It’s that spooktacular time of year again! Pretty soon, we’re all going to be going out in our wild and scary costume, pigging out on candy, and jumping at the sight of our own shadow. And who do we have to thank for giving us the creeps with visions of a psycho stabbing us in the shower—or twins asking us to play as we turn down the hall? Hollywood, of course!
Hollywood might appear to be all glitter, glam and palm trees, but behind the hills (and on them, too!) lies inspiration for some of the greatest scares known to the world. Here are five of some of the most haunted places in Howlywood—whoops…I mean, Hollywood!
5. Comedy Store
Before this club was home of some of the world’s greatest comedians like Lucille Ball, Dean Martin, and Jerry Seinfeld, The Comedy Store was a hip and hoppin’ club in West Hollywood and home to numerous mobsters. One mobster who still haunts the building is known as Gus, a hit man who is still upset over being betrayed by his gang and murdered.
According to the legend, the common room gets unbearably cold—and often you can see your breath. Waitresses have set tables, only to turn around and have table cloths re-folded and silverware put away again. If someone turned a light off, chances are, it’d be turned on again. Employees also get calls on the intercom from a the non existent Line 31—and all that is on the other line is someone breathing heavily. As bizarre as it is, employees don’t feel threatened—they think these ghosts have a sense of humor. After all, the ghosts only call whenever everyone is really busy!
8433 Sunset BLVD
Los Angeles, CA 90069-1993
(323) 650-6268
4. Silent Movie Theater
After the first talkie, The Jazz Singer in 1927, silent movies became a thing of the past. But in 1942, John Hampton founded the Silent Movie Theater in hopes to bring silent classics back to the people, since most studios were destroying old footage to make room for the new.
Hampton and his wife, Dorothy, were diagnosed with cancer after years of being exposed to the chemicals it took to restore all of their films. After they both died in 1990, it reopened under Lawrence Austin. It wasn’t long before Austin was murdered in 1996 by his business partner, James Van Sickle and gunman Christian Rodriguez.
Now under new management, employees report seeing and hearing both former proprietors, usually after hours. Austin often likes to come out around Halloween, where one worker claims that Austin spoke to him on his way to work.
611 N Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036-1714
(323) 655-2520
3. Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel
The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel is the epitome of Hollywood—the first Academy Awards took place here, and every A-list star from Hollywood’s Golden Age to now has roomed here at least once.
Located right across the street from Grauman’s Chinese Theater in the midst of Tinseltown, the Roosevelt Hotel is the last place you’d expect for there to be hauntings. However, guests have claimed to see the ghosts of the eternally glamorous Marilyn Monroe and the suave, smooth-talking Montgomery Clift. Monroe, who lived at the hotel for two years as a model allegedly has a mirror that carries her spirit, which now rests in storage. People have also reported seeing her dancing the night away in the hotel ballroom. As for Clift, who spent three months in the hotel while filming From Here to Eternity, some can still hear him playing feverously away on his bugle, as well as striding along the eighth floor.
7000 Hollywood BLVD
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 466-7000
www.thompsonhotels.com/hotels/la/hollywood-roosevelt
2. Supperclub at the Vogue Theater
Back in the 1800s, before the movies, Hollywood BLVD was known as Prospect Avenue. Where the Vogue Theater now stands used to be the Prospect Elementary School, and in 1901 there was a fire, killing 25 students, their teacher, Miss Elizabeth, and burning the building to the ground. The Vogue Theater opened in 1936 and remained a movie theater until 1992, but was left completely abandoned until 1997. There are thousands of accounts of paranormal activity—at least six children and three adult ghosts. One adult ghost was reported to be Miss Elizabeth, and the two others were Fritz, a German projectionist who died of a heart attack, and Danny, a maintenance engineer who died of a drug overdose in the 1980s. People often saw full form apparitions, objects were frequently moved or misplaced, and strange odors came from everywhere in the building.
The Supperclub opened in 2010, and ghost sightings at the newly renovated Vogue Theater have seemed to die down. But, they have a yearly Halloween masquerade, so you can join others in celebrating the scariest night of the year in one of Hollywood’s haunted spots!
6675 Hollywood BLVD
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 466-1900
1. Hollywood Sign
The Hollywood Sign symbolizes the magic that the movies are capable of bringing to the world. But, for as long as there’s been movie magic, there have been countless young hopefuls trying to make their way in the film industry. Among the unsuccessful was Peg Entwistle, an aspiring English actress down on her luck, living with her uncle in downtown Hollywood. One morning she told her uncle she was going to the drugstore to see some friends, and did not return. She left a suicide note, and jumped off the “H” of the sign, to be discovered later by an anonymous hiker.
People going for walks in these hills have claimed to witness a woman in clothes of the ‘20s approaching them and soon disappearing, and even jumping off the letter.