The Haunted Theatres of LA are...strAInge

The Shaver Mysteries were...strAInge

The Shaver Mysteries The Shaver Mystery began with Richard Sharpe Shaver’s claims of an ancient language called Mantong and a hidden subterranean world of dero and tero, then exploded after Ray Palmer published “I Remember Lemuria!” in the March 1945 issue of Amazing Stories. Palmer blurred fiction, confession, Fortean speculation, and pulp marketing so effectively that the controversy boosted Amazing Stories, inspired reader letters and clubs, and helped set the stage for postwar UFO culture. Primary Sources https://archive.org/details/Amazing_Stories_v19n01_1945-03_Ziff-Daviscape1736 [https://archive.org/details/Amazing_Stories_v19n01_1945-03_Ziff-Daviscape1736?utm_source=chatgpt.com] March 1945 issue of Amazing Stories, the key starting point for the public Shaver Mystery, containing “I Remember Lemuria!” https://sacred-texts.com/ufo/irl/index.htm [https://sacred-texts.com/ufo/irl/index.htm?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Readable online text of I Remember Lemuria and The Return of Sathanas, with a useful intro connecting Shaver, Palmer, deros, Lemuria, UFO lore, and later paranormal mythology. https://archive.org/details/AmazingStoriesVolume21Number06_692 [https://archive.org/details/AmazingStoriesVolume21Number06_692?utm_source=chatgpt.com] June 1947 issue of Amazing Stories, a high point of the Shaver craze, featuring four Richard Sharpe Shaver pieces: “Formula from the Underworld,” “Zigor Mephisto’s Collection of Mentalia,” “Witch’s Daughter,” and “The Red Legion.” The Archive entry notes that the issue and contents are public domain due to lack of copyright renewal. https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=amazingstories [https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=amazingstories\&utm_source=chatgpt.com] University of Pennsylvania’s serial archive page for Amazing Stories, useful for jumping through available scans issue by issue. It lists the crucial 1945–1950 Amazing issues where Shaver-related material appeared. https://www.luminist.org/archives/SF/AS.htm [https://www.luminist.org/archives/SF/AS.htm?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Luminist’s Amazing Stories archive page, another useful scan index. It identifies Shaver as author of the notorious Shaver Mystery stories, with Ray Palmer’s collaboration, and frames the basic theme as ancient extraterrestrials surviving in hidden underground caverns. Background on Shaver, Palmer, and Amazing Stories https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/richard-sharpe-shaver-4462/ [https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/richard-sharpe-shaver-4462/?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Strong biographical overview of Richard Sharpe Shaver, including the Mantong letter, Palmer’s role, the claims about underground entities, reader response, Shaver Mystery Clubs, and Shaver’s later Arkansas years. https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/shaver_richard_s [https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/shaver_richard_s?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Concise science-fiction reference entry on Shaver and his later Shaver-related work in Other Worlds and The Hidden World. https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/palmer_raymond_a [https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/palmer_raymond_a?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Science Fiction Encyclopedia entry on Raymond A. Palmer. Especially useful for Palmer’s role as editor, his promotion of Shaver’s work as fact, and the circulation claims around the Shaver Mystery. https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/amazing [https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/amazing?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Background on Amazing Stories under Palmer. The entry notes Palmer’s mid-1940s support for Shaver’s paranoid subterranean mythology and the post-Palmer shift under Howard Browne. https://thepulp.net/pulp-articles/ray-palmer-and-the-shaver-mystery/ [https://thepulp.net/pulp-articles/ray-palmer-and-the-shaver-mystery/?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Excellent pulp-history overview of Palmer and Shaver. Includes the sequence of Amazing Stories issues carrying Shaver material from 1945 through 1950, plus the Mantong origin story and fan backlash. https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/war-over-lemuria/ [https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/war-over-lemuria/] Publisher page for Richard Toronto’s War over Lemuria: Richard Shaver, Ray Palmer and the Strangest Chapter of 1940s Science Fiction. Probably the best modern book source for the episode. The page describes the Shaver Mystery as a worldwide 1945–1948 controversy and gives the table of contents. