- more trivia -

Daena Smoller's earliest TV appearance was on the Detroit, Michigan franchise of Romper Room and Friends (1953) in 1965, filmed in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. However, she still remarks that she has never heard her name called out on the 'Magic Mirror' closing segment of the program.

Daena Smoller's radio on-air career as "Daena Hall", began unexpectedly during her radio continuity & traffic internship at WHLO AM 640 in Akron, Ohio. Don Dempsey, former Executive Vice President of the Broadcasters Hall of Fame and the station's program director at that time, asked her to fill in for a vacationing weekend 'disc jockey'. Following that first 6-hour, on-air stint, she became a permanent part-time weekend jock for the remainder of her tenure with WHLO AM 640, with two air-shifts each Sunday; 12 AM - 6 AM and 3 PM - 12 Midnight.

While working as Continuity Director for WAKR / WONE Radio in Akron, Ohio and shortly after the televised Live Aid Concert (July 1985), Daena caught the attention of music legend, Graham Nash one day while he was at the station for an on-air interview. As he walked by her office escorted by the then-WONE FM program director, he noticed and remarked upon her office posters of Rick Springfield. She invited him in and the two spoke for a bit about Crosby Stills Nash & Young performing at Live Aid and about his friend, Rick Springfield (who also performed at the benefit concert). It is one of her most cherished 'radio days' memories.

Late 1970s: Frank Sinatra was on stage at Pine Knob Music Theatre (now the DTE Energy Music Theatre) in Clarkston, Michigan in front of 15,000+ concert-goers and between songs, shared that he had just enjoyed a great meal at a Southfield restaurant, Excalibur. Daena, a Southfield resident at the time and with her best friend working at Excalibur, was the sole person to yell out an affirmation at the information and Frank Sinatra acknowledged her in front of an otherwise silent and engrossed crowd.

Lucky for Daena, on the lawn at Pine Knob, no one can see you blush!

In 1995, Daena Smoller coined the term "GHOST EXPEDITIONS" as a business name for the world's first and original parapsychological field investigation /workshop designed for participation by the general public - created by ISPR Parapsychologist Larry Montz. "GHOST EXPEDITIONS" became an instant hit internationally as the 'paranormal thing to do' and in short time, became the catch-all phrase for any kind of paranormal investigation promoted by the international media and by the hundreds of ghost organizations and millions of ghost hunters that manifested later. 

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The first Screamfest International Horror Film Festival and Screenplay Competition, founded by Rachel Belofsky was held at the former 800-seat / silver screen Vogue Theater on Hollywood Boulevard in 2001, while the theater was under the direction of Daena Smoller and Larry Montz and home to the offices of the ISPR (International Society for Paranormal Research) and a Hollywood parapsychological field research site for GHOST EXPEDITIONS.

Larry Montz and Daena Smoller introduced digital projection at the Vogue Theater Hollywood to film festivals (AFI Film Fest and others) prior to 2002, initially with great pushback from film fest organizers. Competing filmmakers however, embraced the concept as it involved merely an inexpensive DVD of their film as opposed to a fragile 35mm print costing at the time, upwards of $35,000.  Much to the surprise of all those involved, the only barely visible difference between the film and digital projection upon the second largest single screen in Hollywood (at that time) with a 101-foot throw from the projection room, was the absence of any 'film jitter' with digital projection.  Nearly a decade later, almost all movie theaters across the United States employed digital projection.