HOLLYWOOD GHOSTS AND SPIRITS! HOLLYWOOD MYSTERIES AND SCANDALS Weird Episode
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00:00Hollywood or should I say Holly weird for decades spooks and spirits in search
00:12of their last close-up have given new meaning to the name City of Angels it's
00:16got to be his apparition it's got to be his ghost the ghost of this lost and
00:21forgotten electrician of Raleigh studios it seems the movie capital of the world
00:26still attracts more than just fresh-faced wannabes with drop-dead
00:29looks see the stars in these stories are just plain dead on this episode of
00:33mysteries and scandals we'll dig up six bone-chilling tales of film lands
00:38dearly departed they found out that that mirror originally hung in the room that
00:43was rented on an ongoing basis by Marilyn Monroe they had it examined by
00:47many paranormal psychologists and they said that it is a spirit of Marilyn
00:53Monroe from the first time I went to JC Briggs house the hair stood up on my
00:58arms it was a frightening and is a frightening place there's something
01:05desolate and unreal about it all we'll also explain how a deceased film
01:10producer tried to signal a starlet about her gruesome fate nearly 40 years after
01:14his own untimely demise maybe he sensed the arrival of yet another person who
01:20also was going to be permanently have their life terminated by less than
01:25saving they were both found tied and repeatedly stabbed just as the
01:32apparition was that she had seen and we'll step inside the haunted mansion of
01:37a former tinseltown socialite named Daisy who can't seem to find her way
01:41into the light Daisy's boats is walking the corridors of the house you know when
01:47a tortured soul is constantly walking up and down the halls of the place where
01:53you live people are bound to be driven crazy this show's got more dead bodies
01:59in the LA County morgue I'm AJ Benza join me as we scare up some of
02:03Hollywood's pesky poltergeists and famous phantoms they're dead but they're
02:06back by popular demand Hollywood ghosts
02:28our first story begins in the 1930s and spans nearly four decades to a bone
02:34chilling end way back in 1932 Hollywood hotshot producer Paul Byrne was a big
02:39kahuna at MGM 42-year-old moviemaker was romancing platinum-haired sexpot Jean
02:45Harlow an actress half his age Byrne and Harlow made an unlikely couple soon
02:50shacking up together historian and co-author of Hollywood haunted Mark
02:54Wanamaker Paul Byrne built this little love nest up above Benedict Canyon was a
03:00little faux Tudor house and really cute and really tucked away in these hills
03:05and trees but the cozy cottage quickly became a house of horrors Aaron Kincaid
03:10lives next door to the Byrne home Paul and Jean were married in July of 1932 by
03:16Labor Day weekend of the same year less than eight weeks later Paul laid dead in
03:22his bedroom a bullet through his head speculation ran wild was Harlow involved
03:28was it murder was it suicide Paul left a suicide note apologizing to his wife
03:33but the story doesn't end there
03:36Laurie Jacobson is the co-author of Hollywood haunted it was rumored that
03:40the night before Paul Byrne died
03:43Dorothy Millett his common-law wife paid him a visit and made demands upon him to
03:49do right by her and there was an argument and some people believe that
03:55Dorothy Millett murdered Paul Byrne unfortunately Millett was unavailable
04:01for questioning her lifeless body was found washed up on the shore of the
04:05Sacramento River days later now here's where the tale takes an eerie twist in
04:10the mid-sixties hairdresser to the stars JC ring purchased the Byrne home despite
04:14its unsettling history at the time Sebring was dating a sexy young actress
04:18named Sharon Tate Sharon Tate was staying at the house one evening while JC
04:22Sebring was away she was awakened by a knocking sound and confronted what she
04:28thought was Paul Byrne she is shocked he doesn't seem to see her he walks by the
04:34bed over to a desk Sharon is so frightened she slips out of bed and
04:40she's running down the stairs to the first floor and there on the stairway
04:45she sees the ghastly apparition of a person tied up with their throat cut she
04:53ran to the bar to fix herself a drink she clawed and toyed at the wallpaper
04:58she consumed the liquor went back up to bed when she awoke in the morning she
05:03thought it was a horrible dream she'd had that is until she returned to the
05:07bar and saw the wallpaper with the claw marks on it I could use a drink myself
05:12Tate was so freaked out by the apparition she told some friends about
05:16the sighting dr. Barry Taft was a parapsychologist who has investigated
05:20thousands of hauntings the reason Paul Byrne may have been haunting the house
05:23is that if he died a violent death or an untimely death there that is the most
05:28common reason why people haunt an environment but what about the gory
