Superman, George tried his best to be a good role model and gave up smoking.

Other areas of George's life didn't contribute to a squeaky-clean image. His love life was a mess and would lead to his ultimate demise and the reason why the Superman series would end in 1959. It's star would be dead. To lead us into the mysterious and tragic circumstances of his death, we first need to look back on the Hollywood of the 1950s. This time in Hollywood was post-World War II and the film industry was in decline. The studio contract system was on the verge of coming to an end as independent productions started gaining strength. Television had become a source of major competition. Families wanted to stay at home and watch shows together rather than head out to the movies. There were five "major" Hollywood studios, MGM, Paramount, Fox, Warner Brothers, and RKO, and the 1950s proved to be a difficult period as societal pressure forced them to change. One didn't make it through, RKO, and others were sold or changed management. This was all behind the scenes. In front the scenes were the actors and the studios were forever having to clean up the wreckage left behind by many of their top stars.

During Hollywood’s contract days, it was a practice of all studios to have men that they called “fixers.” Fixers took care of the scandals and other issues that contract players found themselves involved with. Fixers helped to beat criminal charges and to hide affairs and such. They kept the press quiet on certain matters. Eddie Mannix was MGM Studios fixer. He was a very powerful man in Hollywood. Mannix was an Irish Catholic guy from New Jersey. One of his early jobs was working as a bouncer at Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey and then he got involved with movie production and was hired by MGM Studios. By 1924, he was the main muscle for the studio, making sure that it kept its good public image. From 1924 to 1962, he covered up affairs, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, abortions, rapes, addictions and maybe even murder. Mannix and his crew were always on the scene of a crime involving an MGM star before the police. Mannix was a tough guy and not someone to mess around with. So messing around with his wife wouldn't be a good idea.

Toni Lanier was an actress and dancer who was one of the Ziegfeld Follies showgirls and famously known for her beautiful long legs. She was Eddie Mannix's second wife. The couple had married in 1951. The marriage was volatile and both Eddie and Toni had affairs. Toni’s most notorious affair was with George Reeves. She was eight years older than him and it apparently started before he was cast to play Superman. The affair was fairly public and Eddie seemed not to care as he was carrying on his own affair. George stayed in the relationship with Toni for several years, but finally broke it off in 1958 after meeting socialite Leonore Lemmon in New York. Toni was devastated and would not leave George alone. She took to stalking him and sitting outside his home and crying. This didn't keep George from asking Leonore to marry him. They were to be married in June of 1959, but that never happened because George died from a fatal gunshot on June 16th of that year. People claimed that Leonore was bad for George.

George Reeves had bought a home on Benedict Canyon Drive, north of Sunset Boulevard in the Beverly Hills area. He wasn't flush with cash, so many people believe that Toni Mannix either helped him with a downpayment or bought the house for him. The house cost around $12,000 and was a split level ranch house with George's bedroom on the second floor above the living room. The circumstances as to what happened on the evening of the 15th, going into the early morning hours of the 16th, are murky. Most narratives agree that Reeves had a few friends at his home: his fiancée Leonore Lemmon, neighbor Carol Van Ronkel, William Bliss and the writer Richard Condon. Condon and Van Ronkel were believed to be having an affair and Condon was staying as a guest at George's house. Leonore and George arrived home at 11pm after having dinners and drinks. The drinking continued at home and Leonore was fighting with George. He seemed to be getting cold feet about marrying her. She wasn't happy about the prospect of heading back to New York. She was 36 and feeling the pressure to get married and start a family. 

Reeves headed up to bed alone at midnight. Around 1am, he came back downstairs, probably to tell everybody to shut-up. He hung out for a while, but was very agitated and apologized to Condon about his foul mood and then he returned to his bedroom. Lemmon then announced, "He is going to shoot himself." The group could hear a drawer being opened upstairs and Lemmon said, "He is getting the gun out now and he is going to shoot himself." Shortly thereafter, a shot rang out and Bliss ran upstairs to find Reeves naked on the bed and dead with a bullet wound to his head. The group waited 45 minutes before calling the police, which has caused there to be suspicions as to what was going on during that time. Although the fact that they were all drunk probably had something to do with it.

