Haunted Hollywood Hour

The Haunted Hollywood Hour co-hosts are all busy this week with jobs, vacations, and other things, so this week enjoy a replay of the Tujunga UFO abduction story :) We'll be back next week with more new stories! What did Sara Shaw and Jan Whitley experience in Tujunga Canyon in 1953? We share the most detailed narrative of the Tujunga Canyon Contact UFO abduction — including a compelling (legit?)...

I first visited the Hollywood Forever cemetery in 2005. The lure of visiting celebrity graves is the initial hook, sure, but there’s so much more to Hollywood Forever than just the tombs of famous people. This place is weird . It’s got elements of beauty and elements of tackiness. There's hundreds of thousands of stories within its 62 acres. This week, writer and historian Karina Wilson ( https://...

It’s a 1930’s era luxury ocean liner that’s permanently moored at Long Beach and you can actually visit there, eat there, and spend the night — it’s a hotel now. But is it haunted? In 2009, Ryan, from BuzzFeed Unsolved, recorded a very compelling video of a plastic bag being apparently jerked upright and a tube of toothpaste plummeted to the floor. But the magnificent vessel has a long history tha...

Love Wicked ? This guy probably inspired The Wizard of Oz . This story of a whimsical professor is also a tribute to Altadena, a city recently devastated by the wildfires this month. Andrea Antony-Morr is on the podcast this week discussing Professor Thaddeus Lowe who, after being a balloon spy (yes, a balloon spy!) for President Lincoln, went on to attempt to build a luxury resort above Altadena...

He was part of an ostrich consortium that failed due to an 1880s sex scandal. He shot his wife in the face. He was the embodiment of late-stage capitalism. Today, we're bringing you the story of Griffith Jenkins Griffith — the namesake of Los Angeles' Griffith Park. Historian Karina Wilson ( https://karinawilson.com/ ) is on the show this week helping us get inside the mind of this Welsh immigrant...

This is another special bi-coastal episode of Haunted Hollywood Hour! I’m joined today by Molly Mullin, who is coming to us from Knoxville, Tennessee. Molly is a producer and photographer who’s worked as an Associate Producer for some true crime TV shows that are produced and filmed in Knoxville. She also has a new history and politics podcast with her historian friend Patrick O’Neil. It's a conve...

Note: As of this episode's air date (1-6-25) the H5N1 patient in Louisiana has died. Bird flu kills cats and makes your eyeballs bleed. Where does H5N1 fall on Los Angeles’ nearly three-century history of pandemics? Dr. Crystal Heath has been tracking bird flu since 2022. This episode has everything you need to know about this deadly virus.  Important reading: This evil company owns all the f...

Today, I’m telling you about the now abandoned and allegedly haunted location of the former Los Angeles County Poor Farm that has a history that’s entangled with the California Gold Rush. Much of the information comes from a 2015 PBS So Cal article by Hadley Meares called “Ranch of the Friends: The Extraordinary Evolution of the Poor Farm” https://www.pbssocal.org/history-society/ranch-of-the-frie...

Today, I'm sharing one of my favorite places in Los Angeles. It’s a place with a complex history and a lot of duality. It's been called the Disneyland of Death—the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Most of the information for this episode comes from Adela Rogers St. Johns' "First Step Up Toward Heaven: Hubert Eaton and Forest Lawn" which is available here: https://archive.org/deta...

What did Sara Shaw and Jan Whitley experience in Tujunga Canyon in 1953? We share the most detailed narrative of the Tujunga Canyon Contact UFO abduction — including a compelling (legit?) alien-delivered cure for cancer — on this week’s episode of the Haunted Hollywood Hour podcast! The info in this episode comes from The Tujunga Canyon Contacts by Ann Druffel and D. Scott Rogo. Buy it here: https...

Jahnay Bryan is a Cornell grad who was reported missing the same week as Hannah Kobayashi but she’s received far less public attention. We share what we know so hopefully she, too, can be located. We also coverthe story of the badass indigenous woman who led a rebellion against the Spanish colonizers in 18th century Southern California. This and more missing persons and paranormal tales on the Hau...

Hannah Kobayashi #findhannah has been spotted crossing the border on foot into Mexico and new evidence suggests she may have been involved in a marriage for profit scam. We analyze the latest developments in the Hannah Kobayashi case and also explore previous missing persons cases where the individual was located and returned safely to their family. Will this happy ending happen for Hannah? Also o...

At the end of Route 66, the Santa Monica Pier is home to a spooky history that goes back to the 19th century. Hear all the ghostly tales about this landmark’s many paranormal sights and sounds. Also on the podcast this week, we give the latest update on the #findhannah Hannah Kobayashi case and I tell you a cryptid story from the 1960s – “the Dog Woman of Watts.” We have theories! We have more evi...

This week on the Haunted Hollywood Hour podcast, we have guests from a haunted bar on the East Coast, and they help us pore through the evidence around the Hannah Kobayashi missing persons case. We also learn about the Zankou Chicken murders and find out what it's like to live and work around ghosts. Stay tuned! Join the search to find Hannah Kobayashi: https://www.facebook.com/groups/172151585842...

It was a true crime story that consumed Los Angeles for months: a mom mysteriously vanishes without a trace. Her dog is found wandering the 28th floor of a luxury high rise. Initial suspicion lands on the woman’s boss who was being investigated by the SEC for a $40 million dollar fraud scheme, but then additional revelations complicated the narrative. What really happened to Heidi Planck and do we...

He lived for 61 years, building up his career in the entertainment industry, first as a dancer, then a manager, then an agent to successful film actors. But in 1964, Marty Martyn would suddenly succumb to an illness, perishing on Christmas Day. 40 years later, a boy in Oklahoma would be born with Marty Martyn’s memories and at five years old he would succeed in proving his identity. This week, we...

1926 was the height of the roaring twenties and a pivotal year in Hollywood. The Roosevelt Hotel, built in 1926, played a key role in the lives of those whose stars shone bright during the golden age of Hollywood. Do the ghosts of famous actors haunt the Roosevelt’s halls? Of course they do. And we’re gonna tell you all about it.  She was the Oprah of 1926. America’s first radio televangelist...

Propaganda told those on the west coast of the U.S. to fear foreign invasion during World War II. Something did invade the skies over Los Angeles, but it wasn’t an overseas’ military, it was something that remains a mystery to this day. What happened during the 1942 Battle of Los Angeles? Also: It's a Sunset Strip venue that’s captivated the public for decades, but it’s allure reaches beyond music...

Elizabeth Lake, a body of water west of Palmdale in Southern California was once named La Laguna de Diablo --- devil’s lake --- because early Spanish settlers said it was home to the devil’s pet. What’s the story around Southern California’s most well-documented cryptid? We delve into the history. Also… Tanya has the details about the actress who jumped off the “H” in the Hollywood sign and who al...

This week, Carly Heath and Tanya Dickson are bringing you two fascinating tales from Southern California history. One is an extremely well-documented paranormal story that will knock your socks off and the other is a tale about the early days of a cultural icon. In 1974 Doris Bither's home was investigated by researchers at UCLA's Parapsychology Lab. What they discovered remains mind-blowing even...