Haunted Hollywood locations

October 7, 2015September 29, 2017

The World’s Most Haunted House

I’ve mentioned before that my good friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, and I have an almost eerie synchronicity. So what happened this past Monday shouldn’t have surprised me. Last October, he informed me that there is a pad that has been dubbed “the world’s most haunted house” located in the next town over from him. I started salivating upon hearing those words and asked if he would write a guest post about the dwelling for my blog. It was too late in the game by that point for him to get it to press in time for last year’s Haunted Hollywood postings, but he promised to pen it for me in 2015. Flash forward to Monday. My mom found out that she was going to have to have emergency surgery on Tuesday due to complications from last week’s foot operation. Because I would be spending all day with her at the hospital, I would not be able to write a post for today. So imagine my shock when I received an email from Owen that afternoon saying that his guest post was ready to go! Not only was I already so looking forward to having an Owen article on my site, but he saved my butt with his timing! I will forever be grateful. So without further ado . . .

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Lindsay, friend, Starbucks addict and blogger extraordinaire, asked me to guest-write a post. Being the gentleman I am, I harrumphed and unequivocally turned her down. She cackled and said she’d force me to do it. “Over my dead body!” I screamed gutturally. Long story short, she killed me. Now I’m her, ahem, ghostwriter, a one-man skeleton crew patella-deep in haunted IAMNOTASTALKER posts.

Whatever. Lindsay’s favorite month has just become her worst nightmare. She got an Owen, and it turns out that’s scarier than The Omen. Now I am the puppet master, and her blog is under my control. Mwa-ha-ha!

Today we travel far from California, but we’re still in a liberal, coastal C-state. East Coast, represent!

I live in Fairfield, Connecticut, and recently I ventured, for Lindsay, to Lindley Street in neighboring Bridgeport. The state’s most-populated city, Bridgeport is where I was born, raised and electrocuted, though the latter is a frightening tale for another time. Today we’re headed to 966 Lindley Street. The modest home at this address was, in the mid-1970s, ground zero for poltergeist activity.

Gerard Goodin, a factory worker at Harvey Hubbell Inc., purchased the four-room bungalow in the northern section of the city in 1960. He and his wife, Laura, were new parents at the time; their son, Gerard Jr., suffered from cerebral palsy. Gerard Jr. died in the fall of 1967. He was only 6. Less than a year later the family adopted a 4-year-old Canadian girl named Marcia.

Five years after their son died, as Bridgeport native William J. Hall notes in his 2014 book The World’s Most Haunted House: The True Story of the Bridgeport Poltergeist on Lindley Street, the Goodins called the police to report strange noises. Gerard was more annoyed than frightened by the rhythmic, nighttime knocking; he suspected pranks by neighborhood kids. The fire department inspected the foundation of the single-family home. Gas lines and plumbing were checked as well. The source of the noise, however, was never discovered. Gerard wondered if the mysterious sounds had something to do with the proposal to build condominiums next door — a proposal he had vocally opposed. Were developers making noises to force people to sell their homes? Were they making noises to get back at Gerard?

Unlikely.

The noises, you see, appeared to originate from inside the home. Officials checked piping and ductwork in the basement. The Goodins even replaced the furnace. The old furnace was gone, but the noises remained and, during the last weekend of November 1974, they would attract worldwide attention.

In the fall of 1974, Marcia was in fifth grade, and she was bullied more frequently — and more severely — than your average fifth-grader. Marcia’s classmates picked on her because of her heritage. (She was a member of the Iroquois Indian tribe.) Marcia was injured in October when a boy in her class kicked her in the back. Gerard and Lydia removed their daughter from school, and Marcia, forced to wear a back brace, received in-home tutoring.

The Goodins were having dinner in their living room with a neighbor on Nov. 21 when they heard the sound of breaking glass. A lower pane of the master bedroom window had shattered — from the inside. A day later the family was watching TV in the living room when they heard sounds coming from the master bedroom. The curtains of a closed window had fallen to the floor. They put the curtains back, but before they could leave the room, it happened again. They left the curtains down and returned to the living room. Thirty minutes later, the curtains were lying on the kitchen floor. The mystery and unease grew when a knocking sound, gentle and slow at first, built to a rapid pounding. It stopped after a few minutes, and the family went to bed.

When the Goodins returned home the following evening after a day trip to see relatives in Dover Plains, New York, Gerard saw Marcia’s TV on her bed, screen down. In the kitchen he found “dishes rising out of the sink and flying across the room,” according to The World’s Most Haunted House. The knife block, screwed to the wall, freed itself. The kitchen table flipped over, spilling groceries all over the floor. The refrigerator started to slide and rise, hovering six inches off the ground. A 23-inch TV near the sink fell on Laura’s foot, bloodying her toes.