The police and most people believe that Reeves committed suicide. He had been drinking and was depressed with the state of his life and his acting prospects. He could not shake the role of Superman and all independent projects he tried to start, never got off the ground because he could not find funding. George was found lying naked, face up on his bed with a gunshot wound to his head. His feet were on the floor and the gun was between them. The shell casing was underneath his body. The bullet was in the ceiling to the left of his head. The path indicated that Reeves probably leaned his head down towards the gun. The police spent a week investigating. Leonore broke the evidence seal on the house and took $4,000 in traveler's checks and took off to New York, never to return. So that left the scene contaminated. Much of the investigation was botched. The body was washed before the autopsy was conducted. The body was also not checked for gunpowder burns and the hands were never tested for gunpowder. There was no explanation for several bruises found on Reeves' face and chest. Multiple bullet holes were found in the house, particularly the floor of the master bedroom. There was a story that Leonore once shot a gun in the house. George may have done the same and sometimes people who are going to shoot themselves fire a practice shot a little while before.

Despite the official ruling of suicide, many people are not satisfied with that conclusion. George was dissatisfied, but was he suicidal? He left behind no note. And it's unusual for someone to kill themselves when they are naked. He never said anything about wanting to die. Why would he come downstairs and complain about noise and then just go upstairs and shoot himself? And let's not forget about Toni who was stalking George and very upset. She was married to THE Fixer. Had Eddie fixed his wife’s problem? Was he jealous that she was so hung up on George? Did she hire someone herself because she had been rejected? After all, the home George died in was bought for him by Toni. The Guardian reported in 2006, "Years later, another cast member, Phyllis Coates, who played Lois Lane, told Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger, authors of Hollywood Kryptonite, an often speculative examination of the case, that she had received a very disturbing phone call at 4.30am on the morning of Reeves' death. It came from Toni Mannix, beside herself with anxiety. 'She was hyperventilating and ranting,' recalled Coates. 'She said, 'The boy is dead. He's been murdered.'" One story claims that on her deathbed, Toni confessed to a priest that she had had George killed. Although that seems like it would've been hard with a house full of witnesses. 

Leonore has also been looked at as a suspect. Her account of the evening was full of holes and some claim that she might have witnessed what happened or shot George herself. There may have been a fight with the gun involved and it accidentally went off. She also claimed that she never made the comments that seemed to detail Reeves' play-by-play suicide. Stories also claim that death threats had been received by George for months before his death. There is also the issue with the bullet casing being under Reeves' body although bullet casings can go flying around and perhaps the casing fell onto the bed before his body slumped over it. We’ll probably never know what happened for certain. Reeves was buried at Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum in Altadena, California. 

George’s soul appears to be at unrest and still hanging out at his Benedict Canyon home. George’s full body apparition has been seen in the home and sometimes it is wearing his Superman costume and points at the ceiling. Strange lights appear in the home and the distant echo of a gunshot is heard. The smell of gunpowder seems to hang in the air. Police officers were once called out by neighbors when they claimed they heard screaming and gunshots. Neighbors claim to see the apparition on the front lawn at times. The house was used as a set in the 1980s and many of the cast and crew claimed to see the ghost for themselves when in the house.

Toni had inherited the house and she struggled for years to keep the place rented. One set of renters claimed that one evening while they were hosting a party, the room that had formerly been George’s bedroom had been torn apart. The sheets were stripped from the bed and clothes were everywhere. When they returned downstairs, all the drinks had been moved to the kitchen. On another occasion, the bed in the bedroom was moved across the floor. The couple’s dog would bark at something unseen and slink away. Noises continued to come from the bedroom and the couple finally moved out. A newlywed couple was thrilled to see that the house was for rent for a very reasonable price. Shortly after they moved in, they were awakened by the sound of a gunshot. A couple days later the smell of gunpowder hung in the air. These two things happened enough over the next couple of weeks that the couple broke their lease and left. Another couple moved out the same day they moved in after encountering the ghost of Reeves. And still another couple saw the ghost of Reeves in the nude and he was groaning.

Superman Curse

Did George Reeves commit suicide or was he murdered? Has this unsolved mystery led to his spirit being at unrest? Does George still haunt his home? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 453 - The Life and Afterlife of Hank Williams

Moment in Oddity - Frozen Ice Age Bison For Dinner?

