"There's something about this room," the woman said.

She was here visiting the hotel for the first time. And this was the room, of all the rooms in the hotel, that she continually gravitated toward. The woman was Courtney Ford. At one time she lived in Hollywood, California. She was one of the many hotel guests that came from places of that far away and show business to check out the Grand Midway Hotel in its obscure, almost hidden, location.

Writer/Director Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous, Singles, Fast Times at Ridgemont High) had actually created a character in his charming movie Say Anything based on Courtney Ford. Her character was the guitar playing bohemian poetry writing character played by Lily Taylor known as Corey Flood. The movie also starred John Cusack as the unforgettable Lloyd Dobler and Ione Skye as Diane Court.

Some photos of Courtney with Cameron Crowe, Lili Taylor, and John Cusack at the Say Anything wrap party.

Of this film experience, Courtney wrote, "The character of 'Corey' in Say Anything was based on me. Cameron did not even change my name. He and I had been close friends for quite some time and he called me when I was 16 and living in a boarding house in Ocean City, NJ as I did every summer, waitressing and doing the Jersey shore thang. He told me he had just finished this script and that he had not only based this character on me, but also my fucktard non-boyfriend Joe, his girlfriend Mimi and a few other of my friends. He was going to keep the names intact if I said it was okay and did I want to fly out and watch him film it? I did just that. To me he was always just Cameron, another writer from Rolling Stone that I had met through my friend Mikal. I never could have had the foresight to have known he would become the legendary moviemaker he is today. I am so incredibly proud of him and honored and touched to have been a part of one of his creations."

On death and angels, Courtney wrote this: "My grandfather died on Valentine’s Day when I was in 5th grade. It was my first encounter with death and I was devastated. He had been the only real substantial and permanent father figure I had until that point. Valentine’s Day was dreadful for me from there on. Years later my first divorce was final on Valentine ’s Day which did not make the day any more bearable for me. When I was pregnant with my daughter, my due date was February 28th. On February 13th of that year I made a silent prayer to my grandfather to let her come early and be born on Valentine’s Day so that we could finally have something to celebrate instead of mourn on that day. My water broke in the middle of the night and she was indeed born on Valentine’s Day. This has caused me to believe in angels on some level."

Kate Hudson's character, the legendary Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe's music industry-oriented film Almost Famous, is also said to be based on Courtney Ford -along with a mishmash of other women in the music world Cameron knew. If there was one thing guest Courtney seemed to know it was music. She is a songwriter lyricist in real life, not just the movie character based on her. Courtney has lived her life based around musicians and the music industry. And it was this room, room #12 of the hotel, related to the idea of music, that just gave her the pull.

All weekend long she kept disappearing and we'd find her later hanging out alone in this room. "There's something about this room."

Room #12, just for informations sake, is not a room most guests gravitate toward. Instead, it is in the area of the hotel most first time visiting guests feel most uncomfortable, especially if its at night. But Courtney was the first person, in the last few years anyway, to have the opposite reaction. She was ready to move into the room. And the room seemed to like her as well.

Of Room #12 Courtney said, "A musician died in here. And he was in a lot of pain, his life. I identify with him. And he knows I am a music person, and that's why he likes me in here."

And truth be told...we had, in fact, been told a musician did die in this room.

Of her experience that weekend she wrote, "I was just perusing my old friend's website centered around his haunted hotel, of which I only had the grand expereince of making one visit...but it was a remarkable visit if nothing else. I remember laying in the deep dark of late night near morning and hearing footsteps running throughout the entire house. It was only he, my friend Tracey, and I and I was certain he had placed speakers and sound effects throughout the house just to scare my cynical mind. But no, these were loud and continuous REAL steps and crashes ongoing until dawn when they finally settled down. I refused to go the bathroom for fear of who might join me there and in the morning asked him if it ever felt unnerving. He very quietly shook his head and smiled, 'It would seem creepy if I didn't hear them. I'm used to it.'

"What an interesting spectrum of interpretation one's life takes on when raised around the world of afterlife as he was. I met one ghost in particular there who had from all other accounts taken on a rather threatening approach but it wasn't that way with me- He actually whsipered in my ear. It is the only time in my life I have felt the hair on the back of my neck literally stand up - I could have counted them if I weren't so frozen myself. It was terrifying and fascinating and I wish we had the opportunity to go visit again.

"Do check out it's fantastic mystery if you have a chance... Blair is a wizard and a true star as Todd Rundgren would say... an enigma on all counts."

(Courtney Ford on porch of Midway)

Courtney left some of her backstage concert photos of shows she'd attended over the years as well as a few items to be placed in the room for her ghost friend. Later she posted word on the internet to others of her experience visiting this place. Of her trip she wrote, "My best friend bought an old creepy haunted hotel in Windber, PA a few years back and converted it into an artist's retreat...we went to stay there and the extreme creeptastic stories are too numerous to even list...this coming from a true sceptic...it was fairly unnerving...I grew up in a town that was founded in 1682 so I had my share of youthful tales from all the old Victorian and Colonial homes but this hotel is a HUGE step above the rest if you want the shit scared out of you... (see) THE BIG CREEPY HAUNTED HOTEL.