Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Ghost Story

Nationality: American, White/Hispanic
Age: 21
Occupation: Marine OCS
Residence: Corona, CA
Performance Date: 25 April 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: German, Spanish

Urban Legend- ghost story

Transcription

“This event happened a year after my great grandfather died. My family was over at my Grandmother’s house in order to celebrate Thanksgiving. The house is in down town Santa Ana, in a creepy old neighborhood. Think of a ghetto.  For the last four year in row, the oven has broken down on Thanksgiving. Like a curse or something.  When we were eating, this large ball of light shoots through kitchen and living room. Everybody just stops and is confused. People in two different rooms, the kitchen and the living room, about 12 people saw this.”

CB explains this family story to me while we were eating Wendy’s. He explains that this is story is now told whenever at family meetings. He mentions that he believes that the death of his great grandfather in the house, the ball of light, the curse of the oven each year, and the fact that the house is old is all somehow connected. He states because the house is so old, that many people have died in it over the years possibly making the house haunted. He also mentions that this is not the first time that things like this have occurred and that many members of the family have their own particular stories. While the story is constantly brought up to within his family, CB states that he doesn’t really believe in Ghosts, neither does any of his male relatives. He stated, “We are all kind of straightforward guys. My Dad’s a Marine, my uncle a cop…I grew up in a no nonsense household.”

From what I can gather from CB’s story is that first and foremost it serves a marker for their family, and a part of the family’s personal lore. By being a member of CB’s family, one would know this story even if they were not present at the event. I think CB’s stance on this event is that of a skeptic. He obviously saw something at this particular Thanksgiving meal, which can be verified by other family members present at the time, but he doesn’t necessarily buy into the notion that this is somehow related to ghosts. As an individual, I find CB to be very level headed. He is currently in Marine Officer Candidate School, training to be a Marine Officer. I interpret CB’s hesitation and skepticism of the event as a result of his upbringing in a rigidly structured home (his father was a Marine Sergeant).

Examples of ghost stories/unexplained events are very common in modern society. It is not uncommon for families to have similar stories, unique to themselves. In media, the presence of ghosts is prevalent. Movies like Paranormal Activity, and television shows like TAPS and Ghost Hunters appear across numerous networks.

The Tallest Building at The University of Southern California

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Engineering and Mathematics Student
Residence: Arcadia, California
Performance Date: January 8, 2011
Primary Language: English

“Rufus B. Von KleinSmid was one of go ahead keep laughing president of USC for a number of years. His only goal in being president of the University was to have the tallest building on campus and because of that [collector interrupts: “That was his only goal?”] his only goal was to have the tallest building on campus. And so he built VKC, which stands for the Von KleinSmid Center, and the bell tower was erected and for a number of years it was the tallest point on campus. Later on, they built WPH, White Phillips Hall, which stands right next to it, and it wasn’t going to be taller than the bell tower, originally. But. They decided to build up even more, and if you look up at WPH there’s actually an open space up there, that’s about thirty feet of nothing. There is no classrooms, no anything, it’s just to make the building taller than it actually is. Umm, and, Rufus B. Von KleinSmid died. But his wife, Emma Von KleinSmid, uhh wanted to make sure that his legacy lived on. So, she went to a garage sale and bought the globe that now stands on top of VKC for something in the ball park of fifty cents and uh put it on top of the bell tower and so now the bell tower of VKC with the globe included stands four inches taller than WPH.”

My informant first heard this story when he was training to be an Orientation Advisor at the University of Southern California after attending his first year of school there.  The Orientation Coordinator, also a student, told the story to the new group of Orientation Advisors as an example of a fun anecdote to tell when giving a tour of the campus. As my informant said, the walk between the VKC building and the WPH building is long, and “you can only talk about those buildings for so long before you run out of things to talk about and [the informant] needed a fun story to fill the time.” As an Orientation Advisor, he passed the story along to incoming students throughout the summer as he gave tours of the school. He has since become an Orientation Coordinator, and tells the story to the Orientation Advisors that he trains.  He told the story to me during a training session for another on-campus job, in a program devoted to “fun facts” about the University of Southern California.

