Latest / Boozy Banter with Friends / Living It Up at Lemp Mansion

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Living It Up at Lemp Mansion · Boozy Banter with Friends

• 0:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: Hey, looking for spooky outing?
• 0:02
  Trisha Smith: How about an eerie outing?
• 0:04
  Diane Black: Check out, Eerie Outings luxury picnic experience.
• 0:08
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• 0:14
  Trisha Smith: They did everything, the setup, clean up, food, games, even a photographer.
• 0:20
  Diane Black: All we had to do was show up, have fun and enjoy the experience.
• 0:25
  Leyla Zmeskal: So if you're in the Orlando area and you'd like your own unique luxury experience for your next special occasion.
• 0:31
  Trisha Smith: Check them out on Instagram,
• 0:33
  https: //www.instagram.com/eerieoutings/?hl=en or at Eerie Outings dot com.
• 0:36
  https: //www.eerieoutings.com/ And mentioned our special code, Mostly Ghostly Mini, to add a FREE mini photo session to your picnic.
• 0:43
  Leyla Zmeskal: A mini session includes 15 minutes with their professional photographer and three edited images.
• 0:49
  Trisha Smith: We had such a great time.
• 0:51
  Diane Black: We know you will too.
• 0:52
  Leyla Zmeskal: So book today.
• 0:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: Cheers.
• 0:57
  Trisha Smith: Cheers.
• 0:57
  Diane Black: Cheers.
• 1:13
  Leyla Zmeskal: Hello and welcome to Boozy Banter,
• 1:15
  Diane Black: With Friends.
• 1:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm Leyla.
• 1:17
  Trisha Smith: I'm Trisha.
• 1:18
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm Diane.
• 1:19
  Leyla Zmeskal: Grab your favorite spirit and join us because shits about to get real.
• 1:32
  Leyla Zmeskal: Hello,
• 1:34
  Diane Black: Howdy do.
• 1:36
  Trisha Smith: Hi.
• 1:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: What is going on ladies?
• 1:40
  Trisha Smith: Kelly, Hi.
• 1:42
  Kelly Flanagan: Hello.
• 1:42
  Trisha Smith: She's like I don' know what to say.
• 1:43
  Leyla Zmeskal: You're supposed to say hi. We have a special guest.
• 1:51
  Trisha Smith: We have a special guest but we're also missing Diane today because they had a COVID scare in their house but she can see us.
• 2:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: It wasn't a scare. It's it's a positive Corolla test. You guys met my neighbor, Van.
• 2:11
  Trisha Smith: Yes,
• 2:12
  Diane Black: She calls it the Carolla, so in our house, we call it the Corolla. And yes, so I don't want to take a chance even though I'm not infected.
• 2:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: Germy.
• 2:21
  Diane Black: I'm not germy. I'm not going to spread my germs to our wonderful guest. So I'm joining you remote.
• 2:30
  Trisha Smith: Yes, but you're still here.
• 2:31
  Leyla Zmeskal: You're still here.
• 2:32
  Diane Black: I am very much here.
• 2:33
  Trisha Smith: Which we love.
• 2:34
  Leyla Zmeskal: With us in spirit.
• 2:35
  Trisha Smith: Yeah.
• 2:35
  Kelly Flanagan: And thank you, I'm greatly appreciative.
• 2:39
  Trisha Smith: Yeah.
• 2:39
  Diane Black: Oh for sure.
• 2:40
  Trisha Smith: Right, Kelly's getting ready to go back on the road, and she just doesn't want to,
• 2:47
  Leyla Zmeskal: Take any chances.
• 2:48
  Trisha Smith: She's doesn't want to be a super spreader.
• 2:49
  Kelly Flanagan: Yeah.
• 2:51
  Trisha Smith: You want to be the, what is it, patient zero.
• 2:55
  Kelly Flanagan: Yeah, I don't want to be patient zero.
• 2:57
  Leyla Zmeskal: So Trisha said that you're getting ready to go back out on the road.
• 3:01
  Kelly Flanagan: Yes.
• 3:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: So could you tell us a little bit about yourself and why are you going back out on the road?
• 3:08
  Kelly Flanagan: Okay, so, as the infamous date of March 15, 2000 came, and we all saw Broadway shut down. I was in Toronto, Canada, so I didn't know any of this stuff was going on. I am a hair and makeup person, with the union of 798. I do jukebox musicals or musical theater.
• 3:30
  Kelly Flanagan: Like I said, when we first started, we were in Toronto and they said, Hey, guys, New York shut down. We're shutting down to it's probably going to be two, maybe four weeks. We'll be back at it. Go home, enjoy your family. Have a nice little vacation. Anyway, 16 months later, we're getting ready to go back out. I am going out.
• 3:48
  Diane Black: Yay.
• 3:48
  Trisha Smith: Yay.
• 3:51
  Kelly Flanagan: Broadway, we have a show that's opening up this week I believe which is an August but the rest of Broadway opens 14, which is an awesome feature. I, I do national touring companies. So I do basically North America that can be anywhere in the continental United States and Toronto, Canadian province.
• 4:14
  Leyla Zmeskal: Exciting, would you like to share your beverage for today?
• 4:18
  Kelly Flanagan: My beverage for today is the, Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio 2020.
• 4:23
  Kelly Flanagan: https://santamargheritausa.com/
• 4:25
  Trisha Smith: Which she's sharing with me.
• 4:29
  Leyla Zmeskal: Nothing's better than day drinking with a little bit of wine.
• 4:33
  Diane Black: Yeah.
• 4:34
  Kelly Flanagan: And a friend, yes.
