31 Days of Hallowe'en: Day Twenty-Two

 Day 22: Montague John Druitt aka Jack the Ripper?

   Over the years there have been many people put forward as suspected of being Jack the Ripper. From theories to probable suspects, there is no shortage. As one of the most famous serial killers in the world, Jack the Ripper is a character who has captured the attention and imagination of many people, especially in England.

   In Whitechapel, London 1888, Jack the Ripper murdered five prostitutes. Mary Ann Nichols was seen alive one hour before her mutilated body was found at 3:40am on Friday 31st August 1888. Her throat had been cut right down to her vertebrae and her body slashed. One week later on 8th September 1888, Annie "Dark Annie" Chapman was discovered at 6am with her throat cut and several body parts missing. It is believed she was killed with people just feet away. There was a witness who claimed to have seen Annie with a man just 30 minutes before she was found. On Sunday 30th September Elizabeth Stride's body was found at 1am with blood still pouring from her throat. Catherine Eddowes body was found just 45 minutes later. It was believed due to the fact that Elizabeth bore no other injuries and had not been dead long led people to believe the killer had been interrupted. Eddowes face was mutilated with several organs removed.  

  The most violent murder was that of Mary Jane Kelly. Unlike the other victims, Mary Kelly was murdered in her room, thus giving the killer a lot longer to mutilate her body without fear of being seen and/or interrupted. Mary's body was found at 10:45am on Friday 9th November, she was to be the last victim.  Her face had been "hacked beyond all recognition", with her throat severed down to the spine, and the abdomen almost emptied of its organs. The heart was missing from the crime scene.

  The identity of Jack the Ripper has never been discovered. Many people have their own ideas and suspects. Books have been written about possible suspects and many believe that the police did talk to him at some point. Most people believe that if the murders occurred today, forensic testing and security footage would lead to the killers identity and conviction but we cannot be sure. A suspect who is favoured among many is Montague John Druitt.

  Druitt was a lawyer who worked as a teacher in London from 1880 onwards. Shortly after the murder of Mary Kelly, on 30th November 1888, Druitt was dismissed from his position for reasons that have never been clear. Shortly afterwards in December, Druitt disappeared and about a month later rumours circulated that the body of Jack the Ripper had been found floating in the river Thames. Druitt's body was found on 31st December 1888 floating in the Thames. The stones found in his pockets led police to believe he had been submerged for one month.  As he was found with a train ticket to Hammersmith dated 1st December, a silver pocket watch, a cheque for £50 and £16 in gold it was believed that he had been dismissed from the school after being accused of being a homosexual and/ or a pederast and therefore had committed suicide. There was speculation that the money was a final payment from the school and he had so much on him, he was planning to pay off a blackmailer. It is however strange that he would commit suicide with such items still on his person it is also strange that, if he was murdered as some believe, the murderer did not take at least the money and pocket watch. As £16 of gold is about £1,800 in todays money and the £50 cheque £5,600, it is unlikely he was killed by his blackmailer. It could however, have been that either the murderer did not have time to go through the pockets of his victim, or even did not know Druitt had the money on him. His death was officially ruled a suicide but there are still those who believe Druitt himself was the victim of a murderer. 

  At the inquest into Druitt's death, his brother gave  testimony 

William H. Druitt said he lived at Bournemouth, and that he was a solicitor. The deceased was his brother, who was 31 last birthday. He was a barrister-at-law, and an assistant master in a school at Blackheath. He had stayed with witness at Bournemouth for a night towards the end of October. Witness heard from a friend on the 11th of December that deceased had not been heard of at his chambers for more than a week. Witness then went to London to make inquiries, and at Blackheath he found that deceased had got into serious trouble at the school, and had been dismissed. That was on the 30th of December. Witness had deceased's things searched where he resided, and found a paper addressed to him (produced). The Coroner read the letter, which was to this effect: - "Since Friday I felt I was going to be like mother, and the best thing for me was to die." Witness, continuing, said deceased had never made any attempt on his life before. His mother became insane in July last. He had no other relative.”

  Although a lot of facts about the case and the probability of Druitt''s guilt is disputed, it was said at the time that many people, including members of Druitt's family believed him to be the ripper, it would explain why Mary Kelly was the last victim. Also, if it was correct that Druitt was of "unsound mind" when he died as was believed and reported, a killing spree could be attributed to his mental illness. If it was suicide it could have been partly due to his guilt over the murders, if he was the ripper and was a victim of murder himself, it would be poetic justice. As I said, there is no shortage of suspects and many have their own theories, There are those that are sure Druitt was the murderer, and those who say it couldn't possibly have been him. Whomever Jack the Ripper really was, his secret is dead and gone forever.

 

31 Days of Hallowe'en: Day Twenty-One

 Day 21: The Enfield Poltergeist

   In Enfield, London, England in the late 1970s, two sisters claimed to experience poltergeist activity in their home, a council house in Brimsdown. Margaret was 13 and Janet was 11 when the hauntings started and it continued for eighteen months. While many have been sceptical about the claims of the girls and their family, some believe the hauntings were genuine and, to this day, the girls claim they were telling the truth. 

  In August 1977, Peggy Hodson (the single mother of the girls and two other children) called the police claiming she had witnessed furniture moving and that two of her children had heard knocking sounds on the walls. A police constable that responded said that, while there, she saw a large armchair "wobble and slide" but could not determine the cause. The chair apparently moved four feet across the floor. The police however informed them that there was no-one breaking the law and it was not a police matter. The case was reported by the Daily Mirror and attracted the attention of The Society of Psychical Research (SPR) and several paranormal investigators including Ed and Lorraine Warren. 

  Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon-Playfair from the SPR and the Warrens said that they believed the incidents at the house were caused by a supernatural entity. Initially, Guy had not wanted to get involved. It was after hearing Maurice Grosse on the news. Maurice had spent a night at the house with a BBC reporter and Guy realised that it was a big story that wouldn't wait for him. Various people (at least 30) over the eighteen months described seeing heavy furniture move on it's own, objects thrown across the room and the girls levitating. Some also reported hearing knocking noises and a gruff voice. Other phenomena experienced by the family was cups randomly filling with water, fires igniting on oven gloves and match boxes and then just going out without damaging the matches in the box.

  Both Margaret and Janet admitted later that, though the haunting was real, they fabricated some evidence when investigators and journalists were present. Janet was caught on camera bending spoons and attempting to bend an iron bar. she was also caught banging a broom handle on the ceiling and hiding an investigator's tape recorder. Janet had also been practising ventriloquism and one of the voices heard, Bill, had a habit of changing the topic, a habit Janet had. however, there were people who said they couldn't understand how Janet would be able to sustain the gruff and raspy voice for as long as she did without hurting her throat.  When "Bill Wilkins" spoke, the words came out of Janet's mouth and she said it felt like they were coming from behind her. At one point the voice described how he had died. That he had gone blind, had a haemorrhage and died "in the chair in the corner downstairs". Bill's son Terry, confirmed that that was how his father had died in the house. Janet said that at one point, Maurice Grosse had filled Janet's mouth with water and taped it shut, yet the voice still spoke clearly.  The list of evidence that the girls were making it up makes many people believe that the whole story was fabricated and they experienced no paranormal activity. 

  The photo of Janet apparently being thrown across the room is widely debated. While some see it as proof of the activity, critics and sceptics say that it looks like she is jumping. Janet said what happened was that she felt cold hands and a force pulled her out of bed. This happened on several occasions. sometimes she would just be dragged to the door, other times she would be thrown through the air. The photos were taken by a newspaper journalist but he wasn't there at the time. The camera had been left in the girl's room, set to take photos every few seconds.

  On an interview on This Morning in 2012, Janet (whose surname is now Winter) described what went on in the home. Guy Lyon-Playfair and sceptic Deborah Hyde were also at the interview. Janet said the first experience was her and her brother hearing shuffling noises than seeing a chest of drawers move by itself. After witnessing it herself and not being able to push the chest back and becoming scared, the mother told everyone to come downstairs. They went to a neighbour, Vic Nottingham for help and upon experiencing the same was so scared he fled the house. It was at this point Peggy called the police. Janet recounted some of the incidents and said the scariest thing was when she was in bed and a curtain wrapped itself around her neck. 

   Guy Lyon-Playfair, when asked by Philip Schofield what he had witnessed in the house, said that he remembers an armchair and table moving and toppling over when Janet was no-where near them (the armchair was the same one the police officer saw). He said also "about a thousand" other things. He said that he heard the voice of Bill and it terrified everyone including the speech therapist they brought in. He said that the therapist refused to be interviewed and ran from the room. He said Bill could speak through Janet for hours without Janet getting a sore throat, which is effectively impossible. 

  When sceptic Deborah mentioned the girls fabrication and recodings being tampered with, Guy said that she was mistaken and misinterpreting things she had either read or heard. He said that the girls tampering with a recording was when they tried to do a video recording and the tape recordings they got was genuine. When Deborah said that a member of the SPR had done a further investigation and concluded the stories were false, Guy again corrected her. He said the individual she was taking about had actually concluded it was genuine. She just understood that some evidence had been fabricated by the girls but said the haunting itself and some incidents were in fact due to supernatural forces. Deborah argued her point that people can be influenced by their own imagination, that our memories aren't the best and we can both see things that are not there and not see things that are. Guy told her that you had to see such things to believe them and he was there and she wasn't. Janet also said that Deborah wasn't there, has no idea what it was like, what she went through, how she feels and how it affects her to this day. 

  In closing the interview, Philip Schofield said that after Peggy died a woman named Claire Bennet and her family moved into the home. Claire said that although she didn't see anything, she did feel "uncomfortable. There was definitely some kind of presence in the house so I always felt like somebody was looking at me." They moved out after just two months.

  Over 40 years after the event which grabbed headlines and the publics attention, the Enfield poltergeist story is still remembered, discussed and even adapted for entertainment. The Sky Living 2015 series 'The Enfield Haunting' was very popular and even The Conjuring 2 was about Ed and Lorraine's investigation into the case. It is one of the 'true' ghost stories that has endured and probably will for many years. There are those that believe the whole thing was fabricated, those that believe there is a mix of truth and fabrication to the case and some that believe the whole thing is true and the stories of Janet's fabrication are invented and/or exaggerated to discredit her account of events. 

  Was Janet the target of a poltergeist? Did unexplainable things really happen? Was it fevered imagination and/or some form of mass hysteria that led to so many witnesses claiming the stories were true or did these people really see what they claimed? It is one of the cases we may again never learn the truth about definitively. After all, Janet rarely talks about what happened, her This Morning appearance was a rare interview. It may be that one day Janet admits it was fake or she may go to her grave insisting it is true. Either way, the Enfield Poltergeist is one of the true ghost stories that makes our world so much more exciting.

