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Articles by Joe Parzanese
Weird California - County: Ventura
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Rudolph Valentino
De Longpre Park 1350 N Cherokee Avenue Los Angeles, California 90028 Hollywood Forever Cemetery 6000 Santa Monica Blvd Hollywood, California 90038 Knickerbocker Hotel 1714 Ivar Avenue Los Angeles, Ca 90028 LA Pet Cemetery 5068 N.
Auburn Statues - Weird California
Claude Chana Lincoln Way meets Maple Street meets Park Street, Auburn, California 95603 The Chinese Coolie Lincoln Way, (Near Elm Avenue), Auburn, California 95603 Amazons and other statues 391 Auburn Ravine Road, Auburn, California 95603 If you drive a little around the town of Auburn, you might notice that there are several giant, concrete statues in three different locations. These enormous statues are the creation of a local dentist named Dr. Kenneth Fox.
The Big Shoe Shoe Repair
931 Chester Avenue, Bakersfield, California 93301 The Big Shoe of Bakersfield No, the little old lady who lives in a shoe does not reside in Bakersfield. Built back in 1947, the giant shoe is one of at least three giant shoes in the United States. Originally it was called Deschwanden's Shoe Repair Shop. It is thirty feet long, twenty feet high, and built of plaster on a wood frame. The building also contains a fifty foot long rope as a shoelace.
Gravity Hill - Weird California
Gravity Hills are locations at the base of a slope or hill where supposedly if you park your car and leave it in neutral it will somehow roll up the slope of the nearby hill. Several are rumored throughout California including San Diego, La Jolla, Livermore, Moorpark, Altadena, Los Angeles, Antioch, Petaluma, Redlands, Ramona, Sylmar, etc. According to some of our readers, Gravity Hills outside of California include Sweden, Maine and Bedford County, Pennsylvania.
Toontown Tunnel - Weird California
Have you seen Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Want to visit Toontown? Well the entrance to Toontown is located within Griffith Park on Mount Hollywood Drive, down the road from Griffith Observatory! Not far from Griffith Observatory is a tunnel on Mount Hollywood Drive near where it meets Vermont Canyon Road. If it looks somewhat familiar to you, the tunnel has been used in several movies as a variety of locations.
The Spite House - Weird California
Alameda is home to quite possibly one of the narrowest spite houses in the country! A spite house is a house or structure built to get back at, annoy, defy, or outright anger a neighbor or city. They are usually built on small or strangly shaped plots of land. This generally means that the house or structure built on the land is weirdly shaped itself, the most common spite house being a super narrow, yet tall building. In addition, they often block views, light, etc. to the neighboring building.
Pasadena Parrots
Shocking as it may seem, Pasadena is home to hundreds of parrots. The popular theory is that a they came from Simpson's Nursery in east Pasadena on East Colorado Blvd in the Lamanda Park area. It caught on fire in 1969. (Alternately I've seen some stories state the name was Simpson's Gardenland and Bird Farm which burnt down in 1959) Either the parrots were released to save them from the fires or they managed to escape on their own in time. From these parrots, the Pasadena Parrots came about.
Alien Invasion Sites
Multiple businesses in California (and even some homes) have the unfortunate pleasure of having aliens visit them, usually in the regrettable form of having a UFO crash into their place of business. Now, you'd think having aliens smash into your building and then rampage up and down your store would be a bad thing, but luckily for the visiting green men, most of the shop keepers seem alright with the intrusion.
Big Chair - Weird California
L.A. Merchandise Mart 1933 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, California 90007 Built in 2003, this 40 foot tall, 24 ton chair was at one time the Largest Chair in America. It takes up six parking spots in a parking lot for the LA Mart building in Los Angeles. It was made in Friuli, Italy and was a gift from Promosedia, which is an association of chair and table manufacturers in Manzano, Italy.
Char Man - Weird California
11980 Creek Road, Ojai, California 93023 (Just North of Camp Comfort County Park) Just south of Ojai in Ventura County, along Creek Road is Camp Comfort County Park. Although the park looks peaceful enough, it certainly houses its share of spooky spirits. First is the ghost of a bride, complete with a bloody wedding dress. She is tall and slim, with light brown hair and a veil covering her face.
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