• 4:35
  Trisha Smith: Diane, I know you're at home. Are you drinking with us?
• 4:40
  Leyla Zmeskal: I am.
• 4:41
  Trisha Smith: Yay!
• 4:42
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yay!
• 4:43
  Diane Black: I did my drink before we connected virtually because it was a shot.
• 4:49
  Trisha Smith: Oh,
• 4:50
  Diane Black: I'm calling it, The Irish Fae.
• 4:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh,
• 4:56
  Trisha Smith: I know what it has to have.
• 5:00
  Kelly Flanagan: A little bit of,
• 5:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: The Absinthe.
• 5:02
  Trisha Smith: Absinthe.
• 5:04
  Diane Black: I have the, Grune Fee Absinthe,
• 5:10
  https: //fischerspirits.com/
• 5:10
  Kelly Flanagan: Really.
• 5:10
  Diane Black: I filled up half of a shot glass of the Absinthe. I drizzled on top of it the Caroline's Irish Cream.
• 5:18
  Leyla Zmeskal: How was that combination?
• 5:20
  Diane Black: Well, when I shot it, so I was waiting but we were having troubles connecting so I'm like, I just, I gotta fucking take it because it's going to curdle. So, I did it really quick, but oh man, it hit my stomach like a brick. The Absinthe has that licorice, very strong taste and Irish cream which is really nice, cut it a little bit, but it was probably still too much Absinthe.
• 5:48
  Kelly Flanagan: So if you dropped it in a beer you could call that a jelly bean.
• 5:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh,
• 5:55
  Kelly Flanagan: Isn't there a, B 52, isn't that what you did? You dropped it in a beer, Irish whiskey and,
• 5:59
  Trisha Smith: The Irish boy, slammer?
• 6:02
  Leyla Zmeskal: Boilermaker.
• 6:03
  Trisha Smith: Boilermaker. Yeah, right.
• 6:04
  Diane Black: Yeah,
• 6:04
  Trisha Smith: Leyla.
• 6:05
  Diane Black: What are you drinkin?
• 6:06
  Leyla Zmeskal: I am having the, Bird Dog Blackberry Whiskey
• 6:10
  https: //www.birddogwhiskey.com/ with some Publix Lemonade. So I am calling it the, Boozy Blackberry Lemonade, and it is good.
• 6:19
  https: So today, we're actually excited to talk about some really cool place that you visited. Kelly.
• 6:27
  Kelly Flanagan: Yes.
• 6:29
  Leyla Zmeskal: You were actually locked in?
• 6:32
  Kelly Flanagan: Yes.
• 6:34
  Kelly Flanagan: And you weren't alone?
• 6:36
  Kelly Flanagan: Yes.
• 6:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: And, I'm not just talking about you weren't alone because you had friends with you.
• 6:43
  Kelly Flanagan: You are correct.
• 6:45
  Leyla Zmeskal: Would you like to tell us a place that you did a lock in.
• 6:49
  Kelly Flanagan: So I did a lock in at Lemp Manor, in St. Louis, Missouri. Overnight stay, 12 hours, 7pm to 7am, with five of my friends from, Memphis, the musical, which I think you went and saw with us, Tricia.
• 7:06
  Trisha Smith: We did, we did.
• 7:09
  Trisha Smith: So this was about 2012-2013.
• 7:13
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm excited to hear all about it. But, before we let you like dive into some of the experiences you and your friends had, I thought it would be interesting to do a little bit of history on the, Lemp Mansion. What do you guys think?
• 7:27
  Kelly Flanagan: Sounds great.
• 7:28
  Diane Black: Sounds good.
• 7:29
  Leyla Zmeskal: You know, So Tricia was like,
• 7:30
  Trisha Smith: I'll do it, there can't be that much.
• 7:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: Wrong. So I was like, started to read a little bit. I was like, I'm gonna stop reading because, it's so
• 7:41
  Trisha Smith: There's so much, right. The amount of history interesting.
• 7:43
  Trisha Smith: like they get into all the nitty gritty and there are so many
• 7:46
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh wow, that's interesting.
• 7:47
  Leyla Zmeskal: people because they worked with them in the brewery and you know, there's a lot of people that were like, Oh, yeah, we knew them. We worked for them.
• 7:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: We didn't you know, so that's a lot of first hand accounts as well. So anyways, the Lemp Mansion, the history begins with a German immigrant named, Jo ann Adam Lemp, and he arrived n St. Louis in 1838. So, he built a small store that sold common household goods, groceries and homemade beer. And it was a beer that he, that wa passed down from his father. S, the light golden lager was a change from the darker bee s that were sold at the time. A d it was so popular that in 184, he gave up the grocery store o build a small brewery close o where the Gateway Arch stan s today.
• 8:44
  Diane Black: Oh, wow.
• 8:46
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, so I mean, they were right in the thick of things. Before long, the brewery itself was too small to handle both production and storage, and so Adam found a limestone cave south of the city limits, which,
• 9:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: Whoa, a limestone cave?
• 9:01
  Trisha Smith: I know. I'm like, you know this is the 1800s.
• 9:05
  Trisha Smith: People are like, it's not like they just pulled up on Google Maps, and they're like, hey, there's this cave that no one's using, and we should go use it for our brewery. He had to like, go find this cave, or somebody told him about it or whatever. But
• 9:20
  Kelly Flanagan: Yeah, but it's also in an area that's notorious for caves.
• 9:24
  Trisha Smith: Yes, that is true.
• 9:25
  Kelly Flanagan: If you look at the part of the country that this area is in, you know, there's a lot of caves and that was kind of a thing at that point.
