08-11-2014, 08:32 AM
My sister, Roberta and her yet to be categorized male friend, Michael (Don't call him Mike) came down for the weekend. Michael is a big movie fan so they wanted to do a lot of Hollywood/tourist things.
Naturally, we started the night by going to Musso and Franks, an old school Hollywood Hangout. Charles Bukowski used to hang out in the bar which has the reputation for serving the best martini in town. I have no way to verify this statement. The Martini bit, not the Bukowski bit.
I should have ended the evening there. Good food and conversation and thanks for visiting. But no. The Queen and I also agreed to join them on a haunted Hollywood tour. Now our familiarity with ghost tours is based on the ones we did in England, which were awesome. This time, not so much.
It started at the former Grauman's now the TCL Chinese theater. Good to know that the Chinese theater is now owned by China. Before the tour started our waiting area was inside the candy store which was rife with impulse buys and 'I Love my Penis' mints. We knew this was a scam when we walked to the bus and passed plenty of places outside with benches where we could have waited, many right near where the buses departed.
Our tour guide was a former stand-up comic who loved Hollywood. I think at every house she said she wished she could have spent the night in there and then asked if we would want to spend the night there.
We traveled the streets in an econo-line van that had most of the roof removed. If the van had rolled, we would have been the next stop on the dead in Hollywood tour.
As we were leaving the house, the Queen stopped and said she wanted to get her sweater. Sweater? It's August in Los Angeles. Why would anyone need a sweater? Turns out it was freezing in our open topped conveyance. Fog rolled in and the sky darkened early. I can't imagine how miserable she would have been without it. Strange day.
I will admit the first half of the tour was interesting. We went by Betty Davis and Ozzie Nelson's house. We saw the house they used for the original Halloween. Amazingly it was only about two blocks from the Chinese Theater. We cruised by The Comedy store and all the great Rock clubs in West Hollywood, like The Whisky and The Roxy. (Lyndell has a great story about the Whisky and almost being blown up in the kitchen). I wanted to see Lemmy as he made his nightly sojourn to the Rainbow Room. The closest I came was seeing a guy in a cowboy hat with really big mutton chops.
There was a lot of talk of mobsters shooting people upstairs at both the Laugh Factory and The Comedy store as we continued our tour. Saw the sad sight of the grey colored former home of Tower Records. We went by another Ozzie's house. This time Ozzie Osbourne.
It was all kind of entertaining seeing these homes we had seen on TV or housed people like Frank Sinatra, Elvis and Judy Garland.
But things took a really dark turn when we spotted the sight of the Charles Manson murders. Oddly enough, the tour was taking place on the 45th anniversary of the killings. Our tour guide knew a lot about the killings. She didn't hesitate a beat in telling all the gory details. How may times certain people were stabbed. Sharon Tate pleading for the life of her baby. One women's white nightgown so bloody the cops originally identified it as red. On and on. Our guide was even giving us tips on how to see the crime scene photos on google. She didn't recommend it, but here's how . . . She did that a lot.
The original house has been torn down and a huge mansion now stands in it's place. We saw the mansion multiple times from various vantage points. More details spewed forth every time we spotted it with more reminders that this was the anniversary. Not even seeing Jackie Chan's former house and Harold Loyd's estate helped to erase the pall caused by the site of the Tate-LaBiance murders.
Night had truly fallen as we continued. This meant that our guide now felt it necessary to use a high intensity flashlight to illuminate the houses she described. I'm sure the people inside these houses were overjoyed to have this light beaming into their living rooms. Our guide kept saying how rude the light was but it didn't stop her from lighting up the room where Lana Turner's daughter killed Tony Stompanato. Ah, creepy.
The final leaching of my enjoyment came when our guide announced her intention of driving around the circular driveway of the Menedez house. That seemed to leap over the boundary of propriety. Fortunately, a car blocked the egress so we were spared that humiliation. Instead, we lit up the back room where the Menedez's lost their lives.
Our final stop on the downward spiral was in front of the Viper Room where River Phoenix collapsed and died. We double parked in front of the club only feet from Viper Room patrons who probably wondered who the ghouls were in the white van. I could have reached out and touched them they were so close. Traffic backed up behind us so our stop was thankfully brief.
When the tour ended, all I wanted to do was rush home and shower until the distaste left my body.