Any time there is a discovery of an ancient preserved creature it usually garners quite a bit of interest. That was the case when a gold mining family discovered a frozen Steppe Bison in Fairbanks Alaska. The bison had been preserved in the permafrost some 50,000 years. Its carcass was covered with a blue chalky substance when it was discovered. The substance was a mineral called vivianite which turned a vibrate blue when the bisons body surface contacted the air. Paleontologist Dale Guthrie named the Steppe Bison "Blue Babe" after Paul Bunyan's blue ox named Babe. As the animal was being worked on to the preserve the hide for display purposes, Guthrie discovered that the well preserved neck meat smelled like fresh beef. Dale was a hunter and familiar with preparing and eating frozen meats. He was not fazed by the thought of eating meat that was thousands of years old so on April 6th 1984, he prepared a meal for a few select guests. Twelve people dined on Ice Age Steppe Bison stew and wine that evening. The meal was described as delicious and none of the guests were said to have suffered any ill effects. Enjoying a stew made from unusual meats may not seem strange to those with an exotic palet, but eating a stew made from meat that is 50,000 years old certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Saffron Revolution

In the month of September, on the 29th, in 2007, the Saffron Revolution came to a culmination. The Revolution was brought about by the government when they removed all fuel subsidies without any announcement and allowed the price of oil and gas to skyrocket. As we see today, the rise in cost of these fuels also drives up the prices of all commodities. Initially after this price hike, protestors began hitting the streets. However, the campaign garnered new attention when on August 28th, Buddhist monks joined the protest in the city of Sittwe (sit-way). The monks turned their alms bowls upside down, refusing to accept alms from generals. Meaning, symbolically, they were refusing to give Buddha's blessings to the generals. The Saffron Revolution was named so due to the color of the Buddhist monks' robes. That participation of the monks, in such a religiously devout nation, had great impact. Citizens who had not been brave enough to protest previously joined the monks in the tens of thousands in protests across the nation. These protests were met with violent military crackdowns resulting in deaths, hundreds of injuries and arrests. Although the Buddhist monks demands were not met at that time, the Saffron Revolution was an important movement towards a democratic government. This was achieved in 2015 with Aung San Suu Kyi’s (Ong San Sue Chee's) National League for Democracy winning general elections, becoming Myanmar’s first non-military government in 54 years. 

The Life and Afterlife of Hank Williams

Hank Williams was an American musician, songwriter and singer whose influence has touched some of the greatest singers of our time, from Elvis to Johnny Cash to The Rolling Stones. There was so much promise and talent in this young man, but it was cut short by his struggle with addictions. Perhaps it is that tragic truth that has left his spirit at unrest. Join us as we look at the life, legacy and spirit of Hank Williams.

In 2010, the Pulitzer Prize jury awarded Hank Williams a posthumous special citation describing him as "a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity and played a pivotal role in transforming country music into a major musical and cultural force in American life." There are many things about this man that we imagine most people don't know. He came from simple beginnings, in a family that knew tragedy all too well. Hank was born Hiram Williams on September 17, 1923. The accounts written on the life of Williams claim that he was named for Hiram, the King of Tyre, which was a city that was located in today's Lebanon. The Bible reveals a narrative in which this king sent building materials and men to help construct the first Hebrew temple in Jerusalem. This may be true, but the name Hiram might also be a tribute to Hiram Abiff. This is a character out of Freemasonry that is credited with being appointed by Solomon as chief architect of that temple. There are several rituals conducted by Freemasons in honor of Hiram Abiff. We're not sure if the King of Tyre and Hiram Abiff were actually the same person and have been combined into one person over the course of history, but their narratives are different leading us to think that they were different people and the King of Tyre may be the only one who was actually a real person. Irregardless, Hank's parents were Freemasons.

Jessie Lillybelle "Lillie" and Elonzo Huble "Lon" Williams were living in Mount Olive, Alabama when Hank was born. The couple had already had one son who was born in 1921 that died two days after birth and a daughter named Irene who was born in August of 1922. So they had their children back-to-back. Before the children were born, Lon worked as a railroad engineer for a lumber company and he served during World War I. During that service, he fell from a truck sustaining severe injuries to his head and collarbone. During this early part of Hank's childhood, his parents were strawberry farmers. Over time, Lon's face would become paralyzed leading Lilly to have him hospitalized for seven years in the 1930s and Hank will only see his father once during that time. These would have been his pre-teen and teen years.

On top of the pain Hank must have carried from not having his father around, he was born with spina bifida occulta, which would cause him lifelong back pain. Lillie was left to raise her children alone during the Great Depression. The family moved to Georgiana, Alabama in 1931 and the house they rented there burned down and the family lost everything. Lillie was given a second house to live in rent free by a local man and this is today the Hank Williams Boyhood Home and Museum. That house was built in 1850 and is a two-story white wood frame house with a wraparound porch and it sits on stilts. There was a wood burning stove and running water, but the family had to use an outhouse for a bathroom. Hank and his sister would help out financially by selling produce from their garden and peanuts and Hank also shined shoes. No one knows for sure who gave Hank his first guitar, but it was while living at this house when Hank was eight. Many accounts claim it was his mother and we'd like to believe that was true. 

