Haunted Hollywood

Haunted Hollywood
By Kenneth J. McCormick
Webmaster
Http://Aboutfacts.net

When you talk about haunting, if you do, then you have to include Hollywood stars. It seems that more dead stars are suspected of haunting places than people from any other walk of life. Many of these so-called ghosts, are said to be haunting busy places, such as hotels. I thought it might be fun to look into this a little more. Lets start with one of my all time favorite stars, Marilyn Monroe

The Roosevelt Hotel is located at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, California. It is said that Marilyn has been seen quite a few times inside of a mirror there. The mirror is a full-length mirror that is located next to the elevators on the lower level, but the funny thing about this is that this mirror used to be in the room that Marilyn frequented. The room was poolside and was Suite 1200. Could the beautiful ghost of Marilyn be uneasy? One never knows, after all, there are many theories that state that Marilyn was murdered, is she trying to tell us something?

The Knickerbocker Hotel was built right in the heart of Hollywood. It wasn’t a hotel when it opened, it was a luxury apartment building. In later years it became a famous hotel where the Hollywood stars would hang out. Its bar, the Renaissance Revival bar, was very popular with actors and actresses. Some actors lived at the hotel on a permanent basis. One famous actor was William Frawley. You may remember him from the “I Love Lucy” tv show, he was Fred Mertz. He died in the hotel in 1966 of a sudden heart attack. Marilyn Monroe spent her honeymoon with Joe DiMaggio there. D.W. Griffith, the movie pioneer died sitting right under the huge crystal chandelier in the lobby.

When Harry Houdini was dying he told his wife that he would do everything he could to contact her from the beyond. Every year since his death on Halloween night until 1936 séances were conducted. The first one was held on the roof of the Knickerbocker hotel. His wife Bess Houdini, and some magicians and friends were present. They tried to contact Harry for over an hour and finally gave up, but as they did, out of nowhere, violent lightning and thunder began to boom and light up the sky scaring all the participants. Was this Harry Houdini letting everyone know he heard them? The Hotel is now a senior citizen home.

They say that Rudolph Valentino, the famous silent movie star, is the most traveled Hollywood ghost, showing up in many different places. There have been reports of the ghost of Valentino being seen in the company of the ghost of Marilyn Monroe. Is that rascal, who was a tremendous womanizer in real life, now one in the spiritual world? Well at least he has good taste. A woman said she encountered the ghost of Valentino while she was walking along a deserted beach. She went on to say further that he was wearing the same flowing robes that he wore in some of his movies. It is also said the Valentino’s ghost can be seen at night walking through Hollywood Forever Cemetery, his final resting place. I can’t help but remark that the cemetery seems NOT to be his FINAL RESTING place because he doesn’t seem to be getting much rest according to many reports.

There is a restaurant named Sweet Lady Jane’s in Los Angeles. Many patrons of this establishment have reported seeing the ghost of Orson Wells sitting at a table. Further more, he was wearing a black cape. Some say that sometimes you can smell the smoke from the particular brand of cigar that Wells smoked and even smell the brandy he enjoyed here. When he is spotted, he seems to be sitting at his favorite table.

Some say that Ozzie Nelson is still living in the home that he had when he died. I guess living is the wrong term to use in this case, maybe occupying is better. Ozzie was the first half of Ozzie and Harriet, one of America’s favorite couples. Their show ran for years on tv. After Ozzie died, Harriet sold the house and immediately the new owners discovered that there were some very strange things going on there. Lights were turning themselves on and off, door opened and closed on their own, water faucets turned on and off without the help of any human hand and they constantly heard foot steps going up and down on the staircase.