31 Days of Hallowe'en: Day Twenty

 Day 20: Borley Rectory

  Once dubbed 'the most haunted house in England' Borley Rectory boasted lots of paranormal activity. It was built in 1862 to house the rector of the parish and his family, it is alleged to have been haunted from practically day one (the first recorded evet was in 1863). After it was badly damaged by fire in 1939, some individuals claimed to have seen three ghostly figures in the wreckage. The rectory was demolished in 1944 and has never been rebuilt.

  In 1863, locals reported hearing unexplained footsteps when nobody was around. On 28 July 1900, four daughters of the rector thought they saw the ghost of a nun outside the house. They tried to communicate with the apparition but it disappeared as they got closer. People said that the family were convinced they had seen ghostly apparitions. During the next forty years, various people claimed to have seen strange things including a ghostly coach being driven by two headless horsemen. 

  

  On 2nd October 1928, over 15 months since the rectory had been left vacant, the Reverend Guy Smith and his wife moved in .While clearing out a cupboard, Mrs Smith found a paper bag containing a woman's skull. shortly after, the family claimed to hear the disconnected servant bells ringing at night, lights appearing in windows and unexplainable footsteps. Mrs Smith believed she had seen the ghostly carriage at night. The Smiths were put in touch with the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) via The Daily Mirror. The newspaper sent a reporter on 10th June 1929 who wrote the first in a series of articles about the mysteries of the rectory. Paranormal researcher Harry Price was sent to the house by the paper and reported many new phenomena such as the throwing of stones and other objects and the tapping out of spirit messages on the mirror. However these strange new phenomena left with Price, leading the family to believe the expert conjuror to have made it up. The family left the property on 14th July 1929 leaving the rectory vacant again and the parish struggling to replace them.

  On 16th October 1930, Reverend Lionel Algernon Foyster and his wife Marianne moved in with their adopted daughter Adelaide. Lionel Foyster wrote of the strange apparently paranormal incidents that occurred between the day they moved in and October 1935. These included bell ringing, windows shattering, wall-writing and his daughter being locked in her room despite no key being used. This report was sent to Harry Price. Marianne complained of poltergeist activity that included her being thrown form her bed. On one occasion Adelaide claimed to have been attacked by "something horrible". Foyster attempted two exorcisms, during the first, he was struck in the shoulder by a fist sized stone and after the second, nothing had changed. Several psychic researchers were drawn to the cases reported in the Daily Mirror but decided Marianne had caused, perhaps unconsciously, the incidents recorded. Marianne later said that her husband and one of the researchers had been responsible for some incidents but she believed others to be genuine paranormal phenomena. She later admitted she had been having an affair with a lodger and had fabricated some of the phenomena to cover up their liaisons. One of the paranormal phenomena that captured attention and imagination was the wall-writing. Whoever or whatever was doing it, seemed to be trying to communicate directly with Marianne. One message seemed to read "Light mass prayers" and another "Marianne get help" it seemed someone needed help, possibly spiritual, from Marianne. The most famous message  seems to read "Marianne get help, to die unrepentant bothers me" Marianne replied to the messages by writing responses in capitals on the wall. Under the famous message she wrote "I cannot understand, tell me more". Under this was written a message that is indecipherable, though it seems the words "light", "and" and "of" seem to be part of it. Marianne again replied, writing "I still cannot understand. Please tell me  more". as a result of Lionel's ill health, the Foysters left the rectory in October 1935.

  In May 1937, Harry Price rented the property from the owners for a year. He recruited 48 official observers who spent mainly weekends at the rectory, with instructions to report any phenomena that occurred. The daughter of one of the helpers conducted a planchette séance in London in March 1938. This woman, Helen, claimed to make contact with a spirit who identified herself as  Marie Lairre. Marie was a French nun who had left her order and travelled to England to marry a member of the family that owned Borley Hall in the 17th century. Marie claimed to have been murdered on a property that had been on the same site as the rectory. Helen said Marie's body had either been buried in the cellar or thrown down a disused well. As on of the wall writings to Marianne Foyster had been "Marianne, please help me get out" it was alleged that the wall writings were from Marie. Helen claimed to have made contact with a second spirit who identified himself as Sunex Amures. Sunex claimed he would set fire to the rectory at nine o clock 27th March 1938, that night. He said that, at that time, the bones of a murdered person would be revealed. 

  On 27th February 1939, the new owner of the rectory was unpacking boxes when he accidentally knocked over an oil lamp in the hall. The fire spread through the property and severely damaged the house. Miss Williams from nearby Borley Lodge claimed that she saw the figure of a ghostly nun in an upstairs window. In August 1943, Harry Price conducted a dig in the cellar of the ruined house and two bones were discovered. While some believed they were the bone of a young woman, Borley refused to give them a Christian burial claiming they were the bones of  pig. The bones were instead given a Christian burial in Liston churchyard.

  There was a story that a monastery had been built in the area and in 1362, a monk from the monastery conducted a relationship with a nun from a nearby convent. When their relationship was discovered the monk was executed and the nun bricked up alive for breaking their vows. However, there is no historical evidence. Though there have been cases of monks and nuns in relationships and people being bricked up alive, this particular story was likely fabricated by the children who lived in the rectory in 1863 to romanticize their home.

  After Price's death in 1948, Daily Mail reporter Charles Sutton accused him of faking phenomena. Sutton claimed that whilst visiting the rectory with Price in 1929 he was hit on the head by a large pebble. Sutton stated that he seized Price and found his coat pockets filled with different sized stones.

In 1948, Eric Dingwall, K. M. Goldney and Trevor H. Hall, three members of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), two of whom had been Price's most loyal associates, investigated his claims about Borley. Their findings were published in a 1956 book, The Haunting of Borley Rectory, which concluded that Price had fraudulently produced some of the phenomena.