05:32figure Sharon saw tied to the staircase Sharon hates experience strongly
05:39suggests the possibility that she had a vision of her impending demise cut to
05:45August 8th 1969 one of the most infamous nights in Hollywood history at the time
05:50Sharon Tate was married to director Roman Polanski and eight months pregnant
05:54with their first child the couple was renting a home in Benedict Canyon just
05:58down the road from the Paul Byrne house while Polanski was on location shooting
06:02a movie Sharon's former boyfriend JC bring and a few friends were keeping the
06:06actress company during the night cult leader Charles Manson's family of
06:11freaks broke into Sharon's house in a bloodthirsty frenzy both she and Jay
06:16were murdered that night in 1969 by the Manson family they were both found tied
06:24and repeatedly stabbed just as the apparition was that she had seen a
06:31total of five people were brutally killed that night in Benedict Canyon
06:35Manson and company were arrested in December of 1969 and sent to the slammer
06:39for good maybe Paul Byrne's ghost was trying to warn Sharon about the murders
06:43that night who knows up next to untimely deaths linked to the ghastly goings-on
06:49in a pair of Hollywood's oldest studios
06:57Hollywood is a town filled with superstars superstitions and the
07:01supernatural for as many movie studios as there are scattered around the city
07:05just as many tales exist about strange hauntings by actors studio heads and
07:10even behind-the-scenes crew members Raleigh Studios being one of the oldest
07:14in Hollywood and continuous operation of course has its stories in 1932 it was
07:19always known that an electrician had fallen in stage five from the rafters to
07:24his death on the studio floor but I guess no one told the guy he was dead
07:28his spirit is still flipping switches and shocking workers at the studio
07:33soundstage number five at Raleigh Studios is notorious for the ghostly
07:39goings-on in there 300-pound lights will suddenly start swinging at the top of
07:46the rafters and just as suddenly come to a halt footsteps will be heard on the
07:52empty soundstage music has come out of the walls there when nothing is on the
07:59site in 1994 dr. Barry Taft was brought in to investigate the hauntings at
08:04Raleigh Studios I knew nothing about the place and I'm just walking through and
08:08someone I felt very disoriented falling back to my left and I almost fell hit
08:13the floor and I later learned that in this particular location someone had
08:16fallen off one of the catwalks there and died it's got to be his apparition
08:23it's got to be his ghost the ghost of this lost and forgotten an electrician
08:27of Raleigh Studios on the other side of town a fellow by the name of Thomas Ince
08:31is still making a stir at Culver Studios Thomas Ince in his day was one of the
08:36biggest and most important respected moguls of filmmaking Thomas Ince was
08:40lured to Culver City by Harry Culver and it was Thomas Ince who built the first
08:45studio the first enterprise of filmmaking in Culver City in 1915 Ince
08:51poured his blood sweat and tears into Culver Studios which became a filmmaking
08:55powerhouse Ince was a good friend of William Randolph Hearst two very
08:59powerful men on the west coast on Thomas Ince's birthday in 1924 William Randolph
09:06Hearst offered to throw him a party aboard his yacht reportedly Ince had a
09:11pretty severe bleeding ulcer and was instructed by his doctors to lay off the
09:15booze and rich food but Ince failed to heed the advice while living it up
09:19aboard the Hearst party boat there was drinking of wine there was the feasting
09:24the talking all all this going on and after the evening he had a very serious
09:30ulcer attack he was vomiting blood he was really in a serious state and then
09:37had a coronary on top of it he died at home several days later in front of his
09:41whole family Ince was only 43 the mogul was still a young man and I guess he
09:46wasn't quite ready to give up control of his studio in 1988 during some
09:50renovations Ince paid an unexpected visit to the set he walked up to two
09:57workmen who were in the act of tearing down Ince's number one stage walked
10:04right up to them and said I don't like what you're doing to my studio then he
10:09turned and walked away through a wall the appearance was no special effect
10:14Eugene Hiltchy worked at Culver Studios in the prop department well the man
10:19walked out he was just shaking he went to the studio manager and the studio manager said
10:23hold on a minute he laid three pictures out on his desk and he said you
10:27recognize any of these three men he pointed right to Thomas Ince scared yet
10:31well we've got more horror stories on the way when we come back find out what
10:35event woke Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift from the dead and why a loudmouth
10:39comic had some angry spirits rolling in the aisle
