Name: Miss Lily White
Born: Charleston, Sc, July 24th, 1913
Died: Hollywood, Ca. March 15th, 1951
When the Hagenback-Wallace Circus would come into town, one could usually count on the Columbia Amusement Company setting up camp somewhere nearby. While the Hagenback-Wallace circus offered exotic animals, acrobatic thrills, and spooky side shows for the children, it was the Columbia Amusement Company who provided the thrills for the adult men, by booking their burlesque shows at the local theatre. So when the Hagenback-Wallace Circus roared into Charleston, South Carolina, rebuilding their attractions after the tragic train fire of 1918, and found the odd little orphan, Miss Lily White, it seems a legend had been born.
Jeremiah Mugivan, who had recently purchased Hagenback-Wallace, viewed the five year old, standing in front of the St. Peter orphanage, with tattoos along her arms. His curiosity was piqued enough that he approached a nearby nun and asked her what the story was with the tattooed child. The sister explained that the girl had been left at the orphanage doorstep with a note pinned to her basket that read “Eshu dabobo re.” “The tattoos were fresh on her skin when she arrived”, the sister went on. Mugivan inquired as to what the words on the note meant, but no one in this parish knew. Jeremiah offered to adopt the child as his own, and purchased her from the church after having made a sizeable donation.
Lily was raised in the side show from that day forward, playing the one and ten shows all along the East Coast. While she never saw Jeremiah Mugivan again, she was left in the care of the Ringmaster, Adolph Althoff, an unusually charismatic and warm young man who encouraged her to assimilate herself not only in the side show, in which she would flourish much sooner than anyone expected, but also with the acrobats, the trapeze artists, the lion tamer...anyone who would be willing to guide Miss Lily White, as she was now called, and mentor her in his profession. While receiving only a rudimentary standard education from Ardhanarisha, the half man-half woman, who had once been an elementary school teacher before deciding to run off with the circus, she received guidance from every member of the troupe, and easily mastered the art of being a circus performer.
By the time she had turned twenty-three, she had become the Queen of Hagenback-Wallace, second only in talent and savvy to her only father figure, Adolph Althoff. Her talents on the stage, and her business acumen off the stage, drove the circus, one time mired in tragedy, to its greatest heights. She had received offers from Ringling Brothers, Barnum Bailey, Bertram Mills, and many others from circuses across Europe and the United States, but her loyalty to Adolph and the Hagenback-Wallace Circus would not be swayed. Not until Brian Walcott, a talent scout employed by Larchmont Film Productions in the burgeoning town of Hollywood, California, decided to catch a burlesque show at the Sedley Opera House in Sedley, Virginia.
Unbeknownst to Adolph, who would have vehemently disapproved of his adopted daughter having even associated with anyone involved in the Columbia Amusement Company, Miss Lily White had secretly been performing for the past several years at the burlesque show as it would always travel along the same route as the circus. While the circus gratified her as a performer for children, she began to seek a different kind of thrill on the stage, and so one day she slipped away from the circus to pay a visit to the manager of the Columbia Amusement Company, Herschel Glinden. Glinden, familiar with her multitude of talents and finding her aesthetically pleasing, decided to allow the other performers to tutor her, under the auspices that Adolph could never, ever discover their secret. Miss Lily White excelled as prodigiously at performing burlesque as she had in the circus. They were able to maintain their secret until Brian Walcott attended a performance, and decided that Miss Lily White would soon become Hollywood’s greatest star.
Knowing that there was no way to hide her “hobby” from Adolph, Lily and Brian both approached him together in the hopes that Brian’s financial offer would make him immediately forgive Lily of her indiscretions and wish her well in her new life as a Hollywood starlet. Unfortunately, Adolph did not react as well as they had hoped. Enraged at Lily’s betrayal, he locked her in a storage car, threatened Walcott, and with his Colt .38 strapped to his side, he left the circus grounds to confront Herschel Glinden. Walcott, having predicted this would happen, had already arrived at Columbia Amusements and had warned Glinden of Adolph’s arrival. Meanwhile, Lily, using her skills as an escape artist, ran after Adolph, hoping to talk him out of bringing further tragedy to the circus. When she turned the corner of the Sedley Opera House, she watched as Herschel Glinden, in self defense, murder the only Father she had ever known, Adolph Althoff.
After three days, in which Lily was able to mourn Adolph, and ensure that the circus would be in good hands after her departure, Lily boarded a train to Hollywood. As the train left the station, Lily watched, with Brian by her side, as her life in the circus passed like the whirring images outside of the window of the locomotive. She made a vow at that moment to never forget where she came from, and never let the memory of Adolph Althoff and the things he taught her fade. Ultimately, it was this vow, that would cause her tragic end on the set of her final film, “The House of Vanderdark”, one of the many unsolved mysteries that haunts Hollywood to this very day.
