Ghosts of Haunted Paramount Studios
Specters Have Been Heard, Sighted, Felt and Smelled
Nov 11, 2009
Paramount, founded by Adolph Zukor in 1912, is the last major studio in Hollywood making it a perfect setting for hauntings. One of the resident ghosts starred in Poltergeist.
Haunted Paramount Studios’ Hart Building
The structure was part of DesiLu Studios, owned by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball of I Love Lucy fame. The spirit of an unidentified woman haunts upper floors. People saw her and smelled the strong scent of her perfume. She throws items on desks to the floor. Windows and doors unlock on their own, lights turn themselves on and off and people have felt something touching them or tapping on their shoulders.
Paramount Studio’s Haunted Stage 32
Three guards secured Stage 32 for the night. One of them went outside, locking the door he used. The men inside heard someone walking behind one of the stage flats, but no one was seen. They heard a door open. When they saw their colleague outside, he said he hadn’t been in the building.
Another guard was working by himself at night. When he was finished working, he turned the lights out. As he was leaving, he heard someone walking across the stage. The man turned his flashlight’s beam on the stage and saw no one.
Paramount Studios’ Haunted Lemon Grove Gate
Paramount Studios has many egresses. Some are walk-in gates, like Lemon Grove’s, a few feet from Hollywood Memorial Park. A wall separates the cemetery from the gate. Rudolph Valentino, is most famous for his role in The Sheik.
Valentino died suddenly in 1926 and was interred in the cemetery. His ghost has been sighted walking through the gate. A veteran security guard was working the late night shift. The man noticed a stranger. He followed him to the corner of the wall and waited for the person to reappear. When he looked around the corner, he saw he was a phantom who disappeared into the cemetery wall.
Haunted Ball and Chevalier Buildings in Paramount Studios
On December 30, 1993, a guard saw someone looking at him and his partner from the second floor of the Ball Building. The person suddenly vanished. He told his experienced colleague about this. They called their supervisor to let them into the second floor because they didn’t have keys.
While they were waiting for the man, another guard arrived. They saw a light turn on inside the Chevalier Building. Two of them investigated and found no intruder. When their supervisor arrived, he sent two men to investigate the upper floor while he checked out the bottom one. A guard stood outside to catch the escaping intruder. Nobody was in the building and no one was seen fleeing from the site.
One night, two employees were leaving their second floor office in the Ball Building. They were sure they were the last ones there, but they saw elderly woman they didn’t recognize and thought she was lost. After she passed them, one of them turned to ask her if she needed help only to discover she vanished.
Hauntings in Paramount Studios Stage 19
Security guards believe that soundstage is haunted by ghosts, including Poltergeist star Heather O’Rourke’s. She died suddenly when she was twelve. Heather had a recurring role in the TV series Happy Days which was filmed there.
One night, two men went into the empty building because one of them forgot something. When he retrieved the script and said they could leave, the lights went out. They heard sounds resembling laughter and footsteps racing across the catwalk. Later, they learned that O’Rourke loved to play on catwalks.
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Source:
Haunted Places, Dennis William Hauck, (Penguin Books, 2002).
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