Tag Archives: ghost

Empire Hotel Marquee Ghost

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: North Carolina
Performance Date: May 1, 2013
Primary Language: English

The theater in my hometown is several hundred years old, from back when uh Salisbury, North Carolina used to be one of the centers of the state economy. There were a lot of famous actors that went there. Charlie Chaplin went there. Sarah Bernhardt went there, and other stage actors. And the legend has it that there was a passageway that went under the theater, under the street, to the hotel across the way where they would stay. It was called the Empire Hotel. And, um, I went down there one time. It’s sealed off.
Apparently there at one time was a secret passage. People have told me a lot of different things. It could have been an air conditioning shaft. But it was structurally unsound so it’s gone. But they say that the big stars went under there to the hotel. I’ve been in both places.
One time I was in the Empire Hotel. I was—I don’t know if I believe in ghosts or not! But I know I heard one. You’ll understand what I mean if you have too. I was on the third floor of this Empire Hotel after filming, it was Halloween night, I know that sounds really cheesy, buuuuut, I was looking around, just taking pictures for the heck of it, it was really dark, it’s abandoned now, so it’s completely empty, and I got the keys from the manager of the city. When from downstairs, the bottom of the staircase in the back came this like, “meaerrrrrrrrgh!” Like groaning sound. Ha, how are you gonna type that? Um it happened twice. I was with a friend and we both heard it, and we were both just like frozen in terror. And, um, then he was scared out of his mind and I was like let’s go downstairs and check this out. And we did. And we didn’t see anything there except this old, like, boiler, coal room.
But then we asked this sort of living-legend guy Clyde, who has no last name in our town, what that was and he told us it was a certain ghost whose name I don’t remember, who used to stand on his head on the marquee of the theater. Uh, that’s all I know about him.

This is a ghost story FOAF that I, for one, will be spreading. It is a ghost story based upon the town’s rich history. The ghost is apparently known to haunt the Empire Hotel. The hotel is actually infamous for its paranormal activity, as is the town of Salisbury, and the ghost Clyde tells my friend about it not the only ghost known to inhabit the Empire Hotel. Ghost stories are popular about the Empire, because it is an old place where a lot of history took place. Besides, old abandoned buildings are always disturbing—especially on Halloween night. The story gives importance to, and knowledge of the town’s rich history. While in America, especially, such creepy events are likely to be interpreted as ghosts, my friend and his pal might have interpreted the strange sound differently if they were from another culture. They also probably would not have suspected it was a ghost if they had heard the sound during the day, in a different building, and not on Halloween night.

Adam Beckett, the Optical Printer Ghost

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 57
Occupation: USC Professor of Animation
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 29, 2013
Primary Language: English

So this is the story of Adam Beckett. He was an experimental animator at Cal Arts, and, who did, do you remember I showed, no maybe I didn’t show you, but really important historically, he’s important as an animator, he did a lot of work with the optical printing, and step printing and things like that. And he would spend hours upon hours, and days upon days in the printer room at Cal Arts. On the first floor. Adam Beckett was an extreme person. And somehow he managed to electrocute himself in his bathtub when he was quite young. This was in the late 70s. And so at Cal Arts there were always rumors that Adam Beckett haunted the optical printer room. And many students of mine, at Cal Arts, came to tell me that Adam Beckett was haunting their films. Film reels were flying around the room. And so to this day, there’s still rumors that he haunts the optical printer room, but, the only thing is, the question is whether it’s the optical printer or the printer room, because they’ve changed over the years.

This ghost story is part of the Cal Arts college community. My professor told this story very dramatically, because she was actually trying to scare me and make me believe it. Perhaps this is because she believes the story, but it seemed more to me that she was trying to sell the tale to me because I am one of the uninitiated animators who don’t fit into the Cal Arts clique of the study and profession of animated film. Those who study Cal Arts might believe this story, or they might tell it as an inside joke to scare new students and outsiders, or as a joke or excuse to cover why they didn’t finish their optical printing assignment to their instructor. Whether they believe it or not, the ghost story gives Cal Arts students and staff a sense of community, and their school’s prestigious history in the field of animation.

