I was thinking it was time for a good ghost story. I was tossing around some ideas in my head when I recalled something I’d seen on TV as a child. Of course we didn’t have any Discovery Channel back then, but the program was definitely a documentary type. It featured haunted houses and the people who lived in them. I remember the narrator talked with a family who lived in a house in which a rocking chair rocked with no one sitting in it. That felt a little hokey so I wasn’t spooked. It was when the narrator interviewed a person I recognized that I scooted to the edge of my seat.
Sommer and Sellers in "A Shot in the Dark" (1964)
It was the beautiful, blonde, and sexy Hollywood actress Elke Sommer (b.1940). She was familiar to me because she had played the voluptuous maid Maria opposite Peter Sellers in the second Pink Panther movie, “A Shot in the Dark” (1964), which ReadersDigest.com names as one of the top funniest 50 films of all times. If you haven’t seen it, you should. Bumbling Inspector Clouseau (Sellers) trails after Maria whom he suspects of committing multiple murders, one of which is in a nudist camp.There’s a hilarious scene of Maria and Clouseau fleeing through Paris naked.
Anyway, Elke and her husband Hollywood columnist and Bogart’s best friend Joe Hyams (1923-2009) lived in Benedict Canyon in North Beverly Hills. They claimed that a ghost was living in their house. My husband Tom also remembers seeing the same show when he was young. “They (Elke and Joe) had a ghost in their dining room,” he recalled. “The chairs would move around at night. They would put marks on the floor below the chairs before they went to bed, then, the next morning, they’d look, and the chairs wouldn’t be standing on the marks anymore. The chairs would be all over the place.”
In the middle of the night, Elke and Joe would wake up to what sounded like a dinner party going on downstairs in the dining room, hearing voices, chairs scooting, glasses tinkling, and silverware clanging. Yet they would go downstairs and no one would be there. Elke said, “Things would move all the time and it would be very noisy and (it was) the usual poltergeist nonsense, you know.” (1) The ghost was described as being a middle-aged man wearing a white shirt. (2)
After battling the spirits with no relief, they called in some help, contacting the Parapsychological Institute at UCLA. When Life photographer Allan Grant arrived at the house to take some pictures, he was a sceptic – but not so when he left. He said:
Something happened that spooked me. On one roll of film that I shot in a particular room where they first spotted the ghost there were about four or five frames of film that were progressively fogged down to the end of the frame, giving it a ghostlike appearance, especially (of) Joe Hyams, who was in the shot. When that was processed and I took a look at it, I thought, there’s no way that would happen…in the center of a roll…something else had happened that I couldn’t explain and I’ve spent years as a photographer and that had never happened to me before….Something did happen in that house. (1)
The haunting continued. A mysterious fire erupted one night. Fortunately, Joe and Elke were able to get out through a window. Shortly thereafter, they moved out of the house permanently. (1) Joe Hyams wrote a book about it called The Day I Gave Up the Ghost. Evidently, though, the ghost didn’t give up. The “severely haunted house” at 2633 Benedict Canyon “was bought and sold more than seventeen times since Sommers vacated it, and many have reported ghostly phenomena.” (3)
(1) youtube interview: “Actress Elke Sommer with a Poltergeist.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRLasAUl-eI
(2) California Paranormal Travel Guide.
http://www.haunted-places.com/californ.htm
(3) Ghosts of Hollywood: Celebrities Who Have Seen Ghosts. http://paranormal.about.com/cs/trueghoststories/a/aa022304_3.htm
Lisa's History Room 
I remember reading an old article in the Saturday Evening Post about the ghost at Elke Sommers’ house. I probably read the article in the late 80s, but it must have been published in the 60s or 70s. I was very impressed by the details of the ghost’s appearance and activities, and the reports that guests to the house (who didn’t know it might be haunted) made. Like, “Elke, when are you going to introduce me to that man in the dining room. The one with the skinny tie.”. And that was the ghost. I’d like to hear what the other 17 owners of that house say about the ghost.
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I wish I could find more about the house. Elke’s husband at the time wrote a book about the ghost.
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Dear Janet;Was there ever any answer as to what was really in Elke sommer’s house,back in the 60s?I’ve always been interested in this.Please email me soon.Thank you for your time.Sincerely,Tom
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I just read the condensed version of the Saturday Evening Post story, from the November 1966 issue of Reader’s Digest that I found in a thrift store. Did a search on ‘Elke Sommer’ and ‘ghost’ and here I am.