  The "Borley Report", as the SPR study has become known, stated that many of the phenomena were either faked or due to natural causes such as rats and the strange acoustics attributed to the odd shape of the house. In their conclusion, Dingwall, Goldney, and Hall wrote "when analysed, the evidence for haunting and poltergeist activity for each and every period appears to diminish in force and finally to vanish away." Terence Hines wrote that "Mrs. Marianne Foyster, wife of the Rev. Lionel Foyster who lived at the rectory from 1930 to 1935, was actively engaged in fraudulently creating [haunted] phenomena. Price himself 'salted the mine' and faked several phenomena while he was at the rectory."

Marianne Foyster, later in her life, admitted she had seen no apparitions and that the alleged ghostly noises were caused by the wind, friends she invited to the house and in other cases by herself playing practical jokes on her husband. Many of the legends about the rectory had been invented. The children of the Rev. Harry Bull who lived in the house before Lionel Foyster claimed to have seen nothing and were surprised they had been living in what was described as England's most haunted house.

  Robert Hastings was one of the few SPR researchers to defend Price. Price's literary executor Paul Tabori and Peter Underwood have also defended Price against accusations of fraud. A similar approach was made by Ivan Banks in 1996. Michael Coleman in an SPR report in 1997 wrote Price's defenders are unable to rebut the criticisms convincingly.

  It may be that Borley rectory was haunted and certain people falsified some incidents to make it more exciting and/or to keep the legend alive. It may be that every incident can be explained or was fabricated. The truth may never be known, Borley Rectory is no longer there. The most haunted house in England, or ghost stories that got out of hand? You decide.

  

  

31 Days of Hallowe'en: Day Eighteen

 Day Eighteen: Leprechauns 

  This post is not about the films, I just want to clarify that to start. I have not seen any of the Leprechaun films and I don't intend to. It may be one day that I am at a friend's and they decide to subject me to it but, so far, I have never seen them. I do however, intend to talk about Leprechauns and how scary they actually are.

  

   Leprechauns have gone a similar way to unicorns and become, happy cartoony parodies of themselves. Original stories of leprechauns were not quite as pleasant as we have ben led to believe. I do remember an episode of the Ghostbusters animated series that featured a Leprechaun, I quite enjoyed that one. 

   Leprechaun myth actually started off quite innocently. Leprechauns were solitary Irish fairies that liked making shoes and sometimes causing mischief. Not necessarily malevolent or evil creatures, they liked to mess with people a little and play their pranks. Similar to many early folk characters. As time passed, they became a lot more sinister. 

  These days, leprechauns are rather ugly creatures, wizened, old and bent over, they are grotesque litle creatures who are not to be trusted. Leprechauns offer people gold. Leprechauns like gold and often have a cauldron of it. Often they will ask a question, sometimes a riddle and the way the people answer determines their fate. If you accept the leprechaun's challenge you have to answer, you have no choice. Answer incorrectly (or refuse and/or try to back out) and the leprechaun takes it's revenge. It is unclear what happens to some people. Some are cursed to spend the rest of their lives in poverty, some simply disappear. Whether the ones who disappear are dead or simply somewhere else is rarely revealed. As stories of malevolent and mischievous fairies often have them stealing people away to the fairy world, it is fair to assume this may be the fate of some of the leprechauns' victims. 

  One thing about leprechauns is that you don't want to mess with them. Any attempt to trick a leprechaun or steal it's gold will not end well. Some leprechauns guard the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, if you steal it, it will take it's revenge. If not on you, it will take it's revenge on your descendants. In the Ghostbusters episode I watched, the leprechaun appeared to people asking "Where's me gold?" Even though some people tried to repay the leprechaun, as they didn't have the original gold and did not know where it was, the leprechaun took it's revenge and the people disappeared. I didn't watch the whole episode so I don't know how the Leprechaun was defeated (if he was) and what became of the people he had already taken. By all means enlighten me.

  While I have not seen the films, as I understand it, it focuses on a malevolent and murderous leprechaun called Luban, who is after his gold. In the first film he targets a family whom he believes has stolen his pot of gold. That's pretty much all I know and I learned most of that from Wikipedia. 

 All in all there are two kind of leprechauns, the overdone, overused sweet Irish little men who seem to be constantly celebrating St Patrick's Day and the evil, scheming little creatures it is probably best to avoid. Either way, they have become part of popular culture. Of course Artemis Fowl fans are familiar with the Lep-Recons, but other than that, they're pretty run of the mill fairies of today.

31 Days of Hallowe'en: Day Nineteen

 Day19: Disney's Grim Grinning Ghosts

When the crypt door creaks and the tombstones quake

Spooks come out for a swinging wake

Happy haunts materialize

And begin to vocalize

Grim Grinning ghosts come out to socialize

  Whether Phantom Manor or the Haunted Mansion, Disney's haunted house ride is one of it's scarier offerings. While comical in many ways, not least due to the singing busts introducing us to Grim Grinning Ghosts, the storyline is a sad one turned disturbing. As I have never been to America, I will be talking about Phantom Manor prior to it's 2019 refurbishment.

  Henry Ravenswood was a Western settler who struck gold in Big Thunder Mountain and founded the Big Thunder Mining Company, thus creating the city of Thunder Mesa. Ravenswood became rich and built himself a Victorian manor high on Boot Hill overlooking Big Thunder Mountain, where he lived with his wife Martha and his daughter, Melanie Ravenswood (born 1842).