“The Phantom of the Alamo”

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student, Camp Counselor
Residence: San Antonio, TX
Performance Date: April 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

 

            A native Texan, the informant told me that all schoolchildren in San Antonio, Texas are intimately familiar with the story and history behind the Alamo, and she briefly explained that the Alamo Mission was the site of the 1836 Battle of the Alamo between Texas and advancing Mexican troops. While the informant understands that the Alamo has now become a historical museum and San Antonio’s primary tourist attraction, the history of the Alamo represents something much deeper for her because she has grown up in the area. She explained that residents of San Antonio are fiercely proud of the Alamo monument and the story behind it (all the Texan defenders were killed whilst protecting it), which is perhaps why several legend-like narratives have been spun from it. She feels that, as a resident of San Antonio, she has a duty to be proud and loving of her city to validate the Texan’s selflessness and sacrifice in protecting the Mission. The informant has also performed theatrical renditions of the story at various summer camps in Texas. While the informant told the story, she wore a small pendant of the Alamo around her neck.

 

            When you’re in San Antonio, which is where the Alamo is, you’re raised on the Alamo. The first time we had Texas history was in fourth grade, so that’s when you, kind of, like, really start to learn about the Alamo, but the myths just, kind of, come along with it. When I worked at the summer camp, we even put on this play called The Phantom of the Alamo, which spurns off an Alamo ghost story that’s created in a Phantom of the Opera style, but it’s a story that everyone is familiar with.

            I don’t know if you knew this, but there actually only about four Texans that fought at the Alamo―everybody else was just from the Union who came to help. Sorry, this story just needs some historical background. The Battle of the Alamo lasted thirteen days. The main people in charge of the Alamo were William B. Travis, Jim Bowie, and Davy Crockett. None of them were from Texas, but they were helping out Sam Houston’s cause and they needed to hold the Alamo long enough for Sam Houston to gather an army. They didn’t know they would die―they hoped they would live―but they knew it was a very distinct possibility. So, there were thirteen days, this Battle of the Alamo. They’re outnumbered. . .4,000 Mexican troops and 150 people at the Alamo. So, on day twelve, they know no more help is coming. The help that was supposed to come got held up, like, no one’s coming. The Mexicans have almost closed in on them, so William Barret Travis draws a line in the sand―and this part is great because people never know where it comes from―so he draws a line in the sand, and he says, “Men. . .we probably won’t survive another twenty-four hours, so if you wanna to leave, I understand. But if you wanna stay, and if you wanna die for this cause, and you wanna go down fighting, step over this line.” And so Davy Crockett steps over the line. Jim Bowie, who’s sick on his deathbed from an injury, is on his stretcher and he tells his men to carry him over the line. One by one, 149 Texans cross the line. . . and there’s one man that doesn’t. This one man looks around and he decides it’s not his time to die. So William Barret Travis is, like, “Fine, you can leave the Alamo.” And so he leaves, and he’s the only one that leaves, but as he leaves he can hear the sounds of everyone he left dying because they’re all dying behind him.

            The story goes that this one man―and history says it’s not clear but as a Texan, I believe that this man actually did leave the Alamo―ran into an old woman on his way back. She was a witch and said that it was his job to protect the Alamo from falling into wrong hands ever again because he abandoned all his men. And he didn’t believe her! But as he was running away from this woman, who essentially cursed him, he fell into a river and he drowned. From that point on, it’s said that he walks around in the Alamo when you’re coming to visit or any time the Alamo is in danger since his curse is to protect it. So the play Phantom of the Alamo takes that story and turns it into a musical. Basically, in the feature the Alamo has been turned into a theme park and it’s up to this guy who died fleeing the Alamo to restore the Alamo to its former glory. So if you go to the Alamo it’s said that you can feel him lingering around and making sure you don’t disturb anything.

