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Location:
7000 Hollywood Boulevard,
Hollywood, CA
Description and History:

This 12 story luxury hotel
for the rich and famous, the biggest and brightest stars, was financed
by Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, and had its grand opening in 1927.
A ballroom, called The Blossom Room was the location of the first and
second Academy award banquets. The hotel had everything, including a large
pool, large banquet rooms, a penthouse library, luxury suites, and an
elegant decorum. The guests walk into a two story lobby, decorated in
a rich Spanish style, featuring hand-painted wooden beams.
In 1984, The Hollywood Roosevelt
Hotel underwent a 12 million dollar restoration, renovation face lift
to restore it to its "original glory."
Afterwards, ghosts started
to become very active in the grand old hotel, ready to move back in with
the eager living, who wish to experience elegance and history.
Manifestations:
While many guests of this
grand hotel are completely unaware of the ghostly clientele, and just
enjoy this glorious touch of Hollywood, there are quite a few unseen entities happily residing
here, unable to find peace needed to go to the other side.

A) Montgomery Clift had stayed
in room 928 for three months in 1952, while filming From Here to Eternity.
After the hotel was renovated, and brought up to snuff, a strong presence
was felt in and around his old room, 928.
1) His ghost has come back
for an extended stay. His apparition has been seen pacing the hallway
of the 9th floor. He also practices his trumpet in the hallway. Maids
have felt something cold brush by them. Other maids have felt a presence
watching them, or felt a presence walk beside them.
2) People have had unusual
experiences in Clift's old room, 928. While her husband slept in the
bed, a wife lay in bed reading. Someone gently patted her shoulder,
thinking it was her husband, she turned to say goodnight, but was startled
to see him still asleep.
3) Psychic Peter James
decided to spend the night in Clift's old room, 928. As he stood in
the hallway outside the door, he felt a lot of angry vibes coming from
the room. He went to sleep in the bed around 2 AM. He woke up, feeling
like an unseen presence was lying on top of him, so he couldn't move.
He managed to take a deep breath, and move his arm back, lifting the
weight off him. He finally was able to go back to sleep.
He woke up a few hours later
and saw a shadowy apparition of a man sitting in a chair in the corner
of the room. This male apparition was the ghost of Clift Montgomery, who
just sat there and watched James for about 30 minutes. Without warning,
Montgomery arose and walked toward the bathroom, disappearing. James got
the distinct impression that Clift was trapped here, unable to find peace.

B) Carol Lombard's apparition
has been seen on the 12th floor, in a suite where she and Clark Gable
used to stay.
C) A mirror that used to
be in suite 1200, sometimes reflects the image of Marilyn Monroe, as
a startled employee found out. When this employee was dusting the mirror,
which was at the time hanging in the Manager's office, she saw the reflection
of a sad , blonde woman. Turning around to talk to her, the employee
found no one there. Yet, when she looked back into the mirror, the blonde
was still there. This mirror is on display in the lower elevator foyer.
D) Other reflections of
deceased guests have been spotted in the mirrors hanging in the hallways.

E) Two ghosts are known
to haunt the Blossom Room.
1) A cold spot, about 30
inches in diameter, which was about 10 degrees cooler than the rest
of the room is believed to be an academy award nominee, from long ago.
Psychics have felt the presence of a man in a tuxedo, in a state of
great anxiety.
2) In 1990, a couple was
strolling on the mezzanine, near the Ballroom, heard piano music, so
they walked onto the balcony overlooking the empty Blossom Room. They
saw a man, wearing a white suit, standing beside the piano. They attempted
to make contact with him, but he didn't respond. When they walked nearer,
he dissolved into the air.

F) Security guards have
seen ghosts take a late night, early morning swim in the pool. One such
ghostly resident decided to do so at 3 AM in the morning, to beat the
crowds. While the security cameras picked up his image in the pool,
when a security guard went down to investigate, he communicated through
walkie-talkie that no one was there. Waving his hands at the camera.
However, on the security camera, the guard was waving his hands right
through the apparition's head!

G) A little 5 year old girl,
who calls herself Caroline has been spotted singing and skipping around
the fountain in the lobby, in the early morning hours. She was wearing
jeans and a pink jacket, with her hair pulled back into a pony tail. She
looked solid and lifelike, so the receptionist thought she was a real
child. Imagine her surprise when the child suddenly disappeared before
her eyes.
In 1992, psychic Peter James,
while investigating the hotel, in a series of midnight sessions was first
introduced to this little girl apparition in the Academy Room, not far
away from a very cold spot, that James describes as a "tubular shaft,"
a doorway used by the spirits to enter this world. She told him that her
name was Caroline, and that she was looking for her mother. He found her
again in the penthouse library, and she was crying, worried that her mother
may be hurt. James comforted her, and she disappeared.
H) Ghosts having fun! - Guests
have been locked out of their own rooms, when their doors were mysteriously
locked from the inside. The switchboard in the lobby will get calls from
empty rooms. Phones are lifted off their receivers in empty rooms. A maid
was pushed into a closet by an unseen presence. Attempts to film the known
haunted places in the hotel have been foiled by unexplainable electrical
failure, etc. Talking heard in empty rooms and the sounds of nonexistent
children playing in the hallways have been reported by other guests.
Still Haunted?
Definitely!
The restless
spirits that are the ghostly guests of the hotel, are an amiable bunch,
and welcomed by the hotel staff. As they shared the pleasures of this
hotel with other guests while they were alive, they are good sports about
sharing the hotel with the living. They are enjoying their memories of
their time spent in this great hotel.

Photos by Tom Carr
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