  Big Thunder Mountain was rumoured by natives to be home to the Thunder Bird, a powerful spirit possessing a treasure. According to the legend, its wrath could be materialized into a terrible earthquake. However, Ravenswood would not believe such stories. Years went by and the gold in Big Thunder Mountain became scarce, making miners dig deeper into the mountain.

  Melanie grew from a young girl into a beautiful young woman and became drawn to several suitors who planned to take her far away from Thunder Mesa, much to the dismay of Henry. Henry did everything he could to stop this, with the first four being subjected to various cruel fates. Sawyer Bottom was sawed in half by a saw blade, Captain Rowan D. Falls fell off of a waterfall, Ignatius "Iggy" Knight was blown up by dynamite and Barry Claude was mauled to death by a bear. With Bottom, Falls, Knight and Claude all dead, Henry's attempts became useless in order to stop Melanie in the midst of being engaged to a train engineer named Jake. When a terrible earthquake killed him and Martha in 1860. It seemed the Thunder Bird had been awakened and the family was never heard of again. After several years, the story of what really happened came out from underneath the rubble:

  On Melanie's wedding day, a mysterious Phantom unknown to anyone appeared in the house. Unbeknownst to anyone, this was the spirit of Henry himself, seeking vengeance on Jake for his defiance of him. While Melanie was preparing in her room, Henry lured Jake up to the attic where he hanged him by the neck from the rafters.

  In the ballroom, the bride sat alone. Hours went by with no sign of the groom. Guests slowly filed away, leaving Melanie alone in the house with the staff of maids and butlers. "Some day", she told herself, "he will come". And so, having never taken off her wedding dress or dropped her flower bouquet, in preparation for her loved one's return, she wandered the house aimlessly, singing melancholy songs of lost love.

  But Henry was still in the house, laughing at his daughter's devotion to her intended husband. One after one, Henry invited his dead, demonic friends from the afterlife to fill the house in an eternal party. A dark curse fell upon the house and the shape of the house was slowly transformed by the evil forces. No one ever set foot in the house ever since.

  Inside and outside, the house was decaying with age. Dusty cobwebs covered every inch, the disheartened staff not caring, for it was rumoured that Melanie had lost her mind. She wandered the house for years and years, singing softly to her groom, while all around her demons and ghosts revelled and danced. Everywhere she went she was reminded of the wedding. Her father's eternal laughter still carried through the walls of the house. Outside, the once beautiful grounds were falling apart and crumbling. The gilded staircase and structure were dotted with mould and trees and every plant on the grounds died. As if sensing the evil inherent in the house, nothing living ever trod there. Even so, Melanie kept her hopes, waiting for her love's return and never figured why he didn't show up at the wedding.

  The earthquake that killed her parents all those years ago cut a huge gouge in the west half of the property and in the crumbling ghost town of the old Thunder Mesa. The deserted buildings were rumoured to be called Phantom Canyon, the dark supernatural version of the town and anyone who entered the ghastly old town at night never came back.

  If Melanie Ravenswood is still alive in that old house on the hill she is well over 100 years old. Her beautiful voice still carries over the town at night though, through the walls of the house and night air. And sometimes, people still see lights in the house.

  Some nights, when the moon is full and the sky is clear of clouds, one can still hear the lonely mourning of the bride, the maniacal laughter of Henry, and the faint tinkle of glass and the laughter of party guests. Whether she is alive or not, what is well known is that poor Melanie never really left the crumbling mansion. She waits for a groom until Judgment Day.

  A tragic story with a Miss Havisham feel to it, some who don't know the story came up with a slightly more sinister one of their own. They said the skeleton is actually the Bride's groom, actually not human and leaving her alone on her wedding day the dancing ghosts are the guests she never let leave. A decaying wedding feat is visible in the ballroom and they say "the food went bad and she went rotten". Her heart broken by her false fiancé she was driven mad but kept her hope that she would still have her wedding day and therefore never took off her dress, never let the guests leave and never cleared away the rotting wedding feast, essentially keeping everything ready for when her groom would come and fulfil her dreams. The section of the ride with a broken down town is the remains of Henry Ravenswood's once affluent town now derelict with only a few residents who have no where else to go remaining. Essentially passing the time the only way they know how until they die. They are trapped by their way of life.

   Even in the day light, Phantom Manor is an eerie sight, really a perfect looking haunted house. What has become cliché works for Disney.

    One part of Phantom Manor that has always stuck with me is the lift (elevator). While I have since learnt that if I had looked up before leaving it I would have seen Jake, Melanie's unfortunate fiancé, hanging from the rafters, I'm both glad and sorry to say I never did that. What stuck with me was the stretching portraits. Seemingly pleasant paintings stretch to show the horror just beneath the frame.

  A couple (Melanie and one of her suitors, possibly Jake)enjoying a picnic becomes creatures, including snakes and spiders, descending to eat their food. Melanie paddling in a river becomes her about to be dragged under by a green monster. Melanie in a rose garden then shows a zombie climbing out of the grave beyond. Melanie enjoying a boat ride becomes her about to plunge over a waterfall. The corridor we next walk down shows pictures that change as you pass them. A pretty woman becomes a were-panther, a ship becomes a ghost ship with shredded sails, a young woman becomes a stony gorgon and a knight on horseback becomes a skeletal knight on a skeletal horse. I actually thought these were pretty cool when I first saw them as they change back and forth as you walk along the corridor.

   As it has been over twenty years since I last enjoyed this ride, there is a lot of it I can't remember. Watching a ride through via Youtube did jog my memory a little but there are some parts I don't remember. I do remember the graveyard and Melanie's ghostly singing from the house. 

