Ghost Stories of Hollywood

Ghost House Books

by Barbara Smith, Arlana Anderson-Hale (Illustrator)

Many of us enjoy star-gazing...at Hollywood stars, that is. Their lives fascinate us and so do their deaths. Learn about the people, places and things that haunt the city best-known for glitz and glamour.

Genres: Paranormal, Ghosts

216 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

About the author

Barbara Smith is a Canadian author celebrated for her captivating collections of ghost stories steeped in folklore, history, and national identity. Since leaving her job as a school secretary in 1988, she has published numerous books exploring Canada’s most enduring supernatural legends. Her passion for the paranormal was sparked as a child in Toronto and grew into a lifelong pursuit, fueled by a background in social history and mystery. With titles like Great Canadian Ghost Stories and Great Canadian Campfire Stories, Smith shares eerie tales from coast to coast, entertaining readers while preserving Canada's rich storytelling tradition.

Reviews

[C. (Don't blank click my reviews, comment please!]

One of my favourite non-fiction books is “Ghost Stories Of Manitoba”, which I was glad to praise at five stars, for obvious reasons. It is thorough, with private hauntings I had never heard of, which seem to be rare in compilations. Books about one’s home city are great because we can explore those places and I imagine Barbara Smith visited here. “Ghost Stories Of Hollywood”, 2000 and compilations not pertaining to Canada are less interesting. But I have been to Los Angeles and learned of astonishing incidents about personages like James Dean. I had known only of an accident, certainly not that there were protracted accursed deaths associated with his car’s parts.

I had no idea that cowboy, John Wayne, passionately loved his yacht, the Wild Goose and protected the man who bought it. I am too young to know silent films and old Hollywood. It was a thrill to learn of integral Canadian actress and Oscar Award founder, Gladys Marie Smith: stage name, Mary Pickford! She married Douglas Fairbanks, another Oscar Award founder and first actor to do his own stunts. Gladys / Mary became a powerhouse businesswoman, with control women still seek in 2019. She achieved high salaries and produced her films, which actors seldom did in her time. She made 236, from 1908 to 1935!

This started as four- or five-star reading for me. I was entranced by the introduction, where Barbara defines spirits and the paranormal with fresh terms and considerations. However, my knowledge of spirituality clashes with remarks like “spending eternity in a theatre”. Appearances are incidental! The phrasing was for flair, which bugged me after a time. Spirits and death must be discussed respectfully. Finally, famous names felt squeezed in, like Marilyn Monroe and Lucille Ball, when spirit activity seemed to entail only rumours.

[Evan Ponstingle]

The only thing I did not like about this book were. It's many mistakes. First, George Reeves shot himself once, not three times. Victor Kilian died in 1979, not 1982. Howard Hughes detested smoking, so the smoking ghost in the Pantages Theater could be Alexander Pantages. Peg Entwistle killed herself on September 16, not the 18. She also died instantly. Dolly Young was not killed by the impact when she fell on the Matterhorn's track. She was crushed to death by an oncoming bobsled. Only 2 people have drowned in the Rivers of America, not three. And unless you count 18 year olds as kids, no youngsters have died in that "river". Would be a one star, but two stars for including Disneyland.

[Bonnie Randall]

Ok, but not nearly as compelling as Barbara's Alberta Ghost Stories series.

Still, anything 'old Hollywood' gives me the absolute creeps.

3 Stars

[Carol Cassada]

Combines my love of ghosts with my love of Hollywood.

[Alex Lee]

There is nothing to judge about this book for me, except perhaps how I categorized this book. I would say that it does not claim any standing in science, except perhaps to accept the existence of ghosts... but it does not argue as for how ghosts could exist. Instead, it seeks to be a catalog of ghost stories associated with real life Hollywood figures. The author Barbara Smith goes into some detail about who each of the figures are. She arranges these stories by types of location and/or type of specter. Within that locational category, Smith arranges sub-sections of that can feature major historic Hollywood figures or she groups them for what they have in common. Really her categorization is a mess but that's because there's no natural order to ghosts related to Hollywood. Some of these ghosts are of famous people, some of them are of people happened to be associated with the Hollywood area. I guess in her search to be extensive, this author has done quite a bit of research. There's stories focused on mobsters, actors, producers, tourists, employers/employees, buildings... and so on. I forget, maybe I made it up. Anyway, I also know nothing about Hollywood gossip, so I have no idea how correct or amazing this collection is. It is quite a lot, written in a simple, easy to understand format. So if you want a kind of book tour of this book, then this is for you! There. That's my honest to god review.

[Laini]

What a complete load of horse#$%^.

Really? In what universe were the Manson victims' throats slashed? This is a lie. It is completely made up for sensationalism. After that, I abandoned the book, figuring there would be more of the same. And Evan shared this opinion, finding even more errors.

Ms. Smith should be ashamed of herself. As someone who writes historicals (and I do my homework to make sure I'm following the story as closely as possible), I'm embarrassed this load of hokum got published.