FILM HISTORY

 Is a Hollywood film studio a set for the paranormal?

 

 

 

By Allan R. Ellenberger

 

Many locations around Hollywood are reported to be haunted. There are theaters, hotels, night clubs and studios that all have their share of ghost stories. Whether or not you believe in ghosts, the possibility of a spirit continuing on after death is fascinating.

 

I admit to being a believer and am always looking for paranormal stories about Hollywood’s past. One story in particular, which originally had nothing to do with ghosts, caught my eye while searching through pages of microfilm. In this case a headline blared: “Death After Studio Party Called Accident by Police.” The story told about a 31-year-old studio electrician who received fatal injuries from a fall after a wrap party hosted and attended by several well-know film stars.

 

According to the news report, Edward W. Gray, the father of three, was found near death on the studio lot near midnight on April 4, 1946. He later died two minutes after reaching Hollywood Receiving Hospital. The first account stated that Gray may have been murdered, but a deputy coroner eventually discounted that theory. Upon examination, it was found that Gray suffered a fractured pelvis, numerous internal injuries, a skull fracture and facial injuries. The coroner said that such injuries could only be attributed to falling from a great height or, — being run over by an automobile! Huh?

 

Gray was found lying at the bottom of a 65-foot backdrop, along the top of which ran a catwalk. A ladder rose to the top at one end, and policy theorized that Gray had climbed to the top, then tumbled off.

 

Supporting this theory was the discovery of blood on a two-by four jutting from the backdrop fifteen-feet above the spot where Gray’s body was found and which would have been in the direct line of a fall from the catwalk. Oh, and Gray’s blood registered an alcohol content of .29 – today a .08 is considered intoxicated.

 

The studio where all this happened was a rental lot called General Service Studios, and now known as Hollywood Center Studios at 1040 N. Las Palmas Avenue. Founded in 1919 by set designer John Jasper (1876-1929) who built three production studios on 15 acres south of Santa Monica Boulevard. Billionaire-producer, Howard Hughes filmed Hell’s Angels here; the television shows, Ozzie and Harriett, Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies and the first two years of I Love Lucy also called this lot home. Shirley Temple made her film debut here and you may also remember this lot as the ill-fated Zoetrope Studios founded by Francis Ford Coppola in the early 1980s.

 

 

Ghostly newspaper image of studio electrician, Edward Gray, who fell to his death at the Hollywood Center Studios. Does his ghost now haunt the rafters? 

 

 

I recalled stories about reported hauntings at this studio but could not remember what they were. I needed an expert so I contacted my friend, author and film historian, Laurie Jaccobson who, along with historian Marc Wanamaker are the authors of Hollywood Haunted: A Ghostly Tour of Filmland. If anyone would know, she would.

 

Laurie told me there were always stories of phenomenon on that particular lot including “cold spots, unexplained noises, unusual shadows on sound stages, lights going on and off, things being moved, etc all reported by guards, workers, maintenance workers and film workers on the lot.”

 

“There were also ‘problems’ with Stage 5,” Laurie recalled, “where Ozzie and Harriet was produced. Many say it happened all through the production. Others believe it is Ozzie himself — a workaholic who died before his time — who haunts the set.”

 

In the 1920s and 30s, the lot was known as Metropolitan Studios. In later years office workers reportedly heard talking in the empty offices on the second floor. “Those offices were occupied by comedy film pioneer Al Christie from 1925 to 1932,” Laurie said. “Second to Mack Sennett, Christie lost everything in the stock market crash, including his studio. He tried, but never regained his success or wealth. Now in death, he continues the work he’d been forced to give up.”

 

I found other reports on the internet, reportedly from a former stage manager who claimed the lot was haunted, “particularly on Stage 6, where a gaffer fell to his death decades ago.” He went on to describe the happenings:

 

“…when you went in to close up the stage for the night, turn off the work lights, secure all the doors, etc., you could hear foot steps in the perms (rafters) above you, following you as you moved from one part of the stage to another. When you stop, it stops. Freaking scary.”

 

Laurie Jacobson recalled a similar story but it involved a different stage.

 

“In 1946, a studio worker fell to his death on Stage 4 making the film Stairway to Hell,” she said. “For many years after, there were technical problems on that stage.”