   The Graveyard has it's share of dark and comical tombstones. There are the graves of Henry and Martha Ravenswood and an unnamed grave in which a beating heart can be heard which is probably Melanie's. The Graveyard does give a bit of humour to the end of the ride. If you don't want to read all these (or get bored) scroll down to the next (graveyard) photo.

Henry (1795 - 1860) and Martha's graves (1802-1860)  : Quarrelled And Fought As Man And Wife, Now Silent Together Beyond This Life

Jasper Jones, Loyal Manservant, Died 1866 'Kept The Master Happy'

Anna Jones, Faithful Chambermaid, Died 1867 'Kept The Master Happier'

Mary Murphy 1837-1858 "'Til death..."

Frank Ballard 1829 -1859 "...do us part"

Ma Ballard 1800-1859 "Over my dead body"

B Arnold "Cold Is My Bed But Oh, I Love It, For Colder Are My Friends Above It"

Here lies Leadfoot Fred "Danced Too Slow And Now He's Dead" 1802-1866

Rest In Peace Barroom Benny "Seems He Took One Drink Too Many"

"Shorty" Smith 1862

Red Hot Harry "He Was Hot But He Was Slow So He Got Put Six Feet Below"

Valentin "dit le Desosé Ici reposent les miettes d'un homme brisé" ("the boneless" Here lie the pieces of a broken man)

Dakota Dick "Pendu le 17 octobre 1867 Descendu le 18 janvier 1868 Poignardé le 18 décembre 1868 Empoissonné le 21 mai 1869 Il Reviendra" (Hanged 17th October 1867, Shot 18th January 1868, Stabbed 18th December 1868, Poisoned 21st May 1869 He'll Be Back)

Jacques Shrillman "Lynché par une poignée de melomanes Une fause note l'aua tue le 9 mai 1865" (Lynced by a bunch of music lovers A wrong not was his end 9th May 1865)

These Miners Were Told About Digging Too Fast They Lost All Their Gold In A Dynamite Blast

Peg Leg McBrogue the River Rogue Walked the Plank and Sank.

(squirrel tombstone) November 13, 1865 - Breakfast time

(Cougar tombstone) November 13, 1865 – Lunch time

(Hunter tombstone) November 13, 1865 – Dinner time

(Bear tombstone) November 13, 1885 – Hibernating in Happiness

After Years of Hearty Hunting

  Whether Phantom Manor or The Haunted Mansion (I honestly thing Phantom Manor sounds better) Disney's haunted house mixes humour, horror and tragedy to bring us a spooky ride that has lasted for over 50 years. If you choose to visit this attraction ant time of the year, there is one important message Melanie has for you.

Hurry back, be sure to bring your death certificate. We've been...dying to have you.

31 Days of Hallowe'en: Day Seventeen

Day 17: The Hunchback of Notre Dame

  Type the title of Victor Hugo's 1831 gothic novel into google and you get the 1996 Disney version. You can guess this film has a happier ending than the novel, even the 1939 film has a happier ending then the novel. It is one of those novels that has been adapted for stage and screen many times. Lon Chaney took on the role in 1923. It has also been turned into a ballet, several times. Practically every type of media has adapted this novel. There have been comics, films, tv series, plays, musicals, radio plays, even a video game. 

 

  The main protagonists in the novel are Quasimodo, the hunchback, a 20 year old deformed man who was abandoned as a baby, Archdeacon Claude Frollo, Quasimodo's master who adopted him when he was abandoned and Esmerelda, a 16 year old, beautiful gypsy Quasimodo falls in love with. The whole novel is pretty dark. I don't want to give too much away but Esmerelda's love interest, Phoebus is not a likeable character. In the Disney film he is of course the dashing hero. In the novel he is engaged when he meets Esmerelda and does not love her, as she is beautiful however he has no problem with trying to get her into bed. He still wants to marry his fiancée who is, of course, a noblewoman. Esmerelda is just a fling for him, a bit of fun. Her friendship with Quasimodo begins when she gives him water after he has been flogged in public for attempting to kidnap her (on the orders of Frollo) and develops when he saves her from being hanged on a false charge. In the end four men fall for Esmerelda; Phoebus, Captain of the King's Archers who attempts to seduce her before going back to his fiancée, Quasimodo, the mostly deaf bell ringer to whom she shows kindness and forgiveness, something rare to him, Claude Frollo, who struggles with his lust for Esmerelda and the rules he follows in his job and Pierre Gringoire, a young man who Esmerelda saves from hanging by a group of beggars by agreeing to be his wife for four years. This is following his unintentionally discovering the Court of Miracles where beggars and gypsies live hiding from the law. To preserve the secret he stumbles upon, he must either die or marry one of them. Esmerelda pities him but is infatuated with Phoebus, even though Pierre does truly care for her.

   In the novel after trying and failing to win Esmerelda's heart, Frollo ultimately betrays her. Quasimodo is left heartbroken and, without giving too much away, no-one gets their happy ending. Many aspects had to be changed or completely removed for this story to be a suitable Disney film. With clearer villains and heroes than the novel, it had a fairy-tale feel to it and loose ends were tied up in the straight to DVD sequel (or so I hear, I do not plan to watch it, it sounds awful).

  The novel itself centres very much on the cathedral of Notre Dame (Notre Dame is French for Our Lady). The gothic design and the beauty of the cathedral was something Victor Hugo was trying to promote. So many beautiful historic buildings were being demolished, replaced and /or changed. He didn't want it to happen to the cathedral. It's design and architecture being so beautiful. Although this has been lost in some adaptations, Disney animators went to Paris and drew the cathedral to ensure they did it justice in the film.

