Way back in the 1920s and 1930s, on the site where the gyratory now stands in Liverpool, there stood a magnificent building in Queens Square called the Woods Bee Hotel, and in this hotel a mysterious guest named George Moore stayed for a number of years. He was quite a creepy person, and had a sinister knack of fortelling tragedy. It was also alleged that he could look at a person and instantly know the very year they would die.
 On June 26th, 1936, all the guests in the hotel rushed out to see what the loud buzzing noise was. It was the 'Hindenburg', Germany's giant zeppelin, passing over the town on its return trip from New York. The giant silver torpedo-shaped ship was homeward-bound for Hamburg. One of the guests looked up at the ship and said she'd love to fly in it, and said that such ships were the future of aerial transport. Mr Moore lit up his pipe and said, "That ship will go down in flames in one year."
  Exactly one year later, the Hindenburg - which was full of inflammable hydrogen gas - exploded in a fireball in the skies of Lakehearst, near Boston in the United States, and went down in flames, killing 36 people.
  On another occasion, an American guest booked into the hotel just after the outbreak of World War Two, and Mr Moore told the American that the United States should be ashamed for letting Hitler trample all over Europe. The American said it was Europe's war, and not his problem, and Moore laughed and said, "It won't be when Pearl Harbor gets hit."
  The American had not even heard of Pear Harbor - until the Japanese attacked it in 1941.
  One summer night, the guests sat outside the hotel looking at the large full moon hanging over the city, when a man remarked, "That moon has looked down at us for centuries, but we'll never know what she is."
  Moore said, "You're quite wrong sir. Man will go to the moon, and everyone on Earth will join in on the journey, probably through some  visual version of radio."
  The man laughed, and said, "And how will we get there? On a giant Guy Fawkes rocket?"
  "War will provide us with the rocket to take us there. All the best inventions are born in warfare." replied George Moore, getting irritated by the way the other guests were sneering at him.
  "When will we all be going?" asked an elderly woman.
  "I'm afraid it won't be in our time." said Mr Moore.
  "Come on, be more specific." said another guest.
  "Around 1970." said Mr Moore, and there were howls of laughter. So Mr Moore went indoors and retired to his room. One guest, a travel writer named Frank Bryant, wrote Moore's futuristic prediction down in shorthand. Years later, Mr Bryant lived to see man land on the moon with all the world joining in as Mr Moore had said they would, because the whole trip was televised live to billions. And of course, man did go to the moon on a rocket built by the same German scientists who constructed the V2 rockets. In fact, the Saturn 5 rocket was just a big version of the V2. Man landed on the moon in 1969, Mr Moore said it would take place 'around' 1970, which is a pretty close guess.
  Moore also said cars would one day be able to drive under the channel  which is entirely possible today when thousands of cars drive to France through the Chunnel. Moore also foresaw the Monarchy being removed from Britain by four men who would have a circle of stars as their symbol; a circle of stars is the emblem of the United States of Europe. Furthermore, the prophet of the Woods Bee Hotel said that a generation would come along that would dance to the beat of a machine and take pills instead of drink; was he referring to today's techno-rave generation, who dance to a steady machine-like beat? Could the pills Moore was referring to be ecstasy and similar drugs?
  Moore committed suicide in 1950 at a boarding house in County Claire, Ireland. A suicide note allegedly said that Mr Moore had seen a terrible vision of the end of the world. Reports differ as to the exact wording of the note, but several people said that Moore mentioned that the world would be destroyed in 2060 by an English scientist named Michael Jones, who would create an energy source more powerful than the sun, with disastrous consequences.

FROM "TERRY LENNAINE READS THE STORIES OF TOM SLEMEN"
(90-MINUTE AUDIO TAPE)
PRODUCED BY TERRY LENNAINE
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.


   Back to Index