Haunted Savannah, Pt. 2

Known as "The Pink House," this Savannah restaurant favorite is also known for its haunted history. This vintage 1958 photo shows it when it was functioning as the Georgian Tea Room.



The house itself is not necessarily scary looking. Supposedly its pink hue comes from the red bricks whose color continually seeped through to the white stucco, much to the consternation of its original owner, James Habersham. Now they just paint the place pink and therefore don't have to wait for the bricks to do their magic.



The basement area is where most of the ghostly apparitions have been seen. According to the Haunted Houses website, patrons and employees have seen slave children ghosts running around the basement area who like to throw dice against the wall in the hallway by the bathrooms. These children used to take wine bottles out of their places behind the bar and hit the bartender with them. The wine bottles are now chilled in a glass-enclosed refrigerator.



Some entity liked to lock women in the bathroom. The management finally took the lock off the door, which curtailed the problem somewhat, though a force does on occasion hold the door shut for a bit, keeping the annoyed patron stuck inside for a short time.



About the only thing that haunts me about this place is its Fried Pork Chop.



Need more Pink? Visit my main website.

Friday the 13th with Myron and Myra

It's Friday the 13th; to get your mind off of this day filled with superstition, I will blog about one of the weirdest films ever made: "Myra Breckinridge." VERY loosely based on a novel by Gore Vidal, "Myra" is the story of Myron (Rex Reed) and his alter ego Myra (Raquel Welch). The two are shown standing on the balcony of the Penthouse Suite of the Chateau Marmont; here's how that very same balcony looks today:



If you look over Raquel's left shoulder…



you'll see this rotating statue which promoted the Sahara Hotel from 1957-1966:



…and also graced the cover of Vidal's novel:



A frame from the movie showing a closeup of the Sahara Girl; Welch is visible on the Chateau balcony:



To publicize the movie, Raquel Welch wore a similar costume:



When released, "Myra" lost over a million dollars; today it is a cult classic.

Want to see more Chateau Marmont photos? Head on over to my main website.

A Day at USD

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the University of San Diego campus. Wow…what a view! Perched up on a hill overlooking Mission Bay, these students are living on prime San Diego real estate!



I'm also loving the architecture here, which makes the campus seem like an extension of Balboa Park.



The Immaculata Parish is a beauty, too.



Not surprisingly, there was a wedding photo shoot occurring while we were there.







The sunlight through the stained glass windows made some beautiful reflections.



I smell a donor:



Make you wish you were back at college? Pretend you are by visiting my main website and seeing more of USD.

Haunted Savannah, Pt. 1

Savannah, Georgia is often referred to as America's Most Haunted City. Literally built on its dead, many of its homes and buildings sit atop Native American burial grounds. The roads cover forgotten cemeteries of slaves and colonialists. The restless spirits that haunt Savannah are the result of bloody battles, fires, yellow-fever epidemics, and hurricanes. The Kehoe House is one of the more famous "haunted" hotels where visitors can sleep (or not sleep) at night. On my last visit, unbeknownst to me, I stayed in one of the two rooms that has become notorious for supposedly being haunted.



Room 203 is known as the Juliette Low room (named after the Girl Scout founder). I can't vouch for whether spirits haunt this room, but I can tell you that the owners seem to be confused about the spelling of Low's name.



Built in 1892 for William Kehoe, this Queen Anne style mansion has this story oft told about it: twins born into the family supposedly died while playing in a chimney in one of the rooms. The fireplaces have all been blocked up (I can vouch for that!) and decorated with angels. Many of the hauntings have been attributed to these children. Guests staying on this floor have complained to the front desk staff about the loud children, not realizing that children are actually discouraged from staying at the inn.



One reported occurrence of a haunted room 203 tells of a guest awakening with a feeling that someone was sitting next to her. When she opened her eyes, she saw that her sister was sound asleep on the other side of the room, but there was an impression of someone unseen sitting right next to her on the bed. Queue the spooky music!

I shot this photo at about 3 am without using a flash. I think it's appropriately spooky enough for this post. Again, I can't say if this place is haunted, but I didn't sleep very peacefully. The alarm clock going off two nights in a row at midnight didn't help. The problem was solved on night two but unplugging the durn thing.



Maybe this is what kept the spirits out of my room. Next time I should take it off the door; might make for a more exciting post.



Walking home from dinner one night, I was startled when I looked up at another nearby Inn to see this. It creeped me out, causing me to stand and stare to see why this little girl in Colonial garb was staring at me.



The next day, I got my answer.



This stuffed dummy sure made a dummy out of me.



For more Savannah photos, find your way to my main website.

Viewliner Delivery

At first glance, this looks like any one of the many images taken from the Skyway showing the Storybook Land attraction at Disneyland's Fantasyland. Dated June 19, 1957, our first closeup shows the Storybook-style map that allowed guests to preview the miniature wonders of this beloved attraction:



A previously posted shot of the Storybook itself:



The money shot closeup of this June 19, 1957 image shows the short-lived Viewliner in pieces, exactly one week before its debut:



The third closeup image from this slide is here just because it seems to be begging for a quote. Oh how I wish I knew what these two cast members were saying to each other:



To view more Viewliner, zoom on over to my main website.

13 Tikis

The word "Tiki" is bandied about loosely, and I would hazard a guess that most people (including myself) have no idea what it really means. So here's what I found: according to Māori mythology, Tiki is the first man. He found the first woman, Marikoriko, in a pond; she seduced him and he became the father of a daughter, Hine-kau-ataata. The first clouds appeared at the time she was born. To celebrate my newfound understanding of "Tiki," I am featuring 13 images from my collection of Tiki/Tribal statues/carvings at Disneyland. Feast your eyes on these amazing photos!









Walt looks perplexed:















One semi-current image to show that I am not stuck in the past!



See more Daveland Disneyland Adventureland photos at my main website.

Town Square goes Global

There was a time when the Disneyland landscape was a lot more diverse; instead of being all about the Disney brand, there were many other corporations who had a presence in the Park. This was especially apparent on Main Street, U.S.A.



Howard Van Lines was a transport company founded in 1933 by George T. Howard in Dallas, Texas. It became Global Van Lines in 1957 when it was acquired by Trans-Ocean Van Service of Long Beach, California. One of its claims to fame came in the 1960s when it moved equipment for NASA. For many years, its slogan was "Modern moving with old fashioned care."



These little kids from April 1977 probably don't care what Global was moving; they were busy having a blast pretending they were driving this moving truck:



Over the years Global changed hands quite often; it was acquired in 1981 by WKG Corporation of Houston, Texas then sold to Contrans Corporation in 1985, followed by Global agents who acquired the company in 1990, making it similar in form to a cooperative. It was acquired by Interstate Van Lines in 1998 then sold to Allied Worldwide in 2000, which became Sirva. That's a lot of change!

See more Daveland vintage & current Town Square photos at my main website.