Welcome to the Ghost Bunny podcast. I'm your host, Bridget Markhor, and I'm super excited to be starting this episode number one. And I have a very special guest. I thought the best way to start this podcast was going into my past a little bit and talking about why paranormal is so important to me and how it's come up throughout my life. And I thought there was no better guest to have on than Brian Aleya. He was guest services at the Playboy mansion, and we are going to be talking all about ghosts of the Playboy mansion. Brian, thank you so much for coming onto the show.

We're doing it again. We're doing it again. I'm excited. This is fun.

So, I know I had you on before on my original podcast, and we talked about ghosts and stuff, but I'm kind of feeling a little taylor swifty, how she's taking over and doing everything her way. Oh, that's what I'm doing. I'm taking my old podcast.

Oh, you've done everything your own way. Come on.

It's true.

Be honest. I love that. That's.

I have my own way of doing it.

Exactly.

So I'm gonna read your bio here so everybody knows who you are. They probably already know, but just in case. Brian Olaya worked at the Playboy mansion for nearly 21 years. He started out as a butler and worked his way up to the get to guest services.

Yeah, guest services.

You may remember him from the girls next door as my partner in crime for party planning. Or his SiriusXM Playboy radio show called Mansion Mayhem that was on the air for over seven years, which I can't believe.

That's crazy.

Yeah. He is now the owner and CEO of Thunderwolf Productions, which is an event production and estate management company. And you do event producing with Rogue bunnies and co host the Rogue Bunnies Mayhem podcast.

Bingo.

Okay. It's a mouthful. It is a mouthful. So after working at Playboy and at the Playboy mansion for that long, you definitely have a lot of stories.

Stories upon story. Actually, it's a trip, because it seems like there's a whole part of that. Literally. That was my life. Yeah, that was it. And then, like, when it all ended, it's still been taking some getting used to.

Well, I think that that is the problem. Well, I don't want to say problem with the mansion, but that's the thing that affects so many people. It was such a part of our lives. Like, it was. It was my whole life for over seven years.

We're behind the most magical gates, and it was a fantasy world. That was our reality.

Right?

I didn't realize till coming out, and I've talked to a lot of mansion staff. They're like, how is it for you? They're like, didn't realize we were not knowing what's really going on in society, especially for us that work so much. Yeah, it's like, I don't know of tv shows or bands and things like that that was going on at those times from, like, 1996 to 2017. People have conversations and they're like, oh, yeah, remember? I'm going, oh, what you're talking about? Yeah, I seriously don't. Cause I'm not a tv guy, you know, I didn't really do that stuff.

Yeah.

You know, I never even watched. I never even watched us. You didn't never even watched it? I don't know. My mom would call me, you know, my mom, and she would, like, call me, oh, you were on, and you did it. And I'm like, what did I do? Oh, yeah, I remember that day. You're like, oh, I'm not looking, man.

Well, obviously, I've been rewatching it for my other podcast for girls next level. So I've been rewatching all the episodes and stuff. And one thing I can say about the way they edit you or the way you're perceived on camera, you are always, like, rushing to do the next thing. And, like, I'm like, Brian seems very, like, panicky. Like, oh, my God, do this.

Well, it's only time frame. Everything was so time framed. Everything was, like, timed. I mean, you know, the boss had certain times. This is what time this thing had to start. That had to start. And then I'm looking at, like, when the staff comes in or when they can come in, I'm like, all right, we have, like, an hour and 45 minutes to get this done. Yeah, let's go. You know what I mean? And I literally. I remember when the camera crews, I had to be honest with them, and I said, look, you can't be in my way. Oh, yeah, I have to get stuff done. I mean, so if I'm rushing through or running through, it is what it is, right? And they were cool. Everyone was cool.

Yeah, everyone was.

They really worked, you know, around us.

But back to it being our whole life. Like, I remember when I first was moving out and I went to the grocery store for the first time, like, I had. And I remember being, like, amazed, like, all of the ice cream flavors. I remember that was my big thing. Like, I was standing in the ice cream aisle just like, mesmerized at all the flavors that they had.

True. We were a vanilla place. Yeah, we had certain ones. Like, we had drumsticks. We had that whole freezer downstairs, but it was picked out ice creams that either the boss or the boys liked.

Yeah, well, Kev always liked a strawberry cone.

Oh, yeah, we did have that. Yes, we did.

I never really ate ice cream at the mansion. I don't ever remember ordering it, ever.

That's how I actually kind of got brought in to with the boys, is when Kim called down and she wanted ice cream cones. And there was, like, these rules at the time, like, no one can go upstairs unless you worked in the pantry for so many years, and I was helping with a graveyard shift, and then all of a sudden, she buzzes down and wants ice cream cones. And I'm like, yeah, okay, so, yeah, pretty cool.

Okay, so I want to talk about all the ghosts and all the ghost stories. But first, I thought I would give the listeners, like, a little bit of history, so I wrote some of that down. All right, so here we go. Arthur Lett Sr. Came from England and bought a department store in downtown LA, and it became Bullocks, which is now Macy's. He bought a 400 acre ranch called Wolf's Kill Ranch that he wanted to develop into houses, retail, and a university, and he called that Homebee Hills. He died unexpectedly in 1923, but his son, Arthur Letts junior, built the first property on Holmby hills, which would later become the Playboy mansion. It was built in 1926 and finished in 1927, and it is a 20,000 square foot, 29 room, English Gothic Tudor style mansion built on 5.6 acres of beautifully manicured property. It was designed by Arthur R. Kelly in 1927 as Holmby House for Arthur Letts junior. S son of the Broadway department store founder Arthur Letts, plus additional structures on the property, such as a game room, guest house, grotto, gym, aviary, zoo, etcetera. And theres even a creepy prohibition style wine cellar.

And, of course, a pet sematary. It was acquired by Playboy Enterprises in 1971 for just over $1 million. That would have been equivalent to. That would be equivalent to $8.2 million today, by the way, supposedly its previous owner was Lewis D. Stratham. From 1908 to 1983, he was an engineer, inventor, and chess aficionado, and in early 2011, it was valued at $54 million. So that's a pretty good investment.

Oh, yeah.

Following the company's acquisition of the property, 15 million was invested in renovation and expansion. The mansion has, as we said earlier, 29 rooms, including the wine cellar and you guys, it's creepy because there's a cool, like, hidden door. We'll probably talk about that. There's a screening room with a built in pipe organ, which is super, super rare. Like, I feel like I can't remember the statistic, but I feel like they could count how many homes have a pipe organ, like on one hand or something like that. Like, it was very small. Amount of vets actually have one of those. There's the tennis and basketball court, the waterfall and swimming pool area, bathhouse, and the koi pond, which was an artificial stream.

Correct.

But it was still cool. There was a citrus orchard with two well established forests of tree ferns and redwoods. I used to tell people this is the biggest redwood florist in southern California when I did the tours, because it.

Is the largest private owned redwood forest in southern California.

Yeah. And then part of the house, the west wing, housed all of the offices. Well, not all of the offices, but a lot of the offices for Playboy Enterprise. And let's see. Oh, the aviary. And I want to ask you, I mean, this isn't even relevant to this podcast, but what happened to the aviary? Did they really pull it out for parking?

So they tore it down, but now it's been rebuilt.

The aviary. But it's not an aviary.

What I'm told it is.

Oh, really?

I haven't been able to go in. You know, my sister still works there.

Yes.

She's the only existing mansion employee and she takes care of all the animals.

Right.

But she, she can't even tell me stuff, you know what I mean? And I told her I don't want to get her in trouble.

Don't tell me.

But from what I've been told, people have seen pictures that they built a structure where the aviary used to be.

Well, I know they built a structure where the aviary used to be, but I was told that it was garages, and then above it was the. Is the gym.

Oh, okay. Well, then maybe.

But I don't know.

I don't freaking know.

Yeah, I haven't been able to go there either. Yeah, I think it's not gonna happen.

I don't know if I want to see it. I've seen pictures of all the construction, and it just kind of breaks my heart.

It does.

Like, I'm like, I don't want to see it. I had a friend, you know, I'm not naming names, I'm just saying it was really cool. He goes, you want to see this inside? They sent me some pictures, like, don't.

Ever send me pictures of the inside of.

And it was just, like, gutted. And I go, please, please don't ever send me pictures again. I got rid of them. No, I didn't. I didn't want to see them. I don't think I have. I'll look through my phone, see if I can find.

Okay, well, it's curiosity for me. I also.

It's not something you really want to see. It, like, sucks.

See, I also feel gutted when I see those pictures and the grotto is drained and, like, I can't even tell which is the front of the house, which is the back of the house. Like, it's really heartbreaking to me, too. But I'm also so curious to see what he's doing and what it's going to look like.

