Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. This episode was originally
Speaker 1: gonna be another edition of Ghosts of the British Isles.
Speaker 1: This sort of still is, but it ended up being
Speaker 1: all about specifically theatrical ghosts. As Andrew Dixon wrote in
Speaker 1: an article for The Guardian in twenty fifteen, quote, there
Speaker 1: is barely a theater in Britain that doesn't claim a
Speaker 1: resident spook. History is littered with stories of phantoms, glimpsed
Speaker 1: in the orchestra stalls or on stage, presences felt but unseen.
Speaker 1: And so this particular episode is about theatrical ghosts. But
Speaker 1: theatrical ghosts associated with one place, and that place is
Speaker 1: specific and it has its own interesting history. That is
Speaker 1: the Theatre Royal drury Lane. This theater is known by
Speaker 1: a lot of names. Theater Royal drury Lane is one,
Speaker 1: and perhaps its most accurate one, but it is more
Speaker 1: often called the drury Lane Theater, sometimes just the Dreary,
Speaker 1: et cetera. I picked this one because it's considered the
Speaker 1: most haunted. But the thing is The ghost stories that
Speaker 1: it has are many in number, but there's not a
Speaker 1: lot of documentation about these sightings. So I thought, first
Speaker 1: we would talk about this theater's history because it's really interesting.
Speaker 1: So this is one for the theater kids in the crowd,
Speaker 1: and then we are going to talk about some of
Speaker 1: the ghosts that are associated with it, including one whose
Speaker 1: ghost is a previous podcast subject, and I don't think
Speaker 1: we talked about him being a haunting entity on that one.
Speaker 1: I went back and checked and heard nothing about it,
Speaker 1: so I don't think we did. We're like augmenting that story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we did mention this theater a lot in it, which
Speaker 1: is why as I was reading through that line, I
Speaker 1: kept being like, why, why is this familiar? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: kept looking back through stuff and then went uh oh yeah, okay, okay.
Speaker 1: So the Theater Royal Drury Lane in London is the
Speaker 1: oldest theater of the city that's still in regular use.
Speaker 1: There've actually been multiple buildings on the site over the years,
Speaker 1: but they all operated under the same charter. Because of
Speaker 1: this theater's age, it is home to a lot of
Speaker 1: ghost stories. The theater is part of the City of Westminster.
Speaker 1: That's a Borough of London and part of the city's
Speaker 1: historic West End theater district. The name is actually a
Speaker 1: little confusing because the theater's address and main entrance are
Speaker 1: not on Drury Lane. They're on Catherine Street. Dury Lane
Speaker 1: is one street over at the back of the theater.
Speaker 1: The name may have come from another building that was
Speaker 1: near the theater in its first incarnation, or because of
Speaker 1: a renaming of the streets. One other theory is that
Speaker 1: the name came from a previous theater run by the
Speaker 1: Drury's first proprietor, which was and Drew Lane. The original
Speaker 1: Theatre Royal Drury Lane opened on May seventh, sixteen sixty three.
Speaker 1: It was built by Thomas Killigrew under a royal charter.
Speaker 1: That charter was part of a rebuilding of the arts
Speaker 1: in England that followed the Puritan into Regnum, that period
Speaker 1: from sixteen forty nine to sixteen sixty when England was
Speaker 1: a republic and not governed by a monarch. In the
Speaker 1: time preceding the interregnum, the theater had been largely sponsored
Speaker 1: by the Stuart Court, and when we say the theater
Speaker 1: we mean the theater scene of London, not this theater.
Speaker 1: After Charles the First was executed, an event that could
Speaker 1: make a very good future episode. The Protestants sold his
Speaker 1: art collection and banned theater for a variety of reasons
Speaker 1: you will see summed up in different ways. When the
Speaker 1: executed King's son, Charles the Second, regained the throne in
Speaker 1: sixteen sixty, he was eager to re establish the cultural
Speaker 1: institutions the Puritans had closed down. A charming contempt. Account
Speaker 1: of the granting of this charter and another reads quote.
Speaker 1: King Charles the Second, at his restoration granted two patents,
Speaker 1: one to Sir William Davenant and the other to Thomas
Speaker 1: Killigrew Esquire and their several heirs and assigns forever for
Speaker 1: the forming of two distinct companies of comedians. The first
Speaker 1: were called the King's Servants, enacted at the Theatre Royal
Speaker 1: in Drury Lane, and the other the Duke's Company, who
Speaker 1: acted at the Duke's Theater in Dorset Garden. About ten
Speaker 1: of the King's Company were on the Royal household establishment,
Speaker 1: having each ten yards of scarlet cloth with a proper
Speaker 1: quantity of lace, allowed them for liveries, and in their
Speaker 1: warrants from the Lord Chamberlain were styled Gentlemen of the
Speaker 1: Great Chamber. Whether the like appointments were extended to the
Speaker 1: Duke's Company, I am not certain. Can I just tell
Speaker 1: you how much I love the idea of having a
Speaker 1: job or title where they're like, here's your bolt, so
Speaker 1: a fabric, go have your clothes custom made. That sounds dreamy.
