Author Archives: Daniel Dalah

Irving Thalberg

Nationality: American
Age: 45
Occupation: Muralist/ Mother
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: November 12, 2013
Primary Language: English

“My name is Carol Dalah and this is the first ghost story that I am going to be sharing with you. Umm this story takes place in the mid 1970s when I was young around 12 years old and my family decided to purchase a home in Pacific Palisades, California. This house happened to be on Sunset Boulevard and the address is 13746 Sunset Boulevard, and today it is a historical monument. It happens to be umm or it happened to be the first historical home that was built in the Palisades even before Will Rogers estate was built. Umm the house was actually built by Irving Thalberg, who in the 1920s was Hollywood’s golden boy. He was a Brooklyn boy and he was also a very infamous womanizer. Umm during the ’20s umm early ’20s to mid ’20s, he was here in Hollywood making films and umm he was having an affair with a woman named Constance Talmadge, who was an actress. During this relationship, he happened to umm breakup with her and during this time of this period or breakup period he went ahead and married another actress named Norma Shearer. During their relationship, Irving Thalberg decided to build this love nest which happened to be our home umm for Constacne Talmadge. In 1928, this house on Sunset Boulevard was built and it was a love nest. The house consisted of 35 rooms and the estate in itself was actually about 5 blocks longs. Within the years, the property and the parcels were sold off. When we moved into the house, it was very strange to find rooms within rooms and secret compartments and a production room also on the side of the home. Irving Thalberg had his secret life hidden from Hollywood’s eyes. Within these barred walls and gates and with his lover Constance Talmadge, they had a child out of wedlock. Now, this little girl happened to pass away at the age of 5 in this home.
The day that we moved in to the home, I remember very clearly and vividly. We were handed the keys, well my father, was handed the keys from the realtor. And we walked through the house and my sister was walking up -into- from the master bedroom to this huge huge closet in vanity area. While she was walking, she sees this man in the distance. And, she called out to him thinking that this was my father. So she said “Dad! Dad!” and as he turned around, she realized that it wasn’t my father and he was as clear as you and me today. And he smiled at her and winked. And the man was dressed in such a beautiful silk suit with slicked back hair and I guess that was the first greeting that we were umm given by Irving Thalberg. At the time, we did not know who he was. It was discovered later on, when the house had a history of all the sightings and infamy that came with the house. Umm later on in that day, I was in my bedroom and I invited my friend over to stay. And this was much later in the evening. Again, the same day that my sister had seen the first sighting of Irving Thalberg. I went into the main stairway. The house had three stories and I had left my friend standing in the main stairway, because she needed some towels and some blankets and the next thing I know she was screaming hysterically and she completely turned pale. And I asked her what had happened and she had actually seen and witnessed a playback of how this love child had passed away, the love child again of Irving Thalberg and Constance Talmadge. She had told me that they were dressed for the evening and they started down the hallway. And they started to make their way down the grand staircase. In the middle of the staircase, there was a landing and this little girl had tripped from that landing to the bottom of the staircase and she tumbled and tumbled and hit her head. At that time. I guess, in her vision, umm it was marble. She hit her head and cracked her head open and she saw the whole scene right in front of her. Today, my friend is still not the same since that happening. Umm since then, I am sure there are many many stories that came with that. That was just the first day that we were in the house. It seemed also that the activity was much stronger coming in the summer months than the winter months for some reason. That is my first story and just a little bit of intrigue for you. Thank you for listening.”

Analysis:

This story focuses on Hollywood, which is a very haunted aspect of America. It really drives home the idea that people want to keep their public image clean and safe even though certain immoral or indecent actions are happening behind closed doors. These actions can haunt the person as in the case of this story with the child and the child’s death. Furthermore, the child passes away on the marble staircase. A staircase is liminal, because it is neither upstairs nor downstairs, but in the middle. This hidden story of Irving Thalberg also differentiates between the official history and the unofficial, or ghost history. In the public’s eyes, none of these events were supposed to happen, because his image is important.In the same way, that America does not like to discuss the Native Americans that were killed, Thalberg did not like to discuss his love affair. Both of these motifs appear in ghost stories though.

