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London is known as the Forest City due to its spectacular foliage.

Celebrities and murders. Ghosts and Oscar winners. What do these things have in common? They all come out of London.

That's right. London, Ontario, is perhaps more interesting than you'd think. I spoke with two longterm Londoners, a reporter with the London Free Press and a historian from the London Room at the London Public Library to collect their stories about the people and history that make London the city it is.

Famous faces from famous places
Okay, fangirls, yes, the stars of The Notebook are from the London area. In fact, Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling were both born in the same hospital in St. Thomas, a city south of London. And although RyGos is constantly linked to London, James Reaney, entertainment reporter for the London Free Press said he isn't really from here.

“Rachel McAdams is certainly from the area,” said Reaney.

“I think because I've always come back here, it's not so strange. It still feels very familiar and comfortable,” said McAdams in an interview with the St. Thomas Times Journal in June. “I sort of feel like I've never really left entirely.”

Victor Garber, Alias star and Broadway actor, is also from London. “He went to Central High School. He still has family here,” said Reaney. “He comes back periodically. He might sometimes go to the (Grand) Theatre.”

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Each metropolis has its stories to tell, and some even have skeletons in their closets. You'll be surprised to know that London has had its fair share of gruesome stories and local legends.

But for the faint of heart, let's start with the more fun facts that Joan Beaune of Tourism London and Arthur McClelland, a historian from the London Room at the London Public Library, had to share.

Did you know...
A Fanshawe student went on to make Oscar history. “Paul Haggis was born in London and he studied at Fanshawe College,” said Beaune. “In 2006 he became the first person in the history of the Academy Awards to write two back-to-back Best Picture winners: Crash and Million Dollar Baby.”

Haggis studied cinematography at Fanshawe in the early '70s.

Did you know...
Two well-known breweries, Labatt and Carling, started here. The Labatt family had a house in a village outside of Sarnia called Bright's Grove and would travel back and forth regularly. “John Sakville Labatt, it was August 1934, and he was kidnapped and held for ransom,” said McClelland. “It was the first time in Canadian history that someone was held for ransom.”

The ransom was for $150,000 in cash, and the kidnappers were caught and imprisoned.

London is no stranger to scandal, either.

Did you know...
McClelland recounted the scandal that arose after the death of Kingsmills founder Thomas Frazer Kingsmill. “The founder had two families, one in England and one here,” said McClelland. “It wasn't brought to light till he died. When he died they were probating his will, somehow it was discovered he had this family over in England as well.”

Did you know...
There is a resident ghost at the Grand Theatre? Therein lies the tale of Ambrose Small, the owner of the Grand.

One day in the early 1900s, Small emptied his account at a bank in Toronto and transferred all the money to his wife. He disappeared afterward and was never heard from again.

“Legend has it that he had mafia connections and was murdered, his body burned in the furnace in the Grand Theatre,” said McClelland. “People have supposedly seen the ghost and strange things have happened, like whole racks of lighting suddenly falling on the stage and no one is around.”

Did you know...
Actress Olivia Wilde starred in a short-lived TV show loosely based on an Irish family caught in a feud that ended in massacre, all of which happened in the London area in the late 1800s.

The Donnelly family immigrated to Canada in the 1840s and was known to be rowdy. There had been a feud that happened in Ireland that they brought to London, eventually resulting in the Donnellys being massacred on February 4, 1880.

McClelland retold the events.

“The way the story goes, the mother cursed the people who were attacking her family. Supposedly, a number of them died rather strange or early deaths,” he said. “A few years ago a local videographer named Chris Doty did a play (about the Donnellys) and had it produced at the courthouse. (He) committed suicide years later, February 4, the same night the Donnellys were murdered.”

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London really isn't as boring as most think, and now you have stories to share with people who don't believe you.