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-shaver-mystery-the-most-sensational-true-story-ever-told/ [https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-shaver-mystery-the-most-sensational-true-story-ever-told/?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Los Angeles Review of Books essay/review on Shaver, Palmer, Toronto’s War over Lemuria, and Fred Nadis’s Palmer biography. Very useful for framing the Shaver Mystery as a turning point between pulp science fiction, Forteana, UFO belief, and fringe religion. Fandom Backlash and the “Hoax” Fight https://amazingstories.com/2026/05/revisiting-shaver-palmer-amazing-stories-and-the-philadelphia-resolution/ [https://amazingstories.com/2026/05/revisiting-shaver-palmer-amazing-stories-and-the-philadelphia-resolution/?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Modern Amazing Stories article reproducing and discussing the 1947 Philcon / Philadelphia Resolution against the Shaver Mystery. Useful for the episode section on organized fandom trying to distance science fiction from Palmer’s Shaverism. https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/paranoia [https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/paranoia?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Science Fiction Encyclopedia context entry on paranoia in SF, with a direct note that Amazing Stories improved circulation in 1945–1947 by publishing purportedly fact-based Shaver stories about manipulation by malign underground robots. Hollow Earth and Earlier Context https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/hollow_earth [https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/hollow_earth?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Useful for placing Shaver in the long Hollow Earth tradition. The entry notes that Shaver’s inner world is more hellish and paranoid than the earlier, more Edenic hollow-earth fantasies. https://archive.nyu.edu/bitstream/2451/63884/2/Mckee-%20Shaver.pdf [https://archive.nyu.edu/bitstream/2451/63884/2/Mckee-%20Shaver.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Gabriel McKee’s “Richard Shaver’s Subterranean World and the Displaced Self,” a scholarly article useful for a more serious reading of Shaver’s underground mythology, mental distress, and the “influencing machine” idea. Fate Magazine and the UFO Connection https://www.fatemag.com/about [https://www.fatemag.com/about?utm_source=chatgpt.com] FATE’s own history page. It notes that Palmer and Curtis Fuller launched FATE in 1948, and that the first issue featured Kenneth Arnold’s first-hand account of his 1947 UFO sighting. https://iapsop.com/archive/materials/fate_magazine/ [https://iapsop.com/archive/materials/fate_magazine/?utm_source=chatgpt.com] IAPSOP archive page for FATE Magazine. Useful for scans and for connecting Palmer’s post-Amazing career to early UFO culture. The page says the first issue carried Kenneth Arnold’s UFO article and helped create the UFO furor. https://www.luminist.org/archives/OC/FATE.htm [https://www.luminist.org/archives/OC/FATE.htm?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Luminist archive page for FATE, with early issue links and cover thumbnails. Good for visual references and period atmosphere. Episode Notes / Angles Frame the Shaver Mystery as the moment when pulp SF became a pipeline into modern fringe belief: lost continents, ancient super-science, underground bases, mind-control rays, reader testimony, editor hype, and then flying saucers. The key characters are Richard Shaver, the claimant and mythmaker; Ray Palmer, the editor-promoter; Howard Browne, the skeptical office voice; organized SF fandom, trying to protect the genre’s reputation; and the readers, whose letters turned the whole thing from a story into a movement. Best line of argument for the episode: it was not simply “a hoax,” and it was not simply “a man’s delusion.” It was a feedback loop. Shaver supplied the cosmology, Palmer supplied the megaphone, Amazing Stories supplied the audience, and the audience supplied the confirmation. Best transition to UFOs: June 1947 is the hinge. That same month, Amazing published the big Shaver issue, and Kenneth Arnold’s Mount Rainier sighting ignited the flying-saucer era. After that, the underground dero myth did not vanish. It got folded into UFO culture as hidden bases, ancient aliens, abductors, and secret technology. Possible closing note: The Shaver Mystery is strange because it is both ridiculous and historically important. It is pulp fiction, outsider cosmology, mental-health tragedy, editorial opportunism, and one of the seedbeds of modern paranormal media all at once. This podcast is powered by Pinecast [https://pinecast.com].

