Now is the Time for Helter Skelter 2008

The Tate-LaBianca murders at the hands of the Charles Manson family continue to be a fascination, and will be commemorated in typical death hag style by Dearly Departed Tours, with a special three + hour Helter Skelter theme tour in Los Angeles, California.

Besides the murder residences, Michaels will include on the tour sites that relate to the day-to-day aspects of life of the victims, such as victim Jay Sebring’s hair salon, the El Coyote restaurant where the Tate group had their “last supper”, the bicycle shop where victim Abigail Folger purchased her yellow bike the afternoon of her murder. On the other side of town, we retrace the final steps of Rosemary and Leno LaBianca, victims of the second night of murders. “These sites make the whole thing seem more real and give life to the victims as everyday people,” said tour director, Scott Michaels.

Additionally, guests will see where the murderers threw their clothing and hosed off after the murders, and where they threw the murder weapon out the window of their car. You’ll see a house that was “creepy crawled.” by the Manson family, well before the murders, when they would break in to random homes and burgle or just rearrange things. Many sites have been altered since 1969 and with the help of photographs and home video footage; guests are able to relive them on Scott's 13-passenger bus.

The tour will also include a multimedia presentation made up of film and audio clips surrounding the murders and their victims, and a soundtrack playing the Top 20 of August 1969.

The price of the tour is $50, with five dollars of each ticket being donated to The Doris Tate Crime Victim Foundation, (http://www.doristate.com/foundation.htm) a California-based lobby & crime victim’s organization focusing on victim’s rights and criminal legislation. It is named in honor of Sharon Tate’s mother who became a crime victim activist until her own death in 1992.

The price also includes a piece of memorabilia – a rock from the actual fireplace of the Tate house, which Michaels himself obtained when the original house was razed in late 1993.

The Helter Skelter Tour has just added these 2008 Dates: Saturday January 5, Saturday January 19, Sunday February 3, Saturday February 16, and Saturday March 8. All tours at 9:30 am, pick up behind Starbucks on Hollywood and McCadden. To ensure a seat, please call (323) 466-3696.

PANTAGES THEATER'S GHOSTS!

Where: 6233 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood (map)
Status: Active as an entertaiment venue

Ghosts:

By 1929, when Alexander Pantages acquired the the front portion of the A.G Bartlett estate (six year's after Bartlett's death), the exotic plants from around the world that Bartlett had collected to bolster Hollywood's appeal, had either died from neglect, or moved to the nearby (and at that time new) Hollywood Bowl, despite attempts to incorporate them into the garden surrounding a large hotel to be built (which obviously never was) at that location.

Although this beautiful paradise was paved over, it could be argued that Pantages built a theater that is just as beautiful, and also increases Hollywood's appeal. It was the last and largest movie palace built in Hollywood, and some claim it was the first Art Deco theater in United States. Eventhough it still bears Pantages' name, he unfortunately didn't own it for very long after it opened in 1930. Due to the expenses involved defending his name against a fragulant (but well publized) rape charge, Pantages had to abandon thoughts of the 12 stories that were to be built above the Hollywood theater (like the other buildings at Hollywood & Vine), and sell the property.

During the 2000 restoration, it is said a painter working on the interior of the auditorium, complained that a "man in a hat" walked along the scaffolding (stepping off from the balcony), and stood over the shoulder of the painter, closely inspecting his work. When the painter turned to face his visitor, the "man with the hat" vanished into thin air. Shortly after, the same incident happened to an electrician, who was also up in the scaffolding to inspect the wiring. Both workers quit following their encounter. The identity of this "man in the hat" is unknown, but it either thought to be Bartlett, Pantages, or Howard Huges keeping an eye on things.

Howard Hughes acquired the theater in 1947, and moved his operations into the upstairs offices. He even built a door that went from his office to the back of the balcony, and it is said that he would sit in the last row and watch the same movie play over and over all day. Although this movie marthon ritual would later in life get out of control with stints that would go for days in a locked screening room, the seeds of this mania started at the Pantages theater. To this day, during reheasals inside this historic playhouse, a man will be spotted (from the stage) sitting in the last row of the balcony. When security is sent up to eject the tresspasser, no one is ever found. Sightings of Howard Huges are so common in this place that the historical marker on a street light in front of the building even mentions his ghost.

Additionally, staff members have told stories of a phantom man that walks up the aisle during a performance (as if to exit through the back) only to vanish as the usher holds the door open for him, as well as phantom women seen walking in the balcony (eastside) or the Ladies Room (off of the lobby).

There was also a widely reported event, where a disembodied female voice was heard singing into a microphone set up on the stage, when no one was on, or near, the stage.

http://www.pantages-theater.com/pantages_theater_los_angeles.php

If you know of another ghost story (or another version of a story mentioned), or if you have personally experienced something strange at this theater, please leave a comment.

(to read about another haunted theater in the L.A. area...)