   I have no problem with disneyfied stories, I love Disney. I just want people to know a little about the original...I have no regard for people's childhood I really don't. The only reason I haven't said more about the story is that I don't want to ruin it for people who may want to read it in the future. People shouldn't expect a happy ending, it is a gothic novel after all. Of course the Disney version had the moral of appearances not meaning anything and all that, it had to have something of a happy ending, it is Disney after all. Since Snow White awoke to the arms of her prince we have come to accept it. By all means have some family friendly fun and watch it, I will. Starts off with  nice bit of murder. 

 

 It was strange to some people that the film didn't get a PG rating, it deals with some pretty heavy stuff. Murder, abuse, lust and Esmerelda does essentially pole dance in one scene. Frollo's character was changed to a judge so as not to offend people. Who wants their kids to watch an archdeacon lust after a woman he then tries to kill? For a darker film but still with a happier ending than the novel, watch the 1939 film. l don't know how the 1923 one ends, but by all means have a silent movie night, I totally want to do that but don't think I have any friends who'd be up for it. Whatever you choose, even if you seek out another film, another adaptation or if you just read the book I will tell you something. Watch the 1996 Disney film to catch a couple of cameos. Look out for Belle wandering through the streets of Paris with her nose in a book, a trader shaking out Aladdin's carpet and Pumbaa cooking on a spit. Enjoy!

31 Days of Hallowe'en: Day Sixteen

 Day 16: The Phantom of the Opera

  Probably best known as the hugely successful Andrew Lloyd Webber musical (the longest running show on Broadway) The Phantom of the Opera is actually a novel by French author Gaston Leroux. Gaston Leroux was famous for detective novels and in 1909, Le Fantome De L'Opera was published as a serialisation. In 1910, it was published as a book. A mere 15 years later, Hollywood turned it into a film starring Lon Chaney, the man of a thousand faces. Since then, it has been adapted many times for stage and screen. There are about films that at least keep important elements of the original plot. There are other films that reference some of the characters or use them in a complete different story. There are also stage, television, stage, radio and literary adaptations. There have been quite a few sequels, most are literary works but in 2010 Andrew Lloyd Webber released the sequel Love Never Dies which was inspired by the 1999 Frederick Forsyth novel Phantom of Manhattan.

   The original novel follows the characters Christine Daaé, a Swedish singer who is part of the Opera Garnier's ballet company who dreams of being a Prima Donna. Christine receives free singing lessons from a disembodied voice who she believes is The Angel of Music, sent to her from heaven by her father. The Phantom who's name is Erik, is a disfigured lonely genius who lives in the cellars of the opera house and is referred to as the Opera Ghost. He receives a salary for being the ghost and uses box 5 to watch the opera productions and sends notes to the management suggesting improvements. Erik teaches Christine to sing and gradually falls in love with her, hoping she may one day come to love him. He is possessive and obsessive. He was disfigured from birth and wears a mask to hide his face and lacks a nose. His face is described as looking like that of a corpse with thin yellow skin. Raoul is the Vicomte De Chagny who, with his brother the Comte, is a patron of the Opera House. He and Christine knew each other as children and he is Christine's love interest. Although the ages of the characters is never revealed in the book it is estimated that Christine is between 18 and 21 Raoul is a similar age but probably 20-25. At one point in the novel  both Christine and Raoul are referred to as children but it means they are young and perhaps not quite seen as adults by society yet which would make them in their early 20s at most. The Phantom is about 50.  

   The Phantom teaches Christine to improve her singing under the guise of being the Angel her father promised to send her. When Christine's old friend Raoul arrives and threatens Christine's budding career and her relationship with the Phantom, he reveals who he really is and when Christine removes his mask against his wishes and reveals his deformity, their relationship is so damaged that his love turns to obsession, his genius tips towards madness and Christine finds herself caught between two men in a violent battle for her heart.

  In adaptations the age of the characters can vary depending on the story. Most adaptations have the main story of an outcast falling in love with a beautiful young singer and doing what he can to advance her career. He often has a rival and can sometimes love the female lead in a platonic but no less intense way. Probably the best known adaptations are the following.

1943

  A film starring Claude Rains and Susanna Foster. In this film the character Erique Claudin is a violinist employed at the Paris Opera House. He is secretly devoted to young soprano Christine DuBois. In this version Erique becomes the Phantom after acid is thrown in his face. Christine has two love interests, Anatole, a tenor who sings in the Opera and Raoul, a police officer investigating the strange goings on at the Opera House. Originally, Enrique Claudin was revealed to be Christine's father and that is why he is so devoted to her. However, creators of the film were concerned that it may lead to Christine and Claudin's relationship to appear incestuous, despite there being no love story between them in the film. Consequently, the scene in which Christine's guardian reveals the truth to Anatole who promises to keep it a secret, was cut. This is the first adaptation in which the Phantom's disfigurement is inflicted rather than a birth defect.

1962

   Hammer Horror's take on the Phantom moved the location to England and London's Opera House. Similar in many ways to the 1943 film, the Phantom is a sympathetic character who's deformity is caused by an accident in which nitric acid is splashed on his face. While there seems again to be lack of a romantic relationship between the Phantom and Christine, she is still the focus of his attentions and he teaches her to sing.

