During a recent trip to Los Angeles, I had stayed for three nights at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. It was an older hotel, but nice, and conveniently located on Hollywood Boulevard. Everything was fine until the van ride to the airport Sunday night, when the van driver casually asked if I’d seen any ghosts.
Excuse me? No, I actually hadn’t, nor did I think I was supposed to. But now that I’m home (and it’s close to Halloween), I’ve done a quick Internet search, and the van driver has a point.
The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel does have a reputation for hosting two celebrity ghosts. According to the website Seeing Stars, actor Montgomery Clift stayed at that hotel for three months while rehearsing his role in the 1953 movie From Here to Eternity. His ghost now supposedly haunts room #928 (I was on the third floor), playing a trumpet, and pacing the hallways while reciting his old lines. And no less than Marilyn Monroe has supposedly been seen several times in a full-length mirror, which was originally in her poolside suite where she often stayed; the mirror is now located next to the elevator on the lower level. (www.seeing-stars.com/Died/Haunted.shtml)
While we were on the subject (it was a long ride to the airport), the van driver also mentioned the case of Elisa Lam, a 21-year-old Canadian student of Chinese ancestry, whose body was found floating in a water tank atop the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles on February 19, 2013. There is a Los Angeles Police Department video of her last known sighting. An elevator security camera shows her exiting and re-entering the elevator, talking and gesturing in the hallway, and sometimes seeming to hide within the elevator, which itself appears to be malfunctioning. She reportedly suffered from bipolar disorder and depression. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Elisa_Lam)
Just something to think about as you get ready for Halloween.