Los Angeles is full of ghosts, but many haunt Old Hollywood, where stars and starlets from yesteryear pay penance for their “unholy” existences. And where would they cause the most trouble? In old pubs and drinking establishments, they met their demise.
Hollywood Blvd has many hidden hideaways where liquor spilled during Prohibition, fights occurred, and love triangles met violent ends. I was invited to check out LA Ghosts Tour Boos and Brews Haunted Pub Crawl. LA Ghosts tours take ghost hunters to haunted and chilling places in Tinseltown.
Bob was our tour guide, and we met him in front of Foot Locker at Hollywood and Highland, next to the L.A. Metro Line. I took the Metro from Universal City Station, one stop from Hollywood and Highland, because I was coming from the valley.
Hollywood Boulevard is craziest on Saturday nights, so I wanted to avoid expensive parking. Universal City and NOHO stations charge $3 for 24 hours, and you can pay online.
The rest of our group was a little late, which delayed our start, but once we were all accounted for, we headed east on Hollywood Boulevard.
Power House
Our first stop was at Power House off Hollywood and Highland. It is a legendary dive bar established in 1947. We ordered drinks before meeting Bob at the back of the bar.
Power House is next to the Hollywood First National Bank Building, constructed in 1927. It was once a Security Pacific Bank, which I used to draw money from while taking acting lessons down the street. The building is now abandoned but is used as a filming location. It has thirteen stories, so you know something shifty happened there.
A disgruntled banker supposedly held his secretary hostage on the top floor and pushed her over the edge.
Bob had two EMF meters that detected otherworldly energy radiating at a location. He also made the tour fun by giving us quizzes with a prize for the winner at the end.
Hollywood Wax Museum
Our next stop was the Hollywood Wax Museum, where dead and alive celebrities are memorialized in wax. Ghosts at the museum have been captured on video. I’m not sure why they would haunt their wax figures. Maybe they are narcissists.
Hillview Apartments and Black Rabbit Rose Magic Lounge
The Hillview Apartments, now called the Harlan Residences, were next. The complex was built by Jesse L. Lasky, cofounder of Paramount Pictures and Samuel Goldwyn, to house aspiring actors from 1917 through 1922. Charlie Chaplin was once the building’s proprietor, and Rudolph Valentino converted a rehearsal space into a speakeasy during Prohibition. That space is now Black Rabbit Rose Magic Lounge.
The ghost of Rudolph Valentino has been seen in the bar and other locations in Los Angeles. The guy gets around. I was the oldest member of our tour, as the others were in their thirties. They had never heard of Rudolf Valentino, which I found hilarious.
One of the magicians at the Black Rabbit Rose Magic Lounge offered us invitations to the Magic Castle, which you can only enter if a magician invites you. We all jumped on it.
To attend Magic Hour at Black Rabbit Rose, click here.
Boardner’s
Our last stop was Boardner’s, which I visited many decades ago. The bar was established in 1927 by songwriter Gene Austin, who named it “My Blue Heaven” after his famous song. During Prohibition, the front of the bar was a hair salon to disguise the speakeasy inside.
Steve Boardner bought the bar in 1942, and celebrities, gangsters, and even rock stars frequented it. They included Elizabeth Short (The Black Dahlia), Mickey Cohen, John Lennon, and Ringo during their dark periods, and many others.
The bar’s co-owner, Kurt Richter, died in the bar in 1997 and is believed to be haunting it. Other figures, such as a woman who sings in the bathroom and character actor Albert Decker, have been seen floating about. Decker’s star is not far from Boardner’s on the Walk of Fame.
While there, our two EMF meters were going crazy, and I started feeling a buzz of energy. No ghosts were visibly sighted, but it was a fun experience. I love the old buildings in Hollywood and many other hideaways in Los Angeles. Read about them in my post From Prohibition to Craft Cocktails: A Historical Journey of Drinking in Los Angeles.
We could have spent hours looking for ghosts on Hollywood Boulevard, including the Roosevelt Hotel, Musso and Frank’s, many old theaters, Hollywood Toys & Costumes, and the Frolic Room. But mostly, it’s about hearing stories of Hollywood’s sordid past and visiting cool old buildings with tons of atmosphere.
To book an LA Ghosts tour, visit its website here.
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