Innoventions Tragic History

It was 1974. Disneyland wanted to do something  special to commemorate our country’s bicentennial. The Disney company constructed a giant carousel theatre in Tomorrowland that had a rotating stage. “America Sings” was the attraction and  in this theatre the audience sat stationary while the stage rotated showing six different scenes with animatronics figures that sang various patriotic folk songs.

Animatronics figures in America Sings

Deborah Stone was an 18 year old cast member from Texas that was supposed to greet and farewell the audience attending the show. When the lights went out, and the show began, and the stage began to rotate, you could hear horrific screaming. Deborah had gotten too close to the rotating walls, she was pulled into them and was crushed to death. This attraction was briefly closed to clean up the accident, and it reopened 2 days later and continued to run until the 1980’s.

Around the 1990’s this theatre reopened, this time calling the Building / Theatre “ Innoventions” this time to follow suit with the Tomorrowland theme. The rotating stage no longer had all the patriotic animals (they were placed in Splash Mountain) and replaced them with a creepy looking robot name Tom Morrow who was the host of the new show in the theatre. He was to help show off futuristic technology that we would see shortly in our own homes in the near future, “The Home of Tomorrow. ” Cast members always complained about how Tom Morrow would malfunction, and come on in the dark and at times when no one was around or controlling him. Some people think it was Deborah letting everyone know that she was still there.

 

Tom Morrow

I got to see creepy Tom Morrow back in 1998 and my family still has footage of him buried deep in our archaic VHS collection. Upon my return to Disneyland last month I discovered that they have once again changed “Innoventions.” The building is still called Innoventions but they have gotten rid of both creepy Tom Morrow and the huge rotating stage. 

Iron Man props now can be seen in Innoventions

Now that Disney has bought Marvel, they have now put in all sorts of props from the Avengers in there. They still have futuristic technology that you can explore on the lower level but unfortunately most of their “future” presentations are now outdated. You can still see the track where the notorious stage ran on in the lower level. Even though I was not able to see an apparition of Deborah or experience any paranormal activity, I simply had a solemn sense of reverence for those who accidentally passed away while working here. I am not the type of person who would try to entice a paranormal experience.

Do you think the Disneyland cast member rumors of this attraction being haunted is legit? 

The Bad Fortune Teller

Legend has it that when Walt Disney was young he had a fortune teller give him his fortune. It wasn’t good. She promised him that he would die a painful death at the young age of 30. Even though that fortune never came to pass, it affected him negatively for the rest of his life. When his imagineers were designing and constructing the Penny Arcade on main street in Disneyland, he was reluctant to put in Esmerelda (the fortune-telling arcade game) unless they could promise him that she would only give out good fortunes.

The legend or rumors in Disneyland is every now and then Esmerelda has been known to give out a bad fortune. That is why Disneyland cast members frequently drop a quarter in her slot to see if they will be one of the rare people to get a bad fortune.

Whether this legend is just a business scheme (or not) I had to try my luck with the machine to see what I would get. This is what it said:

Have you ever tried one of these things before? Do you think it’s full of it?

Getting lost in Mouse's Tank

A Paiute renegade named Little Mouse was notorious for looting nearby settlements around the 1890’s and was known to get crazy and violent when he was drunk. Rumor has it that he gunned down a few prospectors and because he was wanted for murder, a posse was rallied to bring him in. He was able to escape his pursuers by climbing around in what is now known as Petroglyph Canyon in the Valley of Fire in Nevada.

Petroglyph Canyon in the Valley of Fire

This canyon is narrow and tricky to navigate, so anyone who was not familiar with the landscape would have no idea where Little Mouse escaped. Legend has it that Little Mouse was able to hide out from his pursuers in that canyon for a long time because he knew where all the rain water collected in cisterns throughout that canyon. This picture is what is now famously known as Mouse’s Tank.

Mouse’s Tank

This tank is about a couple hundred yards back in this narrow canyon and, in my opinion, was not his main source of water since that water looks like it has been stagnant for millennia with all sorts of bacteria growing in it.  Mouse, the outlaw, was caught a few miles from the canyon by a spring, which today is called the Muddy River. The official story is that he was surrounded, refused to give up, and he was shot.

My experience with Mouse’s tank is as follows: When you enter the narrow canyon that leads you to Mouse’s Tank, you immediately notice the ancient petroglyphs carved in the sandstone canyon walls. If you are able to go quietly and alone (which is hard to do with all the tourists) some people say you can still hear the whisper in the canyon wind of what sounds like a man proclaiming his innocence. I was lucky this last visit to catch a ghostly figure of a mountain goat peering down at me from a nearby cliff. Then it disappeared into the landscape as supernaturally as it appeared. If only I had a telephoto lens.

