SPIRIT TALES AND MAGIC
Our host; Dr.G had his first paranormal experience at only eight years old. With over five decades of storytelling, magic and paranormal story collection he is an award winning story teller on a mission to revive firelight and the telling of stories!
SPIRIT TALES AND MAGIC
Mysteries of Lily Pond Lane
Step into the spectral shadows of the Hamptons' infamous "Witch House" as we unravel its chilling past and the ghostly tales that linger within. How did Edith Beale, or Little Eddie, find love beyond the grave with her phantom sea captain? Discover the transformation of this 1905 Lily Pond Lane mansion from a horticultural gem, nurtured by Anna Gilman Hill, to a haunting refuge for spirits and feral creatures. We'll explore the eerie yet alluring history of this estate that captured the fascination of journalist Sally Quinn and her husband, Ben Bradley, as they breathed new life into its haunted halls.
As we prepare for Halloween, we open the floor to you—our listeners. Share the thrill of your own ghost stories, whether through Zoom, an interview, or a simple tale read aloud. Dedicate your story to a loved one or keep your identity a mystery as we celebrate the bewitching art of storytelling. Pull up a chair, gather with friends, and embrace the magic of the season with us. Thank you for keeping our community vibrant with your tales, and remember to stay safe as the night of spirits approaches. We'll meet again to share more spine-tingling stories—until then, good night, dear friends.
There is indeed a world unseen, a world that exists all around us all the time and every now and then, for whatever the reason, we catch a glimpse of it and the dead get in. It's Dr G, spirit Tales and Magic. Thanks everybody for tuning in. So we have a little bit of questioning coming in about episodes and date times and time stamps and things like that. So, as we've explained, we are moving at the speed of jet pace for the last two weeks of October. Usually there are times where I'm someplace doing something where it would be impossible to record. So this is the one time a year that some of these are recorded ahead of time and loaded up to the podcast host and then they automatically go on. Load it up to the podcast host and then they automatically go on. Example you know if we're flying they don't appreciate you doing a podcast from the airplane. We'll be taking a couple of plane flights, a couple of boats, a couple of trains, so there are some, let's say, inopportune times to go ahead and podcast. Now we will also be doing live things from different places and you'll know when those are because I'll say hey, we're live from here or there. We're not forgetting about our new friends in the Hamptons. I said I would put up one for you. I said I would put up one for you. This one I remember from a long, long time ago. It used to be in the employ of someone who had a very big house up there on an occasional basis. It's a wonderful area. It's actually some of the most high-priced real estate in the country, I do believe.
Speaker 1:In the dark of night, in a sprawling mansion just about a block from the Atlantic Ocean, a woman in her prime awaited her sea captain lover's return sea captain, lover's return. At the stroke of midnight he climbed a ladder to her upstairs bedroom and they did what lovers do. The seafarer had built the mansion where they romanced in 1905 on Long Island's south shore on Lily Pond Lane. She, a prominent socialite and model who sought show business fame, insisted that the visits did occur at the East Hampton Estate, repeating the story throughout her life until her death in 2002. But you see, there was a problem. The night visitor that she said she had the affairs with had died and his ghost was said to haunt the mansion. And other spirits have appeared ever since he first set his afterlife foot in the house. In the house. It got dubbed the Witch House and its ghostly visitors show no signs of leaving. They claim romance, ghosts and other things in their advertisements.
Speaker 1:The woman recalling the visits was Edith Beale, called her Little Eddie, even the aspiring entertainer she performed memorably in the 1975 award-winning cinema which was a documentary about her home, gray Gardens. Meet a mother and daughter, high society dropouts, managing to thrive together amid the decay and disorder, is how little eddie and her mother, who I believe was edith beal and they called her big eddie, are described on the imdbcom site. In the production, filmed when big eddie if I was, I'm remembering correctly was in her 80s and Little Eddie in her 50s, the younger Beale claims that the home was oozing with romance and ghosts and other things. She lived there for 25 years caring for her mother. The pair are surrounded by dozens of feral and domesticated cats, plus possums and raccoons, in what is described as a flea-infested, crumbling eyesore, smack dab in the middle of the ultra-wealthy Hamptons. In the middle of the ultra-wealthy Hamptons Now, before the Beals bought the mansion in 1923, the former owner, I believe it, was Anna Gilman Hill.
