Submitted for your approval, the shattered ruins of the once-famous Hollywood Tower Hotel, as she appeared November 1, 1939 — the day after after a storm of tragic mystery swept away five hotel guests, relocating them to permanent residency in oblivion.

On that fateful night, a freak thunderstorm pummeled Los Angeles with a sudden, torrential downpour. Lightning shattered the skies, and one ferocious bolt struck a direct hit on the Hotel. The blinding electrical charge enveloped the Tower, vaporizing three wings of rooms in an instant — and along with them, five unlucky elevator riders.

Their bizarre and unexplained disappearance ended the glory days of the Hollywood Tower Hotel, and soon a deathly silence filled its luxurious suites and elegant halls. But the lingering mystery lived on for decades after, branding this derelict landmark with a dark reputation that has continued to intrigue the curious and the foolhardy who dare venture past its imposing iron gates.

For decades its opulent rooms have sat vacant and dusty, its scorched facade bearing the scars of its destruction, yet the Hollywood Tower clings to its tortured, lifeless existence. Alas, the same can be said of its most unfortunate occupants who, some witnesses say, still wander the vanished halls... searching, beckoning others to enter, either for salvation or perhaps just some ghostly company.

Today this monolithic sentinal looms high over the Hollywood Pictures Backlot, its fractured elevator banks still gaping wide, echoing with the screams of its latest unwary, unfortunate victims.

Though its glamour has long faded, like an aging starlet the Hollywood Tower refuses to go quietly, willingly into that good night. This haunted idol always hungers for one more audience curious enough to witness the endless final act of the hotel's closing night.

Yet heed this warning: as it is said, old stars do not die, they simply fade away. And so has been the untimely end of many such thrill seekers who come to pay final respects to this decaying derelict.

Wander too far into its still corridors and you too may be struck down by a thunderous flash. Climb too high in its delapidated lifts and you may well check into spectral accomodations with only one entrance and no exit.

As light fades and the growing darkness of your own fears overtakes this desolate and restless relic, it is now time to make your own fateful choice:

Do you dare enter this unquiet realm of shadows and suspend your own existence from the frayed, rusted cable of a shoddy service elevator, perhaps never to return?

If so, then step aboard the platform on which your destiny will rise to live another day, or fall for eternity into an endless abyss called...the Twilight Zone.

© 2004 scott weitz