Friday, August 31, 2018

The Ghosts of Al Capone, Rita Hayworth at the Barbee Hotel





It is the provocative nature of legend that inspires poetry, song, and a sense of having been “in the room” or “witness to history in the making”. It is the creative nature of entertaining an audience, even of one, that accommodates the gift of story-telling.
   The Barbee Hotel on Barbee Lake in Kosciusko County Indiana accommodates legend and story-telling.
   Legend has it that Clark Gable, Carol Lombard, Rita Hayworth, Al Capone and other such notable folk have stayed at the Barbee, and not only while they were living, but afterward as well.
  A brief survey of Google searches will confirm that these stories about ghosts, Prohibition day bad-boys and hide-away movie stars are many and multi-perspectived.
   Now, I don’t want to seem dismissive of these stories which many folk claim with a sense of “local pride”. By golly, I sincerely hope they are all true! But also, I know how the slightest suggestion of fact invites that fact to attract hearsay evidence and present it as “how-dare-you-contest-it” reputable.
My post here about the Barbee and its famous history is surely not to confirm or debunk the truth. I leave that to the haunts and their witnesses.
My intent is to celebrate the Barbee Hotel as the home of legend and story, to whatever degree of truth it may host.

   Sherry and I had dinner at the Barbee Hotel Restaurant tonight. The food was great. Amy, our waitress, provided excellent service!

    Sherry and I had sensible meals, but, when our waitress asked about desert, our spirits must have been inspired by the haunting cinematic history of the place and we felt like Indulgent movie stars. So, we shared a Black Raspberry Ombre Cake.
 But the reason why I wanted to have dinner there was to “be in the room” of the stuff of legend. Much like sailing a ship through the Bermuda Triangle, the story, the sincerity of belief of the tellers, means more to me than the factual qualities which may or may not be substantiated. The sensationalism of folklore is much more appealing to me than the dry fact of someone’s supposed signature on an ancient hotel register.
So what if Al Capone stayed in room 301! So what if he did not!
I hope with all that I am that after I depart there will be stories that Mike Settles stayed in some notable hotel, drove some unique automobile or otherwise made wonderfully great some otherwise good but common thing or place. I envy Rita Hayworth her continuing role as a spirit at the Barbee. I hope that the ghost of Mike Settles haunts some movie theater or restaurant thereby enriching its legendary cultural identity.
I invite you to visit the Barbee for dinner.
And tell them Mike sent you. They will still insist that you pay.
You can find out more about the Barbee Hotel at:
https://www.facebook.com/Barbee-Hotel-112898158721460/