Tinseltown Tidbits

Charlie was in charge of and designed the sound stage for the original "Phantom of The Opera". He had the chandeliers built into the superstructure. When they went to film a movie after "The Phantom", the catwalks would begin to shake and two grips fell to their deaths. They closed up the stage, put a brass plaque on the front and declared it officially haunted.

Universal Studios

Universal's horror movies are legendary; Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Wolfman are just a few of the Universal films that have terrified audiences for decades, so it is fitting that Universal Studios is allegedly haunted by one of the grandmasters of terror, Lon Chaney. Legend has it that the Man of a Thousand Faces is sometimes seen lurking in Sound Stage 28, best known as the set for The Phantom of the Opera. Although sets are sometimes built in the sound stage, the opera set itself has remained intact. Appropriately enough, the ghost of Chaney is reportedly seen wearing a Phantom-like cape, running on the catwalks above the stage. Employees have also reported phenomenon typically associated with hauntings: doors that swing open and shut by themselves, and lights that mysteriously turn on and off. If Chaney's ghost does prowl this sound stage, then he has a real strange sense of humor for making his presence known this way. The tinkling of a chandelier that was removed years ago is occasionally heard on this soundstage; in fact, the ghostly noise is sometimes audible on soundtracks taped here.
Sources:
Hauck, Dennis William. The National Directory of Haunted Place. Jacobson, Laurie and Marc Wanamaker. Hollywood Haunted.

I am reminiscing about the Makeup Building. Each floor held a department. The bottom floor was "Hair" with Nellie Manley in charge, "Make Up" on the middle floor with Wally in charge and on the top was wardrobe with Edith Head in charge. It was Super Charged!!!

That building was a beehive of activity!! The place to be if you really wanted to know the pulse of Paramount. Nellie and Edith were top-notch prima donnas. It was one continuous opera.
Charlie was a great friend of Conrad Hilton. Nicky, his son, wanted to meet Liz Taylor who was working with Dad. He asked Charlie to let him visit the set. My dad introduced them.
Cecil B. De Mille was crazy for him, he worked just about every film and did everything including Moses' nose in "The 10 Commandments".
He invented falsies and Dorothy Lamour was so flat they had to glue them on her.
They had a cage at the Paramount front gate with two real gorillas, he would don his gorilla suit and go in and play... I wish I knew the date. He always got a kick out of talking about it. It was in the thirties or early forties?
Clyde Beatty, the Lion tamer/ circus owner was his pal, there are so many memories around the Circus and especially the lions. I used to play with the older ones, and got to ride the elephant in the Hollywood Parade when I was eight. We were always at the zoo watching, watching, the gorillas, the chimps, the monkeys, then we would go home and play Ape.
One morning our neighbors gibbon ape escaped and was jumping around our living room, Dad got his gorilla head and tried to make friendly, the ape got scared. The little five-year-old daughter of the Chinese maid came over, gave it a scolding, put out her hand and they walked off together down the lane. I've never forgotten the sight; my dad with his head on, watching this dumfounded.
We always went to Oblatt's, across the street, to eat. When Paramount started Channel Five, the first TV station the West Coast, we would dash across the street from the lot. The shooting stage was one long building abutting Oblatts. The stage was just a commercial space like a store.

All the shows were set up in a line, in their own little cubicles. Charlie would go down the line and do the makeup for Cooking with Corliss, Korla Pandit (he had a 15 min. organ stint), Space Patrol and so many more.

Stan Freberg did Cecil & Beany there. They didn't need make up.... This was all done, of course, between shots on whatever film he was also working on. It was great fun for me, and little did I know it was history in the making.