Things quieted down — but not for long. After dinner, Gerard felt a presence in the kitchen, and towels and toiletries flew around the bathroom while Marcia was in there. Despite the strange happenings, the Goodins managed to get to bed around 3 a.m. They would be w-i-d-e awake the next day…

When he went to make breakfast on Nov. 24, Gerard found the kitchen table flipped over, even though he hadn’t heard any noises at night. The refrigerator was inexplicably blocking the kitchen door that led to the outside. Gerard went to the bedroom to tell Laura, at which point a crucifix and picture of Jesus pulled from the wall and crashed to the floor. Another crucifix, this one above the door in Marcia’s bedroom, fell, breaking into pieces. Living room chairs tipped back and forth — while the rest of the room remained still. The frequency and intensity of the events were increasing, and the Goodins were beginning to feel threatened. They went outside the house and spotted the teen daughter of John Holsworth, a cop who lived across the street, walking her dog. They asked her to summon her father.

Holsworth arrived a few minutes later. “Help us!” Gerard said. “Something evil is wrecking our house!” Holsworth ventured inside and saw a house that looked like it had been robbed. While he was there, the living room TV rotated 35 degrees, recliners shook and the fridge slid across the floor, making no sound and leaving no marks. He searched for a reasonable explanation for what he was witnessing but couldn’t find one. Holsworth, who later reported “he felt sure he was witnessing something supernatural,” called for backup.

Two officers on patrol nearby arrived first, followed by a second patrol car. When four policemen were in the kitchen, the fridge floated about six inches off the floor without making a sound. All this time, Marcia watched cartoons in the living room, showing no fright, no hysterics. Was she accustomed to the commotion? Was she the mastermind behind a hoax, a frustrated, lonely girl seeking attention?

Evidence didn’t support the latter hypothesis, because things happened in one room while the parents and Marcia were with an officer in a different room. A bureau fell in Marcia’s room even though nobody was in the room at the time. A wooden cross on the wall began swinging like a pendulum — slowly at first, then faster — before pulling away from the wall, nail and all, and hitting one of the officers in the chest.

When 10 firemen, traveling in three units, arrived, along with the firehouse chaplain, the 738-square-foot house was brimming with people — and chaos. Chairs moved. Dishes rattled. Shelves shook. An officer swore he heard the Goodin’s cat, Sam, talk. The priest reported a heaviness overtaking him. He attempted to perform a house blessing, but a vial of holy water tipped over when he reached for it — twice.

A neighbor with knowledge of poltergeists knew of a theory in which children served as unconscious “agents” for the activity. Could Marcia, a shy girl overprotected by her mother and picked on by her peers, be acting as a gateway for a poltergeist?

The same neighbor phoned famous paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who arrived with a priest and a 21-year-old seminary student. (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga portrayed the Warrens in The Conjuring, a 2013 movie based on a true story about a haunted house in Rhode Island.) The Warrens were present when the recliner in the living room started to rise — with Marcia in it — and flipped in midair, dropping the young girl to the floor.

By 4 a.m. reporters from New Haven and New York stations began to arrive. The events at the humble home built in 1923 were soon nationwide, courtesy of the Associated Press. Perhaps piqued by the demonic movie The Exorcist, which had come out less than a year before, a crowd on the relatively quiet two-lane street swelled to more than 2,000. Some people hurled questions at the police. An enterprising few sold snacks. Others threw garlic toward the front steps. Many in the crowd said they saw a pair of concrete swan planters on the front stoop slowly turn toward each other. [Editor’s note – the photograph below, from a 1974 edition of The Bridgeport Post, shows the swarms of people gathered outside the Goodin home.]

Later that day, with the crowd growing even larger, the Warrens returned, making their way through the police barricades. Lorraine became nauseous, especially in Marcia’s room, and got a burn on her left hand that formed a blister. People in the house noticed a sulfur smell coming from Marcia’s room, though no one could explain it. Ed was convinced the events were caused by “poltergeist activity” through Marcia. The Warrens felt an exorcism was necessary, and they headed home to arrange it.

According to The World’s Most Haunted House, the air in the tiny home became “heavy” before a force revealed itself. It “resembled a large, cohesive assemblage of smoky yellowish-white ‘gauzy’ mist” and separated into four entities. One entity picked up Marcia and threw her. Everyone in the house went onto the front lawn in a cold, November rain. The Warrens returned around 9 p.m.

Back inside, tables moved and chairs reclined. Marcia was pulled through the air in the kitchen and slammed into the wall. Occupants felt a cold sensation, though there were no drafts in the house. Coats moved. Desk drawers opened. The TV pivoted. Marcia … confessed?

One of the officers claimed that during questioning Marcia had admitted to banging on walls and floors, pushing the TV with her feet, knocking a crucifix to the floor, throwing pictures, making Sam talk and causing other unusual things to happen. Still, some people who had witnessed the strange events firsthand refused to believe that a 10-year-old girl could pull off such a hoax. Some suspected that the Warrens played a part, as a means to build their reputation, and may have even paid the Goodins to play along. (Lorraine, they surmised, put her hand under hot water to get the blister.) The Goodins, appalled at the notion that the Warrens may have exaggerated the incident to bolster their career, told the paranormal investigators to leave and never return.

Police superintendent Joseph A. Walsh told the press that “the incidents have been officially classified as a hoax and the case has been closed.” He added that Marcia was being referred for psychiatric help, and that everything that occurred in the house had a rational explanation. Witnesses “were victims of the power of suggestion,” Walsh said.

