While documentaries or feature films might already exist on these topics, it wouldn’t hurt to make another one. Right?
Here is an incomplete list of ideas that we think would make for a great Netflix original film.
Larry Connor
Larry Connor, CEO of Miami Twp.-based real estate investment firm The Connor Group, is known to go to the extremes to find adventure.
A pilot and member of the International Aerobatic Club, he has been involved in aerobatic competitions, off-road racing and circuit racing.
He has completed a world-record HALO jump, spent 17 days in space visiting the International Space Station, and has explored the ocean depths.
Aliens at WPAFB
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base was the home of the Air Force’s UFO investigations starting in the late 1940s.
More than three decades ago, the Air Force issued an official denial that Wright-Patterson housed alien space technology and the bodies of beings from another planet.
Project Blue Book, a Wright-Patterson-headquartered Air Force investigation into reports of UFOs, concluded in December 1969 and found no threats to national security or evidence of extraterrestrial vehicles, the Air Force has said.
Many people still wonder what was really found or what alien evidence might be stored on the base.
READ MORE HERE and HERE
The Golden Lamb Restaurant & Hotel
The Golden Lamb restaurant in Lebanon, established in 1803, is known for more than a few ghost tales.
Among them, the scent of cigar smoke accompanies sightings of Charles Sherman, clad in a grey suit, who died at the Golden Lamb Inn.
A little girl named Sarah has been heard throwing temper tantrums in a room filled with children’s toys and furniture, according to “Haunted Ohio” author Chris Woodyard.
And the spirit of Clement Laird Vallandigham, a Dayton lawyer and politician who accidentally shot himself at the inn in 1871, makes the occasional appearance.
Hills & Dales MetroPark ‘Witch’s Tower’
Credit: DEBBIE JUNIEWICZ
Credit: DEBBIE JUNIEWICZ
Lookout Tower — known also as Frankenstein’s Castle, Witch’s Tower and Patterson’s Castle — was completed in 1941 in what is now Hills & Dales MetroPark.
The walls are more than three-feet thick in some places, and inside, there is a 50 stone steps spiral to the lookout platform that offered views for 15 miles.
There have been sightings of eerie figures dancing around a fire and reports of unexplained scorch marks found on the ground.
But the most common story is the appearance of a ghostly girl and boy whenever lightning illuminates the sky.
Despite the sketchy stories, the tower — its door sealed with concrete — still draws the curious.
Dayton’s funk history
Credit: HANDOUT
Credit: HANDOUT
On Jan. 31, 1976, “Love Rollercoaster” by the Ohio Players hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. It was a milestone for Dayton funk in a history that runs deep
In the 1970s and 1980s, southwestern Ohio — particularly Dayton’s west side — was known for its stable of funk bands whose influence can be heard in hip-hop, house and other musical forms popular today.
The story of Dayton’s rich music history can’t be told without starting with the origins of funk.
Deeds Carillon
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Credit: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
The largest musical instrument in Ohio — a Dayton landmark — is the setting for daily musical concerts.
The carillon bell tower was built by Col. Edward Deeds, the automotive pioneer and former NCR chief, and his wife Edith Walton Deeds.
Deeds Carillon, the centerpiece of Carillon Historical Park, performs free mini-concerts each day at 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.
The 151-foot-tall carillon is located at the center of a sprawling lawn at the front door of the park.
The largest bell, the “bourdon,” weighed 7,000 pounds. With 57 bells in total, the Deeds Carillon is the largest in Ohio.
Dayton work during WWII
Without the work done in Dayton, the atomic bombs dropped in Japan, effectively ending World War II, might not have gone off.
While the blockbuster movie “Oppenheimer,” covered a lot about the Manhattan Project, Dayton’s important contributions were not mentioned.
The most important work done in what was called the Dayton Project, was the manufacturing of the triggers that start the atomic chain reaction in the bombs.
Also, the World War II M4 Enigma cipher machine, used by the Germans to encode secret messages, was cracked by a top-secret program at NCR.
READ MORE HERE and HERE
Wittenberg University
Historic Wittenberg University, chartered in 1845, has its share of spine-chilling tales, most notably one about a ghostly horse.
The top floor of Myers Hall at Wittenberg University was used as a hospital for Civil War soldiers. Legend has it that a general, realizing he was about to die, requested that his faithful horse be brought to him. After saying goodbye to his companion, the general died, but the horse would not leave his side and was shot by soldiers.
It is said the sound of hoof beats and the neighing of the horse searching for its master can still be heard on the campus.
Woodland Cemetery
Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum, near the University of Dayton, is one of the five oldest rural garden cemeteries in the United States, established in 1841.
There are thousands of gravesites, which include a who’s who of Dayton’s historic past.
Some of the highlights of a visit there might include the monuments of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Asa McMillan’s “angel,” (probably the most photographed monument in the entire cemetery), Paul Laurence Dunbar’s grave, Deeds Mausoleum and the “Dog and Boy” gravestone for Johnny Morehouse.
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