• 9:32
  Trisha Smith: So, he knew he could find something.
• 9:35
  Kelly Flanagan: Yeah, I think that that's a lot of their rich, refrigeration.
• 9:39
  Trisha Smith: Right, and so and that was the thing the cave could be kept cool by putting ice from the nearby Mississippi River inside. So by the 1850s Lemp's, Western Brewing Company, was one of the largest in the city, and Adam was a millionaire by the time he died in 1862. So his son, William, began a major expansion of the brewery after he died and by the 1870s the Lemp Brewery controlled the St.
• 10:09
  Trisha Smith: Louis beer market, a position that it maintained until prohibition, and the family name became synonymous with wealth and power in the area. In 1868, William's father in law, built a house near the brewery and in 1876, William purchased it for his family to us as both the residents and an office and that is what is now known as, Lemp Mansion. He immediately began renovating and expanding the house into a Victorian showplace, you know, worthy of their, their status. Yeah, but from the mansion, he had a tunnel built from the basement through the caves that went to the brewery and when refrigeration became available, like mechanical refrigeration, became available. Parts of the cave were used for other purposes, including a large concrete swimming pool, with hot water piped in from the brewery, a bowling alley and an auditorium.
• 11:20
  Leyla Zmeskal: Wow,
• 11:20
  Trisha Smith: I know for the 1800s.
• 11:22
  Leyla Zmeskal: An underground swimming pool.
• 11:24
  Trisha Smith: Heated.
• 11:25
  Leyla Zmeskal: Wow.
• 11:25
  Trisha Smith: At one time, an underground theater was accessible by a spiral staircase from the street above. So they had a theater down there in the caves.
• 11:36
  Leyla Zmeskal: This place sounds massive.
• 11:38
  Trisha Smith: Right, I can't even imagine how big these caves were.
• 11:41
  Leyla Zmeskal: I can't, yeah.
• 11:42
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 11:43
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's interesting.
• 11:44
  Trisha Smith: By the mid 1890s, the brewery was the first to have coast to coast distribution William Sr., even helped, Pabst, Anheuser Busch, get started while still managing to grow his empire. So he actually like helped these other companies.
• 12:01
  Kelly Flanagan: Yeah, he was like the first company that said, Hey, dude, you guys, do this.
• 12:04
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, get in on this. It was about this time that the first tragedy struck the family and in 1901, Frederick Lemp, which was, William Sr., favorite son and the one he had chosen to take over his company died at the age of 28 of heart failure. William Sr. was devastated and he began to withdraw from public life.
• 12:28
  Trisha Smith: Adding to his turmoil, in January of 1904, William's closest friend, Frederick Pabst, also died and six weeks later in February of 1904, William Sr.
• 12:46
  Trisha Smith: shot himself in the head.
• 12:48
  Diane Black: Oy vey.
• 12:49
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, it was just too much for him
• 12:50
  Leyla Zmeskal: So we have the first suicide .
• 12:54
  Trisha Smith: First suicide in the home, right. By November of that same year, William Lemp, Jr, one of William Sr, other sons, obviously took over as the new president of the Lemp Brewing Company. Upon inheriting a vast fortune he and his wife of five years, Lillian, began spending like mad people. They filled the house with servants and they spent huge amounts of money on carriages, clothing and art.
• 13:27
  Leyla Zmeskal: What year was this again?
• 13:28
  Trisha Smith: It was in 1904.
• 13:28
  Trisha Smith: And he had been married to Lillian, she she was also from a wealthy family and she was a beautiful woman, and they had married in 1899. So they'd been married for five years. Yeah, at this point. They had one son together William J. Lemp, the third, who was born in Septembe
• 13:48
  Kelly Flanagan: This is pre prohibition to, right?
• 13:51
  Kelly Flanagan: of 1900. She became known as th lavender lady because of he fondness for the color and sh displayed it in all of he clothing and accessories. Bu William Jr. who had inherite the company and wasn't the on you know initially chosen to d so he got tired of his troph wife he you know, she was borin at this point, besides writi g the brewery during the day e was also living it up in t e caves below the mansion at nig t. Lavish parties with free flo ing beer, perks for having a bre ery.
• 14:31
  Trisha Smith: It is yeah, free flowing beer and prostitutes for entertainment for his friends as well as the use of the swimming pool and bowling alley made him,
• 14:44
  Leyla Zmeskal: Mr. Popular so of course his wife is gotten boring because he just wanted the single life.
• 14:49
  Trisha Smith: Yes. Right. So sometime between inheriting the company and divorcing his wife, cuz you know now she's,
• 14:58
  Kelly Flanagan: What was her name again?
• 14:59
  Trisha Smith: Lillian, and she's over it, in 1908. So they divorced in 1908. William Jr's shenanigans caught up with him, and he ended up having another son. But it's not, this is not legit news. The rumor is he had another son, they don't know if it was from one of the many prostitutes that he hired to come in and entertain his friends and himself obviously, or if it was a servant that already worked in the mansion.
• 15:34
  Trisha Smith: There's literally no official documentation for this child.
• 15:39
  Trisha Smith: However, there are rumors that he had one that was hidden in
• 15:41
  Diane Black: What?
• 15:42
  Trisha Smith: Yes, they hid this child away. A former nanny and former chauffeur who had worked at the mansion, were in, the mansions attic for his entire life.
• 15:59
  Trisha Smith: interviewed by a local historian and both of them verified that the boy did exist. The child was born with Down Syndrome,
• 16:08
  Diane Black: Oh goodness.
