Monday, July 2, 2012

Haunted Hollywood, Part 5

5.  The Roosevelt Hotel
     7000 Hollywood Blvd.
     Hollywood, CA 90028

Personal ghost story five of six.


The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel is one of those places that just feels haunted the minute you walk through the front door.   It's iconic.  Over the decades, practically every Hollywood legend has stepped foot in that hotel.  In fact, the first Academy Awards were presented in the hotel ballroom in 1929, thus cementing the location as a true Hollywood historic landmark.

Ghost stories at the Roosevelt are plentiful.  The restless ghost of Montgomery Clift is said to haunt Room 928.  There'a mirror in a hallway near the gift shop where the ghostly image of Marilyn Monroe is sometimes seen.  The ghosts of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard are also rumored to pay visits to the site.  


I enjoy popping into the Roosevelt  when I'm in Hollywood.  I always end up wandering around, soaking up the atmosphere.  Almost always, I stop in the bar for a drink or two.  A bartender used to swear to me that a ghost broke at least one glass a day during her shift.  While I wish I could say Marilyn winked at me or Clark Gable broke my whiskey glass, I can only speak to one paranormal claim at the Roosevelt -- the alleged cold spot in the hotel ballroom.  I've been in that ballroom at least four times and each time, I've felt that cold spot.  If you're walking gin the ballroom door, the spot is roughly in the left center of the room.  There's no explanation as to why this cold spot exists.  But it does.

I love this photograph of the first Academy Awards, taken in the ballroom.


Look at all the smiles, the egos, the suspicious glances.  It's a portrait of power, stardom, luck, and skill in all its black and white glory.  Dreams were realized and dashed in that room.  In many ways, Hollywood, as we know it, was born on that spot.

If the afterlife truly is is devoid of ego, I'm willing to bet a lot of dead, bored Hollywood legends are just dying to revisit the town where stardom and power still rule the day.

What what better spot for a door to the other side than the Hollywood Roosevelt ballroom?

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