Petroglyphs

The legendary story of Little Mouse is hard to research since he seems to have been just a local nuisance. If you know any more details about the legend of Mouse’s Tank would you please enlighten me in your comments below?

I love vacationing in the desert. How about you?

The Haunted Rose Bushes

In Oscar Wildes' The Canterville Ghost, the spirit of Sir Simon haunted his old castle and refused to let a stained puddle of blood get cleaned up by anyone for centuries. I feel like we, too, have a not so gruesome but similar situation at our condo. Our condominium HOA is mostly ruled by geriatrics. The former owner who lived in our condo was also a geriatric who had no taste. She was a widow that loved ugly wall paper and rose bushes. I am a sick freak and I hate rose bushes. I had a "scarred” youth of mowing tons of old fogies' yards and getting poked and scraped by rose bushes and other harmful shrubberies. Apparently fogies and thorny bushes go together.

When we first moved into our condo, I was excited to make some renovations starting with removing those annoying rose bushes. I spent a whole week end pulling them out, some with gloved hands which didn’t protect me and some with my truck and a chain. That was  a painful ordeal and I eventually got the bleeding to stop. Not long after this event took place we heard rumors that the former owner of our condo died. My wife said, “Now we can totally change things and not feel guilty.”

The following summer I discovered that all of those lethal ugly rose bushes grew back! Once again I furiously pulled and now dug deep into the ground to make sure that there is no trace of roots left behind, which I'm sure I had done the first time. The following summer they grew back again, and so on for every following year. I am dumbfounded by this. When I deliberately try to plant something in the yard it either dies or takes forever to grow.

Do you think my flower beds and condo are haunted by the former owner? Of course, that would explain the eerie sounds of Lawrence Welk coming from our basement.

  

The old haunted Riverton Elementary School

I was raised in a crazy town called Riverton. While attending high school there, I was told of the legend of the old Riverton Elementary School.

The old Riverton Elementary School was one of the first schoolhouses built in the valley. It burned down on July 30^th 1926. They rebuilt the school not long after that. In 1996 the City purchased the old Riverton Elementary School and its surrounding 9 acres of land from the Jordan School District for $225,000. By 2005-2006, the city had successfully renovated the old elementary school into a new community center and City Hall, which now houses all of the city’s administrative offices. I participated in some musical productions in this building with the local community theater.

The renovated Riverton Community Center

 

An old haunted legend of that building tells that the fire ended the lives of a few students. Some of the older kids would say that they knew a friend of a friend, who, on a dare, spent the night in that old building. The mysterious tenant claimed that late at night he could hear children’s voices. He constantly heard footsteps behind him. And in the boiler room, he could hear a little girl crying because she fell down a shoot, or so the ghost of the girl apparently told him.

For my Technology 2000 (Digital Media) class, I got to do an assignment using video editing with Adobe Premier. My friend Tommy and I were taking that class together and we were partners on that particular project. Neither one of us had a clue how to use the program and ended up filming an amateur video outside of class. We had a friend and a correspondent who worked for the community of Riverton and had all the keys to all government-owned buildings in the area.

We convinced him to let us in the old elementary school at midnight so we could film our own ghost movie in there. We ended up shooting a whole bunch of footage that made no sense chronologically to a plot and filmed me mostly walking around in the dark and being chased by other people involved in the film. I brought some fishing line, to make objects appear to be floating in mid air, and frantically turned lights on and off and threw furniture around the room. It ended up being similar to the Blair Witch Project. I believe we even had a shot of my face close to the camera wearing a beanie like one of the kids do in that movie.

The next day at school we showed our footage to a whole bunch of classmates. Some were frightened by what they saw, some were excited and the legend of that building escalated. I had an emo friend who was a big skeptic about the film and didn’t buy into any of our cheap effects, except he pointed out the strange orbs of light that seemed to circle around me and dart in and out of the picture. He described those orbs as being spirits in the film. I thought that was interesting since we couldn’t explain where those orbs of light were coming from. We definitely didn’t create them. When I was asked how I felt in that building that night I said 'normal,' maybe because I was hyped on hormones and excited about being rebellious.

Orbs of light apparently spirits

 I don’t think Tommy and I got an A for that assignment. The anti-climatic part of this story is that not long after we shot that film Tommy lost the film containing me and the orbs of light. He lost everything and has no idea what happened to it. The only proof we have of that evening now is the testimonies of everyone present.

Have you been to Asylum 49? (Part 2 of 2)

Previously on Confidential Unrestricted Malarkey I had the opportunity to interview Kimm Anderson, who is the owner and founder of Asylum 49.