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HauntedHollywood.net
THE HAUNTING OF MISS LILY WHITE
We’ve all heard the actual story of Miss Lily White, who seemed to attract tragedy, whether it was the circus fire of the Hagenback-Wallace Circus train in 1918, that preceded her entry into that very organization, or her witnessing the murder of her Father, Adolph Althoff, or her final murder at the hands of an unknown assailant on the set of her last film, “The House of Vanderdark.” But does tragedy also seem to follow Miss Lily White even in death. For some unfortunate souls in Hollywood, Miss Lily White still remains, appearing as she did on the big screen in her heydey almost three quarters of a century ago.
Shortly after she was found murdered, a fire was reported as having been started on one of the back lots. When the firefighters arrived, the same stage that had housed the set for “The House of Vanderdark” had been engulfed in flames with a one Wallace Short, studio executive,, having been trapped inside. When the police arrived, a security guard reported having witnessed the shadowy figure of a woman who appeared to flicker, in black and white, as if she had emerged from the movie screen.
Another incident in 1950 took the life of another executive, Irwin Scuttling, when one of the water pipes in the adjoining bathroom burst for no apparent reason, flooding his office. As he rose to discover the source of the pooling water, a nearby lamp toppled, creating a surge of electricity that would end Scuttling’s life. Again the police were called, and again there were reports, this time by Scuttling’s secretary, and a lot screenwriter, of a woman, appearing as if she had stepped off of the silver screen, passing through the hallway just seconds before the incident. Of course...no woman was ever found.
The studio closed its doors forever in 1954 after several other incidents, all of them leading to injury or fatality, had caused the studio to go bankrupt. For some time, between 1954 and 1978, the studio continued to decay, nothing more than an abandoned lot. During this time, no less than twelve sightings have been made of a woman, fitting the description of Miss Lily White, wandering the back lot. After the lot was re-constructed and re-opened as part of a “Haunted Hollywood” tour in 1978, other incidents began occurring. In 1981, Leroy Perkins, one of the bus mechanics on the lot, was killed when a chemical fire erupted in the garage. In 1985, Charlotte Mills, one of the tour guides, was found hanging from one of the upper rafters where no human could reach. In 1989, during a studio after party for the release of the remake of “The House of Vanderdark”, filmed on that very lot, twelve party guests were found having drowned in the indoor swimming pool when the mechanized pool cover malfunctioned and trapped them inside. Every incident, from 1978 to 1989, coincided with witnesses reporting the appearance of Miss Lily White in all of her black and white splendor, prowling eternally in her never ending search for revenge.
The entire studio was finally demolished in 1990. For the past twenty-six years, an empty lot has stood in its place. Does this mean that Miss Lily White, with her earthbound home removed, has finally found peace? Or does this mean that Miss Lily White’s vengeful spirit has been unleashed upon an unsuspecting world? According to both local residents, as well as visiting tourists, of the many movie houses surrounding the area where Larchmont Studios once stood, Miss Lily White remains on this earthly plane. She has been seen emerging from movie theatre screens during midnight viewings. She has been seen emerging from the projection room only moments before the movie audience suffered the inconvenience of a broken film reel. There has even been report of an attempted seduction. Larry Krepkis of the Monarch Theater in Toluca Lake e-mailed us to tell us of a time in 2007 when he was closing the theatre for the night. As he locked the back door, a glowing figure approached him, that of a beautiful woman, shimmering, casting a flickering glow as she moved. Krepkis, a film archivist as well as theater manager, recognized the image of Miss Lily White immediately. She reached out to him as he cowered in the corner of the alley, and placed a solitary kiss on his lips, before fading away before his eyes.
Is it possible that our screen legends from the golden age of Hollywood never die? In the case of Miss Lily White, I think it is quite clear that this particular legend will live forever.
THE HOLLYWOOD STAR
March 17th, 1947 Evening Edition
CALL FOR JUSTICE: MISS LILY WHITE
An Editorial By: Archibald Cromwell
Today I am angry. Now I know what you’re thinking. “But Archie...you’re always angry.” And that’s right, I am. Because calling for justice requires anger. But today, I am angry for several reasons and I’m not ashamed to tell you right away that the biggest reason is because Miss Lily White was my friend. Two nights ago, Miss Lily White was murdered. And I know how, and I know why, and I know by whom. I don’t know who savagely murdered, and mutilated the beautiful Lily White, two nights ago, but I sure know who made it happen and where the police can start looking. Not that they will, or have, listened to me. They haven’t. Despite my certainty of the organization that murdered my friend, the corrupt, that’s right I said in big letters, CORRUPT, Los Angeles Police Department has refused to look any further into this case. By God, Lily White was an icon in this town, which can only mean that the men who had her murdered are more powerful than you, or me...but not all of us together. My friend deserves justice!
Miss Lily White arrived on the scene in 1934, suitcase in her hand, like so many who had come to this town before her, chasing the dream of seeing herself on that big fifty by thirty silver screen. But something set her apart. Having been raised by the late, great ringmaster, Adolph Althoff, Lily had already excelled at performance, as well as dabbled in the burlesque, and had earned the mastery of a multitude of talents. Her rise to superstardom was assured. And we all watched as her star continued to rise from 1935’s “The Black Room” followed by “Dracula’s Daughter” in 1936, and “The Devil’s Daughter” and “Son of Frankenstein” in 1939.
