I think the most haunting scenario from the book by Frank Mallen, which I reference in this episode, had to be the image of reporters bellying up to the coffin in Frank E. Campbell's basement. According to Mallen, who was there, Campbell's set up a bar using a coffin to serve drinks to reporters covering the chaos out in the street during Rudolph Valentino's stay in the Gold Room. I visited Campbell's sometime around 2003 and can say the air of the macabre was still heavy there.