I have included a youtube link of the crew from Ghost Adventures from the Travel Channel when they investigated this facility. If you aren't afraid, please watch this video and answer the following questions:

1. Do you think this place is legitimately haunted?

2. What is your opinion on Kimm deciding to have half the building still functioning as a rest home and the other side as a Halloween spook alley?   

Any and all feedback is welcomed!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Puf6CwD-U

Have you been to Asylum 49? (Part 1 of 2)

 

            Last October, I had the opportunity to interview Kimm Anderson, who is the owner and founder of his own business that he runs, and loves every minute of it. He says it’s so much fun it doesn’t even feel like work. In the outskirts of town in Tooele there is a creepy old hospital that is located at 140 East 200 South that was built in 1943 and finally closed its doors in 2002. Kimm was lucky enough to buy the building when it first came to be available on the market. Kimm, like me loves the Halloween holiday.

 
As a youth he grew up working in the March of Dimes Haunted House, and followed his childhood dream, which was to eventually run his own haunted house professionally for Halloween with employees and revenue he could enjoy after the month of October. He claims he was a troubled youth and therefore he likes to hire on young adults. He feels he can relate to them and gives them a chance to work in a fun environment. He claims, “There isn’t much to do in Tooele as youth. I want to keep them off the streets.” He has one rule and that is they must get good grades in school: if they can’t do that, they are off of his staff until the grades improve. He also enjoys teaching kids handy work and different techniques in construction and working with tools.

Last year he claimed he had no problem keeping up and even met his scheduled deadlines a month ahead of schedule. He loves marketing and has worked well with getting his company out in the public eye with advertisements on the radio. He even had a promotional activity that involved the Utah Blitz, a women’s football team. Kimm matches my current career goal because he owns his own business, enjoys it, and is progressing in business during a bad economy. The following is his interview.

What Experience prepared you for your career choice?

“I worked for a Haunted House (March of Dimes) when I was a kid and loved it. I eventually helped start Nightmare on 13^th; I really wanted to start my own haunted house.”

What type of degree, if any, would benefit in this position?

“A Business Degree” Do you have a Business degree? “No, I wish I had one” I’m still envious of you, my teacher in my career preparation class pretty much told me that my degree is worthless and it’s not what-you-know but who-you-know. So instead of rigorously studying expensive books for the past decade I should’ve been kissing up to Larry H. Miller or something like that. “In Utah that seems to be the case but I’ve found that out of Utah say like New York, that “who-you-know, what-you-know” statement is reversed.”

Why did you decide to enter this career field?

“I love doing it so much! It’s not a real job.”

If you had to do it over, would you make the same choice?

“Yes.”

What advice would you give a novice in this area of work?

“Do what you love, then it will be better then everything out there.”

What do you enjoy most about your current position?

“I’m my own boss.”

What do you like least about it?

“It doesn’t last all year.” Why not is there a law against it or is it just business is business? “No, there’s no law against it. It’s just as you said, business is business. Utah is a very funny state when it comes to the seasons and the holidays. They are really big into being scared and love Halloween and will go all out for it, but once October is over then they want something else like Christmas or whatever.” I’ve heard of some haunted houses that are open in September and October, and some stay open a little into November have you ever tried that? “I have, and both September and the first week of November was completely dead. We do, however, offer ghost hunts in the hospital starting in January and we have that open for a couple of months. We offer classes on ghost hunting as well.” Is the hospital really haunted? “Oh yes.”

What are your most difficult challenges to succeed in your current career?

“I don’t have one, anything is possible.”

Where do you see yourself in the next five years?

“Being the best haunted house in the nation!” That’s great, Kimm, I’m sure you will be someday.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed meeting Kimm Anderson and was very grateful for his time in giving me an interview. I’ve learned through Kimm that if you have a ton of ambition you can accomplish a lot of things that you want to do in life. I also sadly learned that when it comes to succeeding in your career in Utah, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. I hope that I can take Kimm’s example to heart when I start pursuing my career after college.

Do you think in order to succeed in Utah you need to know someone important or is a college degree worth it?

The Albino Women of Amoonguna

While I was serving a mission in Australia I got to spend a lot of time out at a few Aborigine camps one was called Amoonguna. Every Monday night we were invited by Rosemary, the matron of the village, to spend Family Home Evening (FHE) with her and the rest of the women and children of Amoonguna.

Rosemary, Elder Baxter, & Regina

We would always have FHE outside around a camp fire where we would entertain the children with primary songs and simple lessons and then we would invite one of the grown-ups to share something.  One particular night one of the women named Regina told us one of her scary stories from the bushy outback.  This story she called the Legend of the Albino (she pronounced it albeeno) Women of this village. Here is her story:

“Three sisters lived in this village many years ago. They were spinsters and kept to themselves mostly.