The strange story of Frances Farmer has to be told in any Hollywood haunting article. Frances Farmer became a huge name in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s. By the time she was 27 she had made 18 films, stared in 3 Broadway plays and appeared in 32 major radio shows. At the top of her professional career she began to have problems in her personal life. She began to drink and take drugs for weight control. This caused her to act erratically on the set and she soon became a problem. She got into a fight in the Knickerbocker hotel and the police dragged her, half naked, through the lobby and she was later sent to the screen actor’s sanitarium. She was given insulin treatments and they put her into shock. This went on for 7 years. She escaped once but was caught. It is said that the hospital staff was brutal to the patients. She was finally given a lobotomy and released. She was no longer the same person; the hospital stay and treatment had destroyed Frances Farmer. She died at 57 years old and was alone and broke. Many people say they have seen the ghost of Frances Farmer walking the halls of the Knickerbocker hotel and they feel that it will never be able to rest.

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Ken is the webmaster of Http://aboutfacts.netThis is a free magazine on the internet that contains many interesting stories. These stories are often accompanied by photos, video or audio. The site is suitable for the entire family.

November 22nd, 2008

Grab the Headlines; Craft a Compelling Press Release

Have you been following the news lately?

Doesn’t it amaze you that the media continues to report on every move
Elizabeth Taylor makes? She hasn’t
made a movie in what, 25 years? And yet, every time she sneezes,
its news.

Here, in India, Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra hogs the headlines. What
has she ever done, apart from marrying a non-entity and
producing babies? And yet, the press follows her around on a
daily basis.

The point is — if the media can make space for someone who
hasn’t really done anything interesting, they sure can give you a plug or
two.

Almost any event can be turned into news if you craft a compelling press
release. That means your press release must be “newsworthy”, not promotional
material. Editors do not like promotion; they like news. You have a good
chance of getting a plug if your press release can convince the editor that:

You are offering timely and newsworthy information
Your company is new and different
You are doing something unique or are specialized in nature

Editors want news, a “different angle”. They want to publish something that
their readers will like to read. Always remember this and you will never go
wrong with your release.

Here are a few tips to get you going…..

Develop a News Hook
Not every event is earth shaking. But even ordinary happenings can be turned
into a “newsworthy” affair. All you need to do is create a “hook” -
something unusual, maybe even bizarre that hooks the reader’s
attention and keeps it. Often such hooks are a simple stunt;
e.g. the day “Turok 2: The Evolution” was launched, the gaming
company released large ads with a proposition for the public.
Parents of a child born on that day would get a $10,000 savings
certificate as a gift if they named their baby Turok. The ad
had its intended effect as numerous newspapers devoted thousands
of column inches to debating the ethics of this offer.

The Big Picture
Tie in your activities with a larger concern. When a
considerable number of people are affected by something, it
automatically becomes news. A veterinary pharmaceutical company
needed publicity for its mastitis care product. It sent out a
press release that stated,
“Mastitis costs dairy sector Rs. 6053 crores ($1.26 billion) every year”
Having grabbed the
editor’s attention with the sheer magnitude of this problem, it then offered
its product as a solution. You can be pretty sure all the editors carried
this news.

Pyramid Structure
Newspaper reporters follow the Pyramid style of writing. All pertinent
information is contained in the first paragraph. Subsequent paragraphs
elaborate. Historically, editors have had a tendency to cut short the
reporter’s
copy. So reporters developed this style to ensure that the
readers get the complete story even if only one paragraph of
their copy is printed.

Follow the same style when you write a release. Write a strong
leading paragraph with the most critical information. Your first
paragraph should answer the main questions: who, what, where,
when, why and how. This ensures that if the editor decides to
use just the first few paragraphs, all the information you want
to convey gets printed.

Watch your Words
Keep your release clutter-free. Use short, crisp sentences.
Break up large chunks of text into short paragraphs. Research
shows that paragraphs of 5-6 easily digestible lines help the
reader understand the subject, even if it is complex.

Avoid buzzwords, jargons, technical language and acronyms. Be
Balanced. Junk the hyperbole. Fancy fonts and vivid colors are
out. Editors prefer standard fonts like Arial (10 points) or
Times New Roman (12 points).

Finally, do a word count. A good release says what it wants in
less than 500 words.