After receiving the guitar, Hank met a local black street musician named Rufus "Tee Tot" Payne, who led a band and Hank paid him for guitar lessons, in which he learned chords, chord progressions and bass turns. He then started playing on the street for tips to help support the family. Singing was natural for Hank. Even before he could talk well, at the age of three, his mother said, "He used to stand on the organ stool at Mt. Olive Baptist Church and try to sing while I played for the little congregation there." Payne was a huge influence on Hank and gave him his affinity for the blues. It was also in Georgiana where Hank would start drinking alcohol at the age of ten. This too may have been influenced by Payne who was never without his homemade mixture of alcohol and tea. The nickname Tee Tot referred to teetotaler, which Payne clearly was not. More than likely, this was tongue-in-cheek since his alcohol drink of choice was spiked tea.

In 1937, Lillie moves the family to Montgomery, Alabama and starting running a boarding house. Hank started entering talent shows in the bigger city. He won $15 for his first one with a song he wrote himself. Shortly thereafter, he made the sidewalk in front of WSFA Radio his stage and he caught the eye of producers who invited him on air occasionally. In 1940, he formed the group Drifting Cowboys. They performed in clubs and social gatherings. Hanks alcoholism picked up and he blew a lot of the earnings on alcohol. World War II started and the band broke up because everyone was drafted except Hank who was medically disqualified. Williams was fired from the WSFA radio station because he always showed up drunk. He moved to Oregon to work in the Kaiser shipyard. Eventually, he came back to Alabama to work at the Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company in Mobile.  

Medicine shows were a thing in 1940s Alabama and Hank started performing in them. It was at one of these shows in 1943 that he met Audrey Mae Sheppard who was a married 21-year-old mother of a daughter. Sheppard told Williams that she wanted to move to Montgomery with him and they could start a band. He had her come and in December of 1944 they got married at a filling station near Andalusia, Alabama. There's was just one problem though. Alabama required a 60-day reconciliation period after a divorce and Audrey was still in that window, so the marriage was declared illegal. It eventually worked out and the couple would have a son on May 26, 1949 named Randall Hank Williams or Hank Williams Jr. Sheppard worked as Hank's manager and also sang duets with him. He began writing songs voraciously during this time and went back to having a show on WSFA Radio.

In 1946, Williams tried to get on the Grand Ole Opry and was rejected if you can imagine. Sheppard suggested they go a different route and find a music publishing company. They found success with Acuff-Rose Music and Hank was signed to a six-song contract. This led to Williams recording his first session with Sterling Records. In 1947, he hopped over to MGM Records and gets his first hit, "Move It On Over." This was a massive country hit, but also is considered an early rock and roll song. All through this, Hank continued to drink and ended up being committed to a sanitarium to get him sober. The band was tired of the drunkenness and left Williams. They weren't the only ones done. Audrey was done too and asked for a divorce. They wouldn't go through with it, but it was a sure sign of the turbulence in the relationship. Fame would come after the couple moved to Shreveport, Louisiana and Williams joined the Louisiana Hayride. In 1949, "Lovesick Blues" becomes another hit and  the Williams move to Nashville, so Hank can join The Grand Ole Opry. With this, the Drifting Cowboys were back again.

It was around this time that Hank experimented with another style that entailed Hank reciting religious-themed writings accompanied by a pipe organ. He marketed this material under the pseudonym Luke the Drifter. He did this to protect his image just in case this failed. People figured out who Luke was when he started performing these recitations at his concerts as well. "Cold, Cold Heart" becomes another hit on the country charts in 1951 and Williams ended up back in the hospital for detox. In November of that year, he made his first television appearance on The Perry Como Show where he sang "Hey Good Lookin'" with Como. That same month, Hank went hunting with his fiddler and he fell, aggravating his back issues and leading to a spinal fusion. Hank was only 27 at this time and now morphine became a problem along with the alcohol.