• 16:09
  Trisha Smith: Which was the biggest reason that he was hidden away, because William Jr, the douchebag that he was was embarrassed. Like, all your behavior is an embarrassing dude. But okay.
• 16:25
  Leyla Zmeskal: Back then that was very, you know, especially if you're in a predominant family. And you know, any imperfection is just,
• 16:34
  Kelly Flanagan: Totally, they didn't have Google, so they had no idea that other people had this thing was just hidden away.
• 16:40
  Kelly Flanagan: What happened to us and let's put that up in the attic, which I think we showed you a picture that earlier, Diane,
• 16:46
  Diane Black: Yes.
• 16:47
  Trisha Smith: And they actually said, you know, the fact that he put him in the attic versus what most families did, sending him to an institution of some sort was actually like, a display of his blah, blah, blah.
• 17:02
  Leyla Zmeskal: Compassion.
• 17:02
  Trisha Smith: Right, no dude.
• 17:04
  Leyla Zmeskal: Affection.
• 17:06
  Trisha Smith: But today ghost hunters, historians, they only refer to him as the, Monkey Face Boy, which I find.
• 17:15
  Diane Black: That's horrible.
• 17:17
  Trisha Smith: My thoughts exactly, Diane. You know, Monkey Face Boy, that's the best name you could come up with.
• 17:25
  Kelly Flanagan: Now, I've, I've read a lot of other articles that talk to him. Talk about him being excessively hairy. And that was one of the things that led to the description of monkey face boy.
• 17:37
  Trisha Smith: Okay,
• 17:38
  Kelly Flanagan: Because he had an excessive amount of hair.
• 17:41
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 17:42
  Kelly Flanagan: Regardless if it was the, because he didn't, they didn't cut it, or he had another type of some other issue going on.
• 17:49
  Leyla Zmeskal: Some complication.
• 17:50
  Kelly Flanagan: Yeah, it was, he was excessively hairy.
• 17:52
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 17:54
  Trisha Smith: I didn't read that. So that's good to know. By 1906, William Jr., you know, was, while he was off screwing off, nine of the large breweries in the St. Louis area had joined together to become the, Independent Breweries Company, creating a fierce competition that the brewery had never had before. So you know, he's digging himself a hole here. Even while running out of money, William Jr.
• 18:22
  Trisha Smith: decided it was time to remodel the mansion, once again. So he turned the majority of the mansion into office space for his brewery in 1911. He had allowed the company's equipment to deteriorate at this point, and he wasn't keeping up with all of the technological changes that other breweries were using.
• 18:44
  Trisha Smith: So by the time prohibition came along, in 1919, Lemp just gave up and he closed the plant down without any notice. Workers learned about it when they came to work and found the door shut and the gates locked. So you know, he wasn't just douche to his family, he had to be douche to his workers too. So with the brewery gone, William Jr. became depressed and erratic. In December of 1922, he shot himself in the heart while he was in his office in the mansion, which is now the dining room of the same house, his father killed himself in 18 years prior.
• 19:31
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh, wow. So we have suicide number two.
• 19:33
  Trisha Smith: Right. He now rests in the family mausoleum at Bellefontaine Cemetery in the crypt, just above his sister Elsa, who had committed suicide just two years prior in 1920.
• 19:50
  Leyla Zmeskal: In the house too?
• 19:51
  Trisha Smith: No.
• 19:51
  Leyla Zmeskal: Okay.
• 19:52
  Trisha Smith: She had gotten married and she was having marital problems and committed suicide.
• 19:58
  Kelly Flanagan: Which I think if you do some history, on things you will find that a lot of people tended to commit suicide rather than work with any type of physical issues they were having or mental issues that they were having. I mean that, that is kind of like, not an abnormal situation.
• 20:18
  Trisha Smith: For the time frame.
• 20:19
  Kelly Flanagan: Yeah, for the time frame. This is right at prohibition and things were crazy.
• 20:24
  Trisha Smith: Right, so, William's brother, he had three brothers and a sister, so there were five Lemp children total from William Sr. and his brother Charles, who had never been involved with the brewery eventually move back into the mansion in 1929. And he had it remodeled back into a residence.
• 20:47
  Trisha Smith: It was said he lived in the house along with two servants, and the rumored illegitimate child of his brother. It was sometime during his stay there that the hidden child now in his 30s passed away in the mansion.
• 20:58
  Trisha Smith: He's buried in the Lemp emetery plot with only a flat arker, just a tiny designation hat was engraved with the word emp, there was no name and no ates. Charles also started to ehave oddly, while living in he home, he became a germaphobe nd start isolating to avoid any ype of contact with any erceived bacterias. In April of 941, he sent a letter to a St.
• 21:31
  Trisha Smith: ouis funeral home stating that n case of his death, his emains should be taken by mbulance to the Missouri rematory and his body should ot be bathed, clothed or hanged.
• 21:49
  Kelly Flanagan: Weird.
• 21:49
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's a little odd.
• 21:50
  Trisha Smith: I know. So his ashes should be put into a wicker box and buried on his farm. There would be no funeral I can't believe he shot his dog.
• 22:00
  Trisha Smith: held or notice put in the papers. That was his request. So on May 10, of 1949, he shot hi dog in the basement. I know. I I know.
• 22:13
  Trisha Smith: was his beloved Doberman an shot him in the basement, an
• 22:17
  Kelly Flanagan: But this was almost 1950, there was a lot of then he shot himself in he head, leaving the following note. St. Louis Missouri slash ay 9th, ninth 1949, in case I am found dead, blame it on no ne but me stuff that went on between like, when we started the story, and when it happened and being in that creepy ass house for that long. Yeah, you're gonna go crazy.
