LESLIE SIEGEL HOLLYWOOD SHOW WHERE THE WOODS WERE!

CONCEPT BY LESLIE SIEGEL

SHOW NAME: WHERE THE WOODS WERE & OTHER UNKNOWN GHOST TALES ON HOLLYWOOD BLVD!

UNKNOWN GHOSTS OF HOLLYWOOD –
DONNA & GLORIA WOOD!

This show would have an inclusion of a very detailed photograph album of the Woods Sisters and even their ghosts on film. It goes along with it. I also wrote a song about Donna Wood called Songbird in Heaven, the words taken from her eulogy and some of the newspaper clippings written about her when she passed away. Even the guitar I play tunes into the Woods and has their images and their photos through their lifetime on the guitar front!

Leslie Siegel has a photo album that would be of great interest to those involved in this site! It's of DONNA & GLORIA WOOD, two big band singers of the 1940's. I have photos of the birth of them, the death of them, and the rebirth of them! It's an amazing assortment of photos and a very interesting ghost tale indeed! I hope to share that with you all. I have photos of their ghosts, or impressions...and many photos where they took photos 70 years prior! See you all there with my Wood Sisters...

Leslie Siegel, ksiegel61@yahoo.com has first hand knowledge of ghost hunting and even belongs to The Int'l Ghost Hunters Society. I have been tracking two sisters from the 1940's, Donna & Gloria Wood for almost 10 years. 

I have shots of their spirits and many interesting facts about strange things that have happened to me since I came in contact with these very little known sisters who sang in Horace Heidt’s band during the 1940’s. They struck me as very real ghosts that never finished what they intended. I wrote a novel about them called WHERE THE WOODS WERE. 

As the years passed they still stayed with me and I wondered if I was destined to spend my entire lifetime mooning over dead people, dead memories, dead folks I’d never met in life! 

I kept asking myself, “Is this how it was going to be? Indulging my graveyard quick fix? Sometimes, especially lately, I began secretly resenting the new sensations and intuitions I was receiving from the Wood Sisters. It was no longer simple gestures and actions people did. Now it encompassed the gestures and actions behind the gestures and actions people did -- 

What did it mean subconsciously? A simple phrase in a sentence said a certain way was revealing all sorts of  tidbits in my mind of communication from Donna & Gloria Wood.

This is a story connecting the physical world of reality to the spiritual universe beyond most people’s comprehension. It’s loosely based on a Massachusetts family, the Woods, mainly their two daughters Donna and Gloria, popular big band singers in their heyday. They left behind ageless photos that become one of the many links to them and their illustrious, yet ‘firefly’ past.

Born to early Boston radio stars Robert and Gertrude, both Donna and younger sister Gloria showed musical ability at early ages. Life growing up for them must have been idyllic and carefree, even with the presence of the Great Depression, and World War II looming. 

Both had voices, talent and looks, at least from what they left behind --- Literally thousands of photos chronicling the different stages of their lives, especially the high points, from childhood to budding starlets, to the tragedy of Donna’s early 1947 death at the age of 29! 

Even their photo jaunts year after year at the same locations around Los Angeles held such significance because I began going to those same spots and taking photos of my own! So I admit it though; I’m hooked on the Woods. Following their photo paths to the places they were at, then snapping myself in the pictures where they once stood has given me a detective attitude, an almost strange free association connection path leading right to Where The Woods Were and After!

After the photographs were in my possession, I pieced together the birth, life, death and actually became instrumental in the rebirth of them, especially Donna Wood, who got her first start from the once popular big band leader Horace Heidt while stuck in an elevator with him in Boston, around 1936. He saw Donna’s raw talent in that short amount of time and confining space, and eventually had in the campy Jimmy Stewart/Paulette Goddard movie POT O' GOLD lensed in 1941. 

Heidt easily encouraged United Artists to cast Donna as the silent sister to Goddard’s character (except during a few singing numbers), which they did. It was a hastily put together character bordering on featured extra and budding songbird. There are a few pictures of Donna taken on the set, plus many publicity shots made by the studio. She does a few chorus numbers, but it’s obvious that she was edged out, probably at Goddard’s insistence. 

