May's SPIRITS with SPIRITS

GHOULA meets for cocktails in haunted places on the 13th of each month. “SPIRITS with SPIRITS” is a casual 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 G.H.O.U.L.A. button. If you already have one, please wear it so others can find you.

Note: At this month's gathering, a "lost" Disneyland artifact will be on display for the first time since its removal in 1982, and for this one night only! In addition, the author and Illustrator of "Disneyland after Dark: An Unauthorized Guide to the Happiest (Haunted) Place on Earth" will be present. (for more info about this book...)

THE DATE: May 13th, 2010 (Thursday)
THE PLACE: The Snow White Cafe
(6769 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles) Map
THE TIME: 8:00pm to the wicked witching hour

THE GHOST(S):

Los Angeles seems to be the land of contradictions. For all the sunshine, swimming pools, and starlets, there also always seems to be a seedy under belly of sex, scandal, and savagery. Nowhere in this city do these two worlds collide like Hollywood Blvd., where the glamour seems to rub up against the grubby. No where on this boulevard of broken dreams is that dichotomy exemplified better than the historic "Snow White Cafe." Anyone who dares to enter this typical hole-in-the-wall tavern, and walk past the drunks and barflies, will be treated to fanciful murals of Snow White and the seven dwarfs (as they appeared in the 1937 Disney film) as if the walls were sprinkled with pixie dust. Why is this copyrighted character inside this alcoholic alcove?

The often told story is that the murals were a gift from a group of Disney animators, who ate breakfast there everyday (when it was a waffle-house) before going to work. However, in Gregory Paul Williams' "The Story of Hollywood," it is reported...

"After the premiere of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" at the Carthay Circle, Disney opened the film at the Vogue. For the party afterward, a friend offered a recently purchased shop he was remodeling into a restaurant. Disney sent Josh Meador and other animators over to paint murals of the Snow White characters on the walls and on the ceiling canvas, creating the Snow White Cafe."

Aside from the association with Walt, himself, the building also has a connection to Disneyland. This Snow White-themed room would mark Disney's first attempt at creating a themed environment for people to walk through and experience. Also, years later when he would build an actual Snow White attraction in his own amusement park, because of a lack of time and money, the planned facade to the "dark-ride" was replaced with another fanciful "Snow White" mural. So for these reasons this "wishing well-watering hole" is in many ways a spiritual predecessor to Disneyland.

In recent times, it is rumored that the Walt Disney Company, in a misguided attempt to maintain brand purity, has tried many times to put this odd little piece of history out of business ,but has never succeeded. Thus, this Disney curiosity continues.

Although the management claims that there are no ghosts within the four walls that make up this tavern (even though one bartender confidentially told GHOULA that glasses sometimes mysterious slide off of the rack by themselves), the rest of the small, two-story, Spanish Colonial building (built in 1928) is well known to be haunted.

Their neighbor (on the other side of their East wall), the Hollywood Wax Museum has been plagued for decades with all sorts of spiritual activity, including dark shadowy figures that roam their section of the building. Likewise, the Snow White Cafe's neighbor on the West side (and on the floor above them), the Stella Adler theater, is also said to be haunted by a little girl, who has been seen by many witnesses. Why do so many ghosts wander through all the rooms of this building except one? Come to the Snow White Cafe and find out.

(to read more about the ghosts of this location...)
(To see last month's Disney-themed location...)

Free (Haunted) Lighthouse Tours (Pt. Vincente)

The Date: 2nd Saturday of each month

(except in March, for that month's info...)
The Location:
Point Vicente Interpretive Center
31501 Palos Verdes Drive West. [MAP]
Parking is available at the Rancho Palos Verdes City Hall
30940 Hawthorne Blvd. [MAP].

Note: This event is not hosted by GHOULA. This is just a local (ghost related) event that exists independently that GHOULA wants its members to know about. As such, docents and staff at this event may not wish to discuss this landmark's haunted history.

The Ghost(s):

The Point Vicente Lighthouse in Palos Verdes has been helping visiting ships navigate these local rocky waters since 1926. However, it's the lighthouse's role with something else visiting this coast line that has intrigued ghost hunters for decades. Apparitions of a woman in an old-fashioned white dress (blowing in the wind) have been seen (most often during heavy fogs) inside the glass-encased lens room on top of the lighthouse, or pacing along its exterior catwalk, as well as wondering (sometimes running around) the grounds surrounding this historic landmark and near the cliffs. Sometimes her long black hair is described as "tangled" or "wet."