• 22:54
  Trisha Smith: So, with Charles suicide that was the fourth death in the home and the fourth suicide in the family. But his was the only suicide note. No one else had left one until that point. At this point, only William's brother, Edwin Lemp, managed to live into his later years. Obviously, he was not really free from tragedy considering what happened to the rest of the family. But he did live a long life, he passed away quietly from natural causes in 1970, at the age of 90. But oddly enough, Edwin's last wishes were to have his butler burn all of the paintings that the Lemps' had collected throughout his life as well as priceless Lemp family documents and artifacts. He never stayed a reason why.
• 23:49
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's just very odd.
• 23:51
  Diane Black: Yeah.
• 23:51
  Trisha Smith: So he's just like burn it all, which.
• 23:55
  Leyla Zmeskal: Maybe it's, maybe because he just felt like there was some type of curse tied into everything.
• 24:02
  Trisha Smith: Maybe yeah,
• 24:04
  Diane Black: Burn all this shit.
• 24:07
  Trisha Smith: Right. Right. So William's, William Junior's last brother, Louis died of natural causes in 1931., nd William Jr.
• 24:18
  Trisha Smith: Son, William the third, died of a heart attack in 1943 at age 42. So after Edwin died in 1970, the family line basically died out, like there weren't, there were no more heirs left. So after Charles died, the home was sold and turned into a boarding house, it continually declined until it was bought in 1975 by Dick Pointer and his family their the,
• 24:48
  Leyla Zmeskal: Dick Pointer.
• 24:51
  Kelly Flanagan: Would that be Richard Pointer?
• 24:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm really sorry.
• 24:58
  Trisha Smith: I tried to say that really fast so Leyla wouldn't ping on that.
• 25:02
  Leyla Zmeskal: Nope, how you doin?
• 25:05
  Trisha Smith: You know his name he's like, yep.
• 25:07
  Kelly Flanagan: He changed his name so it could be that. It's probably like you know, Sebastia Doil or something ridiculous.
• 25:12
  Trisha Smith: You know that movie, Boogie Nights?
• 25:20
  Kelly Flanagan: Oh yeah.
• 25:21
  Trisha Smith: What was his name, Dirk?
• 25:23
  Leyla Zmeskal: Diggler.
• 25:24
  Trisha Smith: Diggler.
• 25:27
  Kelly Flanagan: It's so sad you know that, Leyla.
• 25:29
  Leyla Zmeskal: Well i'm chuckling at Dick Pointer. Of course I'm gonna know things like that.
• 25:35
  Trisha Smith: I think Boogie Nights missed an opportunity not using the name Dick Points, so far off topic.
• 25:42
  Leyla Zmeskal: You're like please Leyla don't say anything.
• 25:43
  Leyla Zmeskal: Please Leyla don't say anything.
• 25:45
  Kelly Flanagan: I'm pretty sure there's a video somewhere.
• 25:48
  Trisha Smith: There has to be.
• 25:49
  Kelly Flanagan: It could be XXX, but there you go.
• 25:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: Back to dick.
• 25:55
  Trisha Smith: Back to Dick Pointer and his family. They immediately began renovating the home because at this point it was, it needed to be torn down.
• 26:04
  Kelly Flanagan: It was in shambles, It was 1975.
• 26:06
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, 1975 the people that lived in the boarding house were hearing and experiencing strange things so it was hard for them to keep tenants. So technically, by 1975 there was hardly anybody living in this house, the Pointer family, immediately began renovating it into a restaurant and Inn, which is what it is today. Construction workers often told of apparitions, strange sounds, vanishing tools, and a feeling of being watched.
• 26:35
  Trisha Smith: Some were so frightened they would leave the job site and never return. When the restaurant opened, staff reported apparitions, voices, sounds from nowhere, glasses would often lift off the bar and fly through the air by themselves, doors would lock and unlock by themselves, lights turned on and off, and the piano bar often played when no one is near. The mansion is supposedly haunted by several members of the Lemp family, and there are three areas that have the most activity, the stairway, the attic, and what the staff refers to as, the gates of hell, which is in the basement. This is the area that used to be used as the entrance to the caves running below the mansion to the brewery. The attic is said to be haunted by William Jr's hidden son who is referred to only as, Monkey Face Boy, and because he spent you know, pretty much his entire life locked in there, the face of the boy has regularly been seen from the street peeking from the small windows by people passing by. Ghost investigators have left toys in the middle of the floor, drawing a circle around them, and then when they return, the toys have been moved. There are tons of stories about sightings and investigations and the house is considered one of the top 10 most haunted houses in the country. So you can read all about this at, Legends Of America.com
• 28:15
  https: //www.legendsofamerica.com/, Atlas Obscura//www.atlasobscura.com/, or even the Lemp mansion website//www.lempmansion.com/.
• 28:21
  https: They have a little bit of history up there as well as operating hours, they do paranormal investigations, or you can just book a room there if you're feeling brave.
• 28:29
  Kelly Flanagan: Yeah because now it's a bed and breakfast.
• 28:31
  Trisha Smith: Yeah,
• 28:31
  Leyla Zmeskal: So, did you know and did your friends know the history behind this before you decided to do your overnight lock in?
• 28:41
  Kelly Flanagan: Okay, so let me tell you a little bit of backstory about this. I was with a tour, Memphis The Musical, and there were about five of us I think maybe six, I you know, this was 2013. So I can't truly remember. Anyway, it was like, Hey, dude, you want to like put in $150 and do this Lemp Mansion thing on Monday night? I was like, sure, sounds great. Why not? And so we get there, and this is like, you know, in its heyday, it was in a really probably awesome place. But since it's on the historical register now it's filled right next to freeways and main thoroughfares and it's just very blocked off, and it's all just like concrete around it. Did I believe in ghosts at that time?
