NONFICTION - Oct. 30, 1994

HOLLYWOOD HAUNTED: A Ghostly Tour of Filmland by Laurie Jacobson and Marc Wanamaker (Angel City Press : $16.95 ; 128 pp.) Sometimes it seems that the most frightening thing about Hollywood is the movies the studios think are suitable for public consumption. But this tidy book provides a thorough look at more traditionally scary material: the movie-related ghosts who haunt Southern California. Helped by a psychic and a parapsychologist (and a fine graphic look by the Fibonacci Design Group), the authors track down ghosts in restaurants, ghosts in studios, even ghosts in the Comedy Store, which used to be a nightclub and gangster haunt called Ciro’s. While some phantoms cited wouldn’t frighten Shirley Temple, a description of the Headless Ghost of Beverly Glen gets the blood flowing. And “Hollywood Haunted” is not without a sense of humor. Talking about once-prevalent sightings of a horror star at a now removed Hollywood and Vine bus stop, the authors admit: “The ghost of Lon Chaney has not been seen there since, but you can still wait an eternity for a bus in Hollywood.”