Monday, October 29, 2018

ESPecially Yours

I'm a sucker for paranormal shows. Ghosts, UFO's, Bigfoot, Chupacabras, you name it, I'm in, especially this time of year.  I'm sure it dates back to my childhood spent watching Leonard Nimoy's "In Search Of...", Jack Palance's "Believe It or Not!" and Robert Stack's "Unsolved Mysteries". Back then, I fell for everything hook, line and Gellar. I like to believe I'm a little more skeptical these days, but reality aside, it's just fun to believe something undiscovered still exists.

Gordon Hoener did too. So much so that he started St. Louis' first "Ghost Busters" group "Haunt Hunters" in 1965.  This brochure I found oddly blends his two passions: Investments and the paranormal; in this case ESP. 



The brochure details experiments which can be conducted with a group of people to determine their extrasensory perception.




Hoener was a stockbroker by day, magician by night, when he began Haunt Hunters as a "central clearing house for spirit information from around the world".

In 1978, Hoener, along with his partner Phil Goodwilling, wrote the book "The Haunt Hunters Handbook for Psychic Investigators".  Hoener believed it was this book that served as inspiration to local Washington University alumnus Harold Ramis when he wrote "Ghostbusters".


Coincidentally (or maybe not), Hoener and Goodwilling had visited the famously haunted Whittemore House, which serves as Washington University's Faculty Club, in 1972 where they performed a séance that ended in their fleeing, not unlike Ramis' Ghostbusters when they visit the New York Public Library on their first mission.

Hoener in undated photo

According to the book "Haunted Houses USA", Hoener visisted another local haunted landmark, Lemp Mansion, in 1979 accompanied by producers from the TV show "Real People".  If the event made it into the show, I've not been able to find it in the past episodes currently available on Amazon Prime.

Hoener passed away in June, 2016, less than a month before the premiere of the all-female "Ghostbusters" reboot.  Ramis passed away in 2014 at the age of 69.  Maybe he and Gordon are on the other side having a good laugh.

You can watch an interview with Gordon's son Steve shortly after Gordon's passing here.

16 comments:

  1. This is all local stuff for you. Have you visited these Haunted locations?

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    1. Surprisingly, I haven't. I'd love to go to Lemp Mansion some day though. You can actually spend the night there and have free reign of the house.

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    2. Wow - looks super! And they have ghost tours Monday nights. Might be worth a visit next time I drive to C-U.

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  2. Wow!! Would love to visit those haunted houses. Must be pretty scary.
    I love the old pages of Everyone has ESP.

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    1. The 70's were crazy for ESP. I remember watching specials about it on "That's Incredible", "In Search Of..." and any number of similar shows. The interest seems to have died off and you see more on ghosts, UFOs and Bigfoot these days.

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  3. Harold Ramis went to Wash U? whoa. and i'm surprised he didn't try a seance or something at the old location of the case that inspired The Exorcist... dang, i can't remember the name of the hospital now, and i refuse to google it. but anyway.

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    1. You're thinking of the old Alexian Brothers Hospital. The house where it took place is in St. Louis as well. There have been seances, paranormal investigations, etc. at that house.

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    2. yep, that's the one. it happened in the hospital, not in a house, if i recall correctly. the entire wing was closed, i believe.

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    3. There were events that happened in the house and then he was moved to Alexian Brothers for the exorcism. I believe the stories of the closed wing were disputed by the hospital faculty, but confirmed by people who worked there.

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    4. oh right, of course -- i meant the exorcism proper, of course. the STL Post Dispatch once had a very extensive article about it, sorting the truth from the fiction, and i had a copy of it for years. i wonder if it's accessible online.

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    5. I'll save you the trouble of Googling. https://www.stltoday.com/news/archives/the-st-louis-exorcism-of-the-real-life-inspiration-for/article_fbdecb6a-9d3c-5903-a12c-effd4f7a7713.html

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    6. that's the one! thank you! still a creepy read.

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  4. Even though I don't believe in it all, I still love watching the shows. Love the idea of mystery. I have been watching episodes of Ancient Aliens. Inane? Yeah. Fun? Hell yeah.

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    1. Yeah, it's just fun, especially this time of year, to watch them.

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  5. Gordon was my uncle. I used to have his Haunt Hunters book and somewhere along the way, it's been lost. I'd love to have another one if you know of any for sale?

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    1. Hi! Sorry, I don't know of any Haunt Hunter books for sale, I just have the flyer I showed here. I wouldn't mind finding a copy myself.

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