If you haven’t had a chance to see it yet, make sure you make it out to the Catalina Island Museum on the ground floor of the Casino to see their latest exhibit, this one on “The Strange and Mysterious Case of Dr. Glidden.”
The story of Ralph Glidden and his questionable local legacy is a classic and has all the trappings of early Catalina history and particularly the era of the 1920s.
If you haven’t had a chance to see it yet, make sure you make it out to the Catalina Island Museum on the ground floor of the Casino to see their latest exhibit, this one on “The Strange and Mysterious Case of Dr. Glidden.”
The story of Ralph Glidden and his questionable local legacy is a classic and has all the trappings of early Catalina history and particularly the era of the 1920s.
Though he had hoped for a great legacy, Glidden’s name has instead turned out to be one of the more infamous ones in Catalina history, specifically for his wanton grave robbing of Native American archaeological sites on the Island.
“Doctor” Glidden (it’s highly doubtful he ever was a “doctor” of any sort) was driven by his ambition to make a name for himself and the great archaeological discoveries of his day in Egypt gave him his blueprint: his plan was to sensationalize his discoveries on Catalina, claiming they rivaled those of Egyptologists Howard Carter and George Herbert. In the bargain, he would become both wealthy and respected.
But his disregard for the scientific value of these treasure troves of history was matched only by his callous disrespect for the cultures they represented.
The zenith of this disrespect came in the physical form of what he called his “museum” where he proudly displayed countless Native American remains in macabre fashion (some of which were actually incorporated into shelving for his displays). Glidden earned his living by means of a nominal admission fee to his establishment as well as a lively trade in artifacts and human remains with other “archaeologists” around the country.
As Glidden got on in years, however, the fame he sought continued to elude him and his frustration mounted. While he initially had been reserving his prized archaeological possessions for his museum, as he got older he became more and more interested in selling his entire collection.
Problem was, nobody wanted it, at least not for the price he was asking. It wouldn’t be for many years, in 1962 to be exact, that he would sell his collection for the sum of $5,000—far less than what he had been hoping for. Glidden died a disappointed man in 1968.
The purchaser was none other than Philip K. Wrigley, who eventually donated the collection to the Catalina Island Museum. Most of the artifacts, and all of the human remains, are now in the custody of UCLA’s Fowler Museum under the direction of Dr. Wendy Teeter.
And what became of Glidden’s museum up on Maiden Lane? Over the years, the property became an apartment complex of sorts known as the Glidden Bungalows and is today the site of one of Avalon’s newer hotels.
Given its past, one would think that such a location would give rise to a legacy of tales of disembodied spirits, especially for a town with a propensity for such stories.
But, surprisingly perhaps, the location of his self-styled museum has been the center of only one local ghost story—and even that one not related to Glidden or his collection.
In his popular book “Haunted Catalina” (G-HOST Publishing, 2009) Rob Wlodarksi tells the story of the spirit of a man named Bill Brown who passed away in the building in 1976, long after the Glidden era.
The stories originated from an incident after Brown’s death while his daughter-in-law Kathy was speaking with a new caretaker of the property one day.
This caretaker, who did not know Bill and only came on the scene after his death, told Kathy that she had been seeing a ghost on the property of late. After seeing a photograph of Bill that Kathy produced, the caretaker became “very upset” and identified the man in the photo as the apparition she had claimed to see.
Kathy eventually moved to a property adjacent to the old Glidden Bungalows, a location that enabled her to look over the old property. It was from this vantage point that Brown’s young daughter would occasionally report sightings of “Grandpa Bill” looking out one of the windows of the old bungalows.
Since those years back in the 1970s, the property has for the most part remained quiet, detached from its morbid past.
Jim Watson is the author of “Mysterious Island: Catalina,” available on Amazon, Kindle and in stores all over Avalon.