1974

   The rock version focused more on Faustian aspects and parodied multiple films and pop culture references. While the Phantom in this version does fall for Phoenix, the beautiful singer, their relationship is short and seemingly his love is largely unrequited. Christine's potential love interest in this film is a corrupt, producer who has made a deal with the devil. A darker and more tragic take on the story, the Phantom's disfigurement is again, the result of an accident.  

1983

  Michael York (ten years after he played d'Artangan in The Three Musketeers), Jane Seymour (Fresh from The scarlet Pimpernel and still famous for the role of Solitaire in Live and Let Die) and  Maximilian Schell starred in  a TV movie version of the story. In  this story, Jane Seymour's character resembles the Phantom's wife who killed herself after a bad review. 

1986

   Andrew Lloyd Webber adapted the story into an award winning musical starring Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman. The longest running show on Broadway has enjoyed success in cities all over the world including an adapted version in Las Vegas and touring production.  One of the most famous adaptations it gave the Phantom a half-mask and wig instead of a full face mask. There were concerns that a full face mask would make it harder for emotion to be seen. The full face mask remains on the poster and promotional material.

1990

   Charles Dance and Teri Polo starred in this TV miniseries. In this version The Phantom is born disfigured. The character of Raoul is replaced by his older brother Phillipe though his and Christine's shared childhood is revealed. More of a love story, it's tragic elements make for a tearjerker. 

1989

  A rather gory and supernatural version of the story, this Phantom is the victim of a curse which causes his deformity and pursues Christine over time. The film starts in modern times in Manhattan, an accident leads Christine to wake in 1885 London where she encounters the Phantom for the first time. eventually she returns to her own time and meets a man who resembles the Phantom the producer of a play she has the lead in .It stars Robert Englund (famous for his role as Freddy Kruegar in Nightmare on Elm Street) and Jill Schoelen.

1998

  Dario Argento made Il Fantasma Dell'Opera, strangely, in English. This is a film in which the Phantom doesn't actually have a deformity. Also his feelings for Christine seem requited and their relationship does become sexual. It bears little to no resemblance to Leroux's novel including little but character's names. A very strange and violent version from the Italian master of horror, it stars Julian Sands and Asia Argento, the director's daughter.

2004

   Joel Schumacher directed the long anticipated film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical which added and edited scenes which left some fans disappointed as it changed the story slightly. It starred Gerard Butler, real-life opera singer Emmy Rossum and Broadway actor Patrick Wilson. It boasted many stars including Miranda Richardson (Madame Giry), Simon Callow (André), Ciaran Hinds (Firman), Kevin McNally (Buquet) and Jennifer Ellison (Meg). Minnie Driver was cast as Carlotta but, controversially, did not do her own singing and was dubbed by Margaret Preece.

2011

   The Andrew Lloyd stage musical was adapted slightly and performed at The Royal Albert Hall for the shows 25th anniversary. It was filmed for home media release. Ramin Karimloo (who was the picture of Christine's father Gustave Daaé in the 2004 film), Sierra Boggess and Hadley Fraser reprised the roles of The Phantom, Christine and Raoul that they played in the original production of Love Never Dies, the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera.

  Even people who don't know the story of The Phantom have heard of the story. The character has been referenced and parodied so often that a lot of the original story  often becomes lost. He is often the victim of an event that causes his disfigurement. He is also often portrayed in the half-mask from the musical rather than the full mask from the book. He has appeared in Woody Woodpecker, The Simpsons, Family Guy and is referenced in literally hundreds of ways. The character has become a part of pop culture which, with the number and scope of adaptations of the original story, is unsurprising. 

  

  The book itself has been described as a 'confused' book because it doesn't have a clear genre. It has horror, drama, comedy, romance and the supernatural. It also has smatterings of Leroux's speciality, the detective novel. All these elements make for lots of different kinds of adaptations which is probably why there are so many adaptations that fit into different genres. 

   An adaptation that seeks to answer a lot of the questions of the Phantom (Erik) and his past is the book Phantom by Susan Kay. It starts in 1831 and chronicles the Phantom's life from birth to his death and concludes in 1897, approximately 16 years after his death. The book is written in sections which show the events from different peoples point of view. From 1831-40 it is from the perspective of Madeleine, Erik's mother. From  1840-43 it is Erik's. 1844-6 it is Giovanni, a stone mason who teaches Erik his craft. There is then a gap and then 1850-53 it is Nadir (The Persian in the novel). From 1856-81 it is Erik again and then in 1881 it is both Erik and Christine. This section is essentially a view of the novel from a first person narrative rather than third. The last section is from the perspective of Raoul and essentially picks up where the novel left off and describes what happens to the characters following the events in the novel. For fans, this book gives a backstory only hinted at in the novel and explains what Erik went through to become the Phantom. 

For a book over 100 years old it has done well. It has inspired many things and still is a well-loved story. Yes the musical may have overtaken the book in both fame and popularity but it all started with Leroux's masterpiece. It is a long book and a lot happens but it is easy to follow and is a fascinating story. There really is a lake under the opera house, and there was an accident one year in which the chandelier fell. There is a rumour that if you enter box 5, the Phantom's box and knock on a pillar you will find it hollow. That is how the Phantom watched the performances and entered and left the box without being seen.

  Whether you are new to the Phandom or not and whichever version you enjoy, sing for your Angel, wrap yourself in a cape and keep your hand at the level of your eyes.

Phantoms Playing Poker- Raphael2054

Left to right - Phantom of the Paradise, ALW Phantom (Michael Crawford), Lon Chaney(1925 film) , Phantom of the Mall, Charles Dance (1990 Tv miniseries)