12 Hollywood Haunts and Unsolved Mysteries

Once upon a time, the Hollywood sign actually read "Hollywoodland." In 1923, the sign went up in an attempt to advertise real estate in the Hollywoodland subdivision of L.A. It's had a long and storied history since then, involving some bright times as well as some not-so-bright ones. One of the dimmer times in its history occurred in 1932: One dark night in September, a young starlet by the name of Lillian Millicent “Peg” Entwhistle climbed to the top of the towering H-- and jumped. She plummeted from the 50-foot-high letter and died on impact. She was only 24 years old.

Why did take that fatal jump? A successful stage actress in New York, Peg began to have trouble finding work when the Depression made it nearly impossible for the public to afford expensive theatre tickets. The film business was booming as it made the changeover from silent films to talkies, though, and within weeks of her arrival in Los Angeles, she landed a supporting role in the film Thirteen Women. Her hopes her high; but the film was lambasted by critics, and when it was finally released, Peg's supporting role was reduced to little more than a cameo. Her bad luck followed her after Thirteen Women, ultimately resulting in a dried-up career by the age of 24. Her dive off the Hollywood sign came shortly thereafter.

Since then, though, some strange things have been reported around the sign: Rumors of a sad blonde woman in 1930s-era clothing who vanishes when approached, for instance, or the scent of gardenia perfume appearing out of no where-- Peg's signature scent. Park ranger John Arbogast has also reported that since the installation of a motion-triggered alarm system around the sign, the equipment will sometimes tell him that there is someone standing five feet away from him-- except that there is no one there.

Perhaps Peg is still wandering the area, attempting to recapture her glory days.

Naturally, a number of the older film studios in Hollywood are thought to be haunted by some of their former stars. Universal, for instance, hosts actor Lon Chaney. Along with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, Chaney was a master of the monster film; he was perhaps most well-known for his 1925 hit, The Phantom of the Opera (no, not the Andrew Lloyd Webber version).

A special sound stage was built for Phantom: Stage 28. The opera house set was so huge that the decision was made to leave it there, where to this day it still stands as a studio landmark. Since then, electricians, designers, carpenters, art directors and security guards, as well as mere visitors, have spotted a man in a black cape on numerous occasions; he often runs along the catwalks, and lights have a tendency to turn themselves on and off. The Phantom of the Opera may indeed still be here.

Thelma Todd began life as a schoolteacher and model before becoming one of the biggest movie stars of the '20s and '30s. A Marx Brothers favorite, she is perhaps most well-known for her comedic turns in Horse Feathers and Monkey Business. She also opened her own restaurant in 1934. But on December 16, 1935, she was found in the garage of Jewel Carmen, a former actress as well as ex-wife of Todd's lover and business partner, Ronald West. Todd was in her car, dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. It looked like either a suicide or an accidental death; but was it?

The investigation yielded some bizarre results: Spots of blood were found on the car and around Todd's mouth, her blood alcohol level was .13, and she apparently had several broken ribs, a broken nose, and some nasty bruising. No suspects were ever charged, though, leaving the case unsolved.

Todd seems to have been a little restless since then, as well. A production company is now located where her restaurant once was, and employees sometimes see a hazy woman on the stairs or in the courtyard. Furthermore, the overwhelming smell of exhaust is often reported in the garage in which Todd was found along with the sound of a running engine, even when there are no cars parked there.

Perhaps she is reenacting her final moments still.

Not only one of the most famous hotels in Hollywood, the Roosevelt Hotel also lays claim to the title of most haunted hotel in Hollywood. Originally opened in 1927 to much fanfare, the hotel played host to the likes of Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo, and Clara Bow, among many, many others. In 1984, though, the Roosevelt underwent a major renovation, and since then, some of its older clientele have been seen wandering the halls-- regardless as to whether they're still alive.