The Goodins denied perpetrating a hoax. How could their 10-year-old girl, who a month earlier had been injured, budge heavy furniture or move objects nowhere near her? They claimed the occurrences were classified as a hoax to abate hysteria and disperse crowds.

Closing the case failed to diminish the crowds; curious onlookers continued to gather outside 966 Lindley Street, hoping to catch a glimpse of something from another realm. Gerard smelled smoke after returning from his brother’s house on Thanksgiving. An officer working crowd control found a small fire that had been started near the foundation. That night, two men seen running through woods behind the house were charged with arson. They claimed they were trying to rid the home of evil.

Police continued to patrol outside the house into December, though by that time crowds had dwindled. Despite the ongoing police presence, the Goodins couldn’t escape the disruptive notoriety. Their home was egged and their windows were broken. Their car tires were slashed, too. The Goodins wanted to get away, so on Jan. 10, 1975, they put the house up for sale for $21,500. Unable to sell the small bungalow after a year on the market, Gerard painted it white and removed the recognizable swan planters. [Editor’s note – Owen found the below image online. It was taken in 1974 by Boyce Batey, who was part of a scientific team that investigated the house at the time. Notice the infamous swan planters flanking the front door.]

The house never sold. Gerard and Laura remained on Lindley Street — and remained mum on the events that transpired in the mid-’70s — for the rest of their lives. They were still living there in 1987, when the condos that Gerard opposed in 1972 were built. Laura died at 68 in a 1993 car crash. Gerard died of natural causes four years later. He was 78.

Marcia was not mentioned in either obituary.

For more stalking fun, follow Lindsay on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

For some grammar fun (is that an oxymoron?), check out my blog, When Write Is Wrong.

Big THANK YOU to Lindsay for allowing me to partake in her annual Haunted Hollywood postings. [Editor’s note – You’re welcome! And a big THANK YOU to you for the riveting article! I’m heading to Amazon right now to order The World’s Most Haunted House!]

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: “The world’s most haunted house” is located at 966 Lindley Street in Bridgeport, Connecticut. If you stalk this location and see anything otherworldly, run!

October 23, 2014September 29, 2017

New “Los Angeles” Mag Post – About the Fortuneteller’s House from “Phantasm”

Don’t forget to read today’s Los Angeles magazine post – about the Fortuneteller’s house from Phantasm. My posts typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

October 17, 2014September 29, 2017

Yvette Vickers’ Former Home

Boulevard of broken dreams – that phrase pops into my head every time I venture down Hollywood Boulevard and see the men and woman costumed as super heroes or movie stars charging tourists to take a photograph with them. I can’t imagine it is what anyone who sets out for Los Angeles hopes to do and is a reminder of the sad turn a life in show business can take. Even those who gain notoriety at some point in their career are not immune to a tragic end – like Yvette Vickers, the actress and Playboy Playmate who was found mummified, alone and forgotten, in her decrepit Benedict Canyon home in 2011. The Grim Cheaper and I ventured out to see her residence in person shortly after her body was discovered, though I never blogged about it. When I learned recently from my buddy Scott Michaels, of the Find a Death website, that the structure had been torn down, I figured it was finally time that I do so.

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For those not familiar with the story, Yvette Vickers grew up with dreams of becoming an actress. The petite beauty graduated from UCLA with a degree in theatre and quickly landed a role in Sunset Boulevard. Though it was an uncredited part, it was quite a substantial first break. Other small roles followed. She was featured in a White Rain Shampoo commercial and the movie Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman, as well as its sequel, Attack of the Giant Leeches. In July 1959, she was named the Playboy Playmate of the Month. Yvette never obtained the level of fame she so desired, though, and spent the next few decades piddling in bit parts, until they, too, dried up. She dabbled in real estate for a time and, then in early 2000, worked the fan convention circuit. Sadly though, Vickers was going blind due to macular degeneration. During her final years she became paranoid and delusional, convinced she had stalkers. It was not long before she was a complete recluse, holed up in her tiny cottage on Westwanda Drive.

Reports differ as to when Yvette purchased the Benedict Canyon property. According to a fabulous Los Angeles magazine article from 2012 titled “Left Behind,” Vickers originally moved into the residence with her first husband (she had three over the course of her life), jazz bassist Don Prell, shortly after their wedding in 1953. She was then granted the home when the two divorced in 1957. Scott Michaels’s account states, though, that Yvette purchased the bungalow in 1980 at a cost of $56,000. Either way, it was inside the 1948 dwelling pictured below that Yvette lived out her final years. The miniscule residence measured one bedroom, one bath and a scant 676 square feet, and sat on a 0.19-acre plot of land. By all accounts, towards the end, the cottage was dilapidated and falling apart in places. Broken windows were held together by duct tape, holes in exterior walls were covered over with tarps and exterior foliage had grown through to the interior of the house. Yvette had also become something of a hoarder, with boxes, clothing and paraphernalia cluttered throughout the tiny structure.

