10 Spookiest Hollywood Stories And Urban Legends
8. Orson Welles' Ghost Dines In His Favourite Restaurant
The Ma Maison restaurant on Melrose Place was a regular haunt for the legendary director and actor Orson Welles. He ate there every day, sat at a corner table by the toilets. Welles was such a fixture at Ma Maison that the restaurant would receive his mail and take phone calls for him. The chef Wolfgang Puck would also run new recipes by Welles for approval.
Welles died in 1985, and the restaurant closed its doors that same year. The two events were not related! The land that Ma Maison stood on was later redeveloped and replaced by Sweet Lady Jane's Bakery. Staff at the bakery claimed that the ghost of Welles would sit in the dining area, heralded by the smell of cigar smoke and bourbon.
The only problem with this well-worn Hollywood ghost story is that the layout of Sweet Lady Jane's is vastly different from Ma Maisons. When the land was redeveloped, the new bakery was positioned further forward than Welles' favourite restaurant. Still, boundary issues and land redevelopment shouldn't stand in the way of a solid gimmick to draw in the crowds!