One day they wanted to make some stew but were so poor that they needed to borrow a pot from their neighbor who happened to be the village’s witch-doctor. They were ungrateful and returned the pot without even cleaning it. This enraged the witch doctor who immediately cursed these three sisters which disfigured their bodies. They all turned ghostly white. They were unable to go out in the daytime because the sun would kill them. The worst thing about the curse was that they could never satisfy their hunger nor could they die of starvation.

The albino women moved into a cave nearby Amoonguna, and they always prowled the outback at night looking for flesh that they could consume.

Rumor has it that they kidnapped a young man who was touring around Alice Springs which is the tourist trap of a town closest to this cave. They took him to their cave but they could not eat him because he was so handsome instead they broke his legs and fed him the meals they made for him for the rest of his life.”

I heckled Regina by bursting out in laughter and saying, “Undead Albino women? What a load of hooey!” “I’m serious Elder.” Regina proclaimed “You shouldn’t tease, they might come for you.”

After I laughed at her story for a good four minutes she challenged me to go to the cave with her since she knew exactly where it was. I agreed to go with her on my next preparation day.

The following Thursday, I went with my three other missionary colleagues which included my zone leader to meet Regina at her home. We followed her car in our Toyota Tacoma about three miles east of Amoonguna, deep in the bush. She immediately pulled over on the road and led us out not even ten yards to what appeared to be three foot wide in diameter hole in the ground.  

Cave Entrance

“You see Elders now do you believe me? Here is where they live.” I peered into the hole which disappeared into darkness there was no guessing how deep it was.

“Elder Bennett,” I said, “back the Tacoma up over here and get the tow hitch.” Regina asked, “What are doing Elder?” I said “I am going  down that hole to meet the Albino Women!” “Oh Elder you are crazy!” The strange thing was that my zone leader nor my other companions were not the least bit concerned with what I was about to do. My zone leader actually had a camcorder and taped this whole ordeal. I am still trying to contact him for a copy of it. So I was lowered into the dark hole which turned out to only drop down 12 feet into a small cavern that was no bigger than small car. I had a flash light and looked for any other pathways or tunnels. There were none, the floor had a lot of garbage from people throwing litter down the hole. There were mostly empty beer bottles and cigarettes.

As everyone up above looked down at me I said “Albeeno women! Where are you? I am a handsome unsuspecting virgin that you can take and keep! What’s for dinner?”  I was laughing so hard that it angered Regina. She threw her lit cigarette at me. Elder Bennett immediately followed me down the hole with his camera to catch all of this footage.

Luckily, Regina and I were close enough friends that she didn’t hold a grudge for busting her urban legend of the Albino Women of Amoonguna. Have you ever done anything this crazy?

Who was Emo?

I love the Salt Lake cemetery in the avenues of Salt Lake City. It is full of almost every famous and historical Utah Mormon pioneer, outlaws, prophets, jews, big business tycoons and much more. There are so many stories and legends you can investigate there that could take you decades to cover.

Today I will talk about my encounter with Emo. Emo is the one of the most popular attractions in the cemetery because as a child I was told that Emo is the grave of the first wizard and devil worshiper in Salt Lake City. They say he would curse the neighborhood with hexes and other forms of witchcraft, you could hear demonic cries and incantations coming from his home at odd hours of the night. The local residents killed him by burning him at the stake. After completely cremating him they put his ashes in the caged window of the stone monument shown below. Around the 1950’s the urn was cracked and broke into two big pieces spilling the contents of the urn all over Emo’s grave and all around him as well. Some say it was vandals, some say it was Emo himself.

They say if you go to this grave preferably after dark and walk around the headstone three times chanting “Emo Emo Emo” once you have completed this ordeal quickly gaze into the broken urn and you will see the horrid scowling face of Emo himself staring back at you with his eyes glowing red! This is pretty much Utah’s version of bloody Mary.

I read a disclaimer from The Salt Lake City Cemetery do not try this. Anyone caught after hours in the cemetery will be arrested and prosecuted. The grave is located on the south side of the cemetery just east of P street very close to the public road. 

Crimson Eric from findagrave.com states:  Who can say why the story of "Emo" became associated with his grave? Whatever the origin of the fable, the truth is that Jacob Moritz was an honorable man, a respected contributor to the life of Utah."