I have the shots on the Pot O’ Gold set in my possession, even some negatives. Hunting down those studio photos in the collector shops strung along Hollywood Boulevard and actually finding a few, was a big thrill.

Gloria went on to become a 4-octave singing dynamo voice-over artist in her own right, and was married to Lee, the ailing elderly man who had called a Hollywood trade I worked for as an editorial assistant. He put it simply by saying that Diabetes claimed His Glo in March of 1995. I found that eerie because it was exactly 40 years after her parents passed away in March of 1955, at least from the information uncovered from the photos!

“Perhaps there may be a story for the magazine to write about Gloria and her sister Donna Wood,” Lee prodded hopefully. By the first 30 seconds of our conversation, I sensed more than a story, something bigger! “The heck with the story, there was more here than that…” my racing mind blared before I did! 

But maybe my ‘prequel’ to the Wood Sisters and my true blood-love for the 1940’s must have started when working for and traveling with the songwriter who wrote UNFOREGTTABLE by Nat King Cole. Irv was in his 80’s by the time he and I met, but we traveled all over the world together. He’d written other songs like THROW MAMA FROM THE TRAIN, PRELUDE TO A KISS, and yes, ME, MYSELF & I … hundreds of other ditties that were famous back then and then, one day out of the blue, the Wood Family dropped into my life!

In my present, most people seem intrigued with my fascination for the Wood Sisters. Then there are those piqued individuals that question my focus for the Woods, a family I’d never met in life. But I’m always still turning over some stone about this family, and have stumbled across some really great cases, some dead ends, others interesting, many coincidental, but all related to the photos proclaiming Where the Woods Were! (“We are the Woods!”) 

It seemed easy for them to rebuke my childlike views on what living life was, as well as what was the Great Beyond. But the Wood Sisters represent my child’s fantasy, an adventure into the Unknown after life, or at least a peek at best!

Let’s start with eldest daughter Donna Wood. Didn’t know her in life, only after her early death at age 29 in April of 1947, as stated above. Born in Arlington, MA April 14, 1917, Donna’s birth marked the 5-year anniversary of Titanic, already a pall set upon a newborn’s first breath. That and the height of World War I always foreshadowed a ‘firefly’ lifespan.

I know deep down inside, the moment after laying eyes on that first photograph taken ages ago, that their residue and essences reached out for something missed! Meeting the Woods in 1997, exactly 50 years after Donna’s passing, started out simple enough. To recap: A phone call from one of her forgotten ailing relatives, a trip to Beverly Hills, being introduced to them ... or at least what they were 50 years almost to the date after Donna died so suddenly, and so young. 

Suddenly, 6 cardboard boxes of their family mementos sprang into my possession. The photos date as far back as 1865 and range on up to the late 1950's of who Donna and Glo were!

For the shoot on Hollywood Blvd. where the Woods roamed, my perky, free-spirited nature knows that the past is wide open for the percolating Wood family spirits springing forth, happy to be remembered, as they wanted to be recalled in the many pictures left behind by them. 

It's their life and times, and I often wondered if they subconsciously thought someone like me, Leslie Siegel would one day unearth their photos and think of them and bring them to the Internet.

That thought brings other strange thoughts to light about life and death. In a strange way, I learned from sitting around with Lee (and Irv), that the old seem to revert back to a childlike state. But Glo’s husband never ended up resenting my enthusiasm toward the end of his life as Mr. Unforgettable did.

Flash back to when World War II broke out! Donna and Glo were out here in California filming a movie and singing with the Big Bands in town, going on War Bond tours, meeting Bob Hope, Donna even getting married in the thick of it all, mid-1943! She married the head army band conductor and Colonel! He was no lightweight either, and flew fighter planes on dangerous missions. His name was Lee! 

That said a lot about Gloria’s fascination when she met her Lee, the Lee I’d been hanging around with of late.

During the time Donna was alive and married, Gloria could have had a thing for her sister’s tall, blond, blue-eyed, handsome hubby. I doubt it was by chance or ironic that 20 years later in 1963, Glo meets her sister-in-laws husband, also named Lee and falls for him (a blond, blue-eyed, cutie in his own right). 