My informant believes that the legend might reflect an outdated stereotype of the University of Southern California as “The University of Spoiled Children.” He finds the story compelling because it exemplifies a “prankster attitude” based on doing something extravagantly expensive simply because one can. As he points out, there is a strange empty space at the top of the WPH building that, at least from an outsider’s perspective, would have cost the University a large amount of money unnecessarily.  He sees building this extra floor on WPH and Mrs. Von KleinSmid’s alleged addition of the globe on top of the VKC building as a demonstration of the University’s old sense of entitlement: if the building can be made taller, make it taller, no matter the price.

My informant has heard variations of the story that point to a similar interpretation. These versions usually differ from his own in how much the globe cost Mrs. Von KleinSmid, where she found the globe, how much taller the globe makes VKC than WPH, and how the empty space in WPH is used (one memorable version says that there’s an unused ballroom on the top floor). Each of these variations focuses on the absurdity of the idea that one building needs to be the tallest on campus. Performers of this legend seem consciously to make fun of the story and to laugh at the stereotype that it portrays. I agree with my informant in that this legend reflects a stereotype that the University of Southern California has more money than it knows what to do with and is focused on presentation rather than serious scholarship. I would only add that students’ performance of this legend suggests an awareness of the stereotype and a desire to trivialize it.

Occupational Folklore- Origin of the term “C47”

Nationality: American
Age: 27
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 27, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

The informant is a 27-year old grad student. He was born in Los Angeles, California, grew up in Seattle, Washington, was educated at UC Berkeley and now studying film production in Los Angeles. He’s worked as a freelance writer and filmmaker around Los Angeles and is a teaching assistant at the School of Cinematic Arts. He shall be referred to as NW.

In the world of film production, clothespins are referred to as “C47s” (pronounced, “see fore-tee seh-vens). As NW explained, this is term used by the grips on a film set (those responsible for the physical labor of manning lights). They are used to pull scrims, which are tools for blocking light, out of a hot lighting kit and also useful for attaching colored gels to lights among other simple purposes.

NC explained that the origin of the term comes from the story of a production crew submitting a budget for a producer, which included five hundred clothespins. The producer did not see the importance of these clothespins, so he demanded they be removed from the budget because he didn’t see the value in them. Knowing how important they were for day-to-day work, the crew changed the name to “C47” to sound more technical and important. Upon looking at the revised budget, the producer approved and the crew was allowed to purchase the required clothespins. He told this story to a group of students in a class on film lighting for Film and Television Production majors. He could not remember specifically where he heard this story, but remembered that he was told it when he began working on film sets (as this was the first experience with film lights and equipment for many people in the class, we heard it in the same context he did). He did not provide too much historical context for his background story (such as the time and place), and he was not absolutely certain about five-hundred being the required number of clothespins.

While it didn’t seem that NW takes the story too seriously, he seemed eager to share this bit of knowledge for a group of people just cutting their teeth on film production. It seems to be a sign of acceptance into this field of work. The class immediately adopted the use of the term, rarely using the term “clothespins” but rather “C47.” NW believes that the story is about how even the most trivial items are important on a film set, even if they don’t seem that way to a producer. He said changing the name was  a big “eff you” directed at the studio on behalf of the crew against the “suits.” NW also explained that the use of this term is a simple indicator as to whether or not a person is knowledgeable about film production when starting out on set.

To me, this story expresses the kind of anxiety shared by those low on the film industry totem pole. This is not a story that involves elite directors or celebrated cinematographers. Rather, it is a story shared when young amateurs are starting out in low positions. At least in my experience with the class, everyone was very interested in demonstrating that they belonged in this environment. The story about the producer also illuminates the anxiety felt between those that produce a film and those that fund it. While filmmaking is a very technical craft, sometimes simple tools like clothespins are required. In the story, the name had to be changed to something credible for the crew to get what they needed to make their film. This portrayal of the producer as shallow and ignorant (immediately accepting the change to the term “C47” without further knowledge for their use) reflects the bitterness that can exist between the peons on a film set and the wealthy producers.