The Hopkinsville Goblins were...strAInge

Episode Description In August 1955, a family near Kelly, Kentucky, just outside Hopkinsville, claimed that strange small figures had surrounded their farmhouse after a bright object crossed the night sky. What followed became one of the most famous close-encounter stories in American folklore: hours of gunfire, terrified witnesses, police officers searching the property, and a legend that would later be remembered as the Hopkinsville Goblins case. Skeptics point to meteors, owls, stress, and panic; believers point to the number of witnesses, the duration of the event, and the sheer strangeness of the details. Either way, the case remains one of the most enduring American UFO stories of the 1950s. Keywords Hopkinsville Goblins, Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter, Kelly Green Men, Kentucky UFO, 1955 UFO case, little green men, Project Blue Book, Christian County Kentucky, Sutton farmhouse, alien encounter, UFO folklore, American cryptids, great horned owl theory, Joe Nickell, Hopkinsville Kentucky Sources and Further Reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly%E2%80%93Hopkinsville_encounter [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly%E2%80%93Hopkinsville_encounter] https://skepticalinquirer.org/2006/11/siege-of-little-green-men-the-1955-kelly-kentucky-incident/ [https://skepticalinquirer.org/2006/11/siege-of-little-green-men-the-1955-kelly-kentucky-incident/] https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2006/11/22164554/p12.pdf [https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2006/11/22164554/p12.pdf] https://skeptoid.com/episodes/331 [https://skeptoid.com/episodes/331] https://www.wkms.org/arts-culture/2016-08-19/a-hopkinsville-alien-tale-has-inspired-a-yearly-festival-a-musical-and-pokemon [https://www.wkms.org/arts-culture/2016-08-19/a-hopkinsville-alien-tale-has-inspired-a-yearly-festival-a-musical-and-pokemon] https://www.wbko.com/2025/08/21/70-years-later-revisiting-kelly-hopkinsville-encounter/ [https://www.wbko.com/2025/08/21/70-years-later-revisiting-kelly-hopkinsville-encounter/] https://www.wbko.com/2024/08/14/hopkinsville-residents-prepare-alien-invasion-day/ [https://www.wbko.com/2024/08/14/hopkinsville-residents-prepare-alien-invasion-day/] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/08/21/tales-from-the-path-of-totality-62-years-ago-today-they-say-little-green-men-invaded-this-kentucky-farm-town/ [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/08/21/tales-from-the-path-of-totality-62-years-ago-today-they-say-little-green-men-invaded-this-kentucky-farm-town/] This podcast is powered by Pinecast [https://pinecast.com].

The Battle of Los Angeles was...strAInge

EPISODE NOTES Battle of Los Angeles — Show Notes In February 1942, just weeks after Pearl Harbor and one day after a Japanese submarine shelled the California coast, Los Angeles erupted into panic. Air raid sirens screamed, searchlights crossed the night sky, and anti-aircraft guns fired more than a thousand rounds at something no one could clearly identify. Was it enemy aircraft, weather balloons, wartime nerves, or something stranger? This episode of StrAInge looks at the famous “Battle of Los Angeles,” the overreaction, the legend, and the possibility that something unidentified may have started it all. Links and Sources https://www.latimes.com/visuals/framework/la-me-fw-archives-1942-battle-la-20170221-story.html [https://www.latimes.com/visuals/framework/la-me-fw-archives-1942-battle-la-20170221-story.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com] https://www.latimes.com/visuals/framework/la-me-fw-archives-battle-la-20170221-gallery-photogallery.html [https://www.latimes.com/visuals/framework/la-me-fw-archives-battle-la-20170221-gallery-photogallery.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com] https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/about-us/leadership/director/directors-corner/h-grams/h-gram-010/h-010-6.html [https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/about-us/leadership/director/directors-corner/h-grams/h-gram-010/h-010-6.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com] https://celebratecalifornia.library.ca.gov/february-24-1942-the-battle-of-los-angeles-2/ [https://celebratecalifornia.library.ca.gov/february-24-1942-the-battle-of-los-angeles-2/?utm_source=chatgpt.com] https://sfmuseum.org/hist9/aaf2.html [https://sfmuseum.org/hist9/aaf2.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com] https://www.history.com/articles/world-war-iis-bizarre-battle-of-los-angeles [https://www.history.com/articles/world-war-iis-bizarre-battle-of-los-angeles?utm_source=chatgpt.com] https://www.laalmanac.com/history/hi07s.php [https://www.laalmanac.com/history/hi07s.php?utm_source=chatgpt.com] https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-battle-of-los-ange/119137374/ [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-battle-of-los-ange/119137374/?utm_source=chatgpt.com] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Los_Angeles_LATimes.jpg [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Los_Angeles_LATimes.jpg] https://www.militarymuseum.org/BattleofLA.html [https://www.militarymuseum.org/BattleofLA.html] https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/0704legend/ [https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/0704legend/] https://www.nytimes.com/1942/02/26/archives/army-says-alarm-real-roosevelt-calms-coast-blackout-hits-los.html [https://www.nytimes.com/1942/02/26/archives/army-says-alarm-real-roosevelt-calms-coast-blackout-hits-los.html] Keywords Battle of Los Angeles, Los Angeles air raid, 1942 UFO incident, World War II Los Angeles, California air raid panic, Japanese submarine Ellwood, Fort MacArthur, anti-aircraft fire Los Angeles, UFO history, wartime panic, searchlights over Los Angeles, February 25 1942, StrAInge podcast, paranormal history, unexplained aerial phenomena, military false alarm, Los Angeles Times UFO photo, World War II home front, California World War II, unidentified flying object, UAP history This podcast is powered by Pinecast [https://pinecast.com].