Well, I'd seen plans before of what they wanted to do, like the bowling alley, parking structure, things like that. We're going to do underground, a club. You know, things like that. You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Theater room. There were all these. Now, what parts they decided to go with, I have no idea because I'm not involved with it, but, yeah. And I just felt like, okay, that's cool, but would you remodel Graceland? You know?

Yeah, that's just.

But that's just me personally, other people. Oh, yeah. But you gotta go move with the times. Do you?

I don't know.

There's just some things that are, like, you know, cool, nostalgic. Leave them alone.

Yeah, like this.

Look at this.

I know, right?

Come on. Would you want to redo the freaking haunted mansion?

No. One of the things that I don't like about what I've seen so far is it looks like there's, like, contemporary buildings on the. This beautiful English Tudor thank you estate. And I'm like, what? This doesn't even go well.

You had history. Great. By the way, you nailed it. I don't know if you knew this part. So what I was told is that the mansion structure. You have the main mansion, and you have the house next door, which Kimberly ended up living there for a while till she sold it. Those two buildings were put up because they're exact replicas from the homes that they had in Holby Hills, England.

Yes.

And that's where those came. And that's why you have those old. What is it, Tudor or english goblin? Yeah.

Yeah.

That's fucking cool.

I know. It's so cool going back to the house, too. What's in there? So the heft's personal suite occupied several rooms on the second floor and third floor and was the most heavily renovated area of the building. Of the first part of the building. Did you ever see pictures of the original? Like, what it looked like before heav did it?

No.

Oh, he had these pictures now.

I want your pictures.

I don't have. But he showed us pictures, and there were, like, two. They look very small, but that's a big room, so maybe they weren't as small as it looked. It looked like two twin beds. Not connected with, like, very kind of Marie Antoinette style. Like, very old school weird.

Like, before they put his bed in.

Yeah. This is when the previous owners, like, this was way back.

That thing was cool.

Yeah.

You know, there was motors underneath it. Right. Did you know that? That's how they changed the bed of there was literally. Yeah. So Barney Fox, John Colada, you know, video guys and all that stuff. They had to find ways that they could do the projection. Right, right. So you'd have to move the bed. The bed literally slid underneath, would open up. It would slide under the headboard.

Oh.

So two things. The guys could get in to work on the projections.

Yeah.

As well as when the maids needed to change the bed. You know, you got to tuck everything underneath. Tuck it all in, move it all back. Yeah.

Fascinating. I didn't know it did that. Pretty cool. I did hear, too, that, you know, it had all that carving and the mirror and stuff behind it that it covered a window that was there.

Oh, I didn't know that.

And then I look at the mansion from, like, the rolling hills, and I look up, and I'm like, there is a window where the bed is.

Yeah.

That's crazy. Right?

Wow. I never thought about it.

I never thought about it either. Until I forget even. What? Like.

Yeah, because when you look up from the side, from the sloping hill, you see the windows, and they're all faced there. And only these are the ones that you see that are open.

Yeah.

Huh. Interesting.

And then I think, if I remember right, like, looking at that window, I think there must be a curtain on it, even though there's wood in front of it, probably.

So it would look right? Yeah.

So it looks like it's normal, but, so, okay, like I was saying, hef heavily renovated that area of the building with an extensive carved oak decor dating to the 1970s. But he had this, like, like, hand carved spiral staircase. That was incredible.

The woodwork, man. What do you call it? Craftsmanship. You know what I mean? It's just. Remember the lady that was like, carved in wood when you first get enter in on the right side and how that's all carved out. And then, like you were mentioning the spiral staircase and all the woodwork that's on that.

Yeah, it's amazing.

I hope they didn't get rid of that stuff.

I know.

Yeah. That's what I told the individual. I'm like, I don't ever want to see a picture again. Don't ever show me. Let me keep it here, what it was.

Yeah. You know, so other than that work, the mansion proper was maintained in its original gothic revival furnishings. For the most part, the pipe organ was extensively restored in the last decade. And then there was the outdoor kitchen. And like I said, the game house was a separate building. Then there are two sidewalks. And the fountain to the main entrance with the wishing well. And then game house. There's the duplicate of his star on the way to the game house. I wonder what happened to that. Did he keep that in there?

I don't know.

I don't know either. And then the game house had pool tables and old pinball machines and arcade games. And there's a tv and a couple of rooms in there.

And the cool arcade games from the beginning, like, where you have Pac, was. It misses Pac man.

Yeah.

Donkey Kong, Centipede. There were giant parties going on. People in the back. Celebrities galore. And then you go to the game house, and everyone's just sitting there, just going to town, playing on the games. You know what I mean? So I just thought, that's pretty cool. Like, wait a minute. I can just keep playing these.

Yeah. And then there were two rooms. The red room and the blue room. Off the game. Off the game house. Yeah. And then there was the van room, which had, like, a squishy floor. And it was mirrored everywhere to look.

Like the back of a van. Yeah, that was the whole point.

And there was only one bathroom in there, right? There wasn't a bathroom on the other side.

There was one directly right there by the van room.

Yeah.

And then you had the other one that was right off to the side. Right before you get into the red and the blue room.

Oh, there was a second bathroom. Yeah.

The second bathroom. Well, that's the one that had the picture with Muhammad Ali. Like, you know, he's like. Like. And it was like an over seen picture. Like, from the top?

Yeah, yeah. You don't remember that?

Yeah, it was right there.

Okay, well, I'm tripping on that one. And then. Okay, so then the bathhouse, it was like. It was so cool. In there, there was. It was all rock and there was like vines coming down. And there were like several different doors that go to different little bathrooms. And then they had, well, they weren't little. They were big bathrooms, and they had showers with, like, plexiglass that looked out to, like vines and ferns and stuff. So it felt like you were showering outdoors, but you weren't. But it felt like that.

But you used, you guys, you ladies used it for one of your pictorials. Yeah, that was really cool.

Yeah, that was cool. So, anyway, I just kind of wanted to give everybody a little lay of the land so that when we're talking about all this stuff, you kind of know what rooms we're talking about, because a lot of these rooms have a ghost story associated with them. Yes. So I'll tell the first ghost story, the OG ghost story. So I said about Misses Letts, or Mister Letts actually owning the house. And the OG ghost story is that misses Letts, and we don't know which misses Letts. We don't know if it was one of Arthur Letts Junior s wives or Arthur Letts Junior s mother. I don't know which misses Letts, but supposedly one of the misses Letts's jumped, fell, or was pushed from the balcony to the, and died on the great hall floor, marble floor.

Somehow she was found on the ground.

I think we've debunked the story, and in fact, I have a fan who wrote in telling me about this. This is what she wrote. This is from Lambala. That's the name they go by. Okay. She said she listened to the podcast last night and that we were talking about the let story and that she is it. She does genealogy. She said genealogy is a novice hobby of mine. So I did some digging, and here's what I found to mostly debunk the missing Letts story. Mostly.

Okay.

Arthur Letts junior built the house. He was alive from 1891 to 1959. His first wife was named Betsy Emmeline Baker Hahn. They married in 1914. They must have divorced at some point because she remarried Francis Hahn in 1931. She died in 1971 at the age of 79 or 80. So she wasn't living in the mansion when she died. So obviously she didn't die falling from the balcony. His second wife was named Kathleen Bardeenen Haywood Letts. She died in 1987 at the age of 90. So she also didn't die in the mansion. His mother was Florence Marthaletz. She died in 1944. She was 75, but we don't know where she died. But she does say, here's where most of the debunking comes in. She could have died of old age, or she could have slipped and fallen from the balcony. I haven't looked into her cause of death yet, but I can update you when I know. And then she also sent me pictures of them.

Oh, no way. That's cool. Wow.

Yeah. So I think that's really cool.

Okay. When you looked at those pictures, do you recall ever seeing them? Like those visions down the hall?

No.

No. Okay.

Not of these people, because you take some cool pictures.

I remember we used to take those pictures and they had all those orbs and everything all around.

Right. Yeah. There was definitely something going on in my pictures. And I know orbs are, like, controversial in the paranormal world because it's usually dust or bugs or a lens flare or things like that. But this, this picture, and I'll post it on here, was a little bit different. This picture that I'm talking about, I took a picture. It was for my clue birthday party. So I was taking pictures of all the different rooms in the mansion because I was going to make my own clue board with pictures from the actual mansion. So dining room, great hall, etcetera. And so I was taking a picture in the grit from the dining room of the great hall. And there is an orb like this. It looks like the moon is in the chandelier. Like it's right next to the chandelier. Like that. And I cannot explain it. And I. Ritz camera, where we used to get all the pictures developed and stuff, I went back in there with a negative and asked them to look at it and tell me what was going on with it. And they looked at it with the loop, and they said they couldn't explain what that was.