Occupational Folktale- Stanley Kubrick

Nationality: American
Age: 27
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 27, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

The informant is a 27-year old grad student. He was born in Los Angeles, California, grew up in Seattle, Washington, was educated at UC Berkeley and now studying film production in Los Angeles. He’s worked as a freelance writer and filmmaker around Los Angeles and is a teaching assistant at the School of Cinematic Arts. He shall be referred to as NW.

Here, NW shares a legend about the early career of Stanley Kubrick:

“And there’s lots of crazy stories about him, like, that early on in his career, you know, he, in one of his really early movies, The Killing, he got in an argument with uh, with his cinematographer, ‘cause the cinematographer didn’t think he knew what he was doing based on like, a lens choice, wide-angle lens, and now Kubrick’s really famous for his wide-angle lens shots, in certain films, you know, then he’s just his upstart director and the cinematographer changes the lens out because he thinks he made a mistake, and so they take it and Kubrick notices it, and then like blows up on him, and tells him, ‘if you touch my lens again you’re fired, and I won’t ever see you again.” And then they have this big argument. I hear those stories about a lot of directors, famous directors, it’s like, and people kind of tell those now and it’s like, ‘oh, look at what a genius and how sure he was of himself back then,’ and I don’t know, again, I don’t know if that happened or what, but I think it’s a way of rationalizing like, ‘oh, if you were a real director, you’d know like what the hell you’re doing right away… From personal experience, I don’t think that’s necessarily true, but it’s like a way of building their legend, you know, it’s like anyone, you know it’s like, people tell stories about Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln whoever, like they knew this, so they did this, and that showed who they were really early on and you’re kinda like I don’t know if that really worked that way, but it helps build them up as these, like, mythic figures so you’re like that’s what, that’s what a filmmaker is.”

As NW explains, this is a very relevant idea for young filmmakers. It is common to idolize the great directors of the past, and stories like these increase that level of respect.

Specifically, this story addresses some of the tensions that happen on film sets. Because film is a very collaborative process, it can be easy for one person to alter the work of another. As such, a person with a strong vision might see that compromised because of the interference of another person, such as this young Stanley Kubrick.

More importantly, this story stresses the importance of ego in the film industry. A director must be able to clearly argue for his or her vision, as Kubrick does in this story. Though his choices seemed like the mistakes of a novice, they were actually the eccentric brilliance of an auteur (in retrospect, that is). Thus, this story seems to encourage young filmmakers to think creatively and fight to protect the purity of the vision they have in mind for their artwork. It celebrates someone who, while acting like someone difficult to work with, was a true artist. In this industry, it is commonly believed that the most successful far surpassed their likability as people with their sheer talent. Thus, this seems to be an address of such a conflict for young filmmakers.

School Ghost

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles and Three Rivers, CA
Performance Date: April 20, 2011
Primary Language: English

“So, at my high school a small little high school I the central valley here in California, um, in drama, drama club, we believe, well I don’t believe, but a lot of people believe that there’s a ghost that lives in the, uh, the performing arts building. And his name is Charlie. Yeah, and, people have, I’ve never personally never had an experience with Charlie in the performing arts building, but a lot of people say that if they’re in the room by themselves if they get there early and its really dark, um you know, or they hear noises they think that Charlie is doing something backstage or is somewhere, uh. Yeah there’s a storage area underneath the seats it’s like, the seats are elevated. So underneath there’s, we store a lot of things in there. Uh, people swear that he, moves chairs and, or props and stuff for the scene around.  Some people think, I don’t think, I haven’t heard anyone say he’s important, or that he’s a historical figure.  Um, I don’t know, girls for some reason like to think that he’s younger. Guys like to think that he’s older. ”

The informant doesn’t know why why the particualr name “Charlie” was given to the ghost and is not sure how long the legend of the ghost had been around.  He  heard about the ghost when he was a freshman from a group of senior girls.  Girls may find the ghost of a young man lurking about the empty stage as exciting, and so encourage the idea that Charlie is a young male ghost.  Boys, on the other hand, may not find the same idea as appealing and rather, think of the ghost as an older man.