By
Chris Gaede
Is
the ghost of John Belushi tooling around the Gable Lombard suite at
the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel, and trying to contact us? EVP
researchers Tom and Lisa Butler of the A.A.E.V.P. spent some time on
Sunday May 15th in the famous room 1200 of the hotel, seeing if they
could contact someone from beyond. Here’s a sample of what they
heard when they played back their recorder (the voice you hear
leading the discussion is Tom Butler, the other voice is…maybe
John Belushi?
LISTEN
HERE (.mp3 file)
LISTEN
HERE (.wma file)
Okay,
now that I have been labeled a crackpot, I guess I should back up
and explain how I came to be in the hotel with the “most star
studded bumps in the night.”
Universal
Pictures invited JoBlo.com out to the renowned Hollywood Roosevelt
hotel to celebrate the May 17th release of the Michael Keaton fright
fest WHITE
NOISE on
DVD
. In the film, Keaton is contacted by spirits from beyond the grave
through what is known as Electronic Voice Phenomena, or E.V.P. This
is basically when you catch the voice of a ghost on tape, or any
recording device, whether it is an answering machine or a tape
recorder etc.
We
spent the evening with Tom and Lisa Butler, directors of the
American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena. The Butlers have
been heading up the A.A.E.V.P. since 2000, but have been documenting
E.V.P. for the last 15 years. The Butlers are featured on the
extensive extras on the WHITE NOISE disc, so they were the natural
source to turn to for a closer inspection of E.V.P.
Believe
what you want, that’s it’s fake, or that these are just radio
waves, whatever. The point is that these transmissions have no
logical reason to be on these tapes. Maybe the fact that you can
only hear the voices in playback will cause the peanut gallery to
groan en masse, who knows. But, the Butlers are by no means flakes,
crackpots, or scam artists. They are down to earth people who seem
to be researching these phenomena out of their own spiritual and
scientific curiosity, and not for celebrity or financial gain.
The
evening started off with some demonstrations of E.V.P. that the
Butlers have captured. It’s creepy stuff, voices saying
“WHERE’S MOM?”, and the like. We were also treated to stories
about the hotel from an employee, who has worked at the hotel for
four years. Again, another rational, sane person. She told of
strange happenings in room 928 involving a singing voice, even
though no one was in the room. She asked one of the maids, who
responded that she heard the singing all of the time. Garcia also
claimed that the door of the Gable Lombard suite flew open on its
own as she tried to enter. I would say her creepiest story involved
getting phone calls from cabanas with no phones…or phone lines.
One of the voices even asked her if she was wearing tights. I guess
it’s better than someone asking you if you’re wearing kulats,
because those are so 1999, but still….that’s just creepy. She
said that she called security to check it out, but of course, no one
was in the room.
Then
it was on to the main event. We were led in groups up to the famous
Gable Lombard suite, as in Carole Lombard and Clark Gable. I guess
they used to…hang out there, and maybe still do. The Butlers spent
some time trying to contact spirits in the two places in the suite
where they had recorded voices previously. One spot was right in the
middle of the bedroom. Of course, it was near an outlet in the
floor, maybe somebody tried a marriage of a fork and an outlet, and
found themselves on the wrong side of consciousness?
The
suite was amazing, with a jaw dropping patio that looks out over
Hollywood Blvd. It’s not hard to see why old Hollywood royalty
would come there to hang out, high above the ticket buyers that put
them on top to begin with. Honestly, I couldn’t help staring out
the window at the people STILL camped out for STAR WARS:
EPISODE 3 outside Graumann’s Chinese Theatre, where the film is NOT
playing, nor will it ever be playing.
From
the suite, you can see them huddled in their own “Camp X-Wing”,
hoping against hope that the movie gods will change booking
schedules at the last minute, so that the final STAR WARS film will
end where it all began. Sorry guys, it ain’t happening, but I hear
Lucas is sending a phalanx of Stormtroopers to offer you guys an
escort to the Arclight on Wednesday night to see the movie there.
C’mon, just go, it’ll be fun. BTW, has anybody called this
“Camp X-Wing” yet? Maybe I should trademark that or something...
Anyway,
back to ghosts. We returned downstairs to listen to the E.V.P. that
the Butlers recorded in the Gable Lombard suite the day before. It
was mostly hard to decipher, but still a little unsettling. But my
favorite was the recording at the top of this story. It could be
anything. The journalists gathered seemed to agree that the first
part was indeed “JOHN”. It might not be as convincing when you
play it back on your computer, but when I heard it in person, it
sounded like “JOHN BELUSHI” to me. It’s up for debate.
Personally,
I think it would be totally tits if John Belushi’s ghost was
kicking it in the heart of Hollywood. And mind you, the BLUES
BROTHERS and ANIMAL HOUSE were also Universal releases. Could he be
stumping for his old employers from beyond the grave, perhaps
helping to promote the WHITE NOISE
DVD
? Hmmm…probably not. But that fact that it could be John
Belushi trying to say “hi”, and that could be evidence of
the afterlife makes me smile. Of course, it could be a ghost saying
“JOHN IS A SISSY” or “JOHN LIKES SUSHI” or “BON SCOTT
KICKS ASS” or whatever. Did I mention that John Belushi’s
character in 1941has some scenes on Hollywood Blvd, right near the
Roosevelt Hotel?
All
I’m trying to say is this: the Butlers are cool people doing cool
work that you should check out. And John Belushi rules, and I wish
he wasn’t dead. I get a little bummed every time I drive by the
Chateau Marmont, where he died. So if I wanna believe that it could
be his voice on the tape, I’m gonna believe it. It’s good for a
smile. Interested in their book "There is No Death and There
are No Dead", click on the cover below.
Oh
yeah, WHITE NOISE is a fun movie, check out the
DVD
.
WHITE
NOISE PUTS THE FRIGHTENERS ON YOU
MAY
17, ONLY ON
DVD
Email to a Friend
Print Article
RSS Feeds
Send us a Scoop!
JoBlo on Twitter!