 

            Highly engaging and dramatic, the informant’s performance of the Alamo legend made it easy for me to imagine the story, as well as its corollary Phantom of the Alamo, performed on a stage. Oftentimes, she recounted parts of the narrative with her eyes closed, as if she were recalling a memory or, in this case, imagining the scene in her head. The informant’s comfort level with the performance led me to believe that she had not only heard and performed it countless times herself―the lack of hesitance or doubt in her voice during her retelling (the pauses were for dramatic effect) made this clear. Moreover her facial expressions were natural and followed the narrative’s plot; the gesticulated wildly with her hands as she described the sickly Jim Bowie who mustered the fortitude to cross the line while on his deathbed. Evidently,  for the informant, the Alamo represents far more than the museum and monument that it is today, and her pride and spirit emerged during the more climactic moments in the story.

            Furthermore, the legend is versatile, perhaps because the story―though embellished―is grounded in history, obscuring the lines of authorship. For example, the haunting end of the man who fled the Alamo only to be cursed lends itself to a nighttime ghost story setting. And although the informant acknowledged the factual events of the Alamo that she and her peers learned in history class, she wholeheartedly admitted that this more fanciful legend is the one they tell when those unfamiliar with the Alamo ask about it. The truth value of “the line in the sand” is irrelevant because, as the informant admitted herself, “as a Texan” she believes in even the more myth-like elements of the legend. Lastly, among Americans, Texans are labeled as proud (the stereotype is that they are obnoxiously so) and this legend clearly utilizes those elements, as the men fight to defend their fatherland knowing that death is imminent. Whether these elements were exaggerated because of the stereotype, or whether the stereotype emerged from legends like that of the Alamo, however, is unclear.

The panty thieving ghost

Nationality: Greek
Occupation: Art History professor, author, photographer
Residence: Echo Park, Los Angeles
Performance Date: 04/17/12
Primary Language: English

In 2011 my informant published a the book, The Empire of Death: A Cultural History of Ossuaries and Charnel Houses. The book’s 260 photographs were gathered by Dr. Koudounaris over the course of five years, during which he traveled to 70 different locations around the world, studying, visiting, and photographing charnel houses.

Dr. Koudounaris’ travels took him to the Catacombe dei Cappuccini (the Catacombs of the Capuchin monastery) in Palermo, Italy. Part of his process of learning about the catacombs included talking to the various fruit and flower vendors who sold their goods across from the monastery. Because the fruit and flower vendors are directly across from the monastery, they know everything that went on there and were able to tell him a variety of ghost stories about the monastery.

“The fruit and flower vendors are an incredible source of information. It’s hard to understand if you live in our type of society. Ya know, a street vendor, in societies like this is a source of incredible information. The fruit and flower vendors are across from the monastery and they know everything that goes on in the monastery. And everyone goes—it’s not like they go to super markets, they go to these vendors—so they are an incredible source of information if you really want to know what goes on in societies like that.”

The story is as follows:

“This one—they call him the postman because he is a wandering ghost. El Postino. He’s not really a postman. All the people down there were high class. He continually returns to people’s homes like a postman and um… El Postino, it’s funny because a friend of mine is actually related to him. His last name is Spinoza and a friend of mine named Jean Spinoza is related to this mummy. He had apparently—this ghost had been sneaking into this beautiful girl’s house in the 20th century and stealing her underpants. He kept coming into her home making sexual advances to her and when she refused him, her underpants started to disappear so she told the monastery about this—that she believed he was a panty thief. Anyway, the public became very outraged as the story grew, that this girl’s underpants were disappearing and that this ghost kept coming to her house so the monastery was forced to allow inspectors to come in and check the premises and apparently behind the mummy in his niche they found some women’s underpants which—ya know the monastery insisted that someone had planted them there, but it seemed by accounts that the mummy had been stealing the underpants. So she was able to get a court injunction prohibiting the mummy, or the ghost more precisely from entering her home. Um… but he violated it because more of her underpants disappeared so the court demanded that the monastery rectify the situation, which… what are they going to do? How can they monitor this ghost? So they went to his mummy and threatened him with burial unless the woman’s underpants stopped disappearing and that apparently did it. He stopped harassing the woman after that.”

When El Postino was ordered by a court injunction to stop stealing the woman’s underwear, it is no surprise that his actions did not cease as any repercussions for violating a court injunction do not apply to the dead. What does apply to El Postino however is the belief of the Capuchin order that the body must be preserved for the coming resurrection. Thus it may be inferred that it was because of this belief that El Postino stopped stealing underwear only when threatened with a burial that may not preserve his body in the same way that his current entombment has.