• 29:24
  Kelly Flanagan: Of course I did. I've believed in ghosts of some sort my entire life. I can be like real woowoo but that I can be like real real about it. So this was much more of an honor, opportunity to like go ghost hunting.
• 29:40
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 29:40
  Kelly Flanagan: Even though I didn't even know what that meant. Do you know what I mean?
• 29:42
  Kelly Flanagan: I, I had no idea really what that meant.
• 29:48
  Leyla Zmeskal: I do
• 29:48
  Kelly Flanagan: But so, we did this and we all paid our money, and I think things have changed because I've looked on the website now trying to like reflect of, what was it like and what and they don't have any of the things that we did. I don't know if it was because we were playing at the Fox Theater, and they were like, Oh, these are actors, yay, let's let them do this. But we had an overnight stay by ourselves, and they brought us in and they said, here's the rules, we're going to lock you in at 7pm, and we're gonna open the doors at 7am, and don't go in the basement.
• 30:23
  Diane Black: Oh my God.
• 30:23
  Trisha Smith: Crap. Nope
• 30:25
  Kelly Flanagan: So.
• 30:27
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm gonna ask this one question. Did you go in the basement?
• 30:30
  Kelly Flanagan: So anyway, let me tell you how this first started out.
• 30:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: Let me have it.
• 30:38
  Kelly Flanagan: You've got a bunch of actors and a hairdresser. You know, we're all like, excited, like, Ooo, this is gonna be so cool, and we had a couple of like, really serious ghost hunter people that brought their RMF machines and their this and that.
• 30:53
  Diane Black: EMF.
• 30:54
  Kelly Flanagan: EMF, whatever the hell it is. I don't even know.
• 30:57
  Diane Black: RMF, is like a rifle of some sort.
• 31:00
  Kelly Flanagan: Okay, so EMF machines, and they're all
• 31:00
  Trisha Smith: Yeah.
• 31:03
  Trisha Smith: prepared., and I'm like, Okay, cool, I got my cell phone. It's
• 31:04
  Leyla Zmeskal: Okay.
• 31:06
  Leyla Zmeskal: helpful. Anyway, some of the photos have brought you will show you the first floor was basically what they have now put in as the dining room area. So there was like a little bar area and there was the dining room area, and then the back. Wha a lot of things that they do't show you on the website, I th nk, is the back staircase. Bec use for me, that was one of the places that I felt the ost energy and I felt like there was some really weird creepy hit going on there. The f ont staircase, you know how yo go into a place and you think, Oh, this isn't quite what I tho ght it was gonna be, like the ca pets dead, and the walls are ki d of drab and the stairs are ki d of like creaky. That's ho the front part of it looks to e it was like, just let's like, tuck in the 70s kind of thing.
• 31:51
  Trisha Smith: 1975.
• 31:56
  Kelly Flanagan: Maybe you know, maybe anyways. So we we go on with this tour,and we kind of, we kind of stay together, and we're going through each room and the person has this little monitor, whatever you call that.
• 32:06
  Kelly Flanagan: And we're all taking photos in consecutive order and all that stuff. And we did walk into the Lavender Room, which is on the second floor. One of the things to back up is we had all chosen our room as to where we were going to stay that night.
• 32:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: Okay,
• 32:21
  Kelly Flanagan: Before hand.
• 32:22
  Leyla Zmeskal: Wait, wait, wait, you were not gonna sleep together in one room?
• 32:26
  Kelly Flanagan: No, no, because there were like six or seven bedrooms.
• 32:29
  Trisha Smith: Diane is like, hell no!
• 32:30
  Leyla Zmeskal: Diane is like, that's a hard no!
• 32:32
  Kelly Flanagan: So we all had like, chosen like, I'm gonna stay in the, while mine was the Lavender Room. I'm gonna stay in the Lavender Room, and we go in there. It's on the second floor, and it's beautiful. It's huge.
• 32:43
  Kelly Flanagan: It's like this whole crazy thing. The bathroom is as big as a house. But it was so weird, and so cold, and so creepy. I was like, Oh, hell no, I'm not staying in here. So we keep going. We keep going. And we're going to the second level and couple of the photos that I sent was in the hallway on the second level, most of those photos were all done from the front staircase. To me the back staircase, the servant staircase, had a lot more energy in it. Can I say that some of the energy that I felt going through the house was manipulated. Yes, I felt that there were mirrors that were tilted, some lights, maybe something was a little colder than you know, to make it that little haunted experience. But there were also other places where there is no freakin way that they could make it this way and the way we feel right now, I'm totally creeped out. So we get up on the third floor and there's a couple of bedrooms up there with a bathroom and also the entrance to the attic area.
• 33:47
  Kelly Flanagan: That's where the monkey boy was supposedly housed,up in that area. And there was a really weird energy up there the whole time, we were up there most everybody was kind of like yeah,
• 34:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: Feeling antsy.
• 34:01
  Kelly Flanagan: We need to go.
• 34:01
  Kelly Flanagan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, long story short, I slept on the second level in one of the double beds with my clothes on, on top of the covers, and left at 7:02 am.
• 34:18
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh, so you were right downstairs, right at the front door.
• 34:22
  Kelly Flanagan: Yeah, there was enough to freak me out. And I wish that you know some of these photos that I had, had translated but, I had one specific photo that I think the powers of be like made it go away, of a person standing in a doorway, that I really felt like, oh my god, I caught something huge.