Speaker 1: But to go back to the theater. Killigrew was a dramatist.
Speaker 1: He wrote the plays The Parsons, Wedding, the Prisoners and
Speaker 1: Clara Scilla, and the theater company that Killigrew founded was
Speaker 1: known as the King's Men in addition to the King's Servants,
Speaker 1: and the theater opened with the nickname the King's Playhouse.
Speaker 1: That theater, which costa reported two four hundred pounds to
Speaker 1: build at the time, so that was pretty expensive, staged
Speaker 1: The Humorous Lieutenant, a tragic comedy by John Fletcher, as
Speaker 1: its opening play. The theater actually closed for a couple
Speaker 1: of years, for sixteen sixty five and sixteen sixty six,
Speaker 1: but once it reopened it had a lot of success
Speaker 1: for several years, but then that success was halted on
Speaker 1: January twenty fifth, sixteen seventy two, when the theater burned
Speaker 1: to the ground. The theater was rebuilt in sixteen seventy four,
Speaker 1: though its footprint changed as it was expanded considerably. It
Speaker 1: is believed, although not conclusively documented, that Sir Christopher Wren
Speaker 1: may have been the architect responsible for its construction. When
Speaker 1: the new four thousand pound facility opened on March twenty six,
Speaker 1: sixteen seventy four, Killigrew stayed on as Master of the Rebels.
Speaker 1: In sixteen eighty two, the two companies that had been
Speaker 1: formed in the sixteen sixty two charters were merged into one,
Speaker 1: and Killigrew was still involved with this newly formed group
Speaker 1: until his death, that was on March nineteenth, sixteen eighty three.
Speaker 1: One of Killigrew's most significant contributions to the theater was
Speaker 1: the use of women actors instead of troops consisting exclusively
Speaker 1: of men. Samuel Peeps noted in a diary entry from
Speaker 1: before the opening of the Jury Theater play staged by Killigrew,
Speaker 1: of which he says, quote and here the first time
Speaker 1: that ever I saw women come upon the stage. Killigrew
Speaker 1: continued this practice at Dury Lane. Yeah, that was not
Speaker 1: common practice yet. From seventeen ten to seventeen thirty three,
Speaker 1: the Drury Lane Theater was wildly successful, and it was
Speaker 1: home to the earliest productions of a lot of famous plays.
Speaker 1: The credit for this success is often given to the
Speaker 1: way it was run, which was the work of three men,
Speaker 1: Robert Wilkes, Collie Sibber and Thomas Dogget. It was actually
Speaker 1: sibbers autobiography that we read from in the account of
Speaker 1: how the two charters were granted earlier. These men had
Speaker 1: all been very closely tied to the theater for some time.
Speaker 1: Early publications of the manuscript for the Humorous Lieutenant Liz
Speaker 1: Cibber is one of the performers, and in seventeen thirteen
Speaker 1: Barton Booth joined the three man management team when Thomas
Speaker 1: Dogget retired. But then in the seventeen thirties, when Sibbers retired,
Speaker 1: the theater was taken over by Charles Fleetwood. Unlike his predecessor's,
Speaker 1: Fleetwood was not a good manager. Under his leadership, a
Speaker 1: series of events that came to be known as the
Speaker 1: Drury Lane Riots took place. A letter from Horace Walpole,
Speaker 1: who we've talked about on the show before, to Horace Mann,
Speaker 1: who I don't think we've talked about on the show
Speaker 1: for mentions being at one of these riots. Quote. The
Speaker 1: town has been trying all this winter to beat pantomimes
Speaker 1: off the stage. Fleetwood, the master of Drury Lane, has
Speaker 1: omitted nothing to support them, as they support his house.