I don't have to do that tour ever again.
Naturally, we started the night by going to Musso and Franks, an old school Hollywood Hangout. Charles Bukowski used to hang out in the bar which has the reputation for serving the best martini in town. I have no way to verify this statement. The Martini bit, not the Bukowski bit.
I should have ended the evening there. Good food and conversation and thanks for visiting. But no. The Queen and I also agreed to join them on a haunted Hollywood tour. Now our familiarity with ghost tours is based on the ones we did in England, which were awesome. This time, not so much.
It started at the former Grauman's now the TCL Chinese theater. Good to know that the Chinese theater is now owned by China. Before the tour started our waiting area was inside the candy store which was rife with impulse buys and 'I Love my Penis' mints. We knew this was a scam when we walked to the bus and passed plenty of places outside with benches where we could have waited, many right near where the buses departed.
Our tour guide was a former stand-up comic who loved Hollywood. I think at every house she said she wished she could have spent the night in there and then asked if we would want to spend the night there.
We traveled the streets in an econo-line van that had most of the roof removed. If the van had rolled, we would have been the next stop on the dead in Hollywood tour.
As we were leaving the house, the Queen stopped and said she wanted to get her sweater. Sweater? It's August in Los Angeles. Why would anyone need a sweater? Turns out it was freezing in our open topped conveyance. Fog rolled in and the sky darkened early. I can't imagine how miserable she would have been without it. Strange day.
I will admit the first half of the tour was interesting. We went by Betty Davis and Ozzie Nelson's house. We saw the house they used for the original Halloween. Amazingly it was only about two blocks from the Chinese Theater. We cruised by The Comedy store and all the great Rock clubs in West Hollywood, like The Whisky and The Roxy. (Lyndell has a great story about the Whisky and almost being blown up in the kitchen). I wanted to see Lemmy as he made his nightly sojourn to the Rainbow Room. The closest I came was seeing a guy in a cowboy hat with really big mutton chops.
There was a lot of talk of mobsters shooting people upstairs at both the Laugh Factory and The Comedy store as we continued our tour. Saw the sad sight of the grey colored former home of Tower Records. We went by another Ozzie's house. This time Ozzie Osbourne.
It was all kind of entertaining seeing these homes we had seen on TV or housed people like Frank Sinatra, Elvis and Judy Garland.
But things took a really dark turn when we spotted the sight of the Charles Manson murders. Oddly enough, the tour was taking place on the 45th anniversary of the killings. Our tour guide knew a lot about the killings. She didn't hesitate a beat in telling all the gory details. How may times certain people were stabbed. Sharon Tate pleading for the life of her baby. One women's white nightgown so bloody the cops originally identified it as red. On and on. Our guide was even giving us tips on how to see the crime scene photos on google. She didn't recommend it, but here's how . . . She did that a lot.
The original house has been torn down and a huge mansion now stands in it's place. We saw the mansion multiple times from various vantage points. More details spewed forth every time we spotted it with more reminders that this was the anniversary. Not even seeing Jackie Chan's former house and Harold Loyd's estate helped to erase the pall caused by the site of the Tate-LaBiance murders.
Night had truly fallen as we continued. This meant that our guide now felt it necessary to use a high intensity flashlight to illuminate the houses she described. I'm sure the people inside these houses were overjoyed to have this light beaming into their living rooms. Our guide kept saying how rude the light was but it didn't stop her from lighting up the room where Lana Turner's daughter killed Tony Stompanato. Ah, creepy.
The final leaching of my enjoyment came when our guide announced her intention of driving around the circular driveway of the Menedez house. That seemed to leap over the boundary of propriety. Fortunately, a car blocked the egress so we were spared that humiliation. Instead, we lit up the back room where the Menedez's lost their lives.
Our final stop on the downward spiral was in front of the Viper Room where River Phoenix collapsed and died. We double parked in front of the club only feet from Viper Room patrons who probably wondered who the ghouls were in the white van. I could have reached out and touched them they were so close. Traffic backed up behind us so our stop was thankfully brief.
When the tour ended, all I wanted to do was rush home and shower until the distaste left my body.
I don't have to do that tour ever again.
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit
![[Image: 12140926_10208172085518725_331171509245613847_o.jpg]](https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpt1/t31.0-8/12140926_10208172085518725_331171509245613847_o.jpg)
