Long before it became La Golondrina restaurant...

By STEVE HARVEY

Oct. 31, 1989 12 AM PT

<i> From staff and wire reports</i>

Long before it became La Golondrina restaurant in 1930, the three-story building on Olvera Street was reputedly a brothel.

No doubt, on tonight of all nights, the ghosts of the painted ladies and their gents will be partying.

After all, as Vivien Bonzo, the third-generation owner of the landmark restaurant says, the 134-year-old building is definitely haunted.

“One of our flamenco dancers was upstairs one time and a whole rack of costumes fluttered as though there were a strong breeze, but there was no wind blowing,” Bonzo said. “Another time, I slept in here overnight and I’d never do that again. There were some violent sounds.”

As a matter of fact, much of Olvera Street seems to be haunted, Bonzo said.

The 171-year-old Avila Adobe nearby is reputedly inhabited by a female specter who dresses in white.

Some Olvera Street merchants claim they’ve been victimized by witches’ spells.

“We had one woman who felt she was having bad luck and she called in a curandera, a curing person according to Mexican folklore,” Blanco said. “She felt that another merchant who burned black candles had cast a spell on her.”

“The curandera took out an egg and brushed the woman’s body with it to purify the room. Then she broke the egg into a glass of water. Sure enough, it had dark red--like blood--in it. The curandera said that showed that someone did have a spell on her.”

And the black-candle lady?

“She’s still here,” Bonzo said.

One of the oldest of the region’s ghosts is that of Capt. Daniel McLean of the 20th California Cavalry, who was murdered Oct. 2, 1865, at the Drum Barracks in Wilmington. The barracks, where Union troops were housed during the Civil War, is now a museum.

“He was killed on payday in the stable area,” said Marge O’Brien, museum director. “And then his body was dragged to a room upstairs that we use for displays.

“Several people have felt his presence. Once I heard the sound of his boots. But when I turned around, no one was there. Over the years, our caretakers have seen a man in uniform on several occasions. And then last year we had a play staged here and one of the actresses saw him. But he suddenly dissolved into the air before her.”

O’Brien said McLean’s spirit appears to be benevolent, though he occasionally slams a door or window, perhaps in frustration as he tries to solve his own murder.

Or, perhaps, he’s still looking for his paycheck.

Speaking of curses:

Harry Camby phoned to say that, since reading a story about actor James Dean in Monday’s Times, he understands why he’s had a run of bad luck lately.

Camby said he was working on a construction crew near the site of Dean’s fatal car crash on Sept. 30, 1955.

“I idolized the guy,” Camby said. “I saw the wreckage as a part of history, so I broke off a piece of the door, it was all mangled, and kept it.”

The Times article mentioned the jinx involving people associated with Dean.

“It fits with this bad luck I’ve been having,” Camby said. “I want to get rid of this thing.”