Speaker 1: About ten days ago he let into the pit great
Speaker 1: numbers of bear garden bruisers, that is the term, to
Speaker 1: knock down everybody that hissed the pit. Rallied their forces
Speaker 1: and drove them out. I was sitting very quietly in
Speaker 1: the sideboxes, contemplating all this. On a sudden the curtain
Speaker 1: flew up and discovered the whole stage filled with blaggards,
Speaker 1: armed with bludgeons and clubs to menace the audience. This
Speaker 1: raised the greatest uproar, and among the rest who flew
Speaker 1: into a passion. But your friend, the philosopher in short,
Speaker 1: one of the actors, advancing to the front of the
Speaker 1: stage to make an apology for the manager. He had
Speaker 1: scarcely begun to say, mister Fleetwood, when your friend, with
Speaker 1: the most audible voice and dignity of anger, called out,
Speaker 1: he is an impudent rascal. The whole pit huzzad and
Speaker 1: repeated the words, only think of my being a popular orator.
Speaker 1: I just think that's adorable. I really loved reading a
Speaker 1: lot of mariswaalbole stuff. When I was working on that,
Speaker 1: I stood up and yelled, it's just so charming. The
Speaker 1: cause of the riots is often choked up to rising
Speaker 1: ticket prices, but modern scholarship makes the case that it
Speaker 1: was really much more complex than that. Part of it
Speaker 1: the inclusion of pantomimes instead of higher grade of theater,
Speaker 1: which not everybody liked. Fleetwood had been steadily losing public
Speaker 1: trust for years, and in the year before the riots,
Speaker 1: the actors had a conflict with Fleetwood when he refused
Speaker 1: to guarantee their wages for the season. The actors had
Speaker 1: staged a walkout over treatment ten years earlier, in seventeen
Speaker 1: thirty three, but in seventeen forty four, when this was
Speaker 1: going on, their only recourse was to file a legal action.
Speaker 1: They were no longer legally allowed to form their own
Speaker 1: theater if they left this one. Although the actors did
Speaker 1: lose their legal filing against Fleetwood, the whole thing left
Speaker 1: Fleetwood's already weak reputation with the public just completely ruined.
Speaker 1: After the seventeen forty four riots, he sold his stake
Speaker 1: in the theater and left the country settling in France.
Speaker 1: Will continue to discuss the many people who managed the
Speaker 1: Theatre Royal Drury Lane, but we will first take a
Speaker 1: quick sponsor break. In seventeen forty seven, the theater changed
Speaker 1: hands yet again, to run under the management of David Garrick.
Speaker 1: This was another period of incredible success and credit praise.
Speaker 1: Garrick's Drury Lane run lasted three decades, and he appeared
Speaker 1: in many of the venue's productions during that time. Before
Speaker 1: he retired in seventeen seventy six, he gave a farewell
Speaker 1: performance in a play called The Wonder In. This last
Speaker 1: show for the beloved actor and manager was so anticipated
Speaker 1: that it seemed that all of London showed up. There
Speaker 1: was not enough space in the theater to accommodate the crowd.
Speaker 1: Accounts note that the staging was changed that night so
Speaker 1: that Garrick was alone on stage during his final lines
Speaker 1: as he bid farewell to his life on the stage.
Speaker 1: In seventeen seventy six, Richard Brinsley Sheridan took the helm
Speaker 1: of the Jury Theater and he continued its run of excellence.
Speaker 1: It was during his tenure there that he wrote and
Speaker 1: premiered The School for scandal, but though the quality of
Speaker 1: the plays was good, the quality of the building was not.
Speaker 1: Over the years, a lot of problems had cropped up
Speaker 1: in the theater and its age eventually surpassed management's ability
Speaker 1: to keep up. In seventeen ninety one, the theater closed
Speaker 1: temporarily in the building. This was, as you recall, the
Speaker 1: second one was demolished. For the next several years, the
Speaker 1: company continued to stage plays, but they were performed a
Speaker 1: little less than a mile away at Theatre Royal Haymarket,
Speaker 1: while the new building was erected at the Drury Lane location.
Speaker 1: The third building for the Drury was designed by architect
Speaker 1: Henry Holland and his project started right after the second
Speaker 1: was torn down. When it opened in April seventeen ninety four,
Speaker 1: it had this beautiful blue and white interior color scheme
Speaker 1: described as just being very richly decorated. And this new
Speaker 1: theater was once again bigger and could hold three thousand,
Speaker 1: six hundred eleven audience members. This theater was built with
Speaker 1: the latest and safety materials and was touted as being fireproof.