Yvette Vickers House (4 of 7)

On the morning of April 27th, 2011, Vickers’ neighbor Susan Savage happened to pass by the house, spotted some cobwebs in the mailbox and became alarmed. She had not seen Yvette in months and, though that was not unusual, decided to check on her. Of entering the home, Susan said, “I knocked on her gate for long time; it was impossible to open. It was bolted twice, nailed shut, and then, braced at the base with a 2×4. Trust me, it was NOT easily accessible from the street. If it was, our mail carrier might have been able to make contact sooner. I ended up scaling her steeply graded hillside, stepping over high metal barricades and bloodying myself in the process, till I finally got onto her property. All the doors and windows were locked and reinforced from within. I knocked on every door/window, calling her name the whole time. I could see that the lights were on, but there was no response. I went down to the front door of the house, and saw the broken window pane which is how I ultimately got in.” When Savage reached the dwelling’s second floor, she discovered what was left of Yvette’s body, mummified on the floor. It had likely been sitting there for months. Though a lot of criticism was soon thrown at neighbors and friends for not notifying authorities that the 82-year-old had not been heard from in months, it is obvious that Yvette was, at least in her final years, someone who did not want any sort of contact with the outside world.

Next-of-kin was Perry Palmer, Yvette’s half-brother. The two had not known of each other’s existence until much later in life and never grew close. Perry had the home cleared of all of Yvette’s belongings a couple of months after her death and the property was put on the market as “a major fixer-upper” in September 2011 for $499,000. You can check out some photos of what the interior of the house looked like at that time here and you can check out a great video filmed by Scott Michaels about the home here. The residence ultimately sold in January of the following year for $275,000 and was torn down at some point thereafter. Boulevard of broken dreams, indeed.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Yvette Vickers’ house was formerly located at 10021 Westwanda Drive in Beverly Hills.

October 14, 2014September 29, 2017

Fosselman’s Ice Cream from “Phantasm”

When I was a little girl, my grandma would regularly take me out for an afterschool treat at our local ice cream parlor. I cherished those trips, and now the memories of them, and was absolutely devastated when the parlor closed down about 15 years ago only to be replaced by a gift store. So when I came across this Freddy in Space posting about an old time ice cream shop still in operation – one that is a filming location, no less – I just had to stalk the place.

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Fosselman’s Ice Cream Company was founded by Christian Anthony Fosselman at his family’s Waverly, Iowa bottling plant in 1919. Christian’s father, who hailed from Germany, had established the brewery in the 18th Century, which Christian later took over. Besides beer, the company also manufactured soda. When the prohibition years halted the sale of alcohol, Christian began producing ice cream which he would freeze using blocks of ice from the nearby Cedar River.

Once mechanical refrigeration became more common, Christian decided to move the operation, as well as his family, to sunny Southern California. They settled in Pasadena in 1924 and opened up the first West Coast Fosselman’s Ice Cream parlor on Fair Oaks Avenue. Christian moved the store to South Pasadena’s Mission Street in 1936 and followed up with sister parlors, first in Alhambra in 1941 and then in Highland Park in 1946. While the South Pas outpost soon became an area landmark, it was shuttered in 1974 when the building that housed it was set to be demolished. (A plaque currently marks its former location at 1515 Mission Street.) The Highland Park store was also closed around the same time, but the Alhambra Fosselman’s remains standing to this day – over seventy years after its inception!

The parlor is still owned and operated by the Fosselman family and all of the ice cream served is handmade daily on the premises. While there are over 200 flavor variations in the Fosselman’s repertoire (from such staples as Cookie Dough, French Vanilla Bean and Strawberry to the more exotic Brown Butter, Lychee and Rum Raisin), “only” 48 are available on any given day. From what I’ve been able to gather via online reviews, all are pretty darn fabulous. In fact, The Guardian UK’s Killian Fox proclaimed that Fosselman’s serves the “Best Milkshakes” on the planet in his 2009 article The 50 Best Things to Eat in the World, and Where to Eat Them.

Apparently, the locals agree. When the Grim Cheaper and I stopped by at around 11 in the morning on a recent Saturday, the place was jam-packed!

We opted for a scoop of Coffee & Cookies – a Columbian coffee-flavored ice cream hand-mixed with Oreo cookies. Because I am diabetic, I only had a couple of licks, but the small bit I did sample was easily some of the best ice cream I have ever tasted.

Way back in 1979, Fosselman’s Ice Cream masked as Reggie’s Ice Cream in the horror flick Phantasm. Well, sort of. The parlor only appeared in a deleted scene – the scene in which Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) started an ice cream fight with his brother’s friend Reggie (Reggie Bannister). I had yet to see Phantasm at the time that I stalked Fosselman’s and had to actually order a special edition of the DVD in order to watch the deleted scene. Now having seen it, all I can say is: Egads, what a terrible movie! I did enjoy the Fosselman’s scene, though. As you can see below, little of the shop has changed since Phantasm was shot over 35 years ago.

I was thrilled to spot some signage featuring the Fosselman’s logo in the background of the deleted scene.

