In 1974, novelist Stephen King and his wife stayed for one night at the Stanley Hotel in Colorado. Their room number was 217.
The hotel was closing for the season and King and his wife were the only guests. The Stanley is a huge hotel and as you can imagine, being the only guests there was a little strange indeed, you could say a little spooky.
The couple had dinner in the restaurant and all the other tables had the chairs upended on them. When King and his wife walked down the long corridors, their footsteps echoed.
That night King had a terrible dream – that his three year old son was being chased down one of those seemingly endless corridors….
Stephen King awoke in a cold sweat, lit a cigarette and by the time he’d finished it, he had the outline for his new book. And of course, it was The Shining. So one of the scariest films ever made was inspired by the Stanley Hotel. You can stay there too.
The Shining was not filmed at the hotel but its ballroom was recreated for this scene:
Of course, the characters in the ballroom, with the exception of Jack Nicholson are apparitions. But the hotel was completeed in 1909 – does the real hotel have ghosts? Some people think so as there are ghost tours available.
ROOM 217
Although without doubt it was Stephen King who put room 217 on the map, the room had a spooky history dating from the early days of the hotel. See the video below.
The Stanley Hotel