Speaker 1:She was a famed horticulturist. She poured her heart and soul into beautifying the land. She imported concrete from Spain. She pale-flowered paintings from the forceful Atlantic winds and the sea spray. Hill wrote that she named the estate the Gray Gardens because of the soft gray of the surrounding dunes, cement walls and the sea's mist. Dunes, cement walls and the sea's mist. Hill's ghost likely haunted the Beals after witnessing the deterioration of the property that she had loved and beautified. As Big Eddie and Little Eddie aged, they had neither the financial reserves nor the emotional stability to keep things up. Climbing overgrown plants, well, they obscured the garden and eventually the walls. Claws punctured the roof, there were cat feces piled up and it wrapped the floors.
Speaker 1:In the mid-1950s the Beals hired a local man, tom Tex Logan, I believe, to maintain the estate. Tom was known as a drinker. He would leave town for a month After his final excursion in 1964, he died of pneumonia sitting in the mansion's kitchen. His ghost's drunken staggering was competing with the stomping boots of the sea captain's spirit. In 1971, when Logan's successor, jerry Torr, started working there, he told the Philly voice there's a spirit in this mansion. That was interesting. Did you guys hear that? I felt a person in the kitchen with me, he said. Big Eddie told Tor that it was the anniversary of Logan's death and he died. By the way, on the army cot that you're sleeping on, she added the witch house Gail I believe it was Gail Shee. She's an author, best-selling author of passages lived near the Beals in about 1971. As she wrote in a New York magazine, her seven-year-old daughter saw a light at night in an upstairs window of the decaying house, surrounded by growling cats. The child named the place the Witch House.
Speaker 1:In 1979, several years after Big Eddie died, journalist Sally Quinn and her husband Ben Bradley, who was a famous Washington Post editor, bought the property. They promised the Beals they would renovate the mansion to use as a summer house. Ignoring the haunted house gossip. Bradley was quoted as saying, as he pointed to his wife there's no problem with that, she's a witch Because she believed in spirits and read tarot cards in a cottage on the property. Quinn even told CNBCcom that she saw an apparition in her bedroom at night. One of the two ghosts that she believes is in the residence the ghost of Little Eddie, who died in 2002. She says Little Eddie was a regular Every night around 9 30,. Quinn said the hall lights would flicker once Guests heard noises, including Senator Barry Goldwater, who wouldn't sleep in Little Eddie's room, cautioning everyone that came. There's a ghost in there, quinn observed. Some people think it's a man clomping around in boots. I'm pretty sure that's the old sea captain.
Speaker 1:Quinn and Bradley made good on their promise with quite an extensive remodel of the residence. They viewed the ghost as benign, especially one in particular who claimed to be Big Eddie's best friend. Quinn was quoted as telling the New York Post An apparition appeared from out of nowhere. It spoke to me. It said Big Eddie sent me, though Big Eddie had been dead. She wants you to know. She's very happy that you bought the house. She will oversee everything, you understand, but she promises that you will be very happy here. The Washington power couple spent 35 happy summers at Grey Gardens, never once feeling threatened by the ghosts.
Speaker 1:What's your ghost story? Many ways. You can get it to us. You can even appear on a Zoom call and we can talk about it together. You can be interviewed. You can read it or I can read it. You can dedicate it to someone or you can stay anonymous. Thanks to everybody for listening, for sharing, downloading and helping us to spread the word. I hope your Halloween is safe. You'll hear me say that a lot and I know, as it's coming down to the wire, everyone's scrambling for plans to see what they're going to be doing and we will be in pretty much a constant motion from now until then. But hey, take time out, sit around with your friends, tell a paranormal story. Sit around with your friends, tell a paranormal story, or do some magic. It's good for you. We'll talk tomorrow, my friends, good night.