 

That caught my attention since 1946 was the year that the electrician from my story fell to his death and the name of the film was the classic, Angel on My Shoulder, which, at the time it was being made, had a working title of – Stairway to Hell. It made me wonder if there could  be some truth to this haunting after all so I dug a little deeper.

 

 

There were enough questions about whether Gray’s death was an accident so that an inquest was held. Reportedly, Gray and another friend were “uninvited guests” at ‘a gay party’ that was hosted by the film’s star, Paul Muni to celebrate the completion of the film. Neither Gray nor his friend had worked on the film but showed up anyway.

 

The party began at 6 pm and a bar was set up on the sound stage, and more than a score of tables had been arranged in front of the huge papier-mâché reconstruction of “Hell” – a familiar scene in the film.

 

 

Click on the above “Angel on My Shoulder” film clip which shows the “Hell” set where the wrap-party was held and where studio electrician, Edward Gray, fell to his death from the rafters above.

 

 

Angel on My Shoulder’s stars, Paul Muni and Anne Baxter were both called to give testimony at the inquest. Muni stated that he felt he could be of very little help, having left the party early.

 

“What was called ‘a gay party’ didn’t seem gay to me as I had been working all day and was very tired,” he told the jury. “Without seeming facetious, if that was a ‘gay party,’ I wonder what a dull one would be. All the people were tired. The idea was just to throw a little shindig to show good will. We were very tired, dog tired.”

 

“Did you see any drinking?” asked Dep. Dist. Atty. S. Ernest Roll.

 

“Oh, yes,” Muni replied. “Miss Baxter had milk, Miss (Joan) Blair had Coke, I had a scotch and soda, and Mrs. Muni had a sherry. Others went to the bar. I don’t know what they were drinking.”

 

Muni told the jury that he didn’t know Gray, although other witnesses said he sat at Gray’s table for a while and that he and Mrs. Muni left about 7:45 p.m. He added that he didn’t see anyone intoxicated.

 

Anne Baxter said she also was an early leaver after posing for some pictures on the film set, where the bar and tables had been set up. “Some people were drinking, others eating at steam tables,” she recalled.

 

Three cases of Bourbon, a case of Scotch and four cases of beer were consumed, according to the caterer.

 

“Wasn’t there any liquor left?” inquired Deputy Coroner Frank Monfort.

 

“Oh no, nothing was left,” the caterer replied.

 

Several witnesses agreed that Gray was intoxicated, although not quarrelsome. Along with all other technicians who worked on the film, he had been invited to attend, “as is custom.”

 

One friend, Allan Seiger, a property man, said that Gray was hardly able to walk from the party, and he assisted him to the gate to call a cab. But as soon as Seiger walked away, Gray ran back into the studio, according to the Gate Guard, who said earlier in the evening he had seen Gray fall down “two or three times on the set.”

 

 

Edward Gray was escorted by a friend to this gate (above) to get a taxi but instead was by seen by the gate guard returning to the studio where he eventually met his death.

 

It was after the taxi incident, testimony disclosed, that Gray apparently climbed the high backdrop, from where he either stumbled or fell off. According to another witness, it was common for studio workers who had been drinking to climb up high to “get out of sight.”

 

Studio officials emphasized that everyone had left the studio long before Gray was found dying. According to the caterer, the party ended at 8:45 pm when the liquor supply was exhausted.

 

Gray’s widow was represented by future Los Angeles mayor, Sam Yorty, who argued that the dead man may have been in a fight or run over by a car. However, expert medical, scientific and police testimony claimed his injuries were most likely caused by a fall.

 

The nine-man jury found Edward Gray’s fatal injuries were “received from a fall while intoxicated.”

 

Could Edward Gray be haunting the sound stages of the Hollywood Center Studios? Perhaps he was murdered and his soul can’ not find rest. Unlike the characters of the film whose wrap-party he crashed, instead of hell, he chose to walk the rafters of the studio that was his last memory.

 

 

 

So this Halloween, take a walk past the gates of Hollywood Center Studios and perhaps you’ll see the spirit of Edward Gray hailing a taxi instead of returning to the studio – and to his death.

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