Remember the Pickfair Estate? Home of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks... Why was it really razed?

I've always loved a good ghost story, but I'm not so sure I liked this one. Let me explain why...

picture courtesy of danshollywoodtours.com


 

Back in 1990, the new owners of the Pickfair Mansion, the home that once belonged to silent film stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks was razed  to clear space for a small palace for actress Pia Zandora and her husband.

Pia Zandora? Remember the flop The Lonely Lady (1983)?
Yeah..her.

Well, back in 1990,  she chose to demolish the house, stating it was necessary due to termites. Many people were upset about it.

Now 22 years later, Pia tells us really why.

It's been known that the Pickfair Estate was haunted. On several occasions, Mary and her husband both had witnessed the spirit of a a female servant. When the couple divorced in 1936, Pickford kept the estate, and eventually married Charles "Buddy" Rogers. After she died in 1979, Rogers reported being visited by a woman in a long, white gown that he believed was his deceased wife.

Rogers soon moved out, subdivided the estate and put it on the market. In 1980 it was bought by Jerry Buss who too reported spirit sightings. Now instead of just a woman in white, he now saw a male servant in the entry hall and a spirit carrying sheet music.

In 1988 the estate was put up for sale again, where Pia Zandora and her husband purchased it. The couple had promised to restore the home, but did not keep to that word. (http://www.businessinsider.com/celebrity-haunted-homes?op=1)


 And the Hollywood community wasn't too happy about it.  In 1989, against the protests and outcries from movie historians, preservationists and the neighborhood, Zia Pandora and her husband had the house torn down.  On Celebrity Ghost Stories, Pia tells us the "truth" behind the demolishing of the Estate.

Her story tells about she and her children being haunted by this lady in white and it wasn't the ghost of Mary Pickford either. She claimed the ghost haunted them so much, they lived in fear. So instead of termintes, a ghost was the cause of the house being razed.

I'm not so sure that made it any better.



Watch the full episode to get the whole story...


What do you think?

Pickfair History- http://www.squidoo.com/pickfair

Thanks for the drop by,

The Fourth Kind- Nome Alaska Alien Abductions...Was it all true?

Ok, I know this has absolutely nothing to do with writing, books or even giveaways, but it does have something to do with the paranormal (are aliens considered that?) and hey it could be considered a movie review.

We've all heard of the movie The Fourth kind- you know the one with actor Milla Jovovich  who portrays Dr. Abigail Tyler- the one who was the therapist to a bunch of  patients of Alien abductions in Nome , Alaska and then finds out she's one herself.
Yep...that's the basis of this movie story and I just finished watching it this afternoon.

 

The movie starts off with actress Milla Jovovich coming up and  stating

"although she would be playing the part of “real life” psychologist Dr Abigail Emily Tyler, the movie would be interspersed with real footage of interviews with patients and police video of events that besieged the small Alaskan town of Nome. " -http://creation.com/the-fourth-kind

 

So you now proceed on into this movie believing this is all based on real evidence that happened in Nome, Alaska. As Milla Jovovich said you find "actual" recordings of Dr. Abigail Tyler's  voice and "actual" recordings" of interviews of her and her patients intertwined within the movie.  This now is giving you the impression that every last detail of the script was based upon factual occurrences and not speculation.

By the end of the movie, you are now perhaps, maybe, sorta, oh yeah I am! just as scared as the those patients and Dr. Abigail Tyler was. 

You've just watched these "actual" recordings of these "patients transmogrification into contorted shapes as they scream with ear-piercing terror". ( This was stated so much better than I could have) and have got to be at least thinking, Is this real? 

I must confess through out and a little while after, I believed that it was. I mean come on...those were supposed to be actual footage and then  a couple of actors said they will be portraying actual persons. - Wait...I did just write a couple of actors....hmmm...

Really?

Yes, we've heard tons and tons of times of declarations of alien abductions or sightings. Its talked about just as much as ghost phenomenon. First, please don't take this as me saying everything about aliens is not real, cause I'm not. I have my thoughts, but I'm keeping those to myself. This is not about my thoughts, this is about if this movie is about real stuff that supposedly happened in Nome, Alaska .

It's a very good question and I wasn't the only one who asked it.

So now tell us A.D. What's the scoop.

No. It is not real. It was all made up and you would be surprised how far Universal went to make you think it was.

 

Universal's Fourth Kind

Marketing Campaign Backfires

 

 

 

Yep, Universal has been a bad, bad, um boy?  Apparently they created  a bunch of fake newspaper articles for viral marketing for the movie The Fourth Kind. 