The storefront used for the exterior of Reggie’s Ice Cream – which did make Phantasm’s final cut – is located about 140 miles south of Alhambra in the town of Julian. In real life, it is known as Julian Café & Bakery.

Big THANK YOU to the Freddy in Space blog for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Fosselman’s Ice Cream, aka the interior of Reggie’s Ice Cream from Phantasm, is located at 1824 West Main Street in Alhambra. You can visit the parlor’s official website here. The exterior of Reggie’s Ice Cream is the Julian Café & Bakery located at 2112 Main Street in Julian. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

October 3, 2014September 29, 2017

The American Cement Building from “Scream 3”

While I am admittedly not a fan of MacArthur Park, there is a property situated on the border of it that I would absolutely LOVE to live in – The American Cement Building. Mike from, MovieShotsLA, pointed out the dramatically stunning structure many moons ago during one of our very first stalks together and I have been obsessed with it ever since. And while Mike also informed me that the edifice had appeared in the 2000 horror flick Scream 3, for some reason I never thought to blog about the place during my Haunted Hollywood postings. That changes today!

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The American Cement Building was constructed in 1964 and originally served as the American Cement Company’s headquarters. The Daniel, Mann, Johnson and Mendenhall (DMJM) architecture firm designed the 13-story structure, which was, fittingly, manufactured out of reinforced concrete.

The north and south sides of the building are covered in latticework comprised of 450 X-shaped pieces of precast concrete. While the design adds beauty to the structure’s façade and is striking to look at, it serves a functional objective, as well. According to the Los Angeles Conservancy website, “The primary purpose of the latticework is to provide external support for the structural system so the building’s interior can be free of columns.”

The American Cement Building underwent a multi-million dollar renovation in 2002 during which time the office spaces were transformed into 71 live/work lofts. You can check out some great interior photographs of the property here. The units – and their views – are breathtaking!

In Scream 3, The American Cement Building housed the office of horror movie producer John Milton (Lance Henriksen).

At the time of the filming, the interior of the building was far less modern than it is today.

I absolutely LOVE the fact that Milton had a diving board attached to his window in the flick. Anyone care for a swim? Winking smile

The American Cement Building also appeared in Pharrell Williams’ music video “Come Get It Bae,” which featured Miley Cyrus.

The building’s parking garage was where The Bride (Uma Thurman) learned how to wiggle her toe again in Kill Bill: Vol. 1.

The Entourage movie also apparently did some filming at the building in March of this year.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The American Cement Building, from Scream 3, is located at 2404 Wilshire Boulevard in Westlake. You can visit the building’s official website here.

October 30, 2013September 29, 2017

The Cobb Estate from “Phantasm”

One locale that I came across (thanks to an article on Amoeblog) while doing research for my 2012 Haunted Hollywood posts was the former Cobb Estate in Altadena, the gates of which appeared in the 1979 cult horror film Phantasm. And while I stalked the location shortly thereafter, for whatever reason I never got around to blogging about it last October. I actually completely forgot about the site, in fact, until I sat down to write my recent post on Angeles Abbey Memorial Park, which was used in two installments of the Phantasm series – Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead and Phantasm IV: Oblivion. Well, it is better to be late than never, as they say, right?

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The Cobb Estate is named after lumber magnate Charles H. Cobb, who, along with his wife, Carrie, purchased the then vacant 107-acre site in 1916. Two years later, the couple commissioned a rambling Spanish-style mansion to be built on the premises. When Charles, who was a Freemason, passed away in 1939, he willed the massive estate and its acreage to the Pasadena Scottish Rite Temple. The brotherhood sold the site just a few years later and it subsequently went through a succession of different owners, including the Sisters of Saint Joseph. Then, in 1956, the Marx Brothers (yes, those Marx Brothers) purchased the property as an investment. It was left vacant while they debated what to do with it and became a popular hangout for miscreants who vandalized the once elegant grounds and mansion. Sadly, in 1959, the Brothers decided to demolish the majority of the Cobbs’ former home. Today, all that survives is the foundation, a few rock walls, some exterior stairwells, a long, twisting driveway, and the front gates.

In 1971, after their plans to turn to site into a cemetery were thwarted, the Marx Brothers put the land up for auction. Bob Barnes, a social studies teacher at nearby John Muir High School in Pasadena, caught wind of the sale and, fearing that it would be acquired and pillaged by developers, rallied his students to raise funds to save the property. Miraculously, they did. In nine days time – and thanks to a generous donation from art collector Virginia Steele Scott – the group garnered over $150,000. According to this 2011 Pasadena Star-News article, when the auction was held, Barnes was outbid by $25,000, but he made a last-minute plea to auctioneer Milton Wershaw saying his was the “people’s bid.” Wershaw halted the auction for five minutes so that the group could raise the extra funds and even chipped in $1,000 himself. The money was gathered, at which point, in a heart-warming twist, one of the land developers stepped down, announcing, “I am with the people, I shall bid no more!” Barnes wound up donating the 107 acres to the Angeles National Forest and, in my favorite part of the story, headed out to Hollywood the following day, purchased a map of the stars’ homes, rang Groucho Marx’s doorbell, and thanked him. So incredibly cool!

