In Defense of the Ghost of the Birdcage Theatre

Brief History: This is one of the last truly historic building in Tombstone, Arizona a.k.a. “The Town Too Tough to Die”. This was once a saloon, brothel (where a lady was chosen from a theater box aka cage), and (once a week) legitimate theater where all from sideshow attractions to the great Sarah Bernhardt performed. Doc Holiday supposedly partook in a historically long game of poker within the Establishment’s walls. Photos of Wyatt Earp’s common-law wife Josephine grace the walls (although I don’t think she really has much of a connection to the place). Bullet holes decorate the walls and an old hearse is kept in the backstage area of this now museum. Naturally, with a bawdy and violent history comes ghosts. It’s hard to say one specific spook haunts the place, but many have claimed for decades that music plays, unseen figures laugh, and sometimes objects move on their own. The most unsettling are the ghostly touches and the full apparitions. Could the beautiful glimpse of a woman be Margarita, the prostitute allegedly murdered by her rival, Gold Dollar, at a theatre table? Is the man in black who paces on the stage one of the regular patrons? Of the over 20 people reported tp have died there, who never left?

Analysis: Ghost Hunters did an episode at the Bird Cage and allegedly filmed some interesting phenomenon such as a cord being lifted up from a wall fixture and dropping it on the floor. I say allegedly because I am highly skeptical of such shows which mostly involve “experienced” paranormal investigators send interns into cold spots or shout angry words of the dead. Still I confess I watched it (and if it drums up tourism for the small town then I vindicate Ghosthunters fully). Parts of the building do have an eerie atmosphere, even when full of tourists.

Blame It on Hollywood: The two groups of men, one in black hats and one in white, meet on the streets of Tombstone. One of the men in black hats fires first and the quartet of white hats fire back in defense. The shootout goes on as the men duck behind barrels and roll under wagons. After nearly ten minutes, the dust clears and the white hats are victorious! That’s what movies like you to believe. In truth, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral occurred in an alley, lasted less than a minute, and I agree with historians that say Doc Holiday (usually a “good guy” in films) probably shot first (like Han - that’s right! I said it!). Hollywood movies dressed up this one event in tombstone and such a way that the town became a tourist attraction long after the miners and saloon girls had departed. So the town was built up once again attracting people from all over the world to see the place where Wyatt Earp reigned as lawman. The Birdcage was filled with treasures from the past for the viewing. Maybe it’s only natural that a few ghosts settled there as well.

Final Thoughts: Visit Tombstone! The people are nice (despite having to deal with customers and tourists)! The history is gruesome, violent, and amazing! and the Tombstone movie from the 90s is usually playing 24/7 in any shop or restaurant. I’m your Huckleberry.
check out the tombstone website for information about ghost tours and their special nightly events.

In Defense of the Wolf Girl of Texas

Brief History: Okay, 90s children - name that Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark title. A woman named Mollie Dent gave birth in the scrubs of Texas and soon died (as did her husband, because what’s a good urban legend without an orphan). As a neighbor went to help the already doomed family ,he discovered the baby had vanished. As this was 1835, he assumed the baby had been eaten by wolves and went back to his life. Ten years go by and, you guessed, a pack of wolves have been spotted with a naked girl running among them. Locals decide to cry catching “Mollie’s girl” for her own good, but this goes creepily awry. The feral girl was locked in a ranch room where she began to howl. The wolf pack attacks the corral of the ranch and Mollie’s girl escapes with them. The last time she was spotted alive she would have been seventeen. Still, stories of human-wolf hybrids roaming the river valley began to surface. In the twentieth century people claimed to see her ghost running on all fours and hear the eerie howls of a girl.

Analysis: There’ s little evidence to support if this story is true or based on truth as there was no newspaper established in this area of Texas yet. Still, I find it interesting that it has more details than the normal local folktale. The parents have backstories, dad being a former fur trapper who killed his partner and mom being the Georgian peach who fell for him. There are specific years of each major event: Lobo Girl is born in May 1835 in Del Rio, 1845 when the locals attempted to capture her at risk of their own safety, and 1852 when she’s last seen alive with a pair of wolf cubs. Still, human-wolf hybrids. . . gross. Also the idea of capturing her and not being prepared to handle her biting, scratching, or howling seems strange to me. I feel like if you are going to go after a feral kid, be prepared. All those thoughts aside, feral children is not unheard of. There have been well-documented and even recent cases of children raised by dogs, wolves, monkeys, and even sheep. Is anyone else singing the Lambert the Sheepish Lion song now?

Blame It on the Victorians: The 1850s up through the early 1900s loved tales of feral children. Everyone knows about Mowgli and Tarzan and those were bestselling books. Therefore, why wouldn’t a story of a girl being raised by wolves in the prairies of Texas not stick around for another century and a half? This probably had something to do with the restricting rules of the time versus the freedoms living like an animal. Or maybe people just liked telling stories of kids covered in hair. Who knows?