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Ted, thanks for visiting Lisa’s History Room. Best, Lisa
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Look, the issue of the Saturday Evening Post with the article about the house is available for sale for $5:
http://www.salsbooks.com/#/saturday-evening-post/4533456652
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Here is the issue with a follow-up article by Joe Hyams:
http://cgi.ebay.com/SATURDAY-EVENING-POST-June-3,-1967-6/3/67-TREBLINKA_W0QQitemZ120295093327QQcmdZViewItem
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Did you read the article?
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I remember reading this story in Readers Digest as a teen and it really scared me!!!
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I saw something on it on TV and felt the same goosebumps.
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I remember reading about this story in the ’60s. My memory cells pull up b&w images in a magazine spread (LIFE?). I think that the story may have included investigations of several houses, not just Ms. Sommer’s place. Thanks for a trip back in time.
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It’s funny how that memory is so strong with me, too. A ghost story given credence made a huge impact on me as a child.
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I remember the article about the ghost Elke Sommers saw and it was described as an older middle aged man with a nose similar in size to a potato. There was a picture in the article and it was a bit scary. Maybe someone died, was missing and buried on the property somewhere. It could be something for investigation! They say a ghost cannot be free if the body is not properly put to rest!
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a nose similar in size to a potato! That’s the scariest thing I’ve ever heard. I think I’d prefer to see a ghost to that.
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I remember watching a movie, a documentary, back in the mid/late-80’s and I think it was entitled “Haunted Hollywood” that had this story in it. When I was a kid I read a book that also had this story in it. What was creepy to me was that one day Elke, or a guest (I can’t recall which one) was lounging in or beside the swimming pool when they looked up to see a man standing nearby staring intently at the house. He proceeded to walk around the edge of the pool towards the house and then disappeared. If I remember correctly what woke Elke and her husband up the night of the fire was a banging on their bedroom door. When they opened the door they saw the smoke coming upstairs from the room below. Apparently the fire started in the dining room?
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Fascinating. It’s wild how many of us are affected by the Elke Sommer story. Thank for visiting Lisa’s History Room, Mark, and keep coming back.
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Mark, were either of these the special you saw? They’re both from 1989 and they’re the only 1980s titles that remotely match the show you described.
“Search for Haunted Hollywood”. Patrick Macnee is in it and John Davidson hosts. 92 minutes.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0466253/
“Hollywood Haunting”, 30 min
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0251731/
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i remember reading the elke sommer haunted house story in a scholastic book about ghost stories in 1973 or 74..i remember it said they were awaken by a loud pounding on their bedroom and their house was on fire during a heavy rainstorm….
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Scholastic was doing its part to keep kids scared!
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I live in Beverly Hills.
The dead never died here.
Believe me.
George Vreeland Hill
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Yes I read the same book! And I saw her being interviewed about it. Too bad the youtube link isn’t up anymore.
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I remember seeing Elke Sommer on the Johnny Carson show in the mid-to-late 1970s and she talked about her house and the ghost. I never forgot that as she was fairly matter-of-fact about the situation and convincing. I’ve always wondered about this and it’s interesting to learn more about it on this blog posting!
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Art Linkletter had great movies of the activity on his show – want to say summer of 68. Will never forget the impressions it made on me. Ghosts are real!
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I wonder if there is some video footage on the web.
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I’m wondering the same thing — I’d love to see a TV special about this. The Sommer-Hyams haunting is one of those great ones that has lots of witnesses, many of whom didn’t know each other, and lots of consistent experiences.
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I’ve been trying to find them – what they shot was amazing and indisputable!
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Does anyone know where exactly the house is/was? This article indicates its in Benedict Canyon. https://borderlandsciences.org/journal/vol/22/n06/Crabb_on_Hyams_Sommer_Haunting.html
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I remember seeing Elke Sommor on the Joey Bishop Show. She was telling him about the ghosts in her house! I think she was the one that had a little dog that kept barking at something in the hallway but nothing could be seen! Only he dog could see it!!!
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I read the article in LIFE magazine when I was about 8 years old. Scared the daylights out of me.
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The documentary being refered to here is “hollywood ghost stories” hosted by john carradine featuring elke sommer, william peter blatly etc. it was on uk tv some time ago and bootleg discs or youtube is available, interesting but a bit dated
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Jacko, thanks for the tip. Best, Lisa
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Crazy how many ghost stories there are around Benedict Canyon
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Elke Sommer famous in britain any way for Carry on films looks/sounds quite sincere in discussing this, not mentioned on her Wiki page though, cant think she would have had any reason to fabricate the story, some good stuff on youtube regarding this and others, really creepy, Great stuff !
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