GHOULA CHALLENGE: The Curious Case of the Puzzling Pioneer Cemetery

"Abandoned grave markers. Under huge pepper tree lie remains of some San Fernando Valley pioneers..." ---Photograph caption (December 31, 1947)

GHOULA will be doing its 4th Annual "Haunted Films at Haunted Places" screening at the historic (haunted) San Fernando Valley Pioneer Memorial Cemetery. Since the San Fernando Valley Historical Society has been kind enough to open its graveyard gates to us, GHOULA wants to raise awareness of this important piece of our history, and extend an additional invitation to our members, followers, and friends...

Calling all ghost-hunters, paranormal-investigators, psychics, sensitives, and those interested in getting a glimpse of the "other side." Whether you are acting alone, or in a team, GHOULA wants you! Whether you are a seasoned pro or first-timer,...

GHOULA WANTS YOU!

Date: October 5th (Saturday)
Time: 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: San Fernando Pioneer Memorial Cemetery
14451 Bledsoe St, Sylmar (map)

Admission FREE!

The San Fernando Valley Pioneer Cemetery has over 6oo bodies buried there, and only 13 tombstones (and those markers are not necessarily over a body). The last official burial was in 1939, when the owner died (and was buried elsewhere). For the next 19 years, the abandoned graveyard was vandalized, and tombstones were stolen or moved. Not even the cement pathway around the grounds (put in the 1970s) corresponds with the plots, crossing over people's remains. The actual locations of those known to be buried there has been lost. The original boundaries of where the bodies are buried is also up for debate, meaning there could be plots outside the gates.

There are so many questions, mysteries, and legends connected to these hollowed grounds (including tales of a Mexican section, a mass grave for victims of the St. Francis Dam disaster, and an area known as "Baby Land.")... Which brings us to our challenge.

Everyone will have exactly one hour (til 8:00pm), to document anything "out of the ordinary." From electro-magnetic anomalies to shivers down your spine, if you feel it, witness it, or hear it, we want to know about it, and we want to know exactly where it happened. So, bring your EMF meters, your "Spirit Boxes," your cameras, or just yourself, and let your "goose-flesh" guide you.

Each participant will receive their own individual map, which will be used to record the location of any activity, evidence, or "heebee-jeebees." Please keep your info confidential until after the experiment, to discourage copy-cat contamination. Then, at the end of the hour (before the screening), the maps will then be returned to GHOULA.

Based on everyone's data, "hot spots" will be determined and revealed at the end of the screening. The actual stories associated with the graveyard's ghost(s) will be revealed, and compared to the collected data.

(for info about our 4th Annual "Haunted Films at Haunted Places"... )

BOOs ALERT!

THIS JUST IN:
Who you gonna call?... The LAPD.
(for the full story, click the link below.)

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2013/09/he_aint_afraid_of_no_ghosts_1.php

2nd Annual Peg Entwistle Memorial Hike

On September 16th, 1932, Peg Entwistle committed suicide by hiking up to the Hollywood sign, and jumping of the "H." Come out and join us for a self-guided hike along that haunted trail to Hollywood's most famous haunted landmark (which celebrates it 90th anniversary this year), and meet-up behind the "H," if you dare...

THE DATE: September 16th, 2013 (Monday)
(on the anniversary of her death)
THE PLACE: Behind the "H" of the Hollywood Sign
(Directions to the "H" are below)
THE TIME: 5:00pm - 7:00pm (Sunset)
(meet us at the top)

Since everyone goes at their own speed, and everyone will be arriving at different times after work, there is no set meet-up time. We will just be hanging out at the sign during the time mentioned above. The hike is about 3-4 miles (round trip) and takes about 2 hours (round trip). Also, there is no organized paranormal investigation included in this hike, but local ghost-hunters are welcome to bring their own equipment, and investigate on their own if they wish.

NOTE: The 2nd annual Peg Entwistle Memorial Hike to the Hollywood Sign is part of a two-part tribute to Hollywood's most famous ghost. On the previous Friday, there will be a special SPIRITS with SPIRITS at a restaurant haunted by Peg's ghost (for more info...)

THE GHOSTS:

"I was hiking near the Hollywood sign today, and near the bottom I found a woman's shoe and jacket. A little further on I noticed a purse. In it was a suicide note. I looked down the mountain and saw a body...."
--- Anonymous call to the Hollywood Police Station

81 years ago, this September, a sad, depressed, possibly drunk, unemployed actress left her home on Beachwood Drive and started walking up the road to the Hollywood sign. On that treacherous hike, that probably took her most of the night, she eventually made it to her destination, the fifty-foot letter "H" at the beginning of the internationally recognized Hollywood sign (then the Hollywoodland Sign). She climbed a ladder that was attached to the backside of the flat metal structure, and leaped to her death once she reached the top. It is thought that she did not die instantly, but instead lingered for hours in the brush below, where her corpse was eventually discovered by hikers. For a short time she was simply known as "The Hollywood Sign Girl," until her published suicide note was recognized by her uncle. Her name was Peg Entwistle.

When people tell her tale, they always point out the ironic twist that occurred shortly after her death. A letter arrived at her address, stating that she had landed the lead role in a new play about a woman who commits suicide. However, there's the bigger (more obvious) irony. This act of desperation over the lack of a show-biz career, ended up making her more famous (or infamous) than any of her working contemporaries. Not everyone can easily name the stars of the early 1930's, but most people know the Hollywood Sign Girl.