Today, the Cobb Estate is, as the sign on the gate will tell you, “A quiet refuge for people and wild life forever.” The popular hiking area is apparently open 24 hours a day and after-dark walks are allowed. Um, no thanks. Winking smile

At some point in time (and for reasons unknown to this stalker – and seemingly everyone else on the internet, although there have been some reported unexplained occurrences), the property gained the nickname the “Haunted Forest.” (It is also known as the “Enchanted Forest.”)

In Phantasm, the gates of the Cobb Estate masqueraded as the entrance to Morningside Cemetery, lair of The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm).

Oddly enough, though, all of the scenes that supposedly took place behind the gates were actually shot about 400 miles away at the Dunsmuir Hellman Historic Estate in Oakland.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for making the Phantasm screen captures that appear in this post!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The gates to the Cobb Estate, from Phantasm, are located at the intersection of North Lake Avenue and East Loma Alta Drive in Altadena.

October 25, 2013September 29, 2017

Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin Patch

I thought I would break away from tradition today by blogging about a place that has no celebrity or film connection – Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin Patch, which is without a doubt the BEST pumpkin patch I have ever been to in my life! I may be breaking from the norm more often in the coming months actually, by turning my site into more of a guide to L.A. than strictly to filming locations. The focus will, of course, always be movie, TV and pop culture locales, but I have come across so many cool spots over the years with no celebrity connection (like Lula Mae, one of my favorite places in the world) that I wanted to feature, but didn’t feel like I could. Because I get countless emails from fellow stalkers asking for restaurant/hotel/things-to-do recommendations on an almost daily basis, though, I figured it was time that I started. Today’s post is about one of those types of spots. And while Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin Patch is located in Redlands and, therefore, a bit out of the way, it is worth every minute of the drive. If you live in the area or are visiting L.A. during the month of October, you should definitely make the trip!

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Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin Patch was originally founded in 1980 by a man named Gregg Palmer. Back in the 1950s, Gregg’s grandfather, Lowell S. Palmer, was driving towards Los Angeles from the Palm Springs area and during the journey happened to turn his head to watch cattle grazing in a pasture near the freeway. Fate intervened when the wind blew Lowell’s hat off and into the pasture. He pulled over to recover it and, while doing so, struck up a conversation with the landowner and wound up purchasing the 450-acre site that same day. Lowell named his new farm Live Oak Canyon Ranch.

In 1980, Gregg decided to plant Christmas trees, pumpkins and gourds in a 45-acre section of the property that was then vacant. The Live Oak Canyon Christmas Tree Farm started selling trees in 1983. A few years later, the Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin Patch, or The Pumpkin Patch, as it is also known, opened on the site. It has been going strong ever since.

The Grim Cheaper and I discovered the location last year while driving back to Pasadena from my parents’ house in the desert thanks to a huge pumpkin displayed on a mountaintop overlooking the freeway. I was immediately in awe of the patch due to its size and the fact that we could actually cut the pumpkins off the vine ourselves. I had never known places like that even existed! We ended up spending about five hours at the patch that day and this year Live Oak Canyon was at the top of my list of Halloween-related locales to visit.

Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin Patch, where one can easily spend an entire day, boasts an amazeballs gift shop filled with all sorts of Halloween paraphernalia (none of which the GC would let me buy Sad smile ), a picnic area, a snack tent, pony rides, a petting zoo, a quad race, a hay castle, several bounce houses, slides, games, an aviary, a huge food court with over a dozen specialty vendors, live entertainment, a tractor-pulled hayride, acres and acres of sunflowers, and a corn maze.

This year, the GC and I decided to buy tickets for said corn maze, which I mistakenly thought would be a snap to get through.

The labyrinth, which is comprised of 12,000 feet of twists, turns and dead-ends, wound up taking us a good two hours to complete and was beyond challenging – and beyond fun!

The two-part maze works as follows – upon entering, one is given a card with sketchings of eight different “Photo Op” spots that can be found hidden inside the cornfield, four in each section.

Each Photo Op spot has a corresponding number on it that is part of two different four-digit codes.

One code is required to unlock the lockbox on the doors leading from Part I to Part II of the maze and the second code is needed to exit the door located at the very end of the challenge. As you can see we had a blast – and got our exercise for the day. I seriously wish I had been wearing my pedometer because I think we walked over ten miles getting through that thing! The patch also offers a special nighttime corn maze for those who are so inclined to complete in the dark. Yeah, no thank you. Winking smile

After the maze, the GC and I headed over to the U-Pick pumpkin patch.

The 12-acre area features over 15 different varieties of orange pumpkins and over 15 specialty pumpkin varieties . . .

. . . all of which you actually pull of the vine yourself! I mean, how incredibly cool is that? LOVE IT!

Pictured below is the pumpkin the GC and I picked. I adore the stem!

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin Patch is located at 32335 Live Oak Canyon Road in Redlands. You can visit the patch’s official website here. The property is open 7 days a week through November 2nd. Admission on weekends is $2 per person and weekdays are free.