The Haunted Theatres of LA are...strAInge

EPISODE NOTES Haunted LA Theatres Show Notes This episode of Strainge explores the haunted theatres of Los Angeles, from the grand downtown movie palaces to Hollywood landmarks where celebrity, tragedy, architecture, and ghost stories overlap. We look at reported hauntings at the Palace Theatre, Los Angeles Theatre, Orpheum Theatre, TCL Chinese Theatre, Hollywood Pantages, Avalon Hollywood, and other legendary spaces where the audience may not always leave when the curtain falls. Sources and Links Los Angeles Conservancy, Historic Theatre District https://www.laconservancy.org/learn/historic-places/broadway-theater-and-commercial-district/ [https://www.laconservancy.org/learn/historic-places/broadway-theater-and-commercial-district/] Los Angeles Conservancy, Palace Theatre https://www.laconservancy.org/learn/historic-places/palace-theatre/ [https://www.laconservancy.org/learn/historic-places/palace-theatre/] Los Angeles Conservancy, Los Angeles Theatre https://www.laconservancy.org/learn/historic-places/los-angeles-theatre/ [https://www.laconservancy.org/learn/historic-places/los-angeles-theatre/] Los Angeles Conservancy, Orpheum Theatre https://www.laconservancy.org/learn/historic-places/orpheum-theatre/ [https://www.laconservancy.org/learn/historic-places/orpheum-theatre/] Los Angeles Theatres, Orpheum Theatre https://losangelestheatres.blogspot.com/2018/02/orpheum-theatre.html [https://losangelestheatres.blogspot.com/2018/02/orpheum-theatre.html] TCL Chinese Theatre History https://www.tclchinesetheatres.com/history/ [https://www.tclchinesetheatres.com/history/] Ghost City Tours, Haunted TCL Chinese Theatre https://ghostcitytours.com/hollywood/haunted-hollywood/chinese-theatre-haunted/ [https://ghostcitytours.com/hollywood/haunted-hollywood/chinese-theatre-haunted/] Locations of Lore, Ghosts at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre https://locationsoflore.com/2022/01/17/ghosts-at-graumans-chinese-theatre/ [https://locationsoflore.com/2022/01/17/ghosts-at-graumans-chinese-theatre/] Hollywood Pantages Theatre Official Site https://www.hollywoodpantages.com/ [https://www.hollywoodpantages.com/] LA Ghost Tour, Hollywood Pantages Theatre https://laghosttour.com/hollywood-pantages-theatre/ [https://laghosttour.com/hollywood-pantages-theatre/] Classical California, Haunted Halls and Theaters of California https://www.classicalcalifornia.org/articles/the-haunted-halls-and-theaters-of-california [https://www.classicalcalifornia.org/articles/the-haunted-halls-and-theaters-of-california] Fox News, World’s 10 Creepiest Haunted Theaters https://www.foxnews.com/travel/worlds-10-creepiest-haunted-theaters [https://www.foxnews.com/travel/worlds-10-creepiest-haunted-theaters] Britannica, 8 Hollywood Haunts That Are Seriously Haunted https://www.britannica.com/list/8-hollywood-haunts-that-are-seriously-haunted [https://www.britannica.com/list/8-hollywood-haunts-that-are-seriously-haunted] SFGate, Inside LA’s Dying Movie Palaces https://www.sfgate.com/la/article/rare-movie-palace-downtown-la-21081711.php [https://www.sfgate.com/la/article/rare-movie-palace-downtown-la-21081711.php] SFGate, The Mayan Theatre https://www.sfgate.com/la/article/mayan-theatre-downtown-los-angeles-19954908.php [https://www.sfgate.com/la/article/mayan-theatre-downtown-los-angeles-19954908.php] This podcast is powered by Pinecast [https://pinecast.com].