As the second world war continued to rage on in Europe, the turn of the decade brought further success to this juggernaut of cinema with roles in “Before I Hang”, “Angels Over Broadway”, “Johnny Apollo”, and dozens more. During the earlier part of the decade she began producing as well. Along with her partners at Larchmont Studios, Miss Lily White began to build an empire. That’s when she and I met. I had been sent on assignment to cover her first release as an Executive Producer, “Howling at Midnight”, and we quickly became the dearest of friends. She would regale me in stories of her youth as the tattooed child star of the Hagenback-Wallace Circus, and the exotic and exciting characters she was raised amongst. She would often impart these stories over one of our many lunch dates. She would tell me, with increasing excitement, of Lord James and his lion Black Sheeba, or the antics of the dwarf Miguel and his guardian Ivan, the strong man. Her eyes would light up, a thrilled look on her face, at this reminiscing. And I would roar at these tales, which turned me into a child once more.
I do admit to some self consternation because if not for these lunches, the glamorous legend of Hollywood, Miss Lily White, might still be alive today. It was my prodding that led her to share her past, and it may have been my excitement at hearing these tales that led Lily to long to return to that life. After all, she had barely nothing else to prove to the citizens of the film viewing world. She had done it all. She had accomplished more in Hollywood, and by greater leaps and bounds, than any woman could in this town, and she was well aware of what this town does to women after they reach a certain age. Yes, Hollywood, hang your head in shame, because you are as guilty as I am of Miss Lily White reaching the decision that would lead to her demise.
The last time she and I met, she had come to my office. This was one week ago, March 10th, when she confided in me that after her next film, “The House of Vanderdark” completed filming, she had planned to travel back East and begin her own travelling circus. She had saved plenty of money, and with what she would ask her partners to buy her out for, she could easily go back to the life she knew best and create the kind of circus that would rival the greatest creations of P.T. Barnum himself. I encouraged her, and even promised to visit her extravaganza one day, maybe even submitting a guest editorial to the East Coast papers to help her get some press. While the thought of Miss Lily White no longer being in my everyday life left an empty, black hole in my heart, I was more concerned with the bright light of hope in hers. I agreed that the circus was where she belonged as I kissed her goodnight and drove away from the Brown Derby.
She called me two nights ago. Her voice was trembling. She admitted to me that she had met with her partners over her departure and they had, unfortunately, not reacted as well as she had hoped. She confessed to being afraid. Naively, I chuckled. I reminded her that she is the master of her own destiny, her will belongs to her, and the choices she made were infallible and inscrutable. She told me that the executives at Larchmont hinted that Elizabeth Short had not wanted to play ball with them either. I told her that certainly they could not be serious and they were just using this Black Dahlia as a scare tactic...one that I found at the time, and still find to be, in particularly bad taste. She persisted that I meet her that very evening at the train station to see her off. She no longer felt safe in Hollywood and would close on her sale of the shares of Larchmont’s Lily White Productions from Florida. I agreed to say goodbye to Miss Lily White at the train station and that I would meet her there. She mentioned that she had left her purse at the studio. I offered to meet her there instead, but she said she would be extra careful, and at the first sign of trouble she would leave her purse, stay at my house, and we would see her off in the morning.
I waited at the train station until 3:00 a.m. I went home. In my heart, and in my gut, I knew that I would not hear my friend’s voice again. At 10:00 a.m. yesterday morning, I discovered that I had been correct. I hurried to the scene of the crime at Larchmont Studios. As a member of the press, I was able to gain access to the set of “The House of Vanderdark”. While I had come to speak to the senior officer on duty, I had not expected to happen upon the remains of Miss Lily White. For you more sensitive readers, I apologize, but I will not spare the details as I want you to be as mad as I am over this outrage! Lily’s hands had been bound behind her back and her feet bound at the ankles. Her clothes had been discarded, and she was displayed facing upward, her face still frozen in terror, her eyes were like empty glass, reflecting the harsh studio lights from above. The assailant had also attempted to saw her in half, starting and stopping at many points along the pelvic region, tattering the surrounding flesh, finally settling on the right location and hewing halfway through her body before stopping. The hacksaw still protruding from her mid-section...the blood pooled in such a way that would indicate that she was still alive through most of this mutilation.
And so, between the savage mutilation of my friend, and the dubious circumstances under which it happened, I am angry!!! The police told me that they would take my story into consideration and yet no further progress has been made to apprehend and question a single one of the executives at Larchmont Studios. A legend in this industry had been brutally murdered with a clear motive and a clear group of suspects and yet nothing is being done. And I doubt anything will be done unless you get as mad as I am! Write to Clemence B. Horrall, your Los Angeles Chief of Police! Tell him his investigation is a farce! Write to John Allen! Tell him there is corruption in his district! Get mad! Take Action! Miss Lily White has been murdered!!!