• 34:42
  Trisha Smith: What room were you in?
• 34:43
  Kelly Flanagan: I was on the second level, next to the lady with the painting. It was the same doorway of the three, and so there were a lot of orbs in that area on the front side of the staircase. The other was the back staircase. I had taken like six consecutive photos, and it was like, orb, orb, orb overboard. We did go in the basement.
• 35:04
  Trisha Smith: Don't go in the basement.
• 35:05
  Kelly Flanagan: Yeah, well.
• 35:06
  Leyla Zmeskal: Did you go in the basement?
• 35:07
  Kelly Flanagan: Of course, we went in the basement, which was like, the kitchen area for the restaurant. So it was kind of like, there was like weird pieces of lettuce on top of that spongy black thing that's in most restaurants. So I think they just didn't want us to go there because it was dirty. But it was a little weird and creepy. The estate itself had become much smaller because of the area that they were in. So they didn't have the huge estate with Oh, there's the brewery over there and other. No, it was like this weird little block in between a whole bunch of concrete. And I think maybe had we investigated during the day, there would have been some, I don't know, maybe some grave markers, maybe something but it just was not that big anymore.
• 35:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: Right.
• 35:54
  Kelly Flanagan: And you have to think that this was all done before. St. Louis really kind of exploded.
• 36:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: Right.
• 36:01
  Kelly Flanagan: You know, I was working at the Fox Theater in St. Louis, which is one of the oldest theaters and that wasn't built till 1929.
• 36:09
  Trisha Smith: Oh, wow.
• 36:11
  Leyla Zmeskal: Was there anybody else on your tour that experienced anything?
• 36:15
  Kelly Flanagan: We all, we all felt something, we all came back kind of going, Ooh.
• 36:19
  Leyla Zmeskal: Was there anything that somebody was like, you'll never believe what just happened, and they saw an apparition or,
• 36:27
  Kelly Flanagan: I don't think we were smart enough for that. No, I don't want to say that in a bad way. But I think we were all like, Oh, yeah. Isn't this cool?
• 36:39
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 36:39
  Leyla Zmeskal: Right.
• 36:39
  Trisha Smith: You weren't going to find something speciffically.
• 36:42
  Kelly Flanagan: Yeah, I'm like not going in as a 45 year old woman going, gotta find a ghost.
• 36:44
  Kelly Flanagan: It was much more like, hey, cool, we're gonna go spend the night in a haunted place.
• 36:51
  Leyla Zmeskal: Let's see what happens.
• 36:52
  Kelly Flanagan: You know, and looking back on it. I mean, I was totally freaked out. I like I said, would not take my clothes off. I wouldn't like, get under the covers. I wasn't gonna wash my face. I just laid there until it was time to go and then I left. So obviously something creeped me out.
• 37:09
  Leyla Zmeskal: Obviously.
• 37:09
  Kelly Flanagan: You know, at that point, I don't know if I really understood what a presence of a ghost felt like,
• 37:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: Right.
• 37:17
  Kelly Flanagan: To know, you know, I know that the, one of the guys and the guys that sent me a lot of these photos. He's very much into it, his name is Nathan. He's the one that had the machine. But you know,
• 37:28
  Trisha Smith: His RMF.
• 37:30
  Kelly Flanagan: Yeah, and he's gone back several times to like,
• 37:33
  Leyla Zmeskal: He has?
• 37:33
  Diane Black: Oh, wow.
• 37:34
  Kelly Flanagan: Yeah, because that's his big thing is to find, he's a ghost hunter.
• 37:39
  Trisha Smith: Nathan.
• 37:40
  Kelly Flanagan: Yeah,
• 37:41
  Trisha Smith: Send us your stuff man.
• 37:44
  Kelly Flanagan: His name is Nathan Gardner, and he's associated with Loomis films.
• 37:49
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh.
• 37:49
  Kelly Flanagan: Which is a small film company that does some things.
• 37:52
  Leyla Zmeskal: Nathan, thanks for sending the photos.
• 37:54
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 37:55
  Kelly Flanagan: But, you know, he's really into it. And we got excited because he was into it.
• 37:58
  Kelly Flanagan: I don't know if we were excited before that.
• 38:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: If somebody that's excited about it, like the excitement kind of spreads.
• 38:05
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 38:07
  Kelly Flanagan: And I think that, that also probably opened me up to other places that I have stayed along my adventure of being a traveling hairdresser and understanding maybe what's happening besides that.
• 38:19
  Kelly Flanagan: Right.
• 38:19
  Diane Black: So you, you felt like you did, you talked about
• 38:19
  Leyla Zmeskal: So I have some questions for you, and I know this was several years back and like you said you didn't really know at the time like what, wha it was all about, or you had guess no expectations, righ.
• 38:35
  Leyla Zmeskal: the image that you captured of an apparition, but at that time, did you see it with your eyes, or did you later, like see it on on your phone?
• 38:46
  Kelly Flanagan: I did not see it with my eyes. I saw it later on my phone. Everything that we had that was marked in some type of a photo was done after the fact.
• 38:56
  Leyla Zmeskal: So while you were there then during those 12 hours, was it?
• 39:01
  Kelly Flanagan: Yes.
• 39:02
  Diane Black: So did anybody hear anything audible? Like, were there any audible voices? Were there any sounds of, because like what Tricia read, there was some history and stories of people experiencing things moving, the toys moving. Did you all in those 12 hours experience any type of movement,
• 39:26
  Kelly Flanagan: For me personally, I did not. But there sounds?
