Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Casa del Prado Cinderella

Nationality: Filipino-American
Age: 24
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/26/2017
Primary Language: English

Informant: Joshua is a 24-year-old student living in Southern California. He formerly lived in San Diego before moving to Los Angeles. He used to work at the Casa del Prado, a prominent theater in San Diego. Notably, the Casa del Prado is attached to a tall clock tower.

Main Piece:
Josh: “Supposedly, at the Casa del Prado, they were putting on a performance of Cinderella. The lead actress went missing one night and they were looking all around for her. Apparently, over by the clock tower, when the clock hit 7, people saw her body fall from the tower and hit the ground.”

Interviewer: How did she fall?

Josh: “Well, nobody knows, but according to some people, it looked like she was pushed out by somebody.”

Interviewer: And there was no sign of who pushed her?

Josh: “That’s just it. The doors to the clock tower were all locked. She shouldn’t have even been able to get up there. Nobody came out of the tower after, but some people said that occasionally you could see her ghost backstage.”

Background Information about the Performance: The informant was told this story as a teenager while working as an actor at the Casa del Prado. It was his first show and the piece was performed to him by the stage manager.

Context of Performance: The piece was performed backstage in the dark.

Thoughts: This story almost seems to be part of a hazing experience. The informant was young at the time and just started acting at the Casa del Prado. The stage manager could have intended to scare him as part of his induction into the group of people working at the theater.

Nightmarchers

Nationality: Hawaiian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Kaneohe, HI
Performance Date: 4/19/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Hawaiian, Spanish

Informant: Uluwehi is a 21-year-old student from Hawaiʻi. She is from the island of Oʻahu.

Main Piece:
Uluwehi: “Nightmarchers play drums as they march through through the mountains and along paths as well that they have glowing eyes. They’re supposed to be malicious and they could kidnap you…they’re kind of ghosts of old warriors.”

Interviewer: Is there a way to ward them off?

Uluwehi: “Not really. You just don’t go out at night when you hear them roaming near your house.”

Background Information about the Performance: The informant learned this legend from her family. They live in Hawaiʻi and still practice many of the traditions, and so legends like this are important to her.

Context of Performance: Telling this legend usually occurs around certain times of year, specifically the nights that the Nightmarchers march.

Thoughts: It is interesting to me that there is no real way to ward the Nightmarchers off besides hiding from them. The informant also mentioned that the march would take place on nights related to the gods, so the Nightmarchers are in some way related to these important spiritual nights.

Hotel del Coronado Ghost

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: Screenwriter
Residence: San Diego, CA
Performance Date: 3/18/17
Primary Language: English

Informant: Meagan is a 23-year-old screenwriter, born and raised in San Diego. She is an active member of various ghosthunting and cryptid-related groups, although she admits that she is not sure if she fully believes in them. The Hotel del Coronado is a hotel on Coronado Island famous for being haunted.

Main Piece:
Informant: “This is what I remember: Kate and Tom Morgan were a married couple in the late 1800s. They were con artists. One day, they checked into the Hotel del Coronado. Tom was supposed to meet Kate, but she didn’t show up…because she was dead. They found her in Room 302, and now she haunts that room and the halls.”

Interviewer: How did she die?

Informant: “Nobody knows. Some historians say it was suicide, some say it was disease, and some say she was murdered by her husband. But nobody really knows.”

Background Information about the Performance: The informant first heard this piece from tour guides when visiting the hotel. After seeking more information online, she visited the Hotel del Coronado again with a friend and had an experience with the ghost, in which she saw it in the mirror and felt as though she had been scratched by it.

Context of Performance: The piece is told both by tour guides around the Hotel del Coronado and by members of various San Diego-based ghost hunter groups.

Thoughts: I know of this piece from visiting the Hotel del Coronado, but I have never experienced ghostly activity myself. I was also unaware of the background of the piece, knowing only that the hotel is haunted. The Hotel del Coronado promotes this haunting, and is part of various haunted house tours based in San Diego.

 

Ghost Dog of Devon

Nationality: English
Age: 61
Occupation: Mother
Residence: San Diego, CA
Performance Date: 3/18/20
Primary Language: English

Informant: Valerie is a 61-year-old, born and raised in Dorking, England. She moved to Pennsylvania at 40, and to San Diego at 45. She still regularly visits England, where all her family still live. Her father was from the county of Devon in England.

Main Piece: “When I was younger, my family and I would take trips to around Devon. And sometimes when it was nighttime, my dad would tell us about a big, black dog that would go around Devon. It was a ghost dog, and it would go around howling at night. Seeing it would be dangerous, so we always got very scared when we heard a dog howl around there.”

Background Information about the Performance: The informant was told this as a child by her father. She remembers having been scared by the story, and would go on to recount the story later when she visited Devon again.

Context of Performance: The piece is told as a scary story to children – and presumably others – around the Devon region.

Thoughts: The black dog story is common around Britain, and my father had heard a similar story around Leeds. I am reminded of the Sherlock Holmes story, The Hound of the Baskervilles, which takes place around Devon.

 

King Arthur

Nationality: British
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 04/23/17
Primary Language: English

Subject: Legend

Informant: Michael was born and raised in London. His father is British and his mother is American, hence he was exposed to both cultures growing up. He currently studies Health Promotion in Los Angeles and is the captain of the universities’ rugby team. Michael is also the president of his fraternity at the university.

Original Script: King Arthur was a legendary leader in Britain. He built his powerful sword – Excalibur – from stone and became the chosen king. He surrounded himself with great leaders such as Merlin the magician and Sir Lancelot. He was most famous for his round table, which was considered very anti-religious at the time. He had the round table because he always thought that he was an equal to his advisors. Therefore, he did not want to rule from the top, and instead opted to be a king that listened to those he ruled and cooperated with everyone to become a powerful leader.

Background information by informant: King Arthur was probably one of the most legendary figures in British history and became a prominent part of British culture.

Thoughts: Folklore legends can establish positive ideas into a community and bring them closer to their history and roots.