Her legend seems to grow with each passing year, and as it does, so do the stories of her restless ghost near the famous landmark. Most people describe her apparition as a young woman dressed in a 1930's style white gown walking along a trail (sometimes dazed). She is most commonly seen by hikers (not unlike those that originally found her body) and dog walkers in the very early or very late hours. Witnesses claim that she is accompanied by the strong scent of the gardenia flower (thought to be her favorite perfume). Some accounts even describe her reenacting her final moments stepping off of the top of the "H" only to vanish as she falls. She seems doomed to repeat the last moments of that last night over and over again, just as we also seemed doomed to repeat those last moments with each retelling of her story.

DIRECTIONS: Follow N. Beachwood Drive up the hill to the end (just before the "Sunset Ranch Hollywood" stables). You'll see cars parked around a trail head, so park anywhere you can. Follow (on foot) the dirt trail up and along the ridge adjacent to the stables. This trail will merge into a larger trail (Mulholland Hwy). Make a hairpin turn left (South-West) on this new trail, and follow it (going towards the Hollywood sign) until it dead ends at a paved road (Mt. Lee Drive). Turn right on the paved road, seemingly away from the Hollywood sign. The road will take you up the backside of Mt. Lee, offering great views of the San Fernando Valley and Forest Lawn, to the top of the mountain and a dramatic reveal of the Hollywood sign, the same view Peg Entwistle had before she jumped (incidentally Peg's studio, RKO, is dead center in this view). Below is a link to a map, which you should study, before going out there, since its very easy to get turned around out there on the trails.

View Larger Map

September's SPIRITS with SPIRITS

GHOULA meets for cocktails in haunted places on the 13th of each month. “SPIRITS with SPIRITS” is a casual social gathering of regional ghost hunters and those that just like ghost stories. Open to all, from the curious skeptic to the passionate phantom pursuer. Make friends, and toast a ghost! Let's put the “Boo!” back into “booze.”

All those who attend will receive a free (square) G.H.O.U.L.A. button. If you already have one, please wear it so others can find you, without asking the staff about our group. (i.e. LOOK FOR SOMEONE WITH A GHOULA BUTTON)

THE DATE: September 13th, 2013(Friday the 13th)
THE PLACE: The Beachwood Café
2695 N. Beachwood Drive, Los Angeles (Beachwood Canyon) (Map)
THE TIME: 8:00pm - 10:00pm

NOTE: September's SPIRITS with SPIRITS is part one of a two-part tribute to one of Hollywood's most famous ghosts. On the following Monday (on the anniversary of her death), there will be the 2nd annual Peg Entwistle Memorial hike to the Hollywood Sign at sunset (for more info... )

THE GHOSTS:

"I am afraid I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain."
--- Peg Entwhistle's Suicide Note.

On the second Friday of September in 1932, failed actress, Peg Entwistle, left her home at 2428 N. Beachwood Drive (which still stands) to fulfill a date with destiny. She told her uncle, who also lived at that residence, that she was going to the Hollywoodland Drugstore (presently known as The Beachwood Café) to get a book, a pack of cigarettes, and meet a friend. It is thought that this neighborhood hang-out was possibly the last place anyone saw her alive, when she walked along the sidewalk past the store-front's windows on her way up Beachwood Drive. From there, she walked/hiked all the way to the iconic "Hollywood Sign" that hovers over Beachwood. Using a workman's ladder at the site, she climbed to the top of the giant letter "H," and leaped to her death, hitting the rocks at the base and rolling down the hill 200ft into the brush.

It is generally accepted that her reason for this larger-than=life suicidal act was that her staring role in an upcoming film, "Thirteen Women" (which was to be her break-out performance) was greatly reduced during the editing process to a minor character. However, GHOULA's favorite version of this conjecture is that an astrologer hired as a consult on this astrology-themed movie, gave all the cast members private readings. When it was Peg's turn, the fortune teller saw nothing in her cards (as if she had no future), which supposedly disturbed the young true-believer. Peg was portraying a character in that film that was driven to madness because of her horoscope. Is that what happened in real life?

Although, the sad tale of Peg Entwistle is one of the most famous tragic, cautionary and mythic tales of Hollywood, with so many retellings over the decades (including legends of her ghost haunting the Hollywood sign), one aspect of this story rarely gets mentioned...

Not only was the Beachwood Café possibly the last place anyone saw her alive, it also may be where people continue to see her in death... on that same sidewalk walking past the café's windows, up Beachwood Drive, presumably repeating that same fateful walk of her last night, She generally seen from inside the café, and some versions came that a cold breeze proceeds the sighting.

Supposedly, none of the locals will talk about Peg's ghost wandering the sidewalk of the shopping district. Beachwood "Village" has a small town feel, and like many small towns, they are weary of outsiders, specifically tourists looking for a photo op with the Hollywood Sign. The community even fought having a bus line to connect them to nearby Hollywood. So naturally because of this uneasy tension, the residents play down any tales that may attract visitors to their otherwise sleepy canyon.

Luckily for GHOULA, local historian, Jim Dawson, chronicled some of these stories in a 1993 issue of Far Out Magazine, including a sighting by a waitress (10 years after Peg jumped from the sign). At the end of the night, when the café was closed, a waitress heard a tapping at the window. She looked up, and saw Peg (in her white dress) waving "hello" through the window. However, when she unlocked the door to see what she wanted, the "woman in white" had vanished.

So, come out to toast one of Hollywood's most famous spirits, a woman with many connections to the number 13 (her Hollywood sign had 13 letters) on Friday the 13th...
if you dare!

(to read about last month's haunted location... )
(to see a map of previous SPIRITS with SPIRITS locations... )