FOREWORD

Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!

Universal Studios Hollywood is a magical world of adventure, imagination and art that comes alive as entertainment. However, what is obscured behind the curtain of storytelling may be a hidden past filled with earthly hauntings we have yet to uncover or understand.

With that being said, as I read eagerly from page to page, I recalled one of my very first ghostly experiences. Bear with me as I share a story that I haven’t shared with many. The events you are about to read would become the reason that I delved wholeheartedly into paranormal research.

I had the wonderful pleasure of working for Universal Studios Hollywood from 1999 through 2009. I had the opportunity of working various locations throughout the theme park, and I was able to experience and learn the trade quite quickly. I originally worked the Terminator 2: 3D show and was able to witness Arnold Schwarzenegger fly in on a helicopter for the action-packed grand opening. Wow! Looking in awe at the crowd, I was amazed. I would love to be part of making so many people happy. It was the following year, 2000, that I had the opportunity to audition for the part of the Deacon in the Water World show; I had become a stuntman and had been working on many films. I was really enjoying my work, and when I wasn’t scheduled to play the Deacon in Water World, I had the chance to cross-train at other rides within the park. That same year, I was training at the Back to the Future ride—now known as The Simpsons ride.

The training took place during the non-peak season, so there were not too many guests at the park during this time. I was positioned in an area where I supervised the guests dividing into separate lines, which would guide them down a curved hallway. At the end of the hallway, they would be assisted by another Universal employee in boarding the cars. Due to the curve in the hallway, there is a camera positioned to assist me in watching the guests as they make their way safely to the next employee. A young couple came in, and I sent them to my right, which led to another Universal employee who then directed the guests into the pre-ride room to watch a short video before boarding the ride.

About fifteen seconds after the couple passed, a young blond-haired girl, approximately nine years old, came running past me; she ran down the right-side hallway where I had just sent the young couple. At that time, I looked at the camera display screen and watched the young girl running down the curved hallway to ensure that she reached my co-worker safely. On the display, I saw the young girl run directly past my co-worker and into the pre-ride room the young couple had just entered. I didn’t even have a chance to notify my co-worker, but I did see her enter the pre-ride room. After a few minutes, the ride was over. I saw the young couple leave the room, and they both headed toward the exit. I waited, watching for the young blond girl to exit the room, but she did not come out.

I walked down the hall toward the pre-ride room and asked my co-worker, “Where is the little girl?”

“What little girl?” he replied.

“The little girl that ran right past you into the room with the couple.”

He told me that there was no little girl, and he didn’t see one on the ride or anywhere near the hallway. The question he asked me then will forever haunt me. “You saw her, didn’t you? You saw the little girl?” he asked.

I was in shock to think I had just seen the ghost of a young child, not only with my own eyes but also through the camera display screen.

My co-worker went on to tell me that the little girl had been there for a few years and that several employees, along with the maintenance repair crew and the night cleaning crew, had heard a little girl giggling. I was also told that some of the women from the night cleaning crew refused to work in the building. It was at that time I wondered who this little blond-haired spirit could possibly be. I learned that there had been a young female child who had a pre-existing brain aneurysm that ruptured while she was on the ride. I have come to believe this is the spirit that roams the entire park.

I was allowed to do an after-hours investigation, but it was during my interviews with other park employees that I learned many of them have seen a blond child of about nine years old. If they haven’t seen her, they certainly have heard her giggling throughout several locations of the park.

By the year 2004, I was well into paranormal investigating and the claims at Universal seemed to keep me busy. However, on May 21, 2004, the Revenge of the Mummy ride, located down in the lower lot, was opened to the public. Not long after the ride opened, I began getting reports from the Mummy ride employees, as well as security guards and park supervisors, indicating that guests were frantic, scared and worried about what they were seeing on the tracks of the ride.

The reports indicated that the witnesses were seeing a young boy. He was described as having black hair, his age ranged from eight to twelve years old and he was wearing old-fashioned clothing. Due to the fact that nobody knew who the boy was or where the boy had come from, the ride was shut down in order to search for him, but he was never found.

This was not a onetime account. Reports began coming in almost daily and lasted for a few months. Some of the park employees said that they had seen the boy at the Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream store located next door to the Mummy ride. Unfortunately, by the time I was available to investigate these claims, the sightings had ended.

I met Brian Clune and Bob Davis, owners of Planet Paranormal, in 2007, during a paranormal convention aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. I have had the honor of investigating with them both on multiple occasions, and I still utilize the research and investigational techniques they have shared with me.

Haunted Universal Studios is one of the most captivating haunts that I have read in a long time. Brian Clune and Bob Davis have done amazing, and extensive, historical research in order to bring you some of the best-kept secrets of Universal Studios Hollywood.

—Syd Schultz II
Director of Paranormal Bootcamp Events

Universal Studios sculpture.