October 24, 2013September 29, 2017

Dan Aykroyd’s Former Haunted House

Another spooky locale that I learned about thanks to fellow stalker E.J., of The Movieland Directory, and his fabulous book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites was the longtime home of Ghostbuster Dan Aykroyd and his wife, actress Donna Dixon. The residence piqued my interest due to Aykroyd’s claim of numerous hauntings taking place there over the years. So I, of course, immediately added it to my Haunted Hollywood To-Stalk list and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there back in early May.

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Dan Aykroyd is not the first celebrity to live in the two-story, country-style abode. In fact, the property’s tenancy records read like a Who’s Who of Hollywood and include such luminaries as Natalie Wood, Ringo Starr, Alfre Woodard, (possibly) Renee Zellweger, and “Mama” Cass Elliot. According to the book Swans and Pistols, during Cass’ tenure there, the singer encouraged famous guests like Eric Clapton, Ryan O’Neal, David Crosby, and Don Johnson to write notes on a “graffiti” wall in the living room. (How cool would that have been to see?) Dan and Donna purchased the site sometime during the 1980s and it was not long before strange occurrences started taking place.

A 2003 iVillage article quoted Dan as saying, “A ghost certainly haunts my house. It once even crawled into bed with me. I rolled over and just nuzzled up to whatever it was and went back to sleep. The ghost also turns on the Stairmaster and moves jewelry across the dresser. I’m sure it’s Mama Cass because you get the feeling it’s a big ghost.” Dan’s bed must have been a pretty busy place because in 2005 he told ContactMusic.com that the spirit of a man who died at the home in the 1960s bunked with him, as well. That same year he also spoke of the specter in a Huffington Post interview, saying, “Have I personally ever seen a ghost? Not one. Have I ever felt an unseen presence near me? Damn right. In my bed no less when we lived in Mama Cass’s Hollywood estate.” You can watch a video below of Aykroyd talking about selling the Cass residence and the fact that he had to disclose that there had been some “unusual activity” on the premises “that could not be explained rationally or physically.”

And after going through my photographs of the property yesterday, I tend to believe him. The picture below, which gave me the chills when I saw it, has not been altered in any way. Creeeeeeepy!

Aykroyd apparently put the house on the market several times while owning it, but the place never sold. I guess not many people are willing to cuddle up to ghosts. According to The Real Estalker, in 2006, the actor tried to lease it out at the whopping rate of $30,000 a month. It remained on the market for over 450 days, though, until he decided to offer it for sale in November 2007 for $4.2 million.

According to Berg Properties, the estate was finally sold one month later to none other than actress Beverly D’Angelo (of the Vacation movies) for $3.8 million. She, too, has been visited by Mama Cass’ apparition, as she talks about in the below (overly dramatic) clip from a Season 3 episode of Celebrity Ghost Stories.

Sadly, not much of the 4,828-square-foot residence is visible from the street. According to The Real Estalker, the estate, which was originally built in 1951, boasts 5 bedrooms, 5.5 baths, a master bedroom with an attached office and weight room, a library, 6 fireplaces, over one acre of land, a pool, and a motor court. There also seems to be some sort of tree house on the premises, as you can see below. You can check out some interior photographs of the pad – wallpapered kitchen ceiling and all – here.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to E.J., of The Movieland Directory, for writing about this location in his book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Dan Aykroyd’s former haunted house is located at 7708 Woodrow Wilson Drive in the Hollywood Hills.

October 23, 2013September 29, 2017

Heather’s House from “New Nightmare”

Way back in April, after stalking the talking road condition sign location from L.A. Story (which I blogged about here) and Malibu Hindu Temple from Beverly Hills Ninja (which I blogged about here), Mike, from MovieShotsLA, took me to the Tarzana-area house where Heather Langenkamp (who played herself) lived with her husband, Chase Porter (David Newsom), and son, Dylan (Miko Hughes), in the 1994 horror flick Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. And while I had not yet seen New Nightmare at the time, Mike thought the residence would fit in perfectly with my Haunted Hollywood theme – and he was right. I’m not typically a huge fan of sci-fi-style horror flicks (I much prefer the Scream/I Know What You Did Last Summer/more realistic brand of scary movies), but I just watched New Nightmare and have to say that I actually enjoyed it. That most likely has to do with the fact that the flick centers around the filming of a new installment of the Nightmare series, during which a grown-up Heather Langenkamp, the actress who starred as Nancy Thompson in the first and third A Nightmare on Elm Streets, has to deal with the fact that the character of Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) has come to life and is stalking her son. Y’all know me – anything having to do with the production of a movie and I’m in!

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Heather’s house was one of the main locations used in New Nightmare and the property shows up repeatedly throughout the movie – usually in nighttime scenes.

Despite the fact that almost twenty years have passed since filming took place (How can that be, by the way??? That means that it’s practically time for my twenty-year high school reunion!!!), the residence still looks almost exactly the same today as it did then.

Even the mailbox has been left unchanged!

Had to do it! Winking smile

In real life, the five-bedroom, five-bath residence, which was originally built in 1952, measures 4,512 square feet and sits on a 0.43-acre plot of land. It last sold in November 1996 for $741,000.