And then came the controversial family blacksheeping it eventually caused, at least from what her later diaries shortly before her death in 1995 stated.

And I’ve never been able to find any trace of Donna’s Lee (believe me, I’ve tried). The only thing that sheds any light on his being was that he once worked for a Beverly Hills newspaper called The Citizen. 

There was a small article on James Roosevelt, son of the president, who produced POT O’ GOLD, the Jimmy Stewart movie Donna made her debut in. It was almost missed. No mention of Donna’s Lee, but the tie-in was there, a small thread of his existence, especially with the information I was going on – small articles, clipped gossip columns, hometown newspaper clippings and obituaries mostly; and of course, the numerous pictures of them posing so handsomely candid.

The question that started burning in Kate's brain was: What would Donna have become if she hadn't of passed away at age 29? Would she have surpassed Gloria's mini-stardom? Some photos reveal a friendly competition between the sisters. They were close, yes, but when Donna died, her sister passed the mark the older woman had achieved from the shots of Gloria at Donna's gravesite in the early 1950's.

And something else was very strange. As mentioned earlier, Gloria ended up married to another Lee, who was blond and blue-eyed. In many pictures, even before the second Lee, you can see that Glo took the same pictures and poses as Donna did with her Lee. Year after year, until her death, there are tons of photos of her and Lee. 

Those photos were matched by Gloria with a different Lee, years later! Plus, from reading up on the diaries, Gloria mentions how sorry she was for any pain caused to Peggy, her brother’s wife’s sister. She is constantly apologizing throughout the diary for basically stealing away her brother’s wife’s sister’s husband (Lee #2).

But, it was when Katie found a 1943 postcard sent to Gloria Wood at her small apartment - '9328' Olympic Blvd., Beverly Hills - that she realized how much of her own past really did parallel the Wood's. 

For many years, starting in 1983 (exactly 40 years after Gloria), Katie lived at '9328' Beverly Crest Drive, in Beverly Hills! Then she moved to 312 S. Elm Drive, finally ending her 12-year stint at 261 S. Reeves Drive, inner-city Beverly Hills, the two streets on either side of Donna Wood's 132 S. Canon Drive, and just up the street from Gloria's Beverwil house and first 9328 Olympic Blvd. address. And Kate did not miss the play on the number combos with Donna's address and hers on Reeves Drive in Beverly Hills, CA.

This cleared the way for other coincidences. But everything done and said, I’m constantly led back to the galore of pictures! It’s first obvious that the Wood Family didn't want to be forgotten, almost as if those musty life force boxes were meant to fall into my hands because I am the sort of gal that reveries and preserves, making it part of my own cycle, although the Woods are not related to me by blood. 

I spent many hours going through those (Their) boxes like savoring Godiva Chocolates. They call out to me everyday. They say, “Oh, Kate, you are a true historian, thank you Kate!” Many think I’ve become obsessed (or maybe possessed by) with the Woods - people who are dead, passed away, classified as ‘almost yesterday’s news’. Maybe that's true, but they are such special entities, and I sense them strongly entwined. 

I sometimes feel their oddly familiar essences, but blatantly. By the time 5 years had passed, I’d invite it, look for them everywhere, finding them in most obvious places. They manifest themselves (or I allow them --- maybe a bit of both) to become a fixture in my life, like a new relationship. 

It started when I began matching up their photos with present day locations then going to those locations and taking present-day shots (as Gloria did). It is truly fascinating, like stirring up something longing to be let out again in some mystic and photographic way. I mimic the old shots of them, placing myself in the same spots, locations and stances, but 60 years apart. To me, it reflects a bond of sorts, maybe that time is the in the same continuum.

Or perhaps doing that set up the time continuum? Who knows. But, I give the picture an effecting pose, while matching the family at Donna's gravestone year after year, mugging it up for the camera. 

At times it’s an odd space, especially when thinking of them while watching t.v. The channels come alive with their subtle messages, especially Donna and Gloria, whose pictures hang in the bedroom (over the t.v. stand) … And the highlights in their lives, so fleeting, but clear as if they happened but I forgot I was there, almost like I am old and of failing memory, so I remember them, but can’t recall spending time with them, but I did (procured by looking at the pictures). Like when a family member tells you something funny you did as a baby so many times, that you start to vaguely remember it, but can’t quite recall.

