True-Life Adventureland
Ghost Host: Up Close and Personal
Ghost Host: Up Close and Personal
Posted Saturday, July 28, 2007 at 10:52a Pacific Time
"Of course, there's always my way..."
How many hundreds of times had I heard that phrase, while standing in the Haunted Mansion's stretching room or listening to that Ron Howard Haunted Mansion LP as a kid, without ever taking notice of it? Yet I remember, about ten years ago, standing in the stretching room, hearing the Ghost Host utter those words, gazing up to see that swinging corpse in the rafters and all of a sudden realizing: "My way? What the heck is he talking about?"
Questions entered my head in rapid succession:
"His way...the hanging corpse...is that how the Ghost Host died? Suicide...?"
"...Hanging?"
And most interestingly: "Is that the body of the Ghost Host hanging up there right now?"
More questions than answers, and none of this had ever occurred to me before. Besides leaving me feel profoundly enlightened, it also left me feeling incredibly obtuse. Was I--after spending hundreds of hours thinking about this place--the only one in the room who didn't know the meaning of "my way?" (A quick check with my brother standing next to me--who should know the attraction only a little less well than I do--revealed that he'd never thought about it either. So maybe we're both a little slow.)
Just recently, the story took a step forward for me. The Haunted Mansion blog Ghost Relations Department has a post that claims that a particular Haunted Mansion portrait is the likeness of the Ghost Host. And what's displayed in the painting? A creepy, undead-looking gentleman with a tell-tale noose around his neck. Ah-ha. (The post doesn't, however, make any allusions to the "my way"-noose relationship: either they missed it, or it's such an obvious connection that it went unstated.)
Based on the assertion that this is the image of the Ghost Host--which I have no reason to doubt*--it seems clear that the Ghost Host did die by hanging. Was it suicide? Don't know. Is that his body, hanging up there in the rafters? Don't know that either. But just for my own personal satisfaction, I'm going to assume that it is: I like it that way.
There are still questions to be answered (though they likely never will be), but am I the only one who didn't put two-and-two together about the backstory of the Ghost Host?
* GrimGhosts.com also indicates that this image is a representation of the Ghost Host. (Search for the second occurrence of the term "Ghost Host" on the page.)
20 Comments • permalink • link with comments
tags: Laughing Place Podcast, LaughingPlace.com
Comments
I'm like you wendebird. i always assumed that committing suicide was the only way out. I never read any more into it. I love the ride and most little kids don't even look up and I think what scares them is everyone in the elevator screaming(obnoxiously). I love the ride with and without the Halloween dress-up
Posted By aliceinherownland Sunday, August 5, 2007 at 8:20p Pacific Time
I knew someone who had the complete audio for the Nightmare Before Christmas version, From the waiting room before the elevator all the way through "be sure to bring your gift certificate". Where the heck can I find that? I know its not availiable on the CD from the main street music shop.
Posted By gmaletic Saturday, August 4, 2007 at 7:58a Pacific Time
>Hmmm, has anyone ever seen "The Haunted Mansion" the movie? Things are kind of explained there with the whole Master Gracey hanging himslef and the bride being killed.
But the Ghost Host isn't Master Gracey, at least if you go by what you read on the Ghost Releations Dept. blog. (See last paragraph on http://ghostrelationsdept.blog
spot.com/2007/05/ever-changing-hatchetman.html.) It's presented there without any references; if anyone knows how to back that claim up, please post here.
Posted By futureimagineer3 Friday, August 3, 2007 at 9:45p Pacific Time
Hmmm, has anyone ever seen "The Haunted Mansion" the movie? Things are kind of explained there with the whole Master Gracey hanging himslef and the bride being killed. If you haven't seen it i reccommend you do. And as for the whole hanging body making children scared, when i was younger i never even looked up to notice the body hanging. I wasnt until i started going to disneyland more often that i noticed this detail.
Posted By tigger_twin89 Friday, August 3, 2007 at 7:34p Pacific Time
"Thats for WDW's HM
OK first off the Gracey "story line" is fan made olny. It was NEVER the story Disney had planed.
Heres what Disney had in mind.
A bride finds out on her wedding day the groom is a pirate and he kills her. But she still loved him by tell of her beating heart. She haunted the groom and drove him mad till he hung himself.
BUT after Walt died they dropped the story and all thats left is what you see today up till they changed the bride."
That was the exact story I was thinking of!!! Thank you DoomBuggy and sorry about the misunderstanding. Still a good story
Posted By doombuggy Thursday, August 2, 2007 at 10:35p Pacific Time
"Heres stories of the bride thanks to doombuggies.com"
Thats for WDW's HM
OK first off the Gracey "story line" is fan made olny. It was NEVER the story Disney had planed.
Heres what Disney had in mind.
A bride finds out on her wedding day the groom is a pirate and he kills her. But she still loved him by tell of her beating heart. She haunted the groom and drove him mad till he hung himself.
BUT after Walt died they dropped the story and all thats left is what you see today up till they changed the bride.
Posted By wendebird Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 12:31p Pacific Time
Which is why they have other rides. Not everyone likes the same thing.
