LA Weekly Gets New Haunt--and Ghost

Wednesday the LA Weekly makes its long-awaited move into the refurbished building on Sunset Boulevard that for years housed the Hollywood Reporter. There’s a chance the Weekly staff might not be the sole tenants.

An enduring legend has it that the ghost of the Reporter’s founder, Billy Wilkerson, inhabits his second-floor office area. Some say he sings during earthquakes. Others attribute to him a knocking sound that comes from beneath the floor.

One construction worker is said to have seen the ghost, although the remodeling project’s general contractor, Steve Ondre, said: “He had ghosts on the brain. Every job he goes to he sees ghosts.” Ondre said he’s been at the building for more than a year “and I’ve yet to hear any rattling chains.”

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United They Stand: In what might become a ‘90s version of the GI Joe doll, England’s Padgett Brothers toy company is selling a line of United Nations Peacekeeping Force soldiers. Although the concept might be well-intentioned, the blue plastic figures don’t look particularly peaceful. One figure is aiming a carbine, another is tossing a grenade and two others are holding rifles with bayonets. The figures do, however, come with a white “U.N. rescue tent.”

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Divided You Fall: It was the cover line on the new issue of America’s Civil War that first caught our eye. The fact that a serious magazine devoted to the War Between the States would have a story on a “cross-dressing Confederate spy” seemed interesting. This alone could be the basis for a 19th Century-themed Geraldo episode.

But it was one of the ads in the mag’s back that we found most striking. Among the pitches for history books, cavalry boot reproductions and 1862 recruiting posters was a 38-item reproduction of a Civil War surgeon’s amputating kit.

For $875, an enthusiast will receive 24 instruments, 11 surgical needles, silver wire and silk suture thread, plus two types of tourniquets. Although all the instruments are made from surgical steel, there is what might be one of the ultimate kids-don’t-try-this-at-home warnings about not using them for medical purposes.