Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Mae West: Ravenswood Ghost

A screenwriter who resided at the Ravenswood had an extraordinary encounter with MAE WEST — — an extraordinarily vague sighting. Or maybe this made-up tale is a way to promote a new movie. You decide. Here's how he attempted to explain it to SCI FI Wire's reporter Mike Szymanksi.
• • John Kamps — — who co-wrote the spooky romantic comedy "Ghost Town" with director David Koepp — — told SCI FI Wire that he had an inexplicable encounter with a famous ghost in Hollywood.
• • John Kamps . . . said that he lived in the Ravenswood Apartments in the heart of Hollywood, where Mae West kept an apartment most of her life.
• • "I knew Mae West lived there, and I was in my apartment in the Ravenswood and felt something," Kamps said in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival over the weekend. "To me, it's all connected to architecture. I saw something there, and, wow, it was like a momentary flash. It makes your imagination go wild. It's not like I had that experience anywhere else."
• • Even so many years later, Kamps said that he had a hard time explaining the experience. [Editor: Yeah, I'll bet!] But he added that it helped him work on the script for "Ghost Town," about a dentist (Ricky Gervais) who begins to see ghosts after a near-death experience.
• • "I consider myself a cynical person," Kamps said. "I know that people say they believe, and some have had experiences, but I thought that these are people who look for something to believe: They are looking for something more out there. This helps me give them an hour and a half of wish fulfillment."
• • Trying to detail his encounter more vividly, the writer said: "It was a moment, out of the corner of my eye, and I knew if I looked, there would be nothing there. I don't know; it was a really strong feeling I don't know how to explain. ... Even to this day I don't discount it." . . .
— — Excerpt: — —
• • Article: "Ghost Writer Wants To Believe"
• • Byline: Mike Szymanksi
• • Published in: SCI FI Wire — — www.scifi.com
• • Published on: 9 September 2008
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo:
• • Mae West • • none
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Mae West.

3 comments:

  1. I don't think that the Mae West apparition in the Ravenswood Apartment building is so strange. I have been a guest in suite 611 and have met several of the tenants of Mae's former home of 47 years. She in fact died there. In my upcoming biography of Miss West entitled "In Search Of Mae West" I introduce several of her "Los Angeles posse" during the last 20 years of her life. Mae was a remarkably warm woman considering the cult status she attained and greatly cherished her fans and did not run with the usual Hollywood Rat Pack.

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  2. Anonymous6:21 PM

    Sad to say R Mark Desjardins passed away Jan 10, 2023. :( He was a devoted fan of Mae West. :)

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    1. • • Yes, prostate cancer claimed the life of R. Mark Desjardins. It was under a year from when he was diagnosed to when he entered hospice.
      • • He left an unfinished ms on Mae West, a book he had been working on for more than 30 years.
      • • R.I.P. Mark. You are much missed.

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