Dead in Hollywood is a true-crime web series of strange and tragic Hollywood deaths.
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…
DEAD IN HOLLYWOOD: BEHIND THE SIGN - WHO KILLED THELMA TODD? (Ep. 4)
PREMIERING ON YOUTUBE ON 2.27.21
In search of Ramon Novarro's Grave! Coming to a Youtube Near You! In the meantime, CLICK HERE for my Youtube Channel.
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.
I can't believe this story is real! I thought it was a joke when I saw it on Twitter yesterday. I once went to a wedding here in L.A., and I spent the entire time thinking that I was seated next to me. It turns out that he has a twin brother. I’m a huuuge Buffy fan, so the chances of me embarrassing myself were high. Thankfully, I acted unimpressed and left a bad impression. Crisis adverted. (CLICK on IMAGE for article)
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.
Forty-five years ago, on February 12, 1976, "Rebel Without a Cause" actor Sal Mineo was murdered outside his carport in West Hollywood, CA. Go behind the sign to the alleyway where the Switchblade Kid met his match. I hope you guys enjoy this video as much as I enjoyed making it. Like and Subscribe to my Youtube channel!
Can anyone guess where I was filming today? I’ll give you a clue: 2.12.21
DEAD IN HOLLYWOOD: BEHIND THE SIGN - EPISODE 3! 2.12.21
Forever Young Angelyne, L.A.’s Billboard Queen. We bow down and celebrate you today! I’m ready for my next ride behind the sign…
CLICK HERE for the zine! Every copy comes with a blade of grass from the grave of Sharon Tate.
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!
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)
CLICK ON IMAGE FOR SLIDESHOW!
Brad Renfro made his film debut at the age of 11 with a starring role in 1994's "The Client" -- the movie version of the John Grisham legal thriller about a Southern trailer-park kid who winds up embroiled in a Mafia hit. Director Joel Schumacher "wanted that kid in the principal's office." And Schumacher got his wish with Renfro, who had no acting experience and lived with the grandmother in a trailer park. Renfro's star continued to rise with parts in movies like "Tom and Huck" and "Sleepers." In "Apt Pupil," Renfro's last major studio movie, he played a compassionless A-student entranced by a former Nazi commandant played by Sir Ian McKellan. By the age of 18, Renfro had already been in drug rehabilitation more than once. On January 15, 2008, Renfro died of "acute heroin and morphine intoxication." He was 25. A week later, 28-year-old Heath Ledger was found dead in his New York apartment from a drug overdose. Unlike Ledger, Renfro was left out of the "In Memoriam" tribute at the Academy Awards. Some speculate that Renfro's addiction torpedoed relationships and his career, leaving him with few friends in the industry. Renfro's last "high-profile" appearance was in 2005 on the front of the Los Angeles Times in handcuffs, arrested during Skid Row's raid for trying to buy heroin. deadinhollywood.com #BradRenfro #deathiversary #Bully #Sleepers #AptPupil #IanMcKellan #JoelSchumacher #LarryClark #DeadinHollywoodzine #Hollywood #TrueCrime #fanzine #zines