It was very odd to have an orb there, when you think about it, that it was at the chand, by the chandelier. You had all these other little, you know, fake candle looking light bulbs.

Yeah.

So how is this orb so perfectly set there and so bright and not, you know what I mean? And not obstructed by all the other bulbs? So that's what I thought was cool.

Yeah. And some people say, well, it's the mirror that was on the stairs back there reflecting, but I don't know. You guys can look at the picture. You be the judge.

Okay. But then how do you. How do you. How do you combat that theory? If they're seeing the mirror for when the pictures you took out by the garage, remember the pool? You took those pool pictures?

Yeah.

There was nothing there to reflect off of anything, right? I don't know.

Yeah, there were lots of weird pictures that night. And the game house, too, had. And maybe that was dust, but there were lots of little, like, things in the photo. So it's interesting.

We clean that place every freaking day. I don't think it was that much dust.

That's true. That's true.

Let's give it to housekeeping.

I know that is true. But I was doing a whole paranormal class, like, I was doing online certification to be a paranormal investigator. And one of the things we had to do was our own paranormal investigation. So hef was nice enough to allow me to do it at the mansion. So that's another reason why I was doing all these photos, and I was walking around with a video camera and explaining different things that had happened. And Holly was telling the story that happened to her in the gym. And I was trying to put all this stuff together, and I realized I have more than just a class report here. I have luck enough to write a book on the ghosts of the Playboy mansion. And I was telling, nick, Nick, I was telling hep, I'm accumulating all this. I'm gonna write a book on the ghost of the Playboy mansion. And he just thought that was funny. So maybe I'll still do it one day.

I just heard his little cackle in my head.

Maybe he's here with us.

Oh, man.

So let's talk about the paranormal stories. The first one I know about is the OG, one of misses letts. But then I've also heard, and I think it was Julie McCalla, said that one of the ex girlfriends made this whole story up to scare new girls that were coming in.

Ooh, what's that?

So I don't know if that's true or not.

Really.

Yeah.

So they're saying they made up the let story just to freak people out. Yes, I do know that. I'd heard some of the girls would mess around, walking up and down the hallways and, like, just trying to, like, make footsteps or tap on the. On the walls.

Yeah.

But then again, I've also heard opposites of girls hearing that stuff happening, and there was nobody around.

Yeah.

Like, butlers happened to go, can you please come up to the root? Come up here. You know, remember you could buzz down.

Yeah.

And so they'd come up, and the graveyard guy, Walker's nobody out here, and everyone's crashed out. So I don't know. I don't know.

Yeah.

I mean, I told you, I'm not. I'm skeptical until, you know, I had my experience, so.

Right. So. And we are going to get to that experience. That is good. But the first. So the first ghost story that I heard about Washington, it was actually in my room. There was a guy who used to stay in there.

Oh. Oh, my gosh. Why am I not thinking of his name right now? He wasn't there when I came in, but I heard of him.

Yeah, it was a long time ago.

Yeah.

And he had some ghost story about, like, he was in the shower and he heard somebody in the room or whatever. I don't know a lot of details about it. Barbie Benton told me the story.

Oh, really?

So I think that's fascinating.

Okay.

So that's one of the older ones that I've heard. But then Holly told me when she was brand new, she was in the gym, and she was working out on, like, the treadmill or the elliptical or something like that. And she saw a girl walk out and walk towards the closet. You know, the hidden closet door.

Yeah.

So walk that way. And this is when the gym equipment.

Like, walk right through it.

Well, no, she just walked that direction. But this is when the gym equipment was over on the dance floor.

Yep, I remember that.

So she didn't see where the girl went. She just saw her walk that direction. But you can't see all the way to that closet.

Right.

So she saw a girl with, like, a towel over her shoulder walk, like, from, like, the steam room Tanya area over that way. And Holly, like, smiled at her but didn't know her and didn't recognize her. But that's not unusual because Holly was pretty new and there's new girls.

But if she saw someone go that way and not come back. Cause there's no way to just keep going on.

Right. But Holly wasn't sure yet. She was like, oh, that's weird that she didn't, like, come back around. Oh, there. And so Holly thought, oh, there must be another secret passageway because, you know, in the dance area that, like, where the dance floor is, there is a secret passageway that goes.

Well, they're their closets, though. They really just were, like, all the old paintings and pictures and stuff like that.

Well, not the one in the dance floor. You. When you go through the mirrored one. Yeah. It goes all the way up to the laundry and up into the kitchen and think.

We're thinking about different areas.

So where the, um, the hardwood floor is in the mirrored area, there's a button you can push, and the mirror pops open, and you can go from there through laundry and up in. Through the kitchen.

Oh, okay. That's. That's why. Okay, so, actually, I don't. Well, let me correct that. I have to, because that was a closet for all the paintings. I know, because I used to have to put stuff in there. Right. Then you had the door. That was the back door, which obviously led to all of his private storage areas. The stairs. And that's. Yeah, that's where he went through the laundry and the kitchen and all that stuff.

But on the other side of the gym is a mirrored closet.

Correct.

With paintings and stuff.

Yes.

So Holly thought, oh, there must be another passageway over there, because she's new, and she doesn't know, you know. So after she gets done working out, she's like, what happened to that girl? And so she walks over there. No, there's nobody in the gym anymore. So she's like, there has to be a passage over here. So she looks, and, aha. She finds the buzz. The buzzer buzzes it open, and it's a closet with just paintings and stuff in it.

That's a trip. Okay. I haven't heard this. That's cool.

Yeah. So that was. That's her. But for some reason, she still didn't, like, believe in ghosts or haunted or anything like that. Like, she just shrugged it off. She told me this way later. So then one day, we're sitting in my room, and we're scrapbooking all over the floor. I have the tv on just for background noise. I have. The remote is laying on my bed, but I'm nowhere near it. And I'm telling Holly about, like, ghost stories and, you know, blah, blah. And she was like, you know, I really want to believe in that stuff. Like, I think it's fun and everything, but I've just never really had anything happen to make me a believer. All of a sudden, my tv goes up to, like, crazy volume. Like, we're like. And I'm, like, running over, trying to find the remote on my bed to turn it down, and I'm like, I think that was a sign for you. So that happened, like, on cue. So that was really weird to. And then I would be sitting in my room sometimes, and my tv would just change channels, and I wouldn't even notice it, like.

Cause I just keep it on as background. So I'd be, like, working on something else, and I would have, like, probably a paranormal show on or something, like, travel channel, world's most haunted places or something like that, because this was before all the ghost hunting shows and everything, but all of a sudden, it would be like the basketball game on or something like that. Like something I definitely wasn't watching, you know? And I'm like, oh, that's weird. What happened to my channel? And then. And I wasn't thinking too much of it. And I would just change it.

I'm just joking. But I just pictured John Colada or Andy Schwab up in the video department going.

I 100% thought that, no, they wouldn't do that.

But I just think that would be funny.

No, I did think it was them. And that's what I just assumed in my mind, that. So in. At the mansion on the third floor, there's a whole audio video department. And they would, like, they were human tivos. And they would record everything for half that he wanted, like, old school style human tivos.

That's actually perfect. It's actually perfect. It's really true.

And so I thought that they must be able to control my tv. So I really didn't think that much of it. I thought they're accidentally hitting the button or whatever. So one day I went up, because this was happening regularly, so I went up to John Colada up on the third floor, and I was like, can I just ask you a question? Do you have any access to my tv? Like, can you change the channels, increase the volume or anything like that? He was like, no. Have you seen those tv? Like, they're not connected.

Yeah, they're like.

They're just old box tvs. They weren't even, like, nice. Like our newer plasma tv.

Nothing, what we have today.

No, they're not flat screens. They're the big boxes and not smart tvs in any ways. Like, no, I don't. I can't control your tv at all. He looked at me like I was crazy. And I was like. Or, like I was accusing him or. So I was like, no, no, no. I was just curious because, like, sometimes my. My tv changes channels or the volume goes up or down or whatever. And I just thought maybe you guys were accidentally hitting something or something. Not us. No, that's funny. So then that was going on, and then one day, and this is my big one.

Okay.

It was actually a weekend or whatever. I don't even know if it was a weekend. But I went with the film crew to North Carolina to visit my brother in boot camp. And actually was in. It was in ranger school. And then on the way home, we had a layover in Atlanta, Georgia, where I got Winnie.

Oh, okay. Okay.

