Parallel Lines Project Episode 1 - Lady in Red

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INTRO

Welcome to the Parallel Lines Project where I help separate fact from fiction. I’ your host Mark Moldowan and this is episode 1 - Lady in Red.

Queue Theme Music

On this week’s podcast - it’s the first episode of the Parallel Lines Project. I’ll be introducing myself and telling you what this podcast is all about. Later, I’ll be taking a look at a very old local ghost story. Then, get a pen and paper ready or warm up your typing fingers - I’ve got the best god damned cabbage roll recipe in the world.

Just a disclaimer as well - my recording studio - well my linen closet with a desk and a microphone - is located directly beneath the flight path of the Snow Geese and it being november I’m bombarded by their relentless honking every 20 minutes or so. So if you hear that Hitchcockian noise of a feathered apocalypse in the background don’t worry. My eyes are safe.

But first, let me introduce myself.

ACT 1

I’m a freelance writer and journalist and Vancouver native with a fascination for all things weird. When I was a kid I became obsessed with anything outside of the mainstream. I read weird things like the Sefer Yetzirah. I devoured all things qi and meditated daily to try to focus my energies Dragon Ball Z style. I was hooked on shows like the famed Fox Alien Autopsy and Unexplained Mysteries, and Beyond Belief Fact or Fiction - hell Commander Riker’s beard alone was enough for me to watch the show.

But as I grew older I began to become less of a true believer in these things, The more I read the more I realized it was impossible to summon daemons or to ka-may-a-may-a a beam of blue light at that asshole Craig who used to relentlessly pick on me at school.

Ultimately my curiosity landed me in journalism school and I was given the tools to explore these ideas in a more rational way.

You would think after seeing the man behind the curtain my feelings on the subject of the supernatural would turn to cynicism - but you’d be wrong.

I still love this stuff. The rumours and common knowledge that surrounds us and makes up our beautifully bizarre culture - it’s just magical.

Enter this podcast.

This isn’t a debunking of all things irrational. No. This is a love letter to them. This is a celebration of the creativity of humanity. People come up with some really weird shit - and they can be really good at selling it. And that’s something I can appreciate as long as you can separate fact from fiction. They’re two parallel lines that never overlap - but together paint an amazing narrative. See what I did there? Get the meaning of the name of the show?

Well it’s that and coupled with my absolutely undying love for Debbie Harry. Damn… Just damn…

ACT 2 - LADY IN RED

Now let's get in to the meat and potatoes of this podcast. I love ghost stories - even more so when they’re “real.” Douche quotes in full effect here.

Living in Vancouver there’s one in particular I have always loved. The Lady in Red at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. No, I’m not talking about your drunk uncle’s rendition of Chris De Burgh’s classic nine-teen-eighties hit at your cousin’s wedding, I’m talking about the ghost that’s said to haunt the halls.

The Hotel Vancouver is a local landmark and a beautiful example of the Franco-Scottish chateau-style that is quintessentially Canadian. Canadian National Railway company built these luxury railway hotels across canada with each one being totally unique and interesting in their own way. If you want to see some more examples check the show notes for a link to wiki.

The hotel began construction in 1928 but wasn't finished until 1939. The great depression was a bitch. It served as the CBC’s headquarters in Vancouver until the 1970’s boasting a fully functional broadcasting station in it’s mezzanine. It also housed some of the ritziest nightlife in the city. The Panorama, the Timber Club, the Pacific Empire Ballroom, and the Red Barrel were all mainstays of Vancouver nightlife for decades. My personal connection to the hotel comes from my grandparents weekly outings to the Panorama for dinner and dancing. but I’ll get in to that later.

Now that you have an idea of the setting, let me give you a rundown of the story. You can read the full meal deal on Fairmont’s “Fairmont Moment’s” website, but I’ll give you a brief synopsis here.

Our story revolves around a young woman of 25 named Jennie Pearl Cox. A lovely young Vancouverite who became a regular patron at the hotel. She danced at the Panorama with her husband Harold and every year would bring her daughter Dorothy, Ay-kay-ay Dottie, to the annual Christmas celebration in the pacific ballroom. She was entrenched in the hotel nightlife winning friends everywhere she went.

Then tragedy struck.

In the summer of 1944, her, her husband Harold and her daughter Dottie were on their way home from a picnic in the park when without warning a truck turned a corner too quickly and struck the family killing them instantly.

When their spirits left their bodies they decided to return to the place that made them happiest - the Hotel Vancouver with Jennie wearing her favourite distinctive red dress.

They say if you take the number eight elevator you have the best chance of seeing her - usually going up or down, to or from, the fourteenth floor. Sometimes people see herHusband or child wandering the halls.

It’s a pretty classic ghost story huh?

It’s no joke either. Like I said earlier, the current hotel owners, the Fairmont company, pimps this story out on their website and every year nearly every newspaper in the city regurgitates the whole story around Halloween. If you ask the hotel staff they’ll sometimes give you their own personal accounts of the lady in red.