• 39:28
  Kelly Flanagan: was one point that we kind of split up and it was the guys that like were really into it were up on the third floor with their little machine, whatever it's called, right. And, there was another girl which was our company manager and her boyfriend at the time were there and they were on the second floor and I was downstairs. No I was on the second floor but I was like in the Lavender Room because that's where I had originally said I was going to spend the night and I remember walking around, that room and th bath. I just remember feelin really cold and reall unsettled. I never hear anything. But once I got back u to the third floor where some o
• 40:08
  Diane Black: Wow, the guys were, they were like Oh, we heard this. And the that's when I started to kind o like go, Oh, yeah, I'm no staying down there. There as a weird feeling. And I think
• 40:17
  Kelly Flanagan: There was absolutely no staff on property.
• 40:18
  Kelly Flanagan: when you're maybe a little bit more in tune, and a little bit more of an empath, that you ki d of zone in on those things. I knew something was happeni g. I couldn't tell if it was ood, bad or real. I have to say here were a lot of smoke and mir ors, there were a lot of things that made you feel that it as a haunted place, because t was billed as that way. And hat's how they make their mo ey. I also have to do a disclai er of this was not a normal sit ation for them. Normally, they don't allow people to stay th re by themselves.
• 40:56
  Diane Black: Wow, that's crazy.
• 40:58
  Kelly Flanagan: Yeah,
• 40:58
  Leyla Zmeskal: What a great experience, though.
• 40:59
  Kelly Flanagan: It was and like I say, you know, I don't know if I really truly understood it at the time that it was happening.
• 41:05
  Kelly Flanagan: But it also clued me in on to what to watch for when I'm in a hotel or theater because we were also working in a haunted theater,
• 41:13
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 41:14
  Kelly Flanagan: At the same time. So that experience is what got me into learning about the buildings that I would working and living in.
• 41:24
  Leyla Zmeskal: I imagine you stay and work at a lot of places that have a lot of, a lot of strange and peculiar activity.
• 41:33
  Kelly Flanagan: You know, when I first got into this business, I was like, 22 years old, so I was like, Oh, hey, I'm going on tour, isn't that cool. I had no idea what was really, you know, that staying in a hotel and Pits potentially could be haunted was going to like affect my life.
• 41:48
  Trisha Smith: We're gonna hear more from Kelly about her adventures around the country with haunted theaters, haunted hotels and everything, in another episode.
• 42:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: She's got some stuff to tell us.
• 42:03
  Trisha Smith: Right. We're gonna want to pick your brain some more.
• 42:05
  Leyla Zmeskal: I have one final question.
• 42:06
  Kelly Flanagan: Yes, ma'am.
• 42:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: Being on tour, would you stay in that place, again?
• 42:11
  Trisha Smith: Knowing what you now.
• 42:12
  Leyla Zmeskal: Knowing what you now. That's my final question.
• 42:14
  Leyla Zmeskal: Before we end it.
• 42:15
  Trisha Smith: Are you going to St. Louis this time?
• 42:17
  Kelly Flanagan: No. I don't know if I would or not. I really don't. I mean, I think it was a great experience. But I don't know if I would just have preconceived notions if I went back
• 42:28
  Trisha Smith: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 42:29
  Leyla Zmeskal: Or would you want to dispel those preconceived notions?
• 42:32
  Kelly Flanagan: Or would I be disappointed?
• 42:34
  Trisha Smith: Would you go in and be like?
• 42:35
  Leyla Zmeskal: Or would you be too scared?
• 42:36
  Kelly Flanagan: I did go to lunch there, too.
• 42:39
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's different.
• 42:39
  Trisha Smith: Oh yeah, was the food good?
• 42:41
  Kelly Flanagan: No.
• 42:42
  Trisha Smith: Oh, bummer.
• 42:45
  Kelly Flanagan: No like, it was buffet food kind of stuff. I don't know if I would go there.
• 42:51
  Kelly Flanagan: Again. I think there's some other places that I would rather visit,
• 42:57
  Trisha Smith: Oh, my God,
• 42:58
  Kelly Flanagan: And hear history of and do it again.
• 43:00
  Trisha Smith: Alright,
• 43:01
  Diane Black: Thanks for sharing, Kelly.
• 43:02
  Trisha Smith: Yeah.
• 43:04
  Kelly Flanagan: Thank you for having me guys.
• 43:05
  Leyla Zmeskal: Nathan, thank you for sending Kelly the pictures.
• 43:07
  Kelly Flanagan: Nathan Gardne, thank you so much, you are y hero.
• 43:13
  Trisha Smith: We're gonna share pictures, Loomis Films
• 43:17
  http: //www.loomisfilms.net/.
• 43:17
  http: We're going to share his photos on our Instagram, Boozy Banter With Friends
• 43:22
  https: //www.instagram.com/boozybanterwithfriends/?hl=en, and our website Boozy Banter With Friends https://boozybanterwithfriends.com/. Until next time.
• 43:28
  Leyla Zmeskal: Cheers.
• 43:29
  Kelly Flanagan: Cheers.
• 43:29
  Diane Black: Cheers.
• 43:29
  Trisha Smith: Cheers.
• 43:30
  Leyla Zmeskal: Hey, like what you hear?
• 43:31
  Diane Black: Check us out on Instagram.
• 43:33
  Trisha Smith: Or send us a message at boozy banter with friends sot com.
• 43:36
  Leyla Zmeskal: Thanks for listening.
• 43:38
  Trisha Smith: Until next time .
• 43:39
  Diane Black: Late-a.