In 1985, for example, Suzanne Leonard, an employee of the hotel, was dusting a mirror when suddenly the image of a blonde woman appeared in it-- but when Leonard turned around, no one was behind her. It was later discovered that the mirror had once hung in suite 1200, a room frequented by none other than Marilyn Monroe. Monroe's death on August 5, 1962 is widely considered either a suicide or an accidental overdose, though some maintain that neither of these scenarios are true. Perhaps she still haunts the mirror of her favorite hotel suite.

Montgomery Clift is also thought to haunt the Roosevelt-- room 928, to be exact. Clift lived in room 928 for three months while shooting From Here to Eternity in 1952; the victim of a heart attack at the still-young age of 46, he is thought to have returned to the place where he spent so much of his time at the height of his career.

Many other incidents have occurred at the Roosevelt, including voices coming from empty rooms and typewriters typing by themselves in deserted offices. One thing is for sure: Should you spend a night in the Roosevelt, be on the lookout for some unexpected visitors.

The venerable Alexandria Hotel first opened in 1906, but while it enjoyed a time in the spotlight as one of Hollywood's premiere hotels, it was later abandoned by stars in favor of the more modern Biltmore and Ambassador Hotels. In the 1970s, though, it was given a new lease on life in the form of a renovation-- though the sprucing-up seems to have awakened some other things as well.

Nancy Malone, one of the women hired to bring the hotel back to its former glory, spotted a strange figure late one night as she was working: While she was hanging pictures on a hallway wall, a woman in black, complete with show-stopping hat, appeared at the end of the hall. Malone reported that she couldn't see through the woman, but that the woman wasn't quite solid, either. After walking a few steps, the woman vanished.

No one is quite sure who this mysterious woman in black is, but whoever she is, she has clearly lost something or someone dear to her. We can only hope that one day, she finds it.

Paramount is conveniently located right next door to Hollywood Memorial Park, which is incidentally where a whole passel of stars found their final resting places-- so, of course, Paramount is thought to be the most haunted of all the studios. Sound stages 31 and 32 are closest to the park, so it shouldn't be a surprise that the largest number of reported experiences come from these two stages. Silent film star Rudolph Valentino is a favorite on the lot, though other celebrities have appeared as well.

There are also some nameless ghosts, however, who seem to have sad stories connected to them. The Hart building (once part of DesiLu Studios, Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball's company), for instance, is haunted by the spirit of a woman who leaves a flowery perfume in her wake and who likes to throw objects onto the floor. The Ball and Chevalier buildings, meanwhile, have also hosted a few individuals who vanish when approached. I wouldn't want to work the night shift here!

The star of the popular 1950s Superman television show, George Reeves met his tragic end at the age of 45: Between 1:30 and 2am on June 16, 1959, a gunshot wound to the head took him out of commission. The death was ruled a suicide, but as with so many of these stories, there are plenty who disagree. The lack of gunpowder on Reeves' face would seem to indicate that the gun was held further away than it would be for a suicide, and none of Reeves' fingerprints were on the gun. But for those who cry that the case was never fully investigated, alas, we will never be able to prove otherwise; Reeves' body was cremated in 1961.

However, it's possible that Reeves may have stuck around a little longer than anyone thought. Realtors have had trouble selling his estate; occupants never stay long, claiming that they hear noises coming from the room Reeves was found in and that sometimes the air smells of gunpowder. Pets don't like the room either, often spending their time barking at things their owners can't see. I can't really blame any of them; I wouldn't want to stay in a house were someone had been killed either...

This house is one of those places that forces one to ask the question of whether a place can simply be bad. It was also escape artist Harry Houdini's Hollywood mansion, making it doubly interesting. Houdini regularly held séances as he attempted to debunk as many fraudulent mediums as he could. Though he died in 1926, his wife remained in the house until her own death in 1943, after which it was sold to a woman known as the "Green Madonna"-- so named for her habit of standing on one of the mansions balcony in nothing but a green negligee and scarf whenever the moon was full. The Green Madonna inexplicably abandoned the house, though, and in 1959, a brush fire swept through the area and burned the house to the ground. Its remains stand there still. Sometimes, though, on clear nights, a figure can be seen standing on the ruined staircases or walking through the forgotten garden. Is it Houdini? Perhaps. But maybe it's just a trick of the light.