The Well of Lost Souls

Nationality: American
Age: 45
Occupation: Muralist / Mother
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: November 12, 2013
Primary Language: English

“My second ghost story umm happened just only a few years back, maybe about three years ago. When my children and my sister decided to take a visit to the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. Umm it was around Halloween time and they do a umm haunted ship or a haunted Queen Mary tour. Umm I’m kind of a scaredy cat and a chicken, so I went ahead and I sent my sister, who loves to be frightened and scared, with a portion of my family and I went ahead and decided to take a tour of the ship by myself with my two younger children.
So as we went ahead, and we started walking up and down the different floors, we decided to catch the end of a tour on one of the upper decks. So, as we were walking through, I guess it was the main deck to the back side of the ship, or which I believe is called the stern. We saw the tour enter this back umm entrance of the ship, so I -we- happened to be held back, because I think one of my children, her shoe was untied, so I went ahead and tied that. In that lapse of time, we kind of lost the group that we were following, but we know what area that they were going to go ahead and tour.
So we started walking down these red steel steps and my daughters were first and I was following behind them and as I made it to the bottom of that landing, I look up to my left and I see a sailor dressed in, I guess, its nautical clothing or a sailor’s outfit, but very dated. And he looked like he was behind a boiler, so I kind of shook my head and continued to walk through this what looked like an empty office with a lot of windows, a panoramic view basically of the bay. As I was walking through this area, I had a very uneasy feeling and at the same time, my middle daughter, she turned to me and she said “we need to get out of here and we need to get out of here now.” So I asked her “what happened, what happened?” And she says” we just need to get out of this place right now.” So we left that area of the ship and we went back to the main deck to catch some air. And when we arrived up at that upper deck, I asked her what happened and she said while she was there and even though we were the only ones now that were touring that area, because we had lost the other group. She said that there was a hand that or this pressure that came across her neck and was squeezing her neck very tightly and making sure that she understood that there was a presence there with her, but not a good presence, a bad presence. So between my daughter’s incident and what I saw and the sickening in my stomach, I was convinced that I needed to go and either find a historian or talk to somebody who knew of the sightings of the Queen Mary.
In my head, I kept on hearing this… this… I don’t want to say a voice, but I kept on hearing “the well of lost souls.” It was repetitious in my head. And the more this was happening the more I was desperate to find somebody who had answers for the way I was feeling and the incident that happened to my daughter. So when I finally got to the entrance, mind you, of the Queen Mary, which is also on the main deck, but kind of I guess it’s the lobby, they directed me to a historian who was in the bookstore. And I had told him of my account and what I had seen and what my daughter had seen. They had confirmed that yes the sailor that I saw is a frequent spirit that is always there and is always seen. That the ill feeling I had in my stomach and this word of “the well of lost souls” umm because what happened in that area that we were touring happened to be behind the – in front- of the infirmary umm and below that was the morgue. They had told me also that their main offices was in that portioner that area of the ship, but because there was so many sightings and incidents they had to relocate all the Queen Mary corporation offices off of that area and actually on to the main land. So, that was a little strange.
They also told me that the ship in itself had actually 49 deaths that happened on the ship and it was also called the Grey Ghost. Because Not only was it a luxury liner, but in World War II, it was a transport ship, so that’s why it was called the Grey Ghost, because they had painted it grey. During that time that it was a transport ship, there was an incident in the atlantic as it was crossing the atlantic with a sister ship, where the sister ship was sinking and the Queen Mary was zigzagging through the debris of this fallen ship and they had left behind 300 survivors in the water, of shark infested waters. So here you have also a guilt I guess, of these 300 people -I’m sorry- ya 300 people that were suffering in freezing cold water with sharks that were left at sea and either got eaten by the sharks or drowned. So since then, I do not go back to the Queen Mary and will not go back to the Queen Mary even though it is a tourist attraction, because I will never want that experience or wish that experience on anybody. I hope you enjoyed my second story and thank you for listening.”

Analysis:

Firstly, this story shows a harmful and unfamiliar ghost. In the sighting and incident, the ghost appeals to the senses. In the case of the storyteller, she sees him. In the case of her daughter, she feels a pounding on her neck. It is important to notice that ghosts can be perceived in different ways and not solely through sight. Secondly, this story draws a line between official and unofficial history. Most people are not aware of thew massive and horrible 300 person death in the seas. The Queen Mary tries to bury this secret and the ship is haunted by its guilt in a sense, because the ship has frequent sightings. Lastly, it is important to notice the way in which the Queen Mary staff talk about these stories, because it shows that ghost storytelling is a business in which money can be made.