In the meantime, a blueprint (lately she had been thinking it had been there her whole life) formed in my mind of Donna's life, times and death when snapshots of the singer's coffin, gravestone and funeral were seen. Although it was a sad occasion, family members smiled, as if they were having a party by the woman's grave. It's evident on their expressions, especially Gloria Wood's, in pictures taken at the site years later.

Obituaries in '47, both from her hometown and Hollywood, stated 29 year old Donna Wood died mysteriously of some sort of heart disorder, but had married a musical conductor, Lee Hackler, (ironically the first name of Gloria's husband), and lived at 132 South Canon Drive in Beverly Hills, California for 7 years until her April 8, 1947, 11:00 p.m. untimely death! 

For some reason, it was all starting to sound like a story Kate had heard for years and years ... yarns spun by older relatives only visiting once every year. But she felt such kindred feelings radiating in and out of her airspace. Some of it came from within herself, but she could feel an underlying pull toward the Woods beaming their own sort of ghostly grace. She would follow this family and find out all she could, even trying to track down lost relatives.

This outline will be cut down considerably, but I wanted you to get the full idea!

SHOOT STARTING POINT:
In the front of the Broadway Building on Hollywood & Vine where Howard Hughes had offices on the 9th floor… He conducted his business there and would drive his car in the garage underground and take the huge freight elevator up to the 9th floor so he could avoid people. 

He had the elevators set in the building to always come to the 9th floor, even if someone in the lobby rang first. That was in the late 1930’s-1940’s. In the late 1930’s there was an accident when they were repairing an elevator shaft and a woman coming to visit Howard Hughes unknowingly stepped into the elevator shaft and crashed to her death. 

Some even got the story twisted that she had a crush on Hughes and he rebuked her so she threatened to kill herself in the shaft… And she walks into the shaft and falls to her death. Some say it was an accident, but it was covered up. Flash forward to present day. There are offices there, even a movie company on the 9th floor, and a huge telemarketing co on the 5th. 

During break they’d head for the elevators for cig breaks only to find the elevators delayed. Then the elevator would come and we’d push 1st floor, but the elevator would travel up to the 9th floor. The doors would fling open and no one was there. 

Then the elevator would shot and slowly make it’s way back to the fifth floor and pick up more who had buzzed the elevator. They would be picked up and then it was back up to the 9th again, same drill. Finally, the elevator would let us out of its clutches and travel very fast down to the lobby… It was packed tight by then. People were a bit rattled over it.

Once a girl there and myself dared each other to get on the old car elevator. It was working and inviting, with an open gate. We stepped in and pulled the old lever that shut the old style gate closed and pulled the big handle to “5”. I felt like I was starting up the Titanic. The elevator was moving, but it was going up to the 9th floor. 

Once there, the door would not open. We pushed 5 again and the elevator took us to the 5th floor but the doors would not budge and by that time we were screaming our heads off and full of terror! The elevator seemed to be going even faster back to the 9th floor. It stopped abruptly then headed right back to the 5th, but took us down to the dreaded basement where no one lurked…. Then it was a fast ride, as if the controls were stuck, back to the 9th. 

Finally we were screaming, “Howard Hughes, let us go, let us go, please…” My friend was crying and I was truly afraid. Just as quick as it began, the elevator gave us up to the 5th and the doors opened and we ran out!

I started telling anyone who would listen and even called Fritz Coleman of Channel 7 weather! He was very interested and wanted to send a crew down for a Halloween broadcast of the weather and when I tried to clear it with security, I was fired. 

The day I came to pick up my last check, I saw tons of elevator trucks lined up and down Vine! It would seem that the owners of the Broadway got wind of the stories circulating and didn’t want Fritz Coleman or the local news to see the code violations that must have scared them, so they called all the owners of all the big buildings on Vine and then called the Elevator trucks to re set all elevators up and down Vine. They even tried to re set the ones in Hughes building! I lost my job the next day and that was that.