HTLA: BONUS- Time 2 Get Spooky, LA!

Barry Reimer  00:00

[spooky music in] All of a sudden, I hear this sound. It sounded like children, or high pitched, some cackling. They were inside. And I look over and I see a transparency of 10, 12 ghosts. These apparitions they, you could see right through them, and they were just kind of floating.

Brian De Los Santos  00:20

This is How to LA, the podcast that drops a little knowledge about the city each episode. I'm Brian De Los Santos. It's that time of year again, when amusement parks get all freaky, and folks play dress up. I'm not a huge fan of Halloween, but I chose Dora the Explorer for my outfit. I don't want to have FOMO, you know. But I know some of you like to get as ghoulish as possible. So let's set the mood. For some Angelenos, Halloween isn't just about fantasy. Sometimes reality is spooky enough. We're digging into the archives here to bring you some of our favorite LA spooky stories. I'm gonna be clear here. These tales are throwbacks, and they were told to my former colleague, A Martinez who used to host Take Two on KPCC. [music out] They still haunt though. This first story comes from Barry Reimer. When he was living in the unincorporated area of Kagel Canyon, some weird things started happening in his home. It all happened one quiet night, while Barry tried to sleep.

Barry Reimer  01:24

[music in] I awakened to hear the sound of my front doorknob. It's moving back and forth, and it was kind of broken. It had springs it sounded like, so when when someone turned the knob, you could hear the springs going squeak, squeak. I quickly walked over, and I yelled out, "Someone lives here go away," thinking it was a squatter. Maybe he was thinking that the house might have been abandoned. [sighs] That was unnerving. Tried to go back to sleep. And then all of a sudden, I hear this sound. It sounded like children, or high pitched, some cackling. They were inside. And I look over and I see a transparency of 10, 12 ghosts. These apparitions they, you could see right through them, and they were just kind of floating. And where'd I get this courage? I yelled, "Get out of here! Get out!" And all of a sudden, they just took off up the stairway, up to the second floor loft leaving behind, I'll never forget, it was the smell of a burnt match is what it smelled like. I went back to bed. I woke up in the morning. W- what was that? And I went over to the stairway and the closer I got, the more I could smell the burning match. [music out]

Brian De Los Santos  02:44

Our next Halloween ghost story is from Coral Barreiro, who was working at the LA Zoo. At the time of her scary encounter, she was preparing for a summer camp out when suddenly she heard a woman singing.

Coral Barreiro  02:56

[music in] It was a very eerie song, you know, a strange song. And I get a little bit scared, and I walked back down to get more staff, and I asked them if they can hear anything. Do they hear anything weird? And they said, "Yeah, we heard a woman singing." The sound was haunting, and I ca- I couldn't stop thinking about it throughout the weeks. I ran into the keeper that works that area, and I asked him if he had ever heard anything weird, and before I could finish asking him, he said, "Yeah, I've heard a woman singing scales." And I told him, "Oh my gosh, I have, we heard the same thing too. Three of us heard it, and you've heard it." So we felt a little more validated. [music swells] A couple of months later, I run into him again and he, and he says he hears the woman, and he sees her in a yellow raincoat beyond the perimeter fence. And she turns around, and he doesn't see her face. [music swells] [music out]

Brian De Los Santos  03:53

[music in] So this next ghost story is probably the spookiest one I've ever heard. And warning! This one has a pretty shocking ending. It comes from LA resident Mark Roeder. 19 years ago, he was living in an apartment in K-Town, and everything was fine until something happened that made him feel uneasy. [music out]

Mark Roeder  04:18

[music in] I was waking up one morning and I'm still lying in bed. And I notice that my dog is staring at the corner of the bed. And I look there, and the corner of the bed is pressed down as if somebody is sitting there but there's no one there. And I'm looking at this and the corner of the bed just rises as if whoever is sitting there got up and walked away. [music swells] The next experience is a couple weeks later. And my wife and I were going to go to see a movie and we're going downstairs and I realize I forgot something upstairs, and I run up to go get it. And as soon as I walk through the door to the apartment, I just feel some kind of negative presence. And all I can understand from this presence is that I'm not supposed to be there. A couple days later, we started looking for a new place to live. A couple weeks after that, we're packing up t- to move, and the next door neighbor says, "Oh, you guys are moving. Too bad. Did anything weird happen?" I said, "What are you talking about?" He said, "Oh, the guy who lived here before you, he killed himself in the apartment. We found him dead in the bathtub. He had been in there for about three weeks." [music swells] [music out]

Brian De Los Santos  05:52

[music in] All righty, y'all. We've been sharing some scary stories. So let's go a little lighter. It's still a ghost story, but instead of a wicked haunting, it's a friendly one. Like Casper. Julie Greenberg lives in Long Beach and her story takes place almost 30 years ago, when she was working the door at a rock club. The building was a residential home, and the remnants of its past life were still there.