The Hollywood SIgn & Griffith Park is...strAInge

Peg Entwistle and the Hollywood Sign Ghosts Peg Entwistle was a stage actress with real Broadway credentials before Hollywood transformed her into legend. Born in Wales in 1908, she built a promising theatrical career and later appeared in Thirteen Women, the film most often associated with her name. Over time, public memory reduced her to a tragic symbol, but the historical record shows she was a working actress with serious ambitions and genuine talent. The Hollywood Sign also began as something very different from the myth people know now. In 1923 it was erected as “Hollywoodland,” a giant real estate advertisement for a housing development in the hills above Los Angeles. It was never meant to be an eternal landmark, much less a global emblem of fame, glamour, and movie stardom. But over time the sign outgrew its commercial origin and became one of the most recognizable and emotionally loaded images in American culture. Peg Entwistle’s death in 1932 fused her story permanently to that hillside. She made her way to the Hollywoodland Sign, climbed behind the first “H,” and fell to her death at just twenty-four years old. The press quickly sensationalized the event, and her identity became bound to the landmark in a way that has lasted for generations. From that point forward, the Sign was no longer only a symbol of ambition. It was also a symbol of failure, despair, and the darker side of Hollywood fantasy. That tragedy became the foundation for one of Los Angeles’s most enduring ghost stories. Later accounts claimed that Peg Entwistle’s spirit haunted the trails and slopes near the Sign. In the most common version of the legend, she appears as a pale blonde woman in old-fashioned clothing, often glimpsed in fog or dim evening light. Some stories add the scent of gardenia perfume, a detail that helped give the haunting an even more eerie, cinematic quality. What makes the story last is the collision between fact and folklore. Peg Entwistle was real. Her death was real. The Hollywoodland Sign was real. The ghost story grew afterward, shaped by retelling, atmosphere, and the city’s love of transforming human tragedy into myth. Whether taken as a paranormal account or a symbolic Hollywood legend, the haunting remains one of the best-known ghost stories in Los Angeles history. This episode explores both the documented life of Peg Entwistle and the supernatural legend that followed. It looks at how a working actress became a permanent part of Hollywood lore, how the Hollywoodland Sign became the Hollywood Sign, and why that one death still casts such a long shadow over the hills above Los Angeles. SEO Keywords Peg EntwistlePeg Entwistle ghostHollywood Sign ghostHollywoodland Signhaunted Hollywood Signghosts of the Hollywood SignLos Angeles ghost storiesold Hollywood tragedyHollywood paranormal legendstrainge podcast Episode Tags straingePeg EntwistleHollywood SignHollywoodlandghost storiesLos Angeles historyparanormalhaunted placesold HollywoodCalifornia legends Meta Description A look at Peg Entwistle, her 1932 death at the Hollywoodland Sign, and the ghost legend that still haunts the Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles. Sources https://www.hollywoodsign.org/history/sign-of-the-times-tragic-suicide-off-the-h [https://www.hollywoodsign.org/history/sign-of-the-times-tragic-suicide-off-the-h?utm_source=chatgpt.com] https://www.hollywoodsign.org/history-timeline [https://www.hollywoodsign.org/history-timeline?utm_source=chatgpt.com] https://www.pbssocal.org/history-society/behind-the-sign-the-lost-meanings-of-the-original-hollywood-sign [https://www.pbssocal.org/history-society/behind-the-sign-the-lost-meanings-of-the-original-hollywood-sign?utm_source=chatgpt.com] https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/socal-wanderer/5-best-haunted-hiking-trails [https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/socal-wanderer/5-best-haunted-hiking-trails?utm_source=chatgpt.com] https://www.tcm.com/articles/182349/thirteen-women [https://www.tcm.com/articles/182349/thirteen-women?utm_source=chatgpt.com] https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/3187 [https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/3187] This podcast is powered by Pinecast [https://pinecast.com].