Over the years, two separate stories have developed as to her identity. She is either the depressed wife of a sailor (killed in a shipwreck at that location), who committed suicide from the tower (or nearby cliffs), or she is the wife of a former lighthouse keeper, who accidentally fell from the tower (or the nearby cliffs), or she is actually two different female ghosts (one haunting the tower and one haunting the grounds).

Also, it is commonly believed that this phantom is connected to two events in the lighthouse's history. Some say this "woman" first appeared after WWII when the window panes on the land-side of the lighthouse were painted (as to not disturb the house in the surrounding hills), and that she disappeared (and has not been seen since) when the same panes were repainted in 1955. There may be truth to these claims, but then again the U.S Government generally frowns on such stories. So, any recent sightings by federal employees would most likely go undocumented. Also, some claim that the sightings of this glowing white figure are actually the result of an illusion created by the bright white light shinning through the coat of paint on the panes. The real story surrounding this well-known local ghost (and her issues with painted glass) may be unknown, but that doesn't stop ghost hunters from visiting this lighthouse for themselves, looking for any lingering proof of her existence.

http://vicentelight.org/index.htm

Highlights from April's SWS

Thanks to all who came out. Also, thank you to the staff of Tam O'Shanter's Inn, who made us feel so welcomed. Those that stayed late into the evening were treated to the busboy, who threw a table cloth over his head, and ran around the Bonnie Prince Charlie Room moaning like a ghost. And just like a real ghost, he managed to just miss getting his picture taken by all those with their cameras.

We were also treated to a few additional ghost stories...

It is believed that the ghosts of the Bonnie Prince Charlie Room are connected to the grocery store that was originally on that spot, which burned to the ground, making room for the Tam to expand the dinning area on to that property.

A busboy claims to have seen (on several occasions) a man in a mask walking in the upstairs hall outside of the restaurant's office. The prevailing theory is that he might have been a burglar, and perhaps is also connected to the fire that may have claimed the other lives.

A waiter told us confidentially that many elderly patrons have died in this restaurant, and one such elderly woman is believed to haunt the table that was the site of her last meal. Late at night, while closing, people still see her sitting there. If you too want to eat at this haunted table, it's table #13 in the room off of the main dinning room.

With regard to the restaurant's connection to Walt Disney, we were told that he used to sit at the bar and use cocktail napkins to jot down ideas he had for his future theme park. It is well known that Disney would show up at W.E.D. (now called Walt Diseny Imagineering or W.D.I.) in the morning with his ideas sketched on napkins. So, it seems those drawings were made the night before at the historic Tam. This also makes sense when considering how close this restaurant is to the park bench, where he daydreamed about his theme park. Apparently, on his way to the Tam, Disney would stop at the bench and work out his ideas in his head and then write them down as soon as he got to the Tam.

(To read more about the ghosts of The Tam O'Shanter Inn...)

(the following pictures are table #13, and then Walt Disney's favorite table)

The portrait of "The Bonnie Prince Charlie," which the child ghost is said to resemble.

LOST: Haunted Theater #1

As part of GHOULA's mission to preserve the haunted history of greater Los Angeles, periodically GHOULA will spotlight a haunted building from our great city that is no longer with us, in an effort to prevent these stories from being forgotten (even if their ghosts are also no longer with us).

THE BELASCO THEATER

337 S. Main Street (in the heart of Downtown). map

Los Angeles, like just about every other city in the United States, has a Main Street that runs through its core. However, unlike most towns, the Main Street of Los Angeles is nothing to boast about. It’s a derelict section where most of the city’s homeless congregate, and a sad and depressing place to visit. Though it may be hard to believe today, it was apparently worse fifty years ago.

It was back then that the Belasco Theater (aka "The Follies") presented strip shows and other bawdy entertainment for those brave enough (or crazy enough) to go to that part of town at night. The area was said to be so dangerous, that an artist who rented a room above the theater was able to paper the walls of his little room with all the sensational newspaper articles about the various former strippers who had been murdered, or had committed suicide. With all the tragic lives coming to an end in that area, the building naturally became haunted by one of those doomed girls who died too young.

Witnesses said the ghostly figure was that of an attractive redheaded woman, always scantily-clad, and always wandering around backstage before vanishing into thin air. Although the theater was demolished many years ago, the redhead still crosses the now vacant lot, every now and then, offering cheap thrills to anyone who happens to see her near-naked body in the moonlight.

The Belasco Theater was located at 337 S. Main Street in the heart of Downtown. A second Belasco Theater was built in downtown Los Angeles, adjacent to the Mayan Theater, in 1926 on Hill Street to host "legitimate theater" and cinema. After its construction, the original Belasco was renamed the Follies.

(note: the 2nd Belasco also has a ghost story)

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 local haunted theater...)
(to read about the 2nd Belasco's ghost...)