Modern Screen (Dec 1931 - Nov 1932 (assorted issues))

STRANGE SLANTS ON HOLLYWOOD Was it a Ghost Elissa Landi Saw? By JACK GRANT THE following story I cannot doubt. It was told to me by Elissa Landi, the Fox star. She is not an excitable person. She is imaginative — yes — but by no means hysterically so. There are too many brains in that red-gold head. Too much sense and balance which, together with the brains, have enabled her to write a successful novel in between making one picture after another for Fox, the most recent of which was, as you probably know, "A Passport to Hell." At present, she is busy working in DeMille's "Sign of the Cross," for which picture she was signed by Paramount. "I do not believe in haunted houses," Elissa Landi says. "Yet I once had an experience near a haunted house — a weird experience that was shared by my husband. We both saw and heard the same things. There can be no doubt about it. A headless and handless figure appeared before our eyes. We described it to one another and our descriptions, mine and my husband's, tallied exactly. "When I express disbelief in the existence of haunted houses, I do not mean to convey the impression that I am denying a belief in the supernatural. Just what I do believe is a bit difficult to explain concisely. Bear with me if I seem to digress. "It has been proved in the development of the radio that sound waves made by the human voice can be transmitted around the world. Mechanical ingenuity has made it possible for us to turn a dial and tune in programs that originated many thousands of miles away. We are no longer amazed by such a feat. "Stop to consider what happens to sound waves. I say certain words to you and you hear them. If I speak loud enough, I may be heard in the next room. But I cannot shout so as to be understood even a mile away unless my voice is amplified. Is this, then, the limit of the scope of sound waves or do they continue on into limitless space, too faint to be heard by human ears? We do. not know and therefore can only offer a speculative answer. Elissa Landi is undoubtedly an imaginative type — but not the sort of hysterically imaginative girl who would ever imagine the ghost story herein described. No. It actually happened to her. (Above) With Alexander Kirkland and Paul Lukas in "A Passport to Hell." "I believe tbat every sound ever made exists in the ether today. We cannot hear intelligible words unaided by mechanical apparatus any more than we can listen to radio programs without turning on our radios. But I fully believe that some day we will be able literally to tune in on the infinite. I find it easy to conceive of the possibility of the development of a device similar to the radio that will enable us to listen to words spoken a thousand years ago. FREQUENTLY we read of radio broadcasts being received in kitchen stoves, furnaces and the like. Radio engineers have logical explanations for such phenomena. Is it not feasible that haunted houses may be explained in a similar manner? Due to some reason not understood by us at the present time, houses and other places said to be haunted may simply be natural receiving sets for words from the dead past. If we are willing to go a bit further than that and progress into the theory of television, ghostly manifestations may find explanation in the same way. But let's get on with my ghost story. "I was in London at the time, playing in 'The Constant Nymph.' Johnny and I were engaged to be married and he called for me nearly every night after the show. This particular night was very warm and we decided to go driving for the air. "We drove along the Thames toward Richmond on the London Road. The river bank was lined with motorcars and we encountered heavy traffic all the way. Quite apparently our method of cooling off after a warm day lacked originality. Even the streets leading to the Thames were crowded with parked cars. "Our progress was slow. Then suddenly we sighted a lane absolutely deserted. Johnny (Continued on page 88) 63