Hi Ella. Hey Dylan. Nice to see you, Ella. Nice to see you too. So Dylan, I want to tell you a story

today about a woman who disappeared from the Ocean View Hotel in Venice Beach in 1926. Have you,

have you been to Venice Beach? Uh, yeah, I have been to Venice Beach. You know, Venice Beach is like oily muscle men. It's like a little grody. I kind of imagine like kind of cute girls in like spandex on roller skates. Like that's what I think of when I think of Venice Beach. I think it's like slightly grody kind of really L.A. scene.

Yeah, definitely not fancy, but lively, right? Yeah, yes, definitely lively.

So actually Venice started off as its own little resort town separate from L.A.

And back in the 1920s, it was a place to go if you wanted just like a lovely seaside escape.

And the Ocean View was one of a few hotels where you'd just unwind,

you'd have a meal, get some sun on the beach. The Ocean View building is actually still there today,

and you would probably walk past it without noticing. It's this white block. It does really stand

out, except for this thing that happened on May 18, 1926. That day, the Ocean View had a very famous guest.

She was one of the biggest names in L.A., Amy Semple McPherson. Have you heard of her?

I have, but like I know the briefest, she was some kind of preacher.

There's like a church still somewhere in L.A. that I think I've seen.

And she was like a big, some kind of star preacher, right?

Exactly.

She was a celebrity evangelical preacher.

So she was in 1926, she was only 35.

And like you said, she had her own church.

She was called the four-square church.

And this church was wildly popular, thousands of congregants. All of Hollywood would come to watch her sermons. That's Claire Hoffman.

She's the author of a book called Sister's Sinner, which is a biography of Amy. And she says that

Amy's sermons were these wild spectacles.

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