FWIW, my kids are 8 & 10 & LOVE Mansion. It's just the right amount of scary for them. But then again, everyone's milage varies.
I've never given the story much thought. I've always assumed the Ghost Host was trapped "no windows & no doors" so his only way out was to die, commit suicide, so his spirit would be released.
Posted By kari12177 Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 12:07p Pacific Time
I think they shouldn't have put the person hanging from a noose in the ride. It scares little kids too much and then they never want to ride it again. My mom told me that I hated that ride till I was 13. My son is 10 and he still hates it.
Posted By tigger_twin89 Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 10:27a Pacific Time
Heres stories of the bride thanks to doombuggies.com
"As you may know, Phantom Manor bases its storyline on the unfortunate fate of a young bride, and it does so with brilliant wistfulness. But what about the bride in the attic at the other Mansions?
There are some that say Master Gracey, the supposed owner of the Haunted Mansion, murdered his young bride on the eve of their wedding, after catching her in the attic with a young man, whom he also killed viciously by decapitating him with an old sword; Gracey never had the chance to find out that the young man was merely a runner from the bridal shop, bringing a last-minute collection of veils and hats for the young bride to sample...
Still others claim that Gracey's young bride lost her sanity, and killed herself by leaping off of the top of the old mansion on her wedding day, still wearing her gown, causing Gracey, in a fit of despair, to hang himself from the rafters of his home. It's even been said that Gracey may have killed his bride in the attic after a fit of unsubstantiated jealous rage, and then buried her in a brick column out in the family graveyard after throwing her wedding ring out the attic window in disgust. "
But I cant find anything about the GH:(
Posted By tigger_twin89 Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 10:12a Pacific Time
There is actually a whole story behind the GH and the bride that centers in the manison and why it is huanted, I am looking for it right now but I am having some trouble finding it........
But I have read it before
Posted By hammertime Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 9:54a Pacific Time
I always assumed that the hanging body was the Ghost Host.
I think it's just strong power of suggestion - due to the wording of the spiel.
Posted By Brian55nh Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 8:08a Pacific Time
>>That's the thing, I don't know if it's supposed to be the Ghost Host screaming, because it's a woman's scream.<<
Ah, but that's where you're wrong. Special sound effects wizard Jimmy McDonald actually supplied that scream - and although it is a bit high-pitched, you can definitely detect it's a man supplying it at the tail end of said scream. (Or at least you can if you if you're fortunate enough to get your hands on the source track of this scream sans the "breaking bones" sound effect...)
Posted By gmaletic Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 7:52a Pacific Time
>The implication is that the Ghost Host committed suicide by hanging himself.
Indeed...he absolutely did die by hanging. But how do you make the leap that that's -his- body up there? "My way" doesn't state that that's him...only that the corpse we're seeing died in the same manner. Also, see post #7.
Posted By seanyoda Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 7:43a Pacific Time
<< how do we know it isn't someone else that died of hanging? >>
It's all in the ghost host's spiel...
<< ... which offers you this chilling challenge -- to find a way out. Of course, there's always my way. >>
The implication is that the Ghost Host committed suicide by hanging himself.
Posted By gmaletic Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 7:40a Pacific Time
...and to follow up on that last post, it would seem that the facts indicate that it -isn't- the Ghost Host. I mean, as we saw in my post, there's a painting in the Mansion of the Ghost Host that shows him released from where he was hung. If he's still up there when we see him, then how could the painting already exist that shows him freed? (Yeah, it could be "spooky magic," but you could use that excuse for anything. I'm just trying to go by the facts.)
I know, this is reading deeper into the whole story than it can probably withstand. But it would seem on the facts presented that it is likely NOT the Ghost Host hanging there.
Unless somebody else knows something...any volunteers?
Posted By gmaletic Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 7:35a Pacific Time
doombuggy said:
> your just NOW getting that is GH hanging up there? Ask this same thing over at Doombuggies.com and you'll get the same answer...YES it is.
But is it? I said that I'd like to assume that it is, but how do we know it isn't someone else that died of hanging? (That person would have died "his way," after all, making the statement totally valid.)
Posted By gurgitoy2 Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 7:18a Pacific Time
That's the thing, I don't know if it's supposed to be the Ghost Host screaming, because it's a woman's scream. It could be that it's meant to be somebody else screaming in fright. Maybe to provoke the guests to scream...which they do (obnoxiously, I might add!).
Posted By x Pirate_Princess x Monday, July 30, 2007 at 5:00p Pacific Time
There's one scream from the speakers.
Usually, the guests are screaming, so you don't hear it.
but if you're in there, and actually have a courteous crowd, you'll hear the blood-curdling scream.
Posted By kari12177 Monday, July 30, 2007 at 4:50p Pacific Time
Funny, I never heard anything. The scream was from the speakers? I always thought it was the people in the room. And i too, never thought the spooky voice you hear is the voice of the person hanging.
Posted By doombuggy Monday, July 30, 2007 at 3:46p Pacific Time
your just NOW getting that is GH hanging up there? Ask this same thing over at Doombuggies.com and you'll get the same answer...YES it is. And the scream and smash you hear is his bones falling, for the sound starts at the top and travels down to the floor.
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