Haunted Hollywood

Because Hollywood has produced so many motion pictures portraying ghosts and the afterlife, it should come as no surprise that many former homes and places of certain movie stars who have passed on to the other side are said to be haunted. The following places are said to be haunted by Hollywood greats:

• Ever since the late 1920s, the spirit form of the Great Lover, Rudolph Valentino (1895–1926), has been seen in and around his former home, Falcon's Lair, on Bella Drive.
• The former house of Joan Crawford (1904– 1977) on Bristol Avenue has an eerie history of mysterious fires that kept breaking out on the wall where the headboard of her bed once rested.
• Clifton Webb (1891–1966), who in life was a militant nonsmoker with a distaste for cats, is said to make life difficult for cigarette smokers and cat fanciers in his former home on Rexford Drive.
• The ethereal form of Marilyn Monroe (1926– 1962) has been seen to materialize in front of her earthly home on Helena Drive.
• When popular singer Englebert Humperdinck bought Jayne Mansfield's (1933–1967) "Pink Palace" on Sunset Boulevard shortly after her death, he claimed he encountered her ghost.
• Guests at the Roosevelt Hotel on 7000 Hollywood Boulevard have reported encounters with the ghosts of Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift (1920–1966). People have sighted the spirit of Monroe near the full-length mirror on the lower level, and many guests have had their sleep interrupted by Clift blowing on a trumpet in Room 928 as his spirit still rehearses for his role as the bugler in From Here to Eternity (1953).
• Mae West (1892–1980) loved to host seances in her old home in the Ravenswood Apartments on Rossmore Avenue, and her spirit has remained strongly attached to the building.
• The "Man of Steel," George Reeves (1914– 1959), who starred in the series Superman (1950–57), is claimed to have been seen in the home on Benedict Canyon Drive where his body was found.

Sources:

hauck, dennis william. haunted places. reprint. new york: penguin usa, 1996.

jacobson, laurie, and mark wanamaker. hollywood haunted. los angeles: angel city press, 1999.

steiger, brad, and sherry hansen steiger. hollywood and the supernatural. new york: st. martin's press, 1990.