 

In real life, there was a string of disappearances in the small town on the west coast of Alaska, not far from the Bering Strait, in which the FBI were brought in to investigate in 2005. The victims were largely native men traveling to the town from smaller villages and went missing. The FBI looked into about 20 cases and found alcohol and frigid temperatures to be cause of death. Nine bodies were never found. -Source-Fourth kind real?

 

So...now you know and knowing is half the battle...right.

 

Either way, the movie was pretty good and even though Universal lost oh about $20,000 in a settlement with the Alaska Press club and then out of the kindness of their hearts contributed $25,000 towards a scholarship fund, they did make some pretty good money. The movie was pretty scary  and yes I too did believe it all was real as I watched it, so they fooled me!

 

So to all you Paranormal lovers, sometimes what you read or watch may not be true,but doesn't mean you have to stop believing :0)

 

Happy Reading and Happy Alien hunting,
 

 

 

 

The Crazy Dream Blog: September Madness Giveaway! (INT)

The Crazy Dream Blog: September Madness Giveaway! (INT): Yay! It's September, the beginning of Autumn, my favorite season of the year. But poor Autumn. It doesn't get too much attention, does it...

Just had to reblog this from The Crazy Dream Blog---Come check out this giveaway of these great reads below!

Author Spotlight- Jason Felts, author of Daybreak, a Mystery Thriller in a Kindle Store near you!

 

I would like to introduce you to author Jason Felts, author of the book Daybreak, a murder mystery thriller avialable in paper back and in the Kindle Store. Jason kindly answered my interview questions and take a read into the mind of this murder mystery writer. It was great getting to know him and don't forget to hop on over to Amazon to sneak your peek inside his book!

Thank you Jason!

 

 

 

 

Jason's Bio:

Jason E. Felts was born in Carlisle Pennsylvania, but moved to the south with his parents and sister as a teenager. He currently lives in North Carolina with his wife and two children. He started writing in his spare time while he was on the road, driving a tractor trailer.
He is now a stay-at-home dad and is trying to make his stories available for everyone to enjoy.


1. Where do you call home?
 Hamlet, North Carolina, United States
2. What is the title of your most recent book?
 Daybreak
3. What's your Genre?
 Crime/Mystery/Suspense

4. Plans for a next book? Is this part of a Series?
 I have started working on another book, no title yet, but it's not a contuation of the first book.
5. Are you a self published author (Indie) ?
 Yes, I am.
6. Who's your favorite author?
 Current: James Patterson. Old: Mark Twain

7. Your favorite book?
 The Quickie
8. What book are you currently reading?
 Sempre by JM Darhower
9. A book you would recommend?
 The Quickie
10. How do you pick your books?
 Mostly by known author.

11. Advice for other authors?
 Promote, promote and then when you think you are done advertising, promote some more...
12. Do you write under a pen name?
 No, I use my birth name, Jason E. Felts
13. Where do you write?
 At my computer mostly, however, I do usually carry a small pocket-sized notebook with me, just incase something pops into my head.

14. What do you wear when you write?
 Usually whatever I have on, sometimes nothing.
15. Do you have a pet (s)?
 No.
16. Favorite food?
 Philly cheesesteak. Having growed up in Pennsylvania, I sure miss the "real" ones.- Yummy!

17. If you were deserted on an island, who are 3 famous people you would want with you?
 Mark Twain, for his wisdom. Ernest Hemingway, because I know he would have a bottle of whiskey. Lastly, Salma Hayek, because, well, being with the other two guys, my chances just got better.

18. Of your characters, which one would you say is most like you and why?
 I realized, that there is a little of my own personality in the three characters that carry the last name "Stone".
19. What made you want to be a writer?
 Well, I have read a lot of good books, although none of the stories happened the way I wanted them to. So, I wrote my own.
20. Any weird talent?
 I can wiggle my nostrils. -Cool!
21. A favorite quote?
"Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." -Mark Twain Also, "I'd rather be judged by twelve, then carried by six."-Unknown

22. What is the one thing you never go without?
 My wife. -AWWW!
23. Your biggest influence?
 I would have to say, my children. --A bigger AWWWW!
24. Favorite TV show?
 It would have to be a three-way tie. NCIS, Big Bang Theory and Final Witness. -I love the Big Bang Theory aka the nerds!
25. A great blog you would like to recommend for others to discover?
I am just starting to get into the whole blogging thing, so at this moment, I really don't have a favorite.

Jason's Author page on Amazon- Hop over and give him your like!
Connect with Jason on Facebook
Add Jason's book Daybreak to your Goodreads to-read list
Become a Fan of Jason on Goodreads
Give your like to Jason's Facebook page
Visit Jason's website

Thanks again Jason for your paricipation and thanks all for the drop by!


P.S. Don't forget to leave your author a review, they really appreciate them!