Julie Greenberg  06:25

One night, I saw what looked to be [music changes] a man in army fatigues swaying in front of the stage. I didn't remember taking his money at the door and I thought it was strange. He was wearing fatigues when it was 90 degrees outside. When I got closer to see who he was, he seemed to be translucent. I tried to reach out to him, and he disappeared right in front of me. When I saw the image again, a few nights later, I confided in one of the bartenders. [music swells] "You've been ghosted, young lady," he said to me. "I've seen him once, but he must like you," the bartender smirked. He proceeded to tell me the story of Joe, a tenant who lived in the house after he returned home from World War II. The bartender wasn't quite sure of the whole story, if he really fought in the war, if he died in the house. But one thing was for sure, Joe never left. [music swells] I saw Joe several times at the club. His image never frightened me. When I would see his image moving in front of the stage for more than 30 seconds, I knew he liked the band. I've driven by that corner in the years that have passed, and the building does not look like a house anymore. But I hope that Joe is still dancing. [music out]

Brian De Los Santos  07:48

Aww, I also hope that Joe's still dancing. Go, Joe. Kind of love that. [music in] Here's the last one we've got. It isn't a personal ghost story. It's more of like a secondhand ghost story. And you might even recognize the place where this is set, the Bradbury Building. The Bradbury's one of the most iconic buildings in Downtown LA. It isn't the exterior that's so noteworthy, but it's about the inside, with its natural light and all that iron work. The building has played a role in films such as Blade Runner and 500 Days of Summer. It was built way back in 1893 by a gold-mining millionaire and real estate developer, Lewis Bradbury. To share the haunted history of this place, we've got Kim Cooper from Esotouric. That's a group that gives LA history tours. Sometimes spooky ones. Cooper explains how the Bradbury's beginning is a classic "right person at the right time" kind of story with a cult twist.

Kim Cooper  08:44

[music changes] Mr. Bradbury, he wanted to build something that had his name on it, and that was really extraordinary. And he just wasn't getting anywhere with the architect that he was working with, Sumner Hunt, because Sumner Hunt, wonderful as he was, just didn't have this kind of madcap vision that Mr. Bradbury had. And as the story goes, he happened to be walking through the office and he was just about ready to let Mr. Hunt know that it just wasn't gonna work out between them, and he saw this extraordinary drawing on a drawing board that George Wyman, one of the young associates of the firm, a draftsman, was working on and he said, "Young man, that's the building that I want." And George Wyman said, "I'm just drawing a fantasy based on the science fiction novel called Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy. Perhaps you've heard of it, sir. And by the way, I'm just a very junior associate in this firm." "Well," Mr. Bradbury said, "no, no. That's the building that I want, and if it can be built, you're the man to build it." And sure enough, the young man went home and told his wife of his problems. And his problem was: Do I actually take this commission and, and steal a job from my boss and build something that is just a fantasy from a science fiction book? [music swells] So they took out their planchette. Even before Ouija boards existed, people would make these themselves, and a planchette is something that people would use to contact the other side. And they asked his dead brother, which is what you did in the late 19th century. The dead were everywhere, very helpful [laughs] when you have a family problem. [music swells] The planchette began to move and quiver and shake and the pencil began to make a mark, and it said, "Take Bradbury," actually written in script. I've seen a reproduction of this. "Take Bradbury. You will be..." and then a incoherent scribble. And it wasn't until someone got up to go to the restroom and happened to look at the table upside down, that they saw, if you turned it over, it said, "Take Bradbury. You will be successful." George Wyman took the chance. And he built the most beautiful office building in Los Angeles. [music out]

Brian De Los Santos  10:41

That last story is kinda cute. It's not just weird or spooky. It's kind of educational, too. I love learning more about LA history through our buildings that we can still see today. Anyway, we hope you enjoyed these spooky Angeleno stories. Maybe it's gotten you even more into the Halloween mood. [music in] Alrighty, y'all. That's it for How to LA today. We'll see you next time. And we'll be talking about Día de los Muertos, and why you shouldn't confuse it with Halloween.

Brian De Los Santos  10:49

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people. Alright, stay cute LA. [music out]