Long ago and far away when I was a TV writer in Los Angeles, I went to work every day at the historic Culver Studios (formerly the Desilu, Selznick, RKO, Cecil B. Demille and Thomas H. Ince Studios), where I overheard rumors to the effect that the lot's 1918-vintage administration building - known to all who work there as "the Mansion" - was "haunted." Co-workers spoke of hearing strange noises and encountering spooky apparitions in stairwells. Some were sincerely reluctant to enter the building after dark.
The Mansion's spectral resident, I soon learned, was believed to be the ghost of the studio's founder, pioneer filmmaker Thomas H. Ince, who died in 1924 under what some called "suspicious circumstances" during a birthday party in his honor aboard newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst's yacht, the Oneida. The guest list included Charlie Chaplin, wannabe film actress (and Hearst mistress) Marion Davies, and wannabe gossip columnist Louella Parsons.
By all accounts there was a good deal more going on that weekend than the celebration of Ince's 43rd birthday. Ince and Hearst were said to be in the middle of tense business negotiations. Chaplin was said to be romantically interested in Davies (a rumor of which Hearst was painfully aware). The ambitious Parsons lusted after fame and fortune. In the aftermath of a boisterous first evening of bootleg-fueled dickering, bickering and revelry, the putative guest of honor took suddenly and mysteriously ill, as a result of which Hearst precipitously docked the yacht in San Diego and sent the party goers home.
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Scary Urban Legends
Short StoryMost of these stories are NOT mine. I got them from the internet. Some are mine and when it is, it's mentioned in that part. This book contains readers stories and different types of series, one of them being the riddle series which a lot of readers...