Hank would have another problem. Audrey was really done with the marriage this time and she told him to get out of the house. The divorce was official on May 29, 1952. Before that though, Hank had hooked up with a dancer named Bobbie Jett and she would give birth to Hank's daughter, Jett. She would be born five days after Hank's death and his mother would adopt her and raise her until her death. Hank's sister Irene would send the girl into the system and she wouldn't know she was Hank's daughter until the 1980s. After the fling with Bobbie, Hank took up with Billie Jean Jones and they married in October of 1952. Hank had jumped the gun again though with this marriage. Billie wasn't divorced. her divorce wasn't official until 11 days after the marriage. A judge later ruled the marriage was not legal after Audrey and his mother pursued the issue. Williams was already dead at that time.

Hank was a regular performer still on the Grand Ole Opry, but in August of 1952 he was fired because he was constantly missing shows and when he did show up, he was drunk. So he went back to the Louisiana Hayride and started touring with them, but his addictions were powerful. His band and friends tried to get him to shows sober, but he often didn't show up or he performed poorly. Even though he was only 29, Hank started having serious heart issues. He did his last recording session with Acuff-Rose Music in September of 1952 and this included the song "Your Cheatin' Heart." Fred Rose cut him loose after that. Hank was touring in Oklahoma when he met Toby Marshall who was posing as a doctor with a fake diploma. He was actually a convict on Parole from Oklahoma State Penitentiary. With the fake title, Marshall prescribed Williams morphine and amphetamines, which made the heart issues worse. Hank performed in his last concert on December 19, 1952.

Williams was being driven to Charleston, West Virginia in a “North Carolina blue” Cadillac convertible with whitewall tires and a “Flying Goddess” hood ornament when his driver, high school student Charles Carr, stopped in Knoxville, Tennessee to get help from a doctor. Williams had combined chloral hydrate and alcohol, which had heavily sedated him. A doctor gave him a Vitamin B12 shot with morphine and porters at a hotel carried him to the car. Carr and Williams continued their trip and arrived in Bristol, Virginia around midnight on January 1, 1953. Carr stopped at a diner and asked if Hank wanted anything and he said he didn't and that would be the last thing he said. Apparently, Carr didn't realize that Hank had died until he stopped at a gas station in Oak Hill, West Virginia and noticed that Hank's body curled beneath a navy-blue overcoat wasn't stirring at all. Rigor mortis had already set in and the police were called. The coroner did an autopsy and found hemorrhaging in Hank's neck and heart and some injuries that looked like he had been in a fight recently, including a welt on his head. He ruled the death as heart failure. Hank was transported to Montgomery and buried in a silver casket at the Oakwood Annex in Montgomery. Hank Williams, Jr. had his father's grave rebuilt after his mother Audrey passed away and he had her interred next to his father. The monument is made from Vermont granite and has carvings of Hanks boots and guitar and his greatest hits and also has a sculptured hat.

Williams fame skyrocketed after his death and his image and music were in heavy demand. He would go on to be declared the "King of Country Music." He had been signed to start making motion pictures, but obviously he didn't live for that to happen. A movie about his life starring George Hamilton, "Your Cheatin' Heart," came out in 1964. Hank would receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. The Williams family carried on the music tradition with every generation having musicians and Hank's final contribution to music was completed in 2011 with the release of the album "The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams." There were unfinished lyrics with Hank in the back seat of the car when he died. These were later found in a dumpster by a janitor at Sony/ATV Music Publishing in 2006. She sold them to the Honky-Tonk Hall of Fame and the Rock-N-Roll Roadshow, but was later accused of theft. A judge sided with her, but the lyrics were returned to Sony/ATV and they asked Bob Dylan to complete an album with them. Artists who recorded for the album included Alan Jackson, Norah Jones, Jack White, Lucinda Williams, Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell, Patty Loveless, Levon Helm, Jakob Dylan, Sheryl Crow, and Merle Haggard.

But that hasn't been the end for Hank Williams. His spirit still seems to be here in the afterlife. One of Williams favorite cities was Nashville and that makes sense since this is basically like country's capital. The Ryman Auditorium is a place where every great act from country has played at one point. This location is a favorite haunt of Patsy Cline and it is for Hank as well. An employee claims to have seen Williams materialize in a white mist. She saw the white mist onstage and as she continued to get closer to it, it started to take a more defined shape and when she got as close as she dared, she could see the unmistakable thin, lanky form of Williams leaning over a microphone as though he were singing. A construction worker also claimed to see a white misty thin form during renovations in the 1990s. Hank's spirit wanders all over the Ryman, being seen in hallways, on the stage and backstage.