So the lady who had Winnie met me at the airport. And I brought her home, and it was the first night I'm coming home. I have, like, she's pooped. So I have, like, this little gated area with her bed and her water and her peepee pad and her toy and everything. And she's just conked out. She's had a long day traveling, and my sister is sitting next to me on my bed. And Stacy, we had buffet dinner and a movie. So all that was over. So it's kind of late. We're up in my room, hanging out, having a glass of wine, and I'm telling Stacy all about our trip because my sister and I went together.

So Anastasia and Stacy Burke.

Yes.

They're both okay? Yes. Okay.

So we're in there chatting about the trip and everything, and my sister's tired and wants to go to bed, but too bad, because Stacy and I are busy talking, and so she's just sitting there, like, bored. And all of a sudden, out of the corner of our eye and all three of us saw it in the doorway to my closet, which then goes to the bathroom, but there's no exit or entrance out there. It's, like, my bedroom. Here's the door right here. This is my bed right here. And then right over here is a doorway that goes to my closet, then goes to the bathroom, and there's no exit from that. There's a woman standing in my doorway. And I gasp because there's somebody standing in my doorway. And I turn and look, and I was like, oh, my God. Did you guys just see that? And my sister immediately went into panic mode and was, like, started crying. She started crying. Like, she was, like, freaked out. And Stacy was like, oh, my God. I don't want to look. What was that? She's a scaredy cat. She's like, what was that? What was that?

What was that? Oh, my God. I don't want to look. And I'm like, did you guys just see a woman standing there? And Stacy goes, I don't know what I saw, but I saw something standing there. And my sister saw something, too, but neither one of them looked because they were too freaked out. But I looked, and I saw. And I think I know who it was.

Who do you think it was?

Okay. Let me tell you the description. You tell me if you think. Because we'll see if we come to the same person. So this was a modern day ghost, relatively speaking, was not, like, victorian garb, like all, like, most ghost stories or anything like that. She was wearing dark, like, black acid wash style jeans, a white t shirt that was oversized on her, like, hanging baggy. She was very thin. She was very pale, and she had black hair that was kind of stringy and long. And she was just standing there staring. And she was kind of hunched to one side a little bit.

You're thinking. You're, like, describing Joni Mattis.

Exactly. It gives me chill.

I just freaked out right now. Wait a minute. That's freaky. I've never heard this.

You haven't heard this story?

I've never heard this story.

I told you the last time we did the podcast.

No, we didn't talk this one. No, I didn't know about that. Joni Matt. Yeah. Joni Mattis, Washington social secretary. That. She was the social secretary when I started.

Yes.

And, yeah, she was cool. She was cool. Yeah. But, yeah, well, here's how I even.

Know her, because she passed away before I started living there, so. But I had come years earlier to test for playmates, and I stayed at the mansion. And after I tested one night, there was, like, a party going on outside, and I was sitting, eating in the med room, and Joanie was there. And we stayed up all night talking. And so I like. And she was like, I know you're gonna be back here. I know you're gonna do well. And I didn't end up getting playmate, but then I did end up coming back later, and I. So I recognized her. And I think that the reason that she came was to see the new addition to the mansion, little Winnie. I think. I think she was very involved in all that, at least the short time that I had been there years prior. It seemed like she was very house mom to, like the girls and to the pets and stuff. I mean, you can correct me if I'm wrong on that.

She was cool. She was. I remember her picture. Chef Carter is the one that put her memorial up on the backboard right behind his desk. So I'm wondering if you've ever seen that. Do you remember?

I don't remember ever seeing that.

Yeah, he had. He put it up there. It was on this backbone. I always thought that was so cool. Cause then he'd be like, I miss Joni.

Yeah, she's cool. So then when I came back a couple years later, I had found out that she passed away from cancer. So I'm pretty sure that was her.

Wow. That's the trip.

And then, to complicate things even more, so I tell this story down at the office, and Norma says, well, that's interesting, because people used to tell Joanie that she looked a lot like misses Letts.

Whoa. Okay. That's kind of cool. That's cool. That's a trip.

That's a weird ride.

So did you see Joanie? Did you see misses Lutz?

Well, I definitely think I saw Joanie because you saw Joni Lutz because of the clothing.

Yeah. Yeah. Huh.

I think that misses Letts, any one of them would have been dressed completely differently.

You described exactly how she dressed.

Is that how he dressed? I literally only met very casual. Yeah.

Yeah.

Crazy, right?

Yeah.

But that. And what I love about that story and. Or that experience is that other people saw it, too. It wasn't just me.

Yeah, no, you had your sister and you had Stacy there, so. Yeah, people can't say. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

Right. And Stacey's still freaked out by it today.

Tell her I said hi.

I will. I will.

This is crazy, man. She's fun.

She's so fun.

I mean, crazy in a good way.

Yeah.

Just up for adventure, right. Just go for it.

Yeah. And then Carlina, who was one of the mansion butlers, told me a story. So I don't even know if Carlina really believes in the paranormal at all, but she told me that something weird, because I was in, I was interviewing everybody for my paranormal project that I was working on, and she said, well, I don't know, you know, about ghosts or whatever, but, like, one day we were looking everywhere for Panda, holly's dog. And if you remember, Panda was very social. Like, she wasn't just, like, off by herself, sleeping somewhere. Like, she wanted to be where everybody was. And she's very much a people person dog. And she's like, we were looking everywhere for Panda, and we're freaking out because she's the only one missing, and we're trying to feed them. And, like, where's Panda? So everybody's, like, searching for Panda, and they finally find her, and she's in the library by herself up on the couch, and she's sitting there like, she's. The way Carlina described it, as if somebody was petting her. Like, she was just sitting there contently by herself, which was very weird for everybody because that's not very panda like.

And so she was like. So we all thought.

You said she was looking up, too.

Yeah, they thought that was really weird.

Yeah, it's a trip.

So that's that. And then. So. And obviously, we're doing the show, so then I ask if we can have, like, an investigator come. So Barry Taft. And if you guys don't know who Barry Taft is you need to look him up. He's one of the OG paranormal investigators. I think that Poltergeist was kind of off of his character a little bit as one of the investigators that come.

Really? The movie?

Yeah, yeah. And then he also started the whole like parapsychology department at UCLA where they were doing all kinds of crazy studies and unique things before that ended up getting canceled for wonder why. But yeah, he's like the OG. So anyway, he comes to the mansion to do an investigation and he basically says at the end that I'm the conduit, that my electromagnetic fields were off the chart and that a lot of times these things happen because there's somebody that is open to that happening and they can, they can establish it through that person.

Yeah, that would scare me. That would scare me. I wouldn't want someone to tell me, oh, you're the conduit. Like, wait a minute, I'm inviting this. I don't know if I like you. You're a lot more braver than. I freak out on a lot of this stuff.

But I think other people were conduits too because I think other people experienced things there.

That's a trip. Well, I did get to see some stuff.

I know.

Okay, so the housekeeping is the ones that freaked me out. Yes, I remember it was a. It was an Martha, who is it? One of the ladies, they came in, in the office and they were freaked out because we'd sent, you know, they had to go clean out in the game house.

Yeah.

And they were out there and while they were cleaning because it was hot, you know what I mean? And so they had the. Left the door wide open and they're in there cleaning and all of a sudden freaking door slammed on them. Now there's no. You'd have to physically turn do. They didn't like having an auto thing so you had to make sure it was cuz it's they. And they freaked out. It slammed shut. And I think like the, that caused the, the piano player or something to start playing. It kind of freaked them out.

Oh my God.

They went running out, came running to the office and they're like just like freaked out and just going. They told me this happened. I go, come on, really? And then I sent, I think I sent one of the butlers out there. I'm like, can you just guess, escort him out there, you know, to see if you see anything. Yeah, but you know. Yeah, they were, they were freaked out. They would, they said they never wanted to go do the game house. By themselves.

Yeah, I remember you always wanted to.

Make sure there was, like, a group.

Yeah. Were you telling me that you'd have to send a butler or somebody from security out there with them?

They freak. They'd be freaked out.

And just so people know, too, the game house door was a big, heavy, thick, wooden door. And it. And it opened from the inside. So if you had that open from the inside, it would have to be something from the inside that slams it shut. It can't just be like the wind because they wouldn't have.

And the doors stood open. It wasn't like, you know, like on a lot of doors where you have the automatic. On the house office door. Right. We had the was automatic hinges hinge thing that would close and shut after a while or whatever. There was not that out there. So this huge giant door would just be propped open for that to be slammed. I was like that kind of freaks of.

Yeah, that just reminded me. Do you remember the bubble gum machine right by the door?

I had to fill it.

Yeah, I forgot all about the bubble gum machine.

Yeah.

I wonder what happened.

