Russell Hunter

Uh, the director knew her from that and wanted to work with her.

Uh, story is by Russell Hunter.

Uh, so this guy is a playwright and composer, and this story is based on his allegedly true experiences in a Denver mansion.

So let me tell you a little about that.

Yep.

So that's basically the story.

Um, so in the late 1970s, producer Joel B. Michaels, um, received a cassette tape from Russell Hunter, uh, that basically was just him speaking, describing the events, uh, that he said took place.

Um, and Michaels was so riveted by the account that he and his partner hired, um, the screenwriters I mentioned, Gray and Maddox, to bring this story to life, and said to keep the script as close to the original as po- as possible, uh, which they did with some very slight, you know, some variations.

Okay.

So I read this article and I find out that the man who wrote the story of the changeling, at least according to him, his name was Russell Hunter, stayed in a house at 1739 East 13th Avenue, just on the edge of Cheesman Park in Denver, which is infamously an old historic neighborhood, has a lot of lore.

I've talked about it on this podcast and other ones.

And this area is known for a lot of things.

In fact, the house was demolished in the early 1980s.

The Changeling came out in 1980.

And as I mentioned, you know, here's this guy, Russell Hunter, who wrote the story of the changeling of a haunted house and blah, blah, blah, and claimed it was based on a house he rented, the Henry Treat Rogers house in Denver, Colorado, in the 60s and 70s.

And so he writes this movie, gets it produced, the movie comes out in 1980.