You could stay in just about every type of hotel in the world when visiting Hollywood, including tacky neon affairs and chain motels. Why waste your time on one of those hotels, though, when you can stay in one of the haunted hotels in Hollywood?
First up is the legendary Knickerbocker Hotel. This hotel dates back to 1925 when Hollywood glamour was in full effect. Celebrities of all sorts loved to party at the Knickerbocker and Rudolph Valentino even called it one of his favorite places in the world. D.W. Griffith called the Knickerbocker home for a number of years after he couldn’t continue his directing career. He would die at the hotel in 1948 of a stroke.
Frances Farmer was another actress who loved the old hotel. The woman was something of a star in Hollywood, but the older she got, the harder it was to land the film roles. She became an alcoholic and addicted to amphetamines. All the drugs and alcohol caused her to strike out and act a little crazy. One night hotel workers called the police to remove her and her behavior was so bad that was eventually shipped off to a sanitarium.
The actress spent the rest of her life in and out of mental institutions in the state. Doctors were forced to heavily medicate her to control her behavior. When she was off the medications Farmer became delusional and even psychotic. It’s worth noting that on several occasions doctors diagnosed her as a paranoid schizophrenic. Biographers claim she was raped in one hospital and even had a lobotomy, though most of these claims have been disproved.
The Knickerbocker is also the place where William Frawley took his last breath. The actor was famous for his role on “I Love Lucy” in which he portrayed Fred Mertz. The man died of a heart attack just outside the doors to the hotel.
MGM costume designer Irene Gibbons also found death at the hotel though this time by her own hand. Supposedly she was distraught because her love affair with actor Gary Cooper ended when he died in 1961. The following year she slit her wrists before throwing herself out of the window of her room.
The bar of the hotel is rumored to be one of the most haunted spots in the building. For over two decades this area was closed off while the Knickerbocker was used as a retirement home. Not the bar area is a late night coffee shop and café. Many people have seen the ghost of Rudolph Valentino roaming through the former bar. Others have seen the ghost of Marilyn Monroe who stayed there when she was married to Joe DiMaggio. A number of people have seen her spirit in the ladies room.
Another haunted Hollywood hotel is the Hollywood Roosevelt. When the hotel opened in 1927 it was one of the most popular places for celebrities. Dozens of famous actors, writers and directors stayed there over the years. The first ghosts of this hold hotel began appearing when the owners did a number of renovations during the 1980s.
One room in particular is home to cold spots and an icy presence that cannot be explained. There are also a few people who believe the ghost of Marilyn Monroe haunts the hotel, in the area near an old fashioned mirror. Monroe was a frequent guest of the hotel and after the mirror was moved from her former room, she began appearing in the reflection.
Guests of the Alexandria Hotel have experienced some odd and unusual things over the years. Guests have complained about the people staying in the room next to them being too loud, when the rooms are empty. There are also stories of lights flickering, electric problems, and things moving from the room.
In addition there are two physical ghosts haunting the Alexandria. One is a male ghost wearing a white suit. Several people have seen this spirit over the years. The other ghost is that of a little girl. This ghost is sometimes seen in the lobby, playing by herself.
Room 928 is also haunted, only this time it’s supposedly haunted by the ghost of famous actor Montgomery Clift. The room has frequent cold spots and people often feel chills. There are also stories of people feeling someone touch them or watching them when staying in the room. From Here to Eternity was the movie that made Clift a star and while shooting that movie he stayed in Room 928. Some who have stayed there claim to hear the man pacing around the room in the middle of the night.
According to local legend, the Alexandria Hotel is also haunted. When the building was built in 1906, it almost immediately became a haven for actors and Hollywood folks. Even Winston Churchill and President Teddy Roosevelt stayed there over the years. When Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford started United Artists, they even chose the Alexandria as the place to announce it.
Over the years the hotel faded, reopened to much acclaim after millions of dollars worth of work in the 1970s. When the Alexandria reopened, the rooms were named for the celebrities who once stayed there and a touch of old Hollywood glamour was added. During the restoration work though, the first ghost made her appearance.
This female ghost is known as a woman in black because she is always seen wearing a black dress and hat with her face covered. The woman tends to disappear and reappear in one particular hallway of the hotel and a number of people have seen her for themselves. They claim that she looks like a real person except that they can see through her. Some think she’s the ghost of someone who once lived or stayed in the hotel.
Why stay at a regular hotel when in Hollywood you have the chance to stay in a haunted hotel?
Sources:
http://www.prairieghosts.com/hollywood7.htmlhttp://www.seeing-stars.com/died/haunted.shtml