I had to put it. Was it. We did one of our shows with Marston. He mentioned the bubble gum machine. He goes, yeah. Then we came out there one day and found out that there was like a lock, a bolt lock that we put on there. We had to bolt it down because the boys were, like, going in and grabbing all the gumballs. Cause you can remember you could go through the top and lift the top part. That's how we would fill it. Yeah, they would go through that and then they'd have gumballs.

Oh, my God, what a mess.

Yeah. Had to send the butlers out, go clean it up.

Well, speaking of the game house and everything, too, that's where that. Right out front of that is where the pet cemetery is. Do you know if that still exists?

I don't know. Again, you know what I mean? Like I said, my sister's there, and I don't want her to get in trouble at all. So I really don't ask many questions. Yeah, but I've heard.

Isn't it killing you not to ask a lot of questions?

Part of it, yes. And then part of it, no, because I don't want to know stuff.

Yeah.

There's part of me that's like I said, that's like, I think of it like Graceland, you know? I've been to Graceland. I looked around, I went, why didn't we do this? This. I wish it would have stayed like this, you know? I know people can have all their opinions. I'm like, you know, but it was, like, set back in the seventies. So what? Freaking Elvis's house was still set back in the. What was it? The fifties? Sixties? You know what I mean?

It's like.

It was cool. It was like, you know. I mean, come on. Have you been to Graceland?

I haven't had.

You haven't? Oh, my gosh. You gotta go. Go to the jungle room.

Yeah, you'll love the jungle room.

Jungle room is cool.

See, I always thought that the mansion.

There's carpet on the ceiling.

Oh, really?

Yeah. The whole place is carpeted. It's freaking cool. Why would you change that? Don't change it. Leave it alone.

It's like Jane Mansfield's house.

It's cool.

The pink palace. Totally gone.

Yeah.

She had pink carpeting. I think it was even on the ceiling, too. It was everywhere.

Wall to wall carpeting and ceiling.

Yeah. Weird.

Yeah, that was the thing.

The mansion. I did think, even though I knew that have had said that it wasn't zoned for, like, becoming a museum or, like, a tourist attraction or whatever. Like, the neighbors would never permit that or whatever. I still always held out hope that they would still do that.

I thought they could work out a deal with, like, one of the tourists busses. I mean, how cool. The tourist busses were up there anyway. It wasn't like you were gonna stop them, right? I mean, they were always going to the front. And then they make their way all the way to the back. So you front charing cross and then on the back of maple. Yeah, and they always stopped. They were there. Why not make a deal? Have them drive through? Yeah, that would have been really cool.

But I thought. I even thought that the mansion, like, my bedroom. Could be restored back to next door days. Like the pink bedroom. You know, all that stuff.

Yeah.

Kendra's room. We can make it a mess.

I forget the name. House bunny. Yeah, I was always. That's Bridget's room. Well, it was my room, but, you know, they made a set also.

Yeah.

Like, that's where the whole idea came from. That's it.

I know. I always thought that maybe it would be that someday. But was not to be. It's sad. Okay. You have to tell everybody your story.

All right. So, you know, I don't really. I don't play around with paranormal. You know that I'm pretty vocal open about my own faith. And I don't want to mess with things. You know what I mean? I'm always scared. I'm like, what are you messing with here? You know, I walked away from a party one time in high school because they brought out the Ouija board. I know you'd be like, yeah. I'd be like, hell, no, I'm out of here. My mom always said, never mess with this stuff. You don't know what you're inviting in. That's when you said conduit. I was like, do you want to be that? So anyway, so that's my background to where I'm, like, going. I don't know. Is that really real? Did that really happen until that one time? And we talked about this, where, you know, the boss was very. He had a schedule, and he expected everything to be at certain times. And he was a creature habit. That's what he did it. And we had a certain time for the buffet. Well, Cooper happened to come over and had to have a meeting, so he decided to do the meeting in the library.

Well, of course, we used to make a tray, remember, like a whole copy tray, cookies, the whole thing like that, you know? So whoever he's meeting with, they had their whole setup there. Well, I know that this setup was in there. And I'd ask Coop, I go, how long do you think you're going to be in there? Because we got to make sure we get everything out of there, because the boss would like to come down to make sure that everything was ready. And then he'd also have his, like, notes and stuff, movie notes in the library. So I'm thinking we gotta clean this place up. All right. Please let us know when you leave. We gotta clean this place up so I can get him in there.

Yeah.

So he went in there, and he, of course, locked the door, you know, don't come in. I mean, we know if we saw a door and it's shut, don't go in there. Right. And so when you come in. Yeah, yeah. The great hall.

Yeah.

Through the living room.

Yeah.

To the library.

Yeah. So I just want to tell the listeners, there's two doors into the library area.

Yes.

There's the door that you go in. You go in through, like the. The movie room. And then there's a door to the library, and then there's also a door on the outside.

Correct.

Of the building that you can go directly into. Like, there's like a bathroom and then the library.

And that's what makes this story so freaky, right?

So I wonder, because there is.

There is two. Like you said, there's two doors.

Yes.

You have this door. You have this door. Okay. You have the library right here. You have the living room, which was like the movie room, where the projector was at and screen. And then you had the great hall. Everyone had to walk through the great hall. We had security. I think it was Matt. I don't recall, but I think it was Matt. But security would be sitting there on the. On the wood bench.

Yes.

Remember the wood bench? And he would be there. Because if you have someone on the property, well, then security better be nearby because we now had someone that was an outsider, you know? So he's in there with Coop, and they're doing. Right. Exactly. And so they're there. So they're in there and the door's shut. I know they're in there. And I'm frequently going over thinking, man, look what time it is. We got to get ready. You know what I mean? And I love how I just did that. I never wear a watch. And so I'm going, I'm the dang door shut. I'm, like, going, oh, my. I go back to the pantry. I'm like, we're gonna have to dash in there this. The minute he comes out. Right. And we keep going. We check nothing. Right. And so finally, after a while, I'm kind of freaking out and whatever. So I call to security, right. And say, hey, please let me know that if I miss it, maybe Cooper might go out the back door, even though we have Matt inside.

Yeah.

If he leaves the property, please let me know right away so we can jump in there and start cleaning up. So this is where it gets crazy. Right? So we are told that he's gone. Right. Coop left. Guess is gone. Okay, go to the door. Right. It's locked. Now, the only way you know this, the only way to lock that door is from the inside.

Yeah.

So you can lock it from the inside. So it's locked. I tried to get it, and I can't figure it out. I go around the outside. The outside door, it's locked. Wait a minute. How can these two doors both be locked? That can only be locked from the inside. Right.

Right.

And Coop and his guests have already left.

Yeah.

So how did he leave and then lock it? You can't. It's not like. So for, you know, for your listeners, you know, it's not like a lock that can actually just on its own. Oh, we accidentally left it when it shut, then it locked.

Right.

It was old school. Remember the, you know, the little bolt and the whole thing and everything? You'd have to physically turn it to lock it. It can't just accidentally lock. So now I'm calling security. I'm like, like, I don't understand what's going on. We got to get in there. So they send down one of the security guys, and he comes over, and he's got the keys, you know, the whole set of keys, and goes, all right, let's go. Big set of keys. Comes over, and he goes over and tries to open it. It won't open. And he's, like, wiggling it and hitting it. You know what I mean? It's like, what's going on? I go, dude, and we're banging on the doors. Is anyone in there? Someone. I'm thinking now someone's screwing around. Who's in there?

Right?

We're trying. We're trying. We're trying. Can't get the dang door to open up. It won't open up. So then we walk out to the great hall, and I go to the security again. I think it was Matt, but I was like, did you see Coop leave or not? Because I want to know which door he left. If he saw him, then that means he had to have left this door. Yeah, because, yeah, I saw him come out. He came out from the living room, left through the great hall door. I'm like, how? We walk back, the doors open. Doors cracked open. We're, like, staring at each other. We're looking at that door. Go, okay, dude, no, no, no, no, no. That's freaking me out.

Yeah.

We go in. The other door is unlocked. This door is now cracked open. The back door, it's unlocked. It's like, go through. Let's go through. Let's see if it was bolt. No, it was a lot. Just open it right up.

That's crazy.

That's freaky.

Yeah.

So that. That kind of changed my mind again. I don't know what it was, but kind of freaked me out because that really happened. There was no way that could have happened.

But up to that point, you'd never had any paranormal experiences in your life?

I've had. Okay, so I've never really talked about this. I've actually thinking about writing a book on this stuff. You would love it. I have had stuff happen to me since I was a kid. Like, you know, people call them night terrors.

Yeah.

I call them demons. That's just me. My mom knew about this since I was a child. My bedroom was the garage, right? So it was a converted garage, and that was my bedroom. And in the middle of the night, I would literally feel something like. Like trying to hold me down and I freak out. I would scream, you know what I mean? Trying to scream. Nothing coming out of my mouth.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

And it would. I went through a lot of this stuff.