Even guests say they see her. Check out this story I heard on Trip Advisor:

“the lady in red is true! this hotel is haunted!”

Reviewed 21 August 2014

We stayed in this hotel because my sister was getting married at this location. I checked in at around 3am on a saturday and when i went in the elevator from the lobby, there was already a lady wearing a bright long red dress inside the elevator standing in the corner. I said hi to her but she did not respond and I noticed that the "14th" floor was already lit up. It was just the two of us inside the elevator and as i was getting out of the 8th floor i turned around and said bye to her but she disappeared! I was so shocked and couldn't believe what just happened. At first i thought that i was just seeing things but as soon as i got in the room, i googled lady in red at fairmont vancouver and there it was! She was a ghost and I just witnessed it. I told the staff about this but they quickly denied it. I will never come back here again!

What I love about this review is that they rated every category as one star except for cleanliness. They gave that a two.

Now I’m not here to disprove the existence of ghosts. I can’t do that. I can, however, but my thinky skills to work and check to see if this story can even be true.

Enter my ninety-six-year-old grandma Violet. I call her Ty. Don’t ask.

Ty and her husband Billy were frequent guests at the hotel. She would have been Jennie’s age at the time. I asked her about the hotel. She told me stories of her dining and dancing at the Panorama. She told me about over-indulging in cocktails - a Moldowan family trait - and crashing for the night only to slip out in the morning in the same clothes with her makeup smeared like, and I quote, some back alley girl.

The scandal.

When I asked about Jennie she said she couldn’t remember anyone by that name. That’s not too surprising - my family is Jewish and well, people weren't the nicest to Jews at the time. It wouldn’t be too far fetched that her and the gentile Jennie would never cross paths.

I also asked her about the ghost. She never saw it.

With a primary source under my belt and the smell of bullshit slowly wafting in from the distance, I decided to put my research skills to good use.

Being in Canada we have a crazy amount of records readily available online. The Royal Museum here in British Columbia actually has a massive searchable database of all kinds of records. Particularly, they have the entirety of Birth, Death and Marriage certificates before 1986 freely available along with a pretty archaic search engine.

So I typed in the name Jennie Cox, looked at 1944 deaths and clicked search.

Bupkiss.

The Jennifer Cox.

Nothing.

Then Pearl Cox.

Nada.

Still not defeated, I decided to look up Harold. Maybe Jennie’s name was wrong.

I also broadened my search. Marriages, Births, Deaths all between 1900 and 1950.

There were a few Harold Cox’s. None of them died in those years. Only two were from anywhere near Vancouver. One was married to a Gladys, the other to a Harriet.

Still no Jennie Pearl Cox.

So here I am. Literally and figuratively chasing ghosts.

Maybe the hotel is haunted by some other benevolent spirit. Some other lady in red. But I doubt it.

ACT 3 - THE RECIPE

So when I went to go see my grandma to talk about the lady in red she gave me something really special. I’m holding it here in my hands. It’s a cookbook. A very special cookbook. Super special. Special beyond all things.

It’s my Grandma’s jewish cookbook.

On the front it says “Our Gift To You” and was given out to young ladies after their bat mitzvah to help them keep a good and kosher home. It has recipes organized by holidays and ingredients and tips on how to keep a respectable jewish home. Oh and it’s like 80 years old.

So today I want to share a recipe with you. One of my favourites - Prokka’s. Jewish cabbage rolls.

You can also go to my website markmoldowan.com to check out the recipe. The link is in the show notes.

So here’s what you need to start:

1 or 2 cabbages depending on their size

2lbs ground round

⅓ cup matzoh meal, or enough to bind the mixture

salt, pepper and garlic salt or powder to taste

3 slightly beaten eggs

1 small grated onion

1 cup cooked rice

And for the Sauce:

2 cans of tomato sauce

juice of 1 lemon

scant cup of sugar

1 Tbsp of brown sugar

1 chopped onion

Now here’s the method:

Combine the filling ingredients. Cut the core from the cabbage. Cover the cabbage with boiling water and let it soak until the leaves separate easily. Fill each leaf with a heaping tablespoon of meat mixture. Fold to form pockets or envelopes. Fasten with a toothpick if necessary.

Combine the sauce ingredients together and simmer for five minutes. Add the now formed cabbage rolls, and spoon the sauce over them. Simmer them covered for 2-3 hours.

And here’s a tip - put a walnut into the water while boiling the cabbage if you want to avoid making your house smell like a giant fart.

Hope you enjoy.

Well, that’s it for episode one of the Parallel Line Project. Hope you enjoyed it. If you liked it please leave your comments and rate it on iTunes. You can also see the transcript and show notes at markmoldowan.com/podcast . All music on this podcast is under the creative commons license and was found at the Free Music Archive. Our theme song is Against the Wall by Boxcat Games, the spooky song is Ghost Dance by Kevin MacLeod.

Have a great week everyone, and keep it weird.