Songwriter Gary Gentry had an interesting tale about the spirit of Hank. Gentry was working with J.B. Detterline on a Hank Williams tribute film in 1982 called "The Ride." The men decided to write a song as a tribute to Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell and they called it “Wherever Hank and Lefty Are, That’s Where I Want to Go.” Gentry went home and felt restless. He was living a life similar to Hank, doing drugs and drinking a lot and he felt like the song didn't do justice to the country legend. He decided to conduct a seance to contact Hank. He said, "I wanted to write a masterpiece about Hank. And I was mad, and I was drunk. So I said, ‘Hank! Why were you so big? Just because you died young? Show yourself! Help me write this song.” And according to Gentry, he did. Hank appeared sitting on the couch without a shirt on and Gentry said, "Hank, we’re gonna take a ride. I wanna write about you. I think you’re the greatest songwriter and entertainer that ever lived." Gentry hopped in his car at 4am and drove around. When he got home, he called J.B. Detterline and they completed the song. David Allan Coe eventually recorded the song now called "The Ride" and released it as a single in 1983. Shortly after that, Gentry performed the song at the Grand Ole Opry House for a television show and when he got to the word “Hank” in the big payoff line, the lights and electricity went out at the Ryman and also the entire Opryland complex.

The last place Hank performed publicly before his death was The Elite Lounge Casino Cafe in Montgomery. This place eventually became a restaurant known as Nobles and now we think it is Club 50/50. The location has been haunted for decades and Williams is believed to be one of the spirits here. People claim to see a man in a suit and that is what they have nicknamed him. Hank always wore a suit on stage. This spirit is feisty like Hank and likes to rap on tables make loud noises. Tables and chairs have even been witnessed moving on their own. Another Montgomery haunt for Hank is his gravesite at Oakwood Cemetery. Alan Jackson's song "Midnight in Montgomery" is about his experience of visiting Williams grave on New Year's Eve before a show and having the spirit appear and thank him for his tribute. A mist like the one seen at the Ryman is seen here as well and people sometimes hear a Hank Williams tune in the air, especially if the start off singing a song and then stop. Williams also played on the streets near city hall and some people claim to see his spirit down by the building occasionally as well.

The Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville was a place that Williams stayed on his road trip to death. This was once the tallest building in the city and is today government offices. The spirit that haunts this building is very fast, so it is hard for witnesses to be sure that it belongs to Hank, but singing tends to accompany this ghost and it sounds a lot like Williams. There was also a sighting of Williams in Oak Hill, West Virginia. A man was walking past the gas station where he was found dead and the Old Tyree Funeral Home where the body was taken and he heard music on the air. He then saw a thin figure standing on the street who was wearing a white suit and a cowboy hat. The figure was puffing on a cigarette and tipped his hat at the witness. There was no doubt to the man that this was Hank Williams. The minute he realized that, the figure disappeared. 

Matt Swayne in his book "Ghosts of Country Music" shares a story that was shared with psychic-medium Mary Lynn Stevenson by a family from Mississippi. The story is set in Autumn and the daughter Deborah is headed to the high school Homecoming Dance. She was carpooling all of her friends and the group of girls had a great time. Deborah dropped everyone off after the dance and headed home. She ended up on an unfamiliar road and was soon lost. Her gas was running low and she didn't have much when she spotted a store over the hill. She tried the pay phone, but it didn't work. She drove further on to a gas station with another dead pay phone. Deborah fumbled with the paper in her pocket to see how much money she had for gas and discovered she actually had no money. She started to weep in the car. Before long, a man in a brown suit with gold stitching and sporting a cowboy hat, walked up to her car. He asked, "What's wrong, Little Lady?" She told him her troubles and he gave her money for gas and phone calls and told her to go straight home. Deborah decided to go into the store to thank the man and get directions. No employees knew what she was talking about. They hadn't seen any cowboy. Deborah made it home and her mom asked how things had gone. Deborah said fine at first, but then told her mom of her troubles. Her mother revealed that she had a premonition and it made her very concerned, so she prayed that a guardian angel would be sent to help Deborah. Both women decided that the cowboy was the guardian angel. A few days later, they were both in a store and flipping through a magazine. When the page opened to a certain page, Deborah called out, "That's the man who helped me!" Deborah's mother looked at the name in the caption and it was Hank Williams. She told Deborah that wasn't possible, but Deborah was absolutely positive that Hank Williams had been her guardian angel.

Hank Williams lived a big life in a very short amount of time. His legacy has spanned decades. Has his spirit continued on in this plane of existence. Are these places haunted by Hank Williams? That is for you to decide!