Last Thoughts: Children of the 90s, are you envisioning that drawing where the Lobo girl looks like her hair is more of a tangled shrub and she’s she staring out at you with one tired eye? Of course you are. You. Are. Welcome.

In Defense of Resurrection Mary

Brief History: Chicago urban legend declares that in the late 1930s a man was driving down a dark road. He picks up a young woman, a pretty hitchhiker in a white dress, and as soon as they near Resurrection Cemetery, she disappears. The story has been slightly altered over the decades. Sometimes she’s found at a dance hall since the story is that she was leaving such an establishment when she was kill by a hit-and-run driver. Sometimes she is walking outside of the cemetery gates until a driver, worried that they nearly struck her, stops. Then, she vanishes again. Three theories have come to light of who this poor ghost girl may be: Mary Bregovy who died in a car crash in 1934 or Ona Anna "Marija" Norkus killed in a different car crash in 1927 OR Mary Miskowski who was hit while crossing a road in 1930.

Analysis: Some of the versions of sightings make “Mary” a flirt. She dances and kisses the man who will escort her home. I, personally, find this part of the story less believable than simply driving a ghost home. This feels to me like some kind of pseudo-romaticism machismo where it’s not enough to have seen a ghost, but they had to make out with her as well. Another interesting piece of analysis is when her story has been used in cheesy horror movies. Instead of simply being the girl looking for a ride to her resting place, she’ s vengeful spirit. The story is already a sad one without making her embittered.

Blame it on the Great Depression: Hitchhiker ghosts have been a common staple of industrialized countries since the 1920s, ever since cars went fast enough to cause deaths. The story of dancing all night to forget the sorrows of the bank failures and lack of jobs was another common theme of the time. Dance halls were cheap entertainment for the young who were still trying to hold onto the last of the flapper days. Ghost stories are another cheap entertainment. Could this have been another story starting because the people needed a distraction? Or was the depression of the era enough to keep a woman’s spirit pinned to her last night out?

Last Thoughts: Stop picking up hitchhikers, people! Alive or not, that’s just not smart.

In Defense of the Flying Dutchman

Brief History: There are a few different versions of this legend, but I’m going with the most popular. Sometime in the 1700s, a Dutch ship on its way home was nearing the Cape of Good Hope when a storm broke out. Captain Hendrick Van der Decken (supposedly based on real Dutch East India Captain Bernard Fokke) refused to turn the ship around and murdered the members of his crew who attempted to mutiny. In some tales, an angel or the devil appear, but the end game is always the same - the captain dooms the ship to sail forever around the world between this world and the next. Ooooo spooky. Then the ghost stories started. From the late 1700s to the 1930s people (mostly Europeans) claimed to see the old ship drifting through the night. Then, usually accompanied by some eerie lights, vanishes once again.

Analysis: Is the fading ship the result of an optical illusion? Drunk sailors? Scooby Doo villains? No matter what, it has taken place of sea monsters as the maritime harbinger of doom. It’s very unlikely that the ghost story is 100% true since there is no record of any Captain Hendrick Van der Decken. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t ghost ships. . . just not necessarily the Flying Dutchman. Of course, I could star analyzing the Pirate of the Caribbean version of the Flying Dutchman, but let’s just not fall down that rabbit hole.

Blame It on the Victorians: As the sightings of the ship became a more common legend, the ghost happy Victorians added the ethereal touches most versions continue today. The 19th Century added an eerie light around There were plays, books, short stories, and music all based on the Flying Dutchman. The best thing to come out of the legend was a painting by illustrator Howard Pyle in which the captain stands aboard the tilted deck of the ship bathed in yellow. In the foreground is a group of tortured souls, wasting away in the storm.

Final Thoughts: James Mason and Ava Gardner did a movie called Pandora and the Flying Dutchman. . . which really had nothing to do with the ship or original ghost story. But there’s car races on an Italian beach.

The Flying Dutchman by Howard Pyle

In Defense of Ghost Stories

September is here which means we need whatever ounce of fall and Halloween we can get. Get ready for a series of “In Defense of” blogs of famous ghost stories and urban legends.

Cheesy Ghost Movies for Kids that Can Appeal to Adults part 2

Cheesy Ghost Movies for Kids that Can Appeal to Adults part 2

8. Restless Spirits

Another made-for-TV Canadian “masterpiece” for kids, this one had a historical background and a more realistic teenage protagonist. Made in the late 90s and starring Marsha Mason as a no-nonsense grandma, it’s about Katie, a girl who still harbors bitterness over her father’s death from years earlier. She, her little brother, and the crush-worthy neighbor boy (the 90s were a magical time for standardized romantic tropes) discover the ghosts of Charles Nungesser and François Coli. The spirits are based on two pilots who really did vanish off the coast of Newfoundland in the 1920s. For the most part, the movie is an adventure tale of the kids trying to salvage the wrecked plane so the ghosts can finally finish their flight. The Canadian government is after them and locals try to stop their plans, blah, blah, blah. But Katie’s part in it all focuses more on how we don’t always completely move on from death and how sometimes when a kid acts out, even they don’t know the reason for it.