10:47in 1927 the hippest of Hollywood landmarks opened its doors the 3.5
10:54million dollar Roosevelt Hotel boasted a ballroom supper club where guests could
10:57dance the night away in fact the place was so dazzling some of its earliest
11:01residents still don't want to check out Roosevelt Hotel historian JD Kessler
11:05it was the first major construction project in Hollywood land which is what
11:11Hollywood was called originally it was a development that was established so that
11:15it would be a community to be built around a new industry the very first
11:20Academy Awards ceremony was held in the Blossom Room at the Roosevelt in 1929
11:24the posh hotel soon became the swankiest hangout on Hollywood Boulevard movie
11:29stars like Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Montgomery Clift and Marilyn Monroe were
11:34regular guests the Roosevelt remained a grand place to go through the fifties
11:40and then it it began to fade it was owned by many different people its
11:46glamour and beauty was covered up the hotel underwent major renovations in
11:511984 and that's when the spooks began to crawl out of the woodwork when there's
11:56modeling or building or renovation whatever this is whatever this phenomena
12:01is in nature it doesn't like it it reacts before the Roosevelt reopened the
12:07maid was cleaning a mirror when she noticed something strange she saw the
12:11reflection of a blonde woman in the mirror she knew there was no one supposed
12:15to be in the hotel she turned to ask the person why they were there and there was
12:20no one there she turned back to the mirror and there was the blonde woman
12:23still standing there so I'm getting kind of chills they found out that that
12:28mirror originally hung in the room that was rented on an ongoing basis by
12:33Marilyn Monroe they had it examined by many paranormal psychologists and they
12:38said that it is a spirit of Marilyn Monroe and the screen goddess isn't the
12:43only one still knocking around her old haunt there is a spirit in room 928
12:49people that stay there will often hear someone playing the trumpet Montgomery
12:55Clift lived in room 928 at the Roosevelt for about three months when he was
13:01shooting from here to eternity he needed to play a bugle for that role and he
13:07often practiced in his room of course the ghosts of Monty and Marilyn have
13:11been seen in practically every old hotel and bar in Hollywood I swear those two
13:15get around more than Elvis but the Roosevelt Hotel is just one site to spot
13:18celebrity specters back in the 1940s and 50s Ciro's was the place to see and
13:23be seen by Tinseltown's Glitterati Ciro's nightclub on the Sunset Strip is
13:28one of the most famous of all of the nightclubs really on the strip during
13:33the night spots heyday mobster Mickey Cohen muscled his way into the action
13:37Mickey Cohen was the top gangster in Los Angeles he pretty much replaced Bugsy
13:48Siegel after Bugsy was killed Mickey Cohen was so big in town and
13:54particularly on the Sunset Strip Mickey was known to occasionally conduct a
13:58little business at Ciro's if you catch my drift Ciro's closed in 1959 but
14:03reopened in 72 as the now famous Comedy Store but it seems that some of the old
14:08customers keep coming back for more comedian Argus Hamilton has worked at
14:12the Comedy Store since 1976 the basement was rumored to be a place where the wise
14:17guys in Los Angeles would bump people off there's a lot of belief that the
14:22basement ghosts tend to be some of the knocked-off mobsters I used to be a
14:27waitress at the Comedy Store we had so many reports of paranormal activity in
14:33the club that in the early 80s we called UCLA's parapsychological department to
14:40come in and investigate some psychics believe that ghosts endlessly reenact
14:45the traumatic details of a death I believe that someone was dragged down
14:50into the basement against his will and was killed this spirit is so angry about
14:58what happened to him he is held there and he is still really angry once again
15:06parapsychologist dr. Barry Taft was on the scene I was the Comedy Store
15:10closing my briefcase and I looked up to my right and I see men standing there
15:15staring at me they all wore double-breasted pinstripe suits and hats
15:20more and like the 30s or 40s gangster clothing I closed my briefcase started
15:27to turn and they were gone but the poltergeist at the Comedy Store don't
15:31just hang out in the basement as one popular comedian found out for the late
15:34Sam Kenison whom we loved and was frequently here late late late at night
15:39with us was a very connected spiritual person they hated Sam's act they would
15:47do anything they could to stop him and he knew this he was aware of this and he
15:51often called out challenges to the spirits when he was on stage come on if
15:57you're here show me something and boom all the lights in this in the place