Actress Jean Harlow married MGM executive Paul Bern in 1932, after which she went to live with him at his house in Benedict Canyon. The marriage wasn't to last, though; on September 5th of that year, Bern was found in Harlow's all-white bedroom, a .38 caliber bullet in his head and a note beside him. The death was ruled a suicide, though theories persist that he was killed by a jealous lover or an abandoned common-law wife.

This was only the first chapter of the strange happenings at the house in Benedict Canyon, though, and the next installment involves possibly the most infamous Hollywood murder victim of all-time: Sharon Tate. Before her marriage to Roman Polanksi, Tate was connected to hair stylist Jay Sebring. At the time, Sebring was living in the house that had formerly been Jean Harlow's, and one night when Tate was staying there alone, a strange thing happened. She reported that a creepy little man came into the room apparently looking for something, and she was certain that the man was Paul Bern. She rushed out of the room; but when she arrived at the stairs, she caught a glimpse of a figure tied to the bannister with its throat cut before the figure abruptly vanished. Tate then fixed herself a drink to calm her nerves, accidentally ripping a small section of wallpaper from the base of the bar as she did so, then attempted to go back to bed. In the morning, she thought she had merely had an extremely vivid nightmare-- until she saw the ripped wallpaper. It's possible that Tate may have seen a premonition of the fate that would befall her at the hands of Charles Manson three years later.

Elizabeth Short was a 22 year-old aspiring actress struggling to make ends meet when she became a part of one of the most infamous unsolved crimes in Hollywood history. On January 15, 1947, her body was found in Leimert Park, Los Angeles. It had been severed at the waist and drained of blood, and she had been given a "Glasgow grin"-- that is, the sides of her mouth had been cut open to her ears (not unlike the look the Joker usually sports). She had been tied up and beaten, with the cause of death ultimately being from loss of blood from the lacerations on her face and shock from the blows to the head. Furthermore, the killer made sure that the murder stayed in the papers: On January 23, the Los Angeles Examiner received a call from the killer, offering to mail them items belonging to Short. There were over 200 suspects in the case and more than 50 people have falsely confessed to the murder, but the killer was never found.

Many believed that the nickname "the Black Dahlia" originated as a play on words of the popular film The Blue Dahlia, but the Los Angeles County district attorney investigators' reports state that the newspapers made the nickname up. Why is as much a mystery as the murder itself.

Built in 1925, the Knickerbocker saw more scandals than one can count find their homes beneath its roof. Film director D.W. Griffith died of a heart attack beneath the lobby's $120,000 chandelier; actress Frances Farmer was dragged half-naked through the lobby and committed to a psychiatric facility; actor William Frawley, known for playing Fred on I Love Lucy, had a fatal heart attack on the sidewalk outside the hotel; and MGM costume designer Irene Gibbons committed suicide by jumping out a window on the 14th floor. Furthermore, for years, Harry Houdini's wife Bess attempted to contact her dead husband via séances, which were largely unsuccessful, but which did one year result in a strange storm that apparently rained only over the Knickerbocker.

The Knickerbocker's bar was considered the hottest of the hotel's hot spots, so when the hotel was closed in 1971 to become a retirement building for senior citizens, the bar was sealed up. It was reopened in the 90s, however, as a nostalgic coffee shop called the All-Star Theatre Café & Speakeasy, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the spirits of Rudolph Valentino and Marilyn Monroe have been among those reportedly seen. These two must be very well-traveled ghosts indeed to be making their way from all the locations they're often seen!

Shortly after the Black Dahlia case came the murder of former aviatrix Jeanne French. Scrawled on her torso in red lipstick were the words "B.D. - Tex Andy." Police suspected that the "B.D." was a reference to the Black Dahlia, but like that case before it, a killer was never found.

L.A. is a tough town; it'll eat you whole and spit you back out again without a second thought. So tread lightly.