As you can see, the dwelling is really quite idyllic and picturesque and not the type of place where one would expect a horror film to be shot, but perhaps that was the point – that nightmares can happen anywhere.

The real life interior of the home . . .

. . . as well as the backyard, both of which you can see photographs of here, were also used in the filming.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Heather’s house from Wes Craven’s New Nightmare is located at 5132 Calvin Avenue in Tarzana.

October 21, 2013September 29, 2017

Angeles Abbey Memorial Park from “Alias”

Today’s locale is one of my favorite Haunted Hollywood locations ever! Way back in January 2012, fellow stalker Gilles from France sent me an email asking for some help in tracking down a mosque-like structure that stood in for a Moroccan airport in the Season 1 episode of Alias titled “A Broken Heart.” Gilles included some screen captures in his email and, upon first glance, I guessed that the place was most likely a cemetery. So I did a quick Google search for a mosque-like graveyard in Los Angeles and the first result to be kicked back was Angeles Abbey Memorial Park in Compton. Sure enough, it was the right place. And while I was pretty much drooling upon looking at pictures of the site, because of its location, I avoided stalking it. Then, feeling brave this summer after finally visiting the spot where the Black Dahlia’s body was found, I bit the bullet and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there. And I am very happy to report that it is not located in a dangerous area at all.

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Angeles Abbey Memorial Park was originally established in 1923 by a shipbuilder named George Clegg. The Long Beach native reportedly sent two architects to India for inspiration and, upon their return, had them build a 1,000-crypt mausoleum resembling the Taj Mahal. The Moorish-style structure featured imported Italian marble, intricate tile work, and stained-glass windows and ceilings. Sadly though, as you can see below, the building’s façade is currently blocked by large trees and most of its beauty hidden.

The rear of the structure is visible to passersby, though, and pretty darn amazing in and of itself. And don’t even get me started on the interior! We, unfortunately, did not venture inside any of the mausoleums while stalking Angeles Abbey, but I came upon these stunning photographs while doing research for this post and am now absolutely kicking myself! The interiors are nothing short of stunning! Uh-ma-zing!

Other equally-impressive mausoleums were built in the late 1920s and today, Angeles Abbey Memorial Park is the final resting place for over 35,000 souls.

Sadly though, as Compton began to change in the 1960s, the cemetery fell into disrepair. In 2001, the site was grappling with graffiti, vandalism and gang activity. It appears to be in a bit better shape today, though, thankfully, aside from the acres of dead grass.

Stepping onto the grounds of Angeles Abbey is like stepping into another world. Standing there, I had to remind myself that I was still in L.A. and not in some exotic, far-off locale. It is no wonder the place has so often graced movie and television screens.

Ironically enough, though, Angeles Abbey has rarely appeared onscreen as a cemetery. For having such decidedly unique and ornate architecture, the place is truly a blank canvass – one that production designers have turned into everything from a jail to a palace to a courthouse to an airport. As I mentioned above, the exterior of Abbey Memorial stood in for an airport in Morocco in the Season 1 episode of Alias titled “A Broken Heart.”

In that same episode, the interior of the main mausoleum masqueraded as a a bustling Moroccan marketplace.

It is absolutely amazing to me that production designers were able to so completely transform a freaking mausoleum into a Middle Eastern bazaar! That speaks to both their talent and the beauty of the site.

The cemetery popped up again in the Season 4 episode of Alias titled “Ice.” In the episode, the exteriors . . .

. . . and interiors of Angeles Abbey stood in for the Arabian souk where Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) tried to purchase a deadly bio-weapon.

Angeles Abbey was used extensively in the Season 1 episode of JAG titled “Scimitar,” which originally aired in 1995. In the episode, one of the mausoleums masqueraded as Al Mataha Prison in Basra, Iraq where Corporal David Anderson (Ron Livingston – aka Sex and the City’s Berger!) was held.

The interior of one of the mausoleums was also used as the interior of the prison courthouse in “Scimitar.”

In that same episode, Angeles Abbey’s main mausoleum stood in for Al Ba’Ran, one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces.

The interior of the main mausoleum was also utilized as the interior of the palace in the episode.

Thanks to the Phantasm Archives website, I learned that Abbey Memorial Park appeared in Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead. Unfortunately, I could not find a copy of the 1994 horror flick anywhere, but I did manage to make the screen captures pictured below from the trailer, which I found on YouTube.

Thanks again to the Phantasm Archives website, I also learned that the cemetery was used briefly for the mausoleum scenes in Phantasm IV: Oblivion.

In the 2005 movie Constantine, the interior of Abbey Memorial Park’s main mausoleum masqueraded as the underground storage room belonging to Midnite (Djimon Hounsou), where John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) revisited Hell by electrocuting himself in an electric chair from Sing Sing.

And while a 2001 Los Angeles Times article states that the cemetery appeared in 1987’s The Untouchables, I scanned through the movie and did not see it pop up anywhere.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Gilles for challenging me to find this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Angeles Abbey Memorial Park, from the “A Broken Heart” episode of Alias, is located at 1515 East Compton Boulevard in Compton.