Jacob Moritz was a German immigrant that moved to Salt Lake and started a very successful brewing business. He was very sociable in society and did a lot of charitable things. When he realized his health was declining he wanted to travel to Europe hoping the fresh air would do well for him. He died while in Europe of stomach cancer in 1909. Some rumors say he is buried there in Germany. Some people say that his wife brought his ashes home to Utah; some people say that Moritz's grave in Salt Lake isn't a grave at all, just a monument erected by his family in his honor and that the urn is just a place for flowers arrangements.

Whether it’s a grave or not I was dieing to see it. Finally after searching the cemetery for a few years I was able to catch the cemetery office open at one of their inconvenient times and sheepishly asked the secretary where Jacob Moritz. “Who?” She said I repeated the name less timidly.” Oh you mean Emo! He’s right over there.” I found the “grave.” My personal reflections were that this place had definitely seen a lot of visitors. The urn was hard to reach since it is stuck behind a steel gated window. I noticed that other visitors had tossed things into the broken urn stuff like a finger nail polish bottle filled with some sort of a liquidy substance and a ton of dimes, nickels, and pennies. I don’t get the connection between so called devilish site and excessive pocket change. If anyone can enlighten me on this I would appreciate it. I didn’t try the chant, one, because it was day light, and second because I’ve seen the movie “Candy man” one too many times. Other than that my whole Emo experience was somewhat boring. Have you seen “Emo’s Grave?” I would love to hear about your story as well.

The Haunted Legend of Kiwanis Park

 

Another segment I am starting on this blog is my research and travel log on busting urban myths and legends in Utah.

My first one for you today, my beloved readers,  is the myth of Kiwanis Park.

Last summer my wife had a goal to stay in shape by going on a hike at least once a week. She always tried to find people to hike with and she would usually get her younger siblings to accompany her. The first obstacle is getting them to commit to a hike. The second obstacle she faced was getting them to commit to where they were going to hike. My wife, Laura, wanted to hike up to a beautiful waterfall in a Pleasant Grove canyon. Her little brother said “I’m not going with you! It’s already dusk and that hike goes through Kiwanis Park and I refuse to go there after dark.” Laura asked “Why is that?” “Because of the skin-walkers that roam around there.”

She was still able to get them to go with her and they took a few pictures. The idea of Pleasant Grove being haunted with something called skin-walkers fascinated me. I had to visit that place the next day and do some investigating.

There was a monument at the park called Battle Creek to remember the fallen in the first Native American and white settler battle in Utah County.

(Side note: Pleasant Grove was originally called Battle Creek.) When the Mormon settlers first came into the valley there was a rumor that spread around the Salt Lake Valley how a band of savage Indians had stolen some horses from Brigham Young’s property. A posse was formed to hunt down the accused.There was a rumor that a messanger tried to send word to the posse that the horses had been returned so it is uncertain why a battle took place. The Mormon settlers killed all the male warriors of this accused tribe and brought all of their women and children back to live in the Salt Lake Valley. Most of these accounts are not valid sources and so we really don’t know why this Mormon posse persisted in this slaughter. Brigham Young always tried to go out of his way to make peace with the Native Americans and encouraged his people to do likewise. He always said, “it’s easier to feed them than fight them.” That still didn’t stop the individual bloody fights among some settlers and other groups of Native Americans.
I welcome any other history buff to correct me on this research if it appears to be inaccurate.

Now that I knew the history behind Kiwanis park I researched skin-walkers. The definition I found was this: In some Native Americans legends, a skin-walker is a person with the supernatural ability to turn into any animal he or she desires, though they first must be wearing a pelt of the animal, to be able to transform. Similar lore can be found in cultures throughout the world and is often referred to as shape-shifting by anthropologists.

With further investigation I found the actual haunted myth behind the park on  the Haunted Utah website  http://www.utahghost.org/Main%20Files/haunted_utah.html

It states:

“Pleasant grove - Kiwanis Park:

Years ago there was a battle between Indians and pioneers. There is a memorial there for all the lives that were lost. Many things happen there. If you go up at night, some have said that they see shadow's running around them. A few accounts say that there is a arch way of tree's that are almost like a spiritual pathway. people that have walked thru the pathway say that instantly they hear screams and smell horrible horrible smell's.”

After hearing about my wife and siblings' adventure and how they took pictures of the hike I took the photos and “improved” some of them by simply picking some with just them in it and then with the help of my six hundred dollar software called Photoshop I added some ghost-like apparitions in the background and then burned them a cd with all the photos and gave it to them. Their reaction was first shock, which lead to skepticism. Since they know me and my crazy nature they knew the photos were a hoax. I added them to this blog for your own personal enjoyment.

Have you ever been to Kiwanis Park? Was it spooky? Please I highly encourage fellow myth sleuths to post their experiences on here as well.