Haunted California: The Ghost of the Hollywood Sign

People come from all over the world to take a look at the Hollywood sign. The odds are good that a large number of those people have no idea of the ghost that haunts this sign. Unlike other ghost stories that have no basis in fact, this one actually does. You might not know it, but a young actress once killed herself on the Hollywood sign.

The Hollywood sign first appeared in 1923. At the time a local real estate man was working on creating an elaborate subdivision of houses for recent arrivals in town, a small area he called Hollywoodland. The original sign was complete with large light bulbs so the sign could be seen from miles around. After nearly two decades the sign was abandoned, but by then no one was really taking care of it anyway. The Hollywood sign was then given to the city.

The sign was repaired and rebuilt in the 1940s, which was when it became Hollywood instead of Hollywoodland. This sign lasted for nearly three decades before it was replaced for the last time. This time volunteers raised and donated enough money to replace the old sign with large letters made of steel in the hopes that this time it would last forever. The most interesting story involving the Hollywood sign though involves a young actress during the 1930s.

Peg Entwhistle was only a teenager when she arrived in Hollywood and she almost instantly achieved some level of stardom. Her career was enough that she could move to New York and find regular work on Broadway. She also found an older man by the name of Robert Keith. The man was an actor who was nearly as successful as Entwhistle. The two were married not long after they met, but their relationship was a rocky one.

Peg quickly learned that Keith liked to keep things hidden from her, like a son from another marriage. He had never told his new wife about his other marriage or the child he fathered. She started becoming unhappy with the marriage, especially about the money he constantly needed and the violent behavior he demonstrated. The two were divorced soon after they married.

Following her short lived marriage she resumed her acting career, but the end was coming. Theater owners no longer had the money to stage elaborate productions, due in large part to the Great Depression. After experiencing quite a bit of failure in New York, Peg headed west to California and Hollywood.

The young woman arrived in Hollywood, moved in with relatives, and began to find some success on the stage. She took a role in what she hoped would be a huge hit, but closed rather quickly. She then landed a contract with RKO and took a part in a movie called Thirteen Women. The movie was universally dismissed by critics and the studio butchered the film to make it better. Peg was disappointed to find that her role was all by obsolete in the released film.

Entwhistle hoped for the best, but found the worst. She went to every casting call she could and talked to every studio around yet no one was interested in her. Though she was talented there were a number of other woman with just as much talent vying for the same roles. Eventually she even lost her contract. No matter what she did, Peg just couldn't seem to get ahead and that ended up being her downfall.

The woman walked up to the Hollywood sign, removed her coat, and apparently decided to end her life. She left her purse and jacket at the bottom of the Hollywood sign, climbed up the H, and threw herself off the sign. A stranger hiking through a nearby park found the purse the next morning and opened it up, hoping to find out who it belonged to. That was where she found Peg's suicide note.

Instead of investigating or calling the police, the hiker dropped the items at the police station and two days later investigators found Peg's body. The young woman was dead and had been dead for days; doctors estimated that she died on impact. The uncle she lived with was the one to officially identify her body.

Peg's unhappiness in life seems to have followed her into death. A number of people walking around the Hollywood sign have seen a woman matching Peg's description. The woman always disappears when someone attempts to talk to her. There are others who claim to have smelled an overwhelming scent of gardenia perfume, the same perfume Peg always wore in real life.

There are even stories of animals going wild when they reach the area where her body was found. Rangers working in the area have also noted that the alarm system sometimes goes off late at night though no one was around. Even in death, Peg Entwhistle seems unable to move on.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peg_Entwistlehttp://www.franksreelreviews.com/shorttakes/hollywoodland.htm