Part that was legitimately disturbing as both a kid and an adult: The Canadian government is coming for me if I try to help ghosts!

7. Amazing Mr. Blunden

I doubt most of you have heard of this one. It was directed in 1972 by Lionel Jeffries (Grandpa Potts from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) and was based on a now equally obscure book simply called Ghosts. First of all, in case you haven’t already noticed, this movie was super British. Not just the language and plot, but the production values have a certain look like the film is somehow slowly dying in front of you. This look could only mean it was filmed in the UK before the BBC got its budget. The story is part ghosts-part time travel, where a pair of children want to rescue a different set of children who died a century earlier. This includes a lot of the signatures of a paranormal mystery which have since become cliché. Tropes such as surprise names on gravestones, adults that just won’t listen (specifically the titular Mr. Blunden), and the anniversary of a tragedy. Mr. Blunden is really more of a secondary character, but a major theme by the third act is his guilt over the past. I really liked this movie as a kid. As an adult, there are parts which are a little difficult not to focus on like that fact that some of the actors’ lip sync is off and the time travel stuff doesn’t make a lot of sense. Still, this is a descent film that was one of the earliest ideas of a ghost story meant make adults rethink dismissing childhood “fanciful tales”.

Part that was legitimately disturbing as both a kid and an adult: The children who are fated to die are at the mercy of their selfish uncle, “childlike” new aunt, and her wicked parents. The aunt is a former dancehall girl who speaks in baby talk and whines when things aren’t about her. There was a particularly strange scene where she comes down the stairs softly singing about her new dress to her niece, unaware that her mother was just abusing the girl a second before. As an adult, I want to smack the aunt.

6. Haunted Mansion

I know, I know. This movie “bombed” at the box office. It’s one that most people catch on television, riddled with commercials, and realize that it wasn’t an awful film. If you love the Disney ride, you should at least appreciate this movie, whether you are a kid or an adult. For those who don’t know, it’s about workaholic dad played by Eddie Murphy bringing his family to a secluded bayou manor where their ghost host wants to get with Murphy’s wife. You should secretly love it. Secretly love it for Terrance Stamp saying “Hell” in a Disney movie (an honor formally reserved for Maleficent). Love it for the awkward graveyard scene which was pretty much identical to the ride. Love it for the fact that there is no logical reason why Madam Leota (played by Jennifer Tilly) and the singing busts are leftover when all other ghosts move on. If only the Hatbox Ghost could have been a character.

Part that was legitimately disturbing as both a kid and an adult: It wasn’t so much disturbing as it was just sad. The opening sequence gives hints to the death of a young woman in a mask while a party goes on in the ballroom. What looks like a hundred people in the mansion and no one knows that this woman is dying just a couple of rooms over. Of course, if they had saved her there would have been no plot. Damn story structure.

On the Subject of Ghosts: A Blog in Opposing Views = View #1 – Ned

I’ll begin with my credentials on this subject – I’m a ghost. Don’t believe me? Look out your window and — Boo!

Did you actually think I would be there? Did you think that ghosts can just appear wherever like in a cheesy horror movie? Oy.

And that brings me to the purpose of this blog. I am going to set the record straight about ghosts with 3 simple facts. Hopefully these facts will stop ghost hunters from disrespecting our rest and using us for ratings on bad T.V. shows.

1) Ghosts can’t fly or float around at will like a certain fictional character in a red cape. If we are floating around, it’s because we are focused too much on being dead and forgetting to put our feet on the ground. What could possibly cause us to focus on our deaths? Oh, I don’t know. Maybe a film crew and their idiot host wandering through our homes and cemeteries, calling us out! Yes, we can hear you. You are loud.

2) Ghosts can manipulate electrical equipment. We don’t have much to do throughout our long, sleepless days so we mess with your lights, your computers, and your coffee maker. Sooooo much fun watching people swear at their coffee makers. And you all blame this on wiring or gremlins. Give credit where credit is due! We work hard to make our afterlives more interesting.

3) Ghosts can forget. Our lives can slip away from us. Some people have no memories at all left, just emotions, including bitterness and aggression. So, stop asking us stupid questions we don’t know the answer to. If you asked three times, “How did you die?” and we don’t answer, chances are that we don’t know either. Keep asking an angry ghost the same question over and over, guess what. You might end up with a new poltergeist for a roommate.

And there is it. What to remember to be respectful to a ghost, from a ghost. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.