5. McCurdy’s Corpse Traveled Through California as a Prop
After McCurdy’s wild ride around the United States, he finally ended up in California. McCurdy first arrived in Los Angeles in the 1930s. He was used in the horror movie She Freak in 1967. McCurdy then spent some time lying in an open casket at a wax museum. He then made his way to the Nu-Pike Amusement Park. In this Long Beach, California scene, Elmer McCurdy was dressed as a cowboy. He was hanging from a noose and believed to be a mannequin. McCurdy had been seen hundreds of times by this point, and no one knew he was a real corpse.
It was in 1976 when a technician for the television show The Six Million Dollar Man discovered Elmer McCurdy. The crew member was given the task to prepare the set for a scene at the funhouse. So the technician went to Nu-Pike Amusement Park to set up for the stage. While there, the technician noticed he needed to move the neon-painted cowboy mannequin. However, as he was about to, he saw strange things about the dummy. As he picked McCurdy up to move him and get a closer look, his arm fell off. This shocking movement is when the technician noticed there was a bone in the arm. The crew member then realized that this was not a mannequin at all.