The stalking ghost

Nationality: Greek
Occupation: Art History professor, author, photographer
Residence: Echo Park, Los Angeles
Performance Date: 04/17/12
Primary Language: English

In 2011 my informant published a the book, The Empire of Death: A Cultural History of Ossuaries and Charnel Houses. The book’s 260 photographs were gathered by Dr. Koudounaris over the course of five years, during which he traveled to 70 different locations around the world, studying, visiting, and photographing charnel houses.

Dr. Koudounaris’ travels took him to the Catacombe dei Cappuccini (the Catacombs of the Capuchin monastery) in Palermo, Italy. Part of his process of learning about the catacombs included talking to the various fruit and flower vendors who sold their goods across from the monastery. Because the fruit and flower vendors are directly across from the monastery, they know everything that went on there and were able to tell him a variety of ghost stories about the monastery.

“The fruit and flower vendors are an incredible source of information. It’s hard to understand if you live in our type of society. Ya know, a street vendor, in societies like this is a source of incredible information. The fruit and flower vendors are across from the monastery and they know everything that goes on in the monastery. And everyone goes—it’s not like they go to super markets, they go to these vendors—so they are an incredible source of information if you really want to know what goes on in societies like that.”

The story is as follows:

“She’s a mummy in the catacombs in Palermo. She tends to develop romantic interests in young male tourists who come to visit. Especially Germans. She’s got this thing—it’s always Germans. Like not Austrians, just Germans. There are over a dozen cases of the ghost of this mummy visiting, and often in the end in very detrimental ways, tourists who have visited the catacombs. If they linger too long in front of her she gets this fixation on them apparently. She’ll appear in their dreams and profess love for them, or appear in their hotel room in this kind of ghostly skeletal form which they of course reject, and then when the reject her she gets vindictive. Especially if they have a girlfriend and she did not know cause then apparently she feels cheated on. If there’s the fräulein involved she doesn’t like it. And so anyways the most notorious of these involved this man from Hamburg in the 1970’s who had visited Palermo with his fiancé and he had stopped to take a photo of her and the skeleton actually fell over onto him so ya know it was very—and I’ve been in these places and I’ve photographed all of these things. I don’t even know how she could fall over because well at least now she seems well held down, but anyways she fell over onto him and he was shaken and left. She appeared that night in a dream and asked him to return and he did not, cause this is the ghost of the skeleton who had just fallen on him. Then the apparition appeared in the shower with him and so he was very upset. She appeared several more times and then when she realized he was there with his fiancé, um, she kind of provoked this catfight with his fiancé. She appeared in the middle of the night—the  ghost did—and grabbed the woman by the hair and threw her down the stairs and broke several of her bones and she wound up in traction and so ya know logically you’d say they should just leave Sicily but they couldn’t because the finance was in traction in the hospital. So they brought a priest to exorcise the hotel room and the hotel room burst into flames and so um, they moved them to Messina and they were safe after that, they just got them out of Palermo and moved them to Messina and she stopped bothering them. But for some time there were signs in the Palermo catacombs advising people not to stop in front of this mummy because she might haunt them but they took the signs down because it was not really helping them in terms of tourist dollars because it was really scaring people and costing them money.”

Of all of the ghost stories my informant told me, this one had occurred the most recently. One may expect for ghost stories to be received with more gravity further back in time, but not so long ago, as my informant said, there were signs in the catacombs warning visitors against the ghost of this particular mummy. The concept of ghosts is something many citizens of Palermo take very seriously, which is most likely a result of Catacombe dei Cappuccini (Catacombs of the Cappuccini) being a town landmark. The catacombs of the Cappuccini monastery are popular enough that they are considered a tourist attraction. Thus, when the sign warning visitors that this mummy might haunt them scared tourists away, it was essential to take it down.

Originally entombment in the catacombs was intended for only deceased friars but it became a status symbol over the centuries for residents to be entombed there. Thus one may theorize that current residents of the town have a stronger connection with the catacombs than they may have had it been limited strictly to the friars.

The Catacombs of the Cappuccini appear on the American paranormal documentary reality series Scariest Places on Earth.