BOTD: NATALIE WOOD (July 20, 1938)

BOTD: Natalie Wood would be 83 today, July 20. Tomorrow morning I leave for Catalina Island to retrace Natalie Wood's last steps and Marilyn Monroe's first. I hope to get a lot of really great footage for my next video "The Drowning of Natalie Wood" (Episode 8). Be sure to catch on the 1-7.

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DEAD IN HOLLYWOOD: BEHIND THE SIGN (ISSUE 20) OUT NOW!!!

I'm excited to announce my latest issue, Dead in Hollywood: Behind the Sign (Issue 20)!! Twenty Tinseltown Tinglers to keep the hairs on your arm up at night. This 10,000-word collector's companion took a while to compile but it finally makes me smile. The 40-page fanzine covers everyone from Peg Entwistle to Whitney Houston, Fatty Arbuckle to Alexis Arquette, Sam Cooke to Jon-Erik Hexum, Divine to RFK (to name a few).

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COMING ATTRACTIONS: REBECCA SCHAEFFER STALKED! (MAY 20)

CLICK HERE to like and subscribe to the Dead in Hollywood Youtube Channel! Rebecca Schaeffer’s story is fascinating and so tragic. If you head over to our Youtube Channel, be sure to watch Episode 6 - River Phoenix Died Here.

OUT NOW: DEAD IN HOLLYWOOD: RIVER PHOENIX DIED HERE (EPISODE 6)

Here it is! A lot of love and a LOT of time went into Episode 6. I hope you all enjoy it! Go behind the sign to Halloween night 1993... the night River Phoenix died on the pavement outside of the Sunset Strip nightclub the Viper Room. I thought I know the whole story, I had no idea.

FINAL COUNTDOWN: THE HOLLYWOOD SIGN GIRL (Episode 1)

Dead in Hollywood: Behind the Sign is a true-crime vlog on Youtube (Be sure to subscribe!). Episode 1 was an experiment as you will see. But I had a lot of fun making it and I think it’s a nice overview of Dead in Hollywood and the story of Peg Entwistle, the only person ever to have committed suicide by jumping off the letter ‘H’ of the Hollywood Sign. Join us this Friday for RIVER PHOENIX DIED HERE (EPISODE 7).

WORLD PREMIERE: THE NIGHT THELMA TODD DIED! (Episode 4)

Go behind the sign to the night 1930's actress Thelma Todd died in her lover's estranged wife's garage. Was it suicide? An accident? Or was the Ice Cream Blonde murdered? The list of suspects is long…

COMING ATTRACTIONS: Zodiac Zine: Where It Happened (vol. 2)

In September 2018, I retraced Zodiac's footsteps from San Francisco to Lake Herman Road to Lake Berryessa and back. The zine will include hundreds of never-before-seen photos of the actual Zodiac locations and the strange events during the road trip - starting with a near-drowning at Lake Berryessa! Until then, check out Zodiac Zine: The Lake Herman Road Murders (vol. 1) and its companion I Like Killing People & Writing Letters: The Complete Zodiac Letters & Ciphers.

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Ramon Novarro is Coming Soon.

On the evening of October 30, 1968, two young hustlers rang the doorbell at 3110 Laurel Canyon Drive in the Hollywood Hills. A 69-year-old man greeted them in a red and blue robe. Once upon a time in Hollywoodland, the man was one of the greatest Latin heartthrobs. Now frail, and looking like a "Spanish grandee," the man invited the hustlers inside - "a burly young man of 22 and a slender twink of 17--his murderers." By morning, the man would be dead, badly beaten, and having choked to death on his own blood.   

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BOTD: SHARON TATE (January 24, 1943)

Sharon Tate would be 78 today. The first time I watched "Valley of the Dolls" was at the Texas Theatre in Dallas, where, decades earlier, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for President Kennedy's assassination. The film "War is Hell" was stopped for Oswald's arrest. I spent the summer after 8th-grade reading "Helter Skelter" on the grassy knoll, in the shadow of the Texas Book Depository. Right away, I was fascinated with Tate. She was born in Dallas, and I grew up one town over in Arlington. 

When I first moved to L.A., I read Sharon Tate and the Manson Murders by Greg King at Tate's grave at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery. What better place to read up on your dead idol than at their grave? I've dedicated two zines to Tate's life, death, and final resting place. FOR MORE, GET THE ZINE!

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DEAD: PHIL SPECTOR (January 17, 2021)

Responding to news of Phil Spector's death today, Blondie guitarist Chris Stein tweeted: "When we went to Phil Spector's house in the 70s, he came to the door holding a bottle of diet Manischewitz wine in one hand and a presumably loaded 45 automatic in the other. Long story. I thought he was nuts." Spector, one of the most influential and successful record producers in rock' n' roll, generated a string of hits in the early 1960s defined by the "lavish instrumental treatment known as the wall of sound." In 2009, he was sentenced to prison for the murder of Lana Clarkson, a nightclub hostess at the House of Blues. Spector died from complications of COVID. He was 81.

Spector scored his first No. 1 hit in 1958 when he was still in his teens with the Teddy Bears, a group he formed with two school friends. Spector, the central figure in Tom Wolfe's 1965 essay "The First Tycoon of Teen," became a one-man hit factory. Between 1960 and 1965, he placed 24 records in the Top 40, many of them classics. Spector produced "Unchained Melody" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" for the Righteous Brothers - the former becoming the 20th century's most-played song on the radio. Spector's "wall of sound" profoundly influenced a host of producers and rock groups, from the Beach Boys to Bruce Springsteen. Spector struck gold when he began working with the Crystals, a New York group that he signed to Philles Records. I recently discovered the Specter produced "He Hit Me (And it Felt Like a Kiss)." Carole King co-wrote the song after finding out that her babysitter, singer "Little Eva" Boyd, was being beaten by her boyfriend. When King inquired why Boyd tolerated such treatment, she replied, "with complete sincerity," that her boyfriend's actions were motivated by his love for her.

The breakup of the Beatles in 1970 gave him a brief second life. He produced the unfinished recordings the group had made at Apple's studios in London the previous January. The resulting album, "Let It Be," led to a series of collaborations with Mr. Lennon and George Harrison. Spector produced Lennon's "Imagine." "Let It Be" received mixed reviews and was thoroughly repudiated by Paul McCartney, who hated the lush choirs and heavy orchestration.

In the early hours of Feb. 3, 2003, Mr. Spector, after drinking heavily, drove to his home in Alhambra, Calif., with Lana Clarkson, a struggling actress he had just met at the House of Blues, where she worked as a hostess. His chauffeur, waiting behind the house, later testified that he heard a popping sound, after which Mr. Spector emerged, a revolver in his hand, and said, "I think I killed somebody." (Source: New York Times obit)

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