You've never told me this all the time.

I know. I've never really talked about this stuff. It's only that right now, like I said, I'm thinking about wanting to tell people some of this stuff. But yeah, so I didn't mess with it. That's why my mom had told me, Brian, don't mess with it. You don't know what you're messing with. I didn't mess with it. The stupid thing was, is that I got so scared since I was a kid is that I thought, well, if I befriended, then it won't mess with me. Right? That's what I thought. Maybe not a cool thing to do. Yeah. My friends used to start freaking me out. We used to have like another house. We called it the quiz house because it was. It was back when I was in a band. And, you know, it's like all the bandmates and everyone lived there and it was on Quiz street. So it's like, oh, we're going to the quiz house, right? Everyone would hang out there and people would see this thing. And I didn't see it, but they're like, oh, it's Brian's ghost. It became a joke. And I'm like, dude, this is not funny. I don't know if I like this.

I finally had to tell the thing to go away.

Wait, you've seen what it looks like.

No, they did. I didn't. I know. I know. What? I would be woken up. Like, I would be woken up. Like, I'd be in the middle of sleeping and I'd wake up and I'd find myself pinned down. I'm like trying to get my arms up. I can't get my arms up. And people call it. What is it? Sleep paralysis or whatever it is. I just think people come up with stuff that they can't explain. You know what I mean? Like, oh, no, you didn't really know this really happened. Like one time, I remember I left my room freaking out when I was a child to my mom and she said, go look in the mirror. And I was white as a ghost. I was like, freaked out. But by the time I got to the bathroom mirror, all my blood came back into my face. So I don't know, but she would see it and she would tell me, yeah, but then I would also have dreams. I would have was like one of those kids that had, like, a gift. My mom eventually said, because you can't really share this with a lot of people, but keep record of what's going on.

And I would have, like, visions, dreams, they'd all come true, really, years later, like, I would tell my mom, this is what I dreamt. Then years later, all of a sudden, that thing would happen.

Did you write it down like she said?

But I remember them all.

Oh, you do?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, that's good.

But what was cool, see, I would always tell her, I. Yeah, I always told her. That's why I said, now I'm thinking about writing some of this stuff down.

Yeah.

I don't know. No, you got balls. I just gotta say that because you mess with this stuff all the time, man.

Well, I don't mess with it in a way where I'm, like, provoking it or anything. But you experience it and learn from it. Trying, like, answer questions, you know? But yeah, because my very first experience was when I was a child, too. And my family was not into the paranormal at all. Didn't even, like, never even thought about that kind of stuff. And so half the family thought I needed a psychiatrist, and the other half thought I needed to talk to the pastor at our church. And so we did both. And it eventually stopped. But it inspired me to want to experience it again and prove that I wasn't crazy or I wasn't making it up, like this really happened. And so that's why I want everybody's stories.

Yeah, well, I mean, everyone knows. I mean, you know that my faith is really strong. You know, I am a christian and I believe this stuff. I just worry about what it is actually that we see sometimes or who are we messing with, you know? And that would freak. You know, there's only one name that would always wake me up if I yelled out the name Jesus was the only thing that would get the thing off of me.

Really wouldn't make.

You could say any other freaking name. Yeah, any other name wouldn't work.

Interest.

Why that name? Always time I used to tell this to my mom ago. That's a trip. And she goes, you're protected, Brian. You're gonna be okay. But don't play with it. That's why I walked out from that party with the Ouija board, freaking out. I'm like, oh, I've been pinned down. I'm not messing with that crap.

Well, you might be interested to know that I warded off the Ouija board for a long time, too. Because really, my first experience was because I was playing with the Ouija board, or I think it was related to that. And so I was like, oh, I'm never playing with the Ouija board again. And then it wasn't until years later, like, probably not that long ago, maybe five, six years ago, somebody was like, wait, but don't you use. You use like a ghost box, and you'll use all these other different, like a pendulum, and you'll use the dowsing rods. And I was like, yeah. And they're like, well, that's all communicating with the other side. So what's the difference? The Ouija board. And I was like, oh, my God, you're right. But now I don't usually use the Ouija board just because it's so slow for communicating. Like, I don't want to sit there and spell everything out. Like, yes or no? What do we got?

You. You want a computer Ouija board. You wanted to come in straight text.

That would be nice. That would be nice.

That's actually fun.

Let's invent that.

We're on it right now.

I'm going to talk to Sean at ghost. I want an electronic Ouija board, stat, please.

But I do, like, okay. Like the haunted mansion. Like that stuff. I think the effects are really cool. I've always loved that kind of stuff. Like where they're dancing around in the dining room and they're the ghost. Well, it's mirrors. They're doing projection against mirrors, and I think that's fact. Well, like, when you did the party, do you know, we never got rid of the. You had some. I think it was. Was it red rum or murder? Whatever was written on the mirror. Yeah, right. When you go into, like. Like the hidden door that opens up to the wine cellar. We never erased that. Yeah, I'm always curious. Did they keep it?

Oh, yeah. I wonder. I don't know.

You know what I mean?

So just for the listeners, I want to say that. So, yeah, for my murder mystery birthday party, we did all kinds of special effects going off of the OG ghost story of Misses Letts. So there was a body in the great hall, and there was a ghost in the mirror, had thunder and lightning and rain outside. And then people had to run around looking for clues all over the mansion grounds. And one of the clues took people into the prohibition style wine cellar, where you had to find the secret button to push it. And then when you. I don't even know why that mirror was there. Do you?

I have no idea. I have no idea.

Honestly. That's a weird spot for a weird spot.

I was like, why was that mirror there? Because literally, the room was, like, no bigger than what this. I mean, you went in, and then you had to go down the stairs, and someone said, yeah, let's put a big mirror here. Right here. It was like an old, weird old mirror that was there.

Yeah, that's a. I never thought about how weird that mirror is until I was just saying this. I'm like, why is there a mirror there? But anyway, they put red rum on.

Yeah.

And, yeah. Good times.

That was fun.

It was so.

See, I loved all your parties. All your parties. You know that? I mean, you made my job so much fun.

Yeah.

I tell you. Look, I might have been in, like, what you say, the bubble, right? I didn't know what was going on in the rest of the world.

Yeah.

And I didn't care.

Yeah.

Cause I was getting to live, like, the most coolest, funnest life ever. And then when you come up with an idea, Brian, hey, I wanna do this party. Let's do them. Like, we get to decorate. We get to, like, just have fun. We're getting paid for this.

I know.

Frickin loved it.

And at first, it wasn't so much like that. Like, I wasn't allowed really to, like, go, oh, I wanna do this, or a birthday party or whatever. But later, when it was just, like, holly, Kendra and I and stuff, and the relationship grew and the show started.

Filming, the show really helped, too, because now you have themes. Now you have things that, like, okay, this is gonna be the theme of this show, and we're gonna do this event. And that's where people would see me with, like, you were saying earlier, me probably running around. I'm, like, freaking out. And get this. Holly wants to do a, what is it? Mary Antoinette party. You know? I mean, we had to stack up all those champagne glasses.

That was amazing.

I tell people a lot when they say stuff like that. Or they'll say, hey, can we hire? Cause I do events and they're like, yeah, can we have, like, you know, one of the butlers going around with the shame? I go, we're not doing that. And they're like, oh. Cause that's smoke and mirrors, people. That looks great in a tv show. That looks great in movies. The crap falls all over the place. We tried it outside. And the stuff just. Cause nothing balances, especially with the flutes. It just won't balance everything. Just all over the place. Oh, no, we tried it. And I'm like, no, we're not doing that.

But I thought that the champagne tower worked.

Oh, the champagne tower worked, but I wouldn't do that on a regular. I mean, if one person pulls the wrong thing, and there it goes. Yeah, but it did. I was so nervous when I was having to pour that thing. I'm going, what if this screws up? And I just know the cameras are just gonna take it for whatever. It still would have been good, I guess. Yeah, but, you know, it worked.

It was better that it worked out.

And then we. I still found pictures. Um, member Alan Loeb?

Yeah.

You know what I mean? And so we made him the door caller.

Yeah.

Like, dude, you got to announce each person, they come in, and we put the white, white wigs on their head. That's still the funniest stuff. Yeah, that is fun. I mean, that's what we did for a living. I mean, we got to have fun in between work.

Yeah.

I mean. Yeah, you had to. You know, we ran a man through tight ship. John Luther used to always tell me, look, you just have to think of it like a hotel, and the boss is the vip. You know, he used to run the Disneyland hotel.

John Luther did?

Yeah.

