Haunted setting for new reality TV show more sad than scary

By: BILL BRIOUX

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (CP) - As they sang in that "Ghostbusters" song, "I ain't 'fraid of no ghosts."

So when I was recently invited with a few other journalists to spend a night in a haunted house to see what it would be like for celebrities involved in a paranormal TV show, I thought, why not? Who was I gonna meet - Casper?

What I hadn't counted on was the setting: Waverly Hills Sanatorium, an imposing, long-abandoned Louisville landmark called "the most haunted place on Earth" by paranormal investigators.

Built in 1926 at the height of the worldwide tuberculosis epidemic, the massive, wing-shaped building was home to tens of thousands of TB patients throughout the '30s, '40s and '50s. They would be wheeled onto one of the hospital's enormous open-air decks for fresh air - believed to be the best cure at the time.

Nothing really worked until advances in modern medicine in the '50s, with Waverly patients dying at the rate of one an hour at the height of the epidemic.

The mortality rate was so pronounced a special concrete tunnel, called the "body chute," was constructed off the morgue wing so patients couldn't see how many of them were dying.

The tunnel was one of the first stops on my overnight tour of Waverly and, while it was creepy to be trekking up and down the steep passageway, which was littered with garbage and graffiti, the only thing truly frightening was the huffing and puffing of an accompanying photographer. As he pointed out (between gasps), "How scary is a haunted house that comes with a gift shop?"

The massive Waverly property, owned since 2001 by Charlie and Tina Mattingly, has a coach house off to the side that has been converted into a store on the ground floor and their living quarters in the basement. A tiny dog keeps watch should any ghosts or, worse, trespassing teenagers drift over from the main hospital building.

The hospital is featured on "Celebrity Paranormal Project," which premieres July 4 at 10 p.m. ET on the specialty network Slice. The series invites a posse of B-list celebrities - in the opener, Gary Busey, former "Queer as Folk" star Hal Sparks and past "Survivor" champion Jenna Morasca are among the semi-famous - to spend a night recording their observations while wandering the halls of a haunted site. Think "The Surreal Life" meets "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?"

Busey, the former Oscar-nominee (for 1978's "The Buddy Holly Story") who for years insisted on riding his motorcycle without a helmet, seems right at home at Waverly. More "out there" than any mere ghost, he declares the abandoned sanatorium to be "very, very immensely haunted."

Producers armed the celebs with ghost-hunting gear, including electromagnetic field meters and thermal cameras. They were able to measure sharp drops in temperature - thought to indicate the presence of spirits - as well as strange moving objects. Several have been sighted at Waverly over the years, including "shadow people" who have been spotted on the third and fourth floors. Room 502 at the top level is said to be especially active; this is where a nurse allegedly committed suicide in 1928.

Wandering the dark and dilapidated hallways at 3 in the morning was for me more sad than scary. As Sparks remarks in the opening episode, there is a lot of "sorrowful energy" in the place.

One brave young journalist climbed onto a gurney in the autopsy room and remained there in the dark while we stood listening for activity; all you could hear was her beating heart.

Cheapening the experience somewhat was a stretch of one wing that had been tarted up with paintings of ghosts and vampires. Struggling to raise the millions needed to restore Waverly, the owners resorted to turning one section of the abandoned hospital into a "haunted house" attraction.

All it conjured up for me was images of Count Floyd on "SCTV" bellowing, "Aiiyooo! Scary keeds!"

At one point, the volunteer guide who led our team of journalists cautioned us not to anger the spirits; swearing at them, for example, would lead to immediate expulsion from the tour. How that would have been more obscene than allowing reality stars to roam the halls for the purposes of putting on a TV show was never explained.

As for me, I didn't see any ghosts, not even Casper. Then again, Busey had already been through the place. Perhaps he scared them all away.