Spice it up. Just a Little
Include at least one hard-hitting quote in your press release.
It’s your best shot at getting into newspaper column space. Reporters would
rather include a smart, concise quote in their story than give a lengthy
explanation or summary.

Quotes are an opportunity to emphasize your key points, so quoting your CEO
or top executive is a good idea. Supporting quotes from analysts and
customers add credibility to the announcement and key the reporter in to the
fact that there are people available that they might be able to interview
for a story.

Make yourself available
Reporters like to dig for more information. They are always trying to find a
“different slant”. They may not want to print a standard press release. They
are more likely to contact you for a personal quote or unpublished
information. So, make it easy for them to contact you. In your release,
include the line, “For further information and clarifications, contact
So-and-so.” Give your contact information: phone, fax, email, and office
address. And then, be available. And have some extra information to share.

Create a Press Kit
The press kit includes a background piece, press releases, photos of your
executives or your products, more story ideas, reprints of previous articles
about your business, a list of customer references and anything else that
the media might find newsy or just be a simple fact sheet on you and your
company. The media may not use everything you give them. But they will keep
it for future reference. And it’s
a great way to build a relationship with the press.

If you have got this far, you must have grasped the secret by
now. The trick to a compelling press release is very simple.
Learn to think like a reporter. Put yourself in her shoes.
Anticipate her needs. Then, write a release that answers her
questions. Before she can ask them. Simple,
isn’t it?

Go grab the headlines!

About the Author

Sonali Raval is a corporate communications professional based in Ahmedabad,
India. An Economist and MBA by training, she is a freelance writer by
choice.
She can be reached at sonali@writeratwork.com;
URL: www.writeratwork.com

November 22nd, 2008

When Gifts Simply Won’t Do

It would be true to say that these days more than 50% of all couples who eventually marry, are already living together. In that state of marriage without licence they may go ahead and buy a house together, set up the house with all those bits and pieces that transform a house into a home, and might even acquire a child or two.

Then comes the decision to make the union a legal one, and the planning of the wedding day itself.

Since a wedding is usually synonymous with gifts, the couple find themselves in that unpalatable situation of how to tell the guests that yes, they would love a gift, but none of those run of the mill things that guests inevitably bring.

Of course there is the Bridal Registry which most gusts have now learned to accept as part of the process. After all, knowing the couple’s preferences does save them running around the shops trying to choose something both useful and decorative and that the couple actually needs.

But unfortunately, this particular couple have gone way past the Registry stage. They have everything that money can buy, and what they’d really now like is the money itself. Perhaps it’s the mortgage payments that is the problem, or it could be that the roof has lost a shingle or two. But, in any case, wedding gifts just won’t do.

Enter the Wishing Well and the Treasure Chest.

After much pondering and soul-searching, the couple decide to take their friends into the confidence and ask for money in the most sensitive way possible.

At the reception itself, in a very central position, they place a wishing well, or a treasure chest which can be either made, rented or bought. Guests are invited to toss their cheques, or money order, or just plain old cash, into either the Wishing Well or the Treasure Chest and make a wish for themselves, instead of the couple. It’s a fair swap. The couple get what they want, and the guests get their wish. Well, that’s the plan, anyway.

Now how do you convey this innovative idea to your guests? Included with your wedding invitation will be a card – explaining the whole process. The card is made interesting by being worded with a lilting rhyme and rhythm as to why the couple would prefer the dollar to the tea towel. To give it visual aspect the card is decorated with a picture of the wishing well or the treasure chest to give the couple an idea of what to expect on the wedding day. It’s hoped that the light-hearted ditty on the card, and the novelty of the whole idea, will not only result with the right gift, but also retain the friendship of the giver.

Vlady Peters is an Australian Civil Marriage Celebrant authorised to perform marriages in Australia. She also perform general ceremonies such as Baby Naming, Renewal of Vows and Commitment Ceremonies. To learn more about her as a celebrant and an author visit vlady at http://www.weddings-celebrant.com

November 22nd, 2008