No, I did not know that. Or if I did, I forgot.

That's where he came from. So that's where his expertise was on, and that's what he taught me. And he goes, this is how we run it. We run it like a hotel. You have one vip, and that's. You know what I mean? And that's how you do it. And then everything was on a schedule. I mean, we had the, you know, the butlers around the clock and all that stuff, you know? Yeah.

Interesting. So you had that paranormal experience at the mansion. Do you know anybody else? I know we talked about housekeeping. Do you know anybody else having any?

I've asked butlers. Have they seen it? I mean, you talked about Carlina. I think Bryant said he heard things, but I don't know if he really saw direct, but he'd hear. Like, they would get phone calls, like I said, from the girls freaking out.

Yeah.

Upstairs, they'd be staying in one of the bedrooms, staying in, like, say, bedroom five or something down the hall, you know, and they'd be freaking out. I hear there's someone up in the middle of the night, and the others go up there, like, there's no one around. I don't know what to tell you.

Remember? I remember. Like, so I would go exploring the mansion a lot and stuff, and I think I brought this up to you in the last one, there was something weird underneath the mansion down in the basement, and.

Oh, I know where you're going. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Yeah, there was like, this there when the. When the paved part of the mansion runs out in the basement, there goes to, like, this dirt area. And there was like, a pile of old records with, like, what look like burned roses on top of it. And then in the back corner of the room was a giant chandelier that was just, like, laying there.

That was just, like, underneath the. Man, it's like, okay, let's debunk this, right?

Come on.

Everyone that is saying there are tunnels underneath the mansion, and they lead to the Getty. They lead to Jack Nicholson's house. No, you and I have searched every part of that entire place.

Yes.

We've gone down. You say, come on, let's go explore. I want to know where this goes. We have the back area of the game house that people. It's just like, you open it up. But it was maintenance.

Nobody knows about that. But I was like, I've even been under to the game house.

Yes, but it was like you said, there's an old chandelier sitting there. It's maintenance stuff.

Right?

You'd see, I mean, a bunch of, like, you know, screws and bolts and stuff like that. You gotta keep that stuff somewhere. Yeah, I mean, you had the. You had the maintenance area that was outside by security, but still, you had, like, all this other equipment and stuff. Where are you gonna put it?

Right.

I mean, downstairs. Well, yeah. Okay. Were there hallways downstairs? Uh huh.

Yeah.

Of cabinets.

Right.

You have the boiler area, room area. Then you have that laundry area. Then you have storage cabinets all the way down. Then you have the locker room up. Then you have the mirrored room that had, like, all stuff that we'd use for service. Then you have the entire wall of stuff right across from the bathroom that was down there. So funny to go through this.

I know.

And start picturing it all. Remember, he, the boss had, like, he had his own drugstore, like, you know what I mean? Like, I would have to keep, like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, we're out of an Advil or we're out over this. And we just had to keep everything stock, because if you wanted something, we already had it ready. Yeah, so just keep, like, you know, ten of these, five of these combs, all that stuff, everything there. Then you go around, you got the stairway up to the hallway. Then you go to that back area. And it's video walled stuff. They'd have the back room. They're like, oh, well, there's that door. Yeah. It's a big, giant room. About as big as this. It's full of video stuff, like old, because the boss still had a lot of old, original stuff that, as we mentioned earlier, the tvs were older. It's not like new stuff. So if you want to keep that old stuff, keep parts. Yeah, you gotta change them out. Projectors and stuff like that. And then you had video fault stuff. You know, you go around that one back corner, and then you had the.

It looked like a giant safe. But it's like video stuff. That was it. Oh, and the elevator, you know, that the way that was supposedly they were trying to work to fix it, then that would have went up to where the music room was, where the back organ area is. Right, but that's it. But what you were talking about, that was over by the gym. Now, that was the back stairway area. And when we went around that area, because I remember you freaked out. It was cool. All it was maintenance areas. But someone did have some dead frickin rope, which I say it's flowers from the party, the maintenance. We used to just give all the flowers out at the end of the night, and someone had put some flowers there, made like a little weird little altar. Who knows?

That's what it looks like, a little altar.

You know what I mean? Yeah.

I wish I could find the picture because I'm pretty sure I took a picture of it.

Yeah, I remember. I remember that. Yeah.

Because I have the picture in my.

But it didn't go any. But again, it stopped.

Oh, yeah. That was the end of it.

And a lot of that area was dirt.

Because it was dirt there. Yeah.

Why go through the trouble of putting down concrete and all this stuff? It was dug out and boom, here's another maintenance area. Put some shelves up.

Right.

I don't know, man.

But speaking elevator, did it ever get finished? You know, I don't know.

Story I heard exactly. I don't know, actually, because I know a lot of work was going in to get that thing to happen. And then, you know, fortunately the boss passed.

Right.

I don't think it ever got done.

There's definitely mixed stories because I heard, because I asked Marston and he said, no, it never got finished. There was a chair lift that went up the chairs that took him up or went up the stairs that took him up. And then. That's not true either.

What chairlift?

They said there was a chairlift that was. That went up there.

No chairlift.

But then Crystal said in her book that the elevator was done.

Okay, so that was that door. The door. So right at the great hall.

Yes.

Right. And you go into the front door. There was the door that was right here on the side. You had the marble bench.

Yes.

And then that door. That door was the elevator door.

Yes.

But I don't know if it ever got finished. I don't recall it. I mean, I was there up until, like, the last four months before he passed.

Oh, you were there that long?

Yeah.

So where would it have popped up through?

And it was gonna go up into his vanity area.

That's what we thought had to go right there. Would it be right by the door to the vanity?

It would have been in the middle.

Oh, in the middle.

Okay, remember in the vanity room? And you. You come around. Okay, so you had his closet with all his pajamas here. You walk to the back vanity area, and you had the vanity. You know what I mean? Remember Hollywood have all her Disney stuff and everything like that? That's where you'd sit right behind her. Remember there was that column that was in the middle. That's the chute. That's the shoot. So that would have had to been. Remember they made. I think they made some shelves and put some stuff around it. Maybe they did, like, a dresser or something. But that would have been. Had to been ripped open, and. And then that's where it would come. But what was weird is, like, going, so wait a minute. He's gonna go into the. To this elevator, but then he's gonna end up outside and have to go to the front door.

Right.

So then the idea was like, okay, well, then maybe they make another opening on the music room side, because that's where it would be, right there in that shoot. So the music room is here.

Yeah.

This is outside. Yeah, the shoot is here. Go from the vanity. Go into the vanity, and then bring right down. And you'd end up in the music room.

Yeah.

That's what was supposed to happen.

Well, this has been fascinating. Any other ghost stories that I didn't ask about or things you've heard?

Nothing that I can recall. Not at the mansion, you know, but, man, our Halloween parties are.

I know. The Halloween parties were the best.

I mean, come on.

That.

The scare factor, you got to give it up to them. Hank Fawcett. All the work that they did to build that haunted, it was so scary. Because you could touch people.

Yes.

We didn't have the rules. Like, was it not scary farm or universal studios? And there's all these rules. You can only go up to certain people I know of celebrities without naming them, that literally freaked out, screaming and hitting people as they were going out because they were so good.

I know, too.

Those were fun.

Yeah.

But, you know, it's. Again, smoke and mirrors, you know, people in the bushes, you know, seeing things happening, and then all of a sudden, you have something talking at you.

You know, it's fun, right? The Halloween parties were the best. They'll never be duplicated.

Yeah. But that's why. That's why I was lucky that I got to play with all that stuff.

Yeah. So, I'm curious. Has anything ever happened to you, paranormal wise, outside of the mansion or after you left?

So, it's funny you mentioned that, because there is a huge thing that happened, and I can give you short details. Just because I had mentioned earlier, I kind of now am inspired to write a book. Everyone thinks, oh, you gotta write a book. No, I'm not writing a book about the mansion. No, I'm not writing a book about. Everyone already knows that stuff. You know what? Go watch the show. The show is fun. You know what I mean? But I want to talk about the personal stuff that I went through. And my mom was like, we were tight, and you know that. And again, I got to thank you again for the birthday party that you and my brother orchestrated out by the pool area. That was such a fun surprise. But, you know, you're special to my whole family. You know what I mean? And my mom loves you. And. And so going about my mom, it was, like, so crazy that I had pulled away. I saw my mom the last night on Thanksgiving, and then I had to fly out because I started doing the hosting with George Chung and his productions and stuff.