16:02would go out or the microphone would go dead man talk about a tough crowd
16:07Kenison might be the only comic to be heckled by the dead people unfortunately
16:11the controversial comedian was killed in a car wreck in 1992 when we come back
16:15our final ghost story takes place right here it's a Hollywood style haunting
16:19complete with sex debauchery scandal and maybe even murder
16:28during the early days of Hollywood Latin leading man Antonio Moreno and his wife
16:33oil heiress Daisy Canfield Danziger were one of the town's hottest couples
16:37in 1923 the newlyweds built this 22 room Spanish style mansion on four acres of
16:42property high atop the hills of Silver Lake they dubbed the estate Crestmount
16:46Silver Lake historian Todd Hughes Crestmount quickly became established as
16:51the social hub of East Hollywood Crestmount archivist Mike Schmidt Daisy
16:56and Antonio would entertain mostly on Sundays and they would invite both the
17:03people from industry for people that Daisy knew from the oil business and
17:08people from the Hollywood film colony and they would they come up here and
17:12swim and you also have to remember this is during Prohibition so there was a
17:18certain amount of drinking going on and to actually come here to Crestmount
17:24during that time was considered sort of a prized invitation there's a wine
17:30cellar in the basement of Crestmount where Antonio used to lead tours during
17:35his parties and he would bring more lovely women attending down to the wine
17:41cellar to look at his incredible stash of fine wines yeah and I'll bet that's
17:47not all they were looking at Moreno had a pension for pretty young girls and
17:50Daisy wasn't too keen about her husband's philandering at first there
17:54they were very passionate in the relationship but as time went on and
17:59Antonio's star just kept rising and became a bigger and bigger star throughout the
18:0320s and Daisy began to resent the fact that he would spend these long days on
18:09the set in the arms of Hollywood's most beautiful women one thing led to another
18:14and the couple split in 1931 but never divorced Daisy turned to booze naturally
18:19to drown her sorrows she donated the infamous mansion to the Roman Catholic
18:23Church who turned the property into a home for wayward girls in 1933 it would
18:29have been the 10-year anniversary of their marriage Daisy was driving along
18:34Mulholland Drive when her chauffeur driven limousine plummeted over a 300
18:40foot cliff and killed her instantly miraculously however the chauffeur lived
18:46now of course there was lots of speculation of how she died was it a
18:51crash was it an accident or was it some sort of foul play on behalf of Antonio
18:57Moreno that possibly maybe got rid of her and staged this whole thing it's
19:02still a mystery to this day turns out that the chauffeur driving her on
19:06Mulholland Drive happened to be a distant relative of Antonio Moreno
19:11himself hmm what a coincidence no will was found and so Antonio received half
19:20of her estate it was interesting though that some family members did find some
19:25notes on how she wanted her cremation to happen and what kind of ceremony she
19:29wanted one of the relatives explained this by the fact that Daisy sought the
19:32advice of spiritualists occasionally and had known of her impending death but to
19:38this day Daisy just can't seem to give up the ghost when Daisy was having her
19:44early problems with Antonio she would spend long days pacing the halls of
19:48Crestmount waiting for Antonio to get home torturing herself with the ideas
19:53of him in the arms of Garbo so perhaps when she died such a violent death her
20:01spirit naturally drifted back to Crestmount where she continued to pace
20:06the halls and wait for Antonio to come home there seems to be a variety of
20:11spirits up here Daisy is reported to be up here Antonio is roaming around up
20:18here it seems that the north wing of the house seems to be the most active
20:22part of the house there's a lot of reports of footsteps of apparition of
20:27someone turning a corner of people talking the north wing is where Antonio
20:32and Daisy's rooms were I would hear stories from neighbors about seeing
20:39things that weren't there a minute later hearing strange noises coming from the
20:45empty house people still talk about the haunted house at the top of the hill
20:49there you have it folks in a town that thrives on make-believe sometimes it's
20:54the true stories that really are stranger than fiction I'm AJ Benza join
20:58me the next time we shed some light on the dark side of Hollywood
21:07the very concept of a ghost implies that something survives physical corporeal
21:14death spirit soul consciousness something we might want to call
21:18discarnate intelligence discarnate meaning without body the question is
21:24what is that what is it that survives does it go to heaven does it go to hell
21:28does it go to another reality