Off Topic: In Defense of Peg Entwistle

 The real Peg Entwistle, whose death made headlines.

 Now, I'm no expert on these old, old movies. I pick up a lot of facts because I do research where possible. When I see someone I don't recognize, I try to see what else they were in. Peg Entwistle I have never seen in a film. In fact, she was mostly a stage actress and made only one full-length film, Thirteen Women, which premiered a month after she died in 1932. Peg was born in Wales and came to New York, where she acted in plays in the 1920s. Bette Davis, in a 1987 interview, stated that she was inspired to become an actress after seeing Peg Entwistle on stage. After a divorce and many career disappointments by age 24, she climbed a workman's ladder and lept to her death from the 'H' in the Hollywoodland (now the Hollywood) sign. Her suicide note read: "I am afraid, I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E."

 That would appear to be the end of the story, but it's not.

Peg re-imagined as a modern mouthless ghost in 

a segment of SyFy's Paranormal Witness show.

 In the many decades since, there have been multiple reports of a woman near the Hollywood Sign. Dubbed the Woman in White, she'll appear confused, or lost, and then simply disappear. She wears 1930s-syle clothing and is always accompanied by the scent of gardenias, which was Peg's favorite perfume. If there is a ghost, it's harmless. By all accounts she was a loving, vulnerable person.

 So.

 Not too long ago, I'm watching the SyFy Channel (first mistake) and I happen upon a program called Paranormal Witness. Mind you, these are recreations of true events. They even have the actual people who experienced these things narrating it. So it must be absolutely, completely true, right? Well, turns out an ethnically-diverse group of friends squeeze through the fence and hike up to the Hollywood Sign one night, and they have a great time. But on their way down, they are confronted by a sinister woman in white, a mouthless spirit with glowing eyes that relentlessly pursues and tries to murder them. I've heard stories of the Woman in White, and I'm 50/50 on them. Maybe it's a ghost, maybe even the ghost of Peg Entwistle. But has this ghost adopted modern horror sensibilities and a sinister new inclination for vengeance? Doubtful.

 It's a bunch of crap. As the Kardashians proved, people will literally watch anything, and any story you tell in front of a camera will immediately be accepted as fact. SyFy is irresponsible and wrong here. I'm sorry to discredit the network that brought us Sharknado, but look what I did. I just said it.

Screw you guys, you have no sense of truth or history. Come to Texas and I'll fight every one of you.

 I've been distracted of late, but I will be back in a few days and continue my review of Satan Met a Lady, which stars Warren William and Bette Davis, among others. It's an old favorite.