And I did fight night to the mansion, and I did all that stuff with DJ D Wrek. But now we were. I was being hired to go help with production in Bahrain on the other side of the world. And so I wanted to say goodbye to my mom before I flew out. And I had this crazy, eerie feeling like something's not right here. Like. And I could not stop hugging my mom that night. Like, I. The hug was just like, one of those intense hugs, like. Like, sums up. I thought something was gonna happen to me, but I didn't want my mom to worry. Yeah, well, my mom ended up up getting sick. She ended up getting pneumonia, and, you know, you get sick, whatever. She didn't think anything of it. And so the crazy thing is that my mom appeared to me at the exact moment she passed away to comfort me. And I thought about it later. I'm like, wow, God, you knew I would freak out or, like, just lose it. So you put me on the other side of the world and that. And literally, I've had instances where I've talked to my sisters.

There's a whole story that I want to go into, but I don't want to give too much now, because now I'm inspired to write this book that I want to encourage people. There's an afterlife, and I witnessed it. I mean, I literally witnessed it. My mom appeared, and at that exact moment, I have found out that, yeah, that's exactly when she passed.

And you're like, moment on the other side of the world doing a hosting event, and she just appeared to you.

Well, I wasn't doing hosting for that one. I was doing production where I had to help work with the fighters. It was an MMA thing. So I was backstage, and it's happened all backstage, right before the show started. I mean, matter of fact, George and all the crew knew that my mom was ill. And I'd ask and been asking everyone, please pray for her. You know what I mean? I don't know what's going on. I can't do anything. I'm over here. And when I walked out after the show, he could see it on my face. And this was, like, after a three hour live show, literally after my mom appeared to me. I mean, I lost it. I mean, I was just bawling, but I knew I had to gain my composure because I had to do a show now.

Yeah.

And I literally dedicated that night to her. I said, well, then I want. Sorry. No, that, uh. Mom, this is what I do.

Yeah.

Look at. I hope you're proud of me. And dedicated the whole show that night, and we did it. And, um. Sorry. Still weird, because I can picture it. Yeah, I pictured her. I saw her.

Yeah.

I literally saw her appear in front of me.

Does she say anything?

Yeah, I want it to say everything, but at the same time, I want people to. I want to save a lot of this stuff for hiding it. But she. In a long. In a long run, she told me that everything's true. True. Everything that we'd ever believed, especially with our faith. You know, she's. She was telling me things, and a certain instance happened then to validate it. Told me my grandparents were there, which is crazy, because I just found out from my sister, Brenda, that she had an experience when my mom passed, that my grand. She saw my grandparents.

So your sister was there in the room with her when she passed away.

With my mom when she passed, but she saw this. I go, I told Brenda, I go, Brenda, this is what happened. She goes, I've never told you this. Grandma and grandpa came, and we're there with mom when she left, and she saw them. Brenda, this is exactly what happened. I'm there talking to my mom, going, this can't. No, no, no. And I'm asking her all these questions, and I go, wait a minute. Who else is there? And she goes, your grandparents are right there. And it's like the way she described it. My mom telling me this. Now my sister Brenda's telling me this. And I'm just like, wow. The hardest part was, like. It was like when she told me she had to go, she wanted me to know that was all true. Everything. She goes, tell everybody. And that's why I want to write the book. I want to tell everyone there is an afterlife.

Yeah.

It's not like we just disappear and. You know what I mean?

Yeah, there's hope.

There's hope. There's. I mean, this is how I live every single day that, you know, I miss my parents. You know, I lost my dad, like, three years right after that. So when you went for anyone that becomes an adult orphan and you, damn it, I mean, you know, God would. I wouldn't give. Just talk to her one more time. Yeah, like this. You know, she was just like, when you're going through your hard stuff or, you know, my mom used to always tell me, she goes. She goes, mijosh. That's what she would call me, right? The only spanish we over spoke, right? That was it. And she would go. And that's how she appeared to me. She go, miho, mijo, look at me. I'm young. My mom was young. It was a. It was a silhouette vision of her standing in front. It was like. It's like Star wars, you know, when, you know, Princess Leia appears, but it's like that, but more hazed. And it was her, but it was like this glorious, beautiful light. And she was like, miho, miho, look at me, miho, it's all true. You have to tell everyone.

It's all true. And I started asking her questions, and I'm like, what? And she goes, look at me. I'm young. And she was the picture of my mom, like, at her prime.

Wow.

Young and vivacious. Said that my grandparents were there, that all my loved ones were there.

Yeah.

And, yeah, but she did say. She did say. She goes, look, you're gonna go through a really hard time I want you to know the truth, but know this, in the end, everything's gonna be okay. I don't know if it means the anguish that I'm gonna go through of losing her, losing both my parents.

Yeah.

I don't know if it's still something to come at me, but I have to just believe that if my mom not gonna lie to me.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

And she wanted to give me that hope. And she's like, it's gonna be okay. So no matter what I go through, I literally live in that.

Yeah.

It's like going, okay, this thing's not working out. But mom said everything's gonna be all right. She said everything's true. I'm diving in my Bible, you know what I mean? Going, yep. It shows all these truths, you know? Jeremiah 20, 911. You know what I mean? I give you a hope in a future. I'm like, it's all there. I need to live that. And I think that's been me more that I've finally been saying, you know, hey, I'm preaching it, man. I know who I am and I want to write a book and help people.

Yeah, well, I think a book like that can help people in the grieving process and when they're going through the morning and stuff. I mean, even losing Winnie was, like, so devastating for me. And I wrote, I wrote. Writing helps. It will help you, too, because I wrote Winnie a 17 page letter.

Really?

That's cool. And it's helped me so much, and I. So I just feel like writing helps.

Maybe the writing is just for me. I don't know. Maybe. Maybe I'm just at a place where. Maybe you're validating to me. Go, Brian. Maybe you're not going to give this to anyone. Maybe no one else is going to read it. Well, but it'll help me.

Yeah, exactly. Because I don't think it matters whether everybody else sees it or not. If it helps you, then that's all that mattered.

Yeah, that's it.

But if you can help other people, too, I think that's great. So you can just see how it goes.

I think part of it that I want to write it is I want people to understand and know what my mom. My mom was. She was the most amazing woman. And I know everyone says it about their mom, but my mom was literally everybody else's mom in our gang. And all the friends and I would come home and I'd see a friend sitting on the couch with my mom, and I'm like, carl, dude, I knew you were coming over. And he goes, I come to visit you. And when I try to tell that to people, that's what my parents were. They were the parents for all those that didn't have, and they showed that love and, you know, that openness and. Yeah, I just want people to understand that. That how important that is. And, you know, family, it's. It's. It's not all about blood sometimes it's about those that you invite in. And look at us. The mansion. We're all family.

That's.

I was going to say we're all forever.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? You know, so.

And the mansion, family reunions, right?

You got to come this year. That was so cool. Made so many people happy.

So many people were there. I couldn't believe how many people I got to see.

All of a sudden, the barriers are gone. You know what I mean? It's not like, well, you're the staff and you're the playmate or you're heft's friends or your everybody.

You know what, though? I didn't really feel those barriers too much when I was there.

I did more because I wanted to be professional.

Yeah.

Because I'm like, I'm staff.

Yeah.

I got to keep my professionalism. I was blessed and lucky that I got to have a lot of outside relationships. Not in the sense of, you know, breaking fraternization rules, but because of the. The radio show. I had to bring girls on for as guests, and the boss is the one that gave me permission to do the radio show.

Yeah.

So everyone knew I would never cross a line. I just like creating friendships with the. With the Playmates, and then they come on the show, and then, you know, we're friends. We hang out.

Yeah.

We all live in freaking Hollywood, so you're not going to bump into each other, right? So. Yeah.

Well, I'm glad you shared that story.

Thank you. I'm glad you asked that.

And I think you should share your story, even if it's just for you.

Thank you.

So, Brian, thank you so much for coming on and sharing ghost stories with me for the first episode of my Ghost Bunny podcast. Tell everybody how they can follow you on social media, and if you got anything fun coming up.

Oh, yeah, thanks for. We do actually have. We have a party now. I want to invite you personally. You gotta come. Come walk the red carpet. You remember the mondrian sky bar in Hollywood?

Yeah.

So we are going to be taking that over through rogue bunnies, and we're gonna be doing an event there on Saturday, September 21. Okay, so that's gonna be. So if you're free, come down. It's gonna be fun. And everyone can just go to go to roguebunnies.com. and that's rogue because a lot of times people a rouge, but it's rogue. So you want to get rogue money if you go to that website. And that's currently where I'm helping out with a lot of the playmates that have gone rogue. And they started like an NFT company. But we do live events. Okay, so we did a big one in Vegas last year and so this year we're gonna do it in Hollywood. So it's gonna be fun. So everyone come check that out and then you can go to the podcast, check all other stuff. It's fun.

Yeah. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode of Ghost Bunny. See you next week.

Odd.