Speaker 1: It even had a water tank series mounted above the
Speaker 1: curtain to rapidly douse any flames on stage. But although
Speaker 1: those fireproof claims were inaccurate, which is a sad theme
Speaker 1: and supposedly fireproof theaters, it burned down in eighteen oh
Speaker 1: nine and the Troop once again had to relocate to
Speaker 1: the Haymarket then the Lyceum Theater, while the Jury was
Speaker 1: rebuilt for the fourth time. One of the most delightful
Speaker 1: aspects in my opinion of the fourth construction project was
Speaker 1: that the architect Benjamin Dean Wyatt published a book about
Speaker 1: its design titled Observations on the Design for the Theater
Speaker 1: Royal Drury Lane as executed in eighteen twelve, accompanied by plans,
Speaker 1: elevation and sections of the same. And the reason it's
Speaker 1: delightful is that this book is available online. It is
Speaker 1: something anybody can look at and will link it in
Speaker 1: the show notes. It walks through the whole process from
Speaker 1: the formation of a joint stock company and subscription sales
Speaker 1: to fund the project, and Wyatt is very clear about
Speaker 1: the challenge of this building project, noting quote the pecuniary
Speaker 1: embarrassments of the property were at that time so great
Speaker 1: that considerable doubts were entertained whether it would ever be
Speaker 1: practicable to surmount those embarrassments. But they did get the
Speaker 1: money together, and this fourth Theater is often referred to
Speaker 1: as the Modern Theater. It's the one that is still
Speaker 1: standing today. It took several years for the Fourth Theater
Speaker 1: to be erected, but in eighteen twelve the jury opened again.
Speaker 1: This marked the start of a really exciting time in
Speaker 1: the theater, as the new facility was built to handle
Speaker 1: large sets and could achieve more stunning visual effects. Five
Speaker 1: years after the Modern Theater opened, the stage was lit
Speaker 1: by gas lamps, making it the first theater in Britain
Speaker 1: to do so. This new era headlined Edmund Keene as
Speaker 1: its lead actor, and it did quite well for a while.
Speaker 1: Keene's death is very closely tied to the theater, as
Speaker 1: he was in the middle of a performance of Othello
Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty three when he collapsed on stage, and
Speaker 1: at that point his son Charles, who was playing Iago,
Speaker 1: caught his father as he crumpled. Edmund reportedly said there
Speaker 1: on stage, Oh God, I am dying. Speak to them, Charles.
Speaker 1: He never recovered and he died a few weeks later.
Speaker 1: After this, the theater again went through a rough phase
Speaker 1: for the four decades after Keene's frightening collapse on stage.
Speaker 1: The theater really didn't have a real success. In eighteen
Speaker 1: nineteen it had been leased by Stephen Price, a theater
Speaker 1: empresario from New York, and after he gave it up
Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty, the least kind of had a revolving
Speaker 1: door of managers. Yeah, I was like, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to go through this whole list in the episode, because
Speaker 1: it's literally like from April of this year to November
Speaker 1: of this year, this guy tried it, got scared and left,
Speaker 1: and then the next guy just tried to make a
Speaker 1: quick buck and then he was out, and then the
Speaker 1: next guy wanted to do something big but didn't like
Speaker 1: it was. It's a very sad quick list of no accomplishments.
Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy nine, Augustus Harris assumed management of the
Speaker 1: Drury and he really invigorated the lagging space. Under Harris,
Speaker 1: melodrama reigned supreme and it became one of the most
Speaker 1: popular entertainments of London. After Harris, the Drury once again
Speaker 1: had a successful leader at the Helm in Arthur Collins.
Speaker 1: And Collins did not reinvent the theater's image. He continued
Speaker 1: more or less in the vein of Harris. He basically
Speaker 1: was like, we have a successful blueprint, I just need
Speaker 1: to keep executing it. Musicals debuted at the Jury in
Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties. Prior to this, it was considered the
Speaker 1: home of dramatic theatrical performance, but it opened its stage
Speaker 1: to musical theater to meet the demands of London's theatergoers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's funny because now a lot of plays had end
Speaker 1: up on Broadway start in London and like musicals are
Speaker 1: super big. At the time, it was like should we
Speaker 1: do this our reputation. During World War Two, the theater
Speaker 1: became the home of the Entertainment National Service Association. You'll
Speaker 1: see that listed as ENSA. This organization was started to
Speaker 1: provide entertainment to BRI's troops during the war, and its
Speaker 1: first large scale production was a variety concert that was
Speaker 1: broadcast by the BBC at the same time it was
Speaker 1: being performed before an audience at the Dreary. The theater
Speaker 1: did sustain minor damage from bombing during the war, but
Speaker 1: was able to repair and reopen in nineteen forty six.
Speaker 1: Pacific eighteen sixty, a play written by Noel Coward, was
Speaker 1: its first production after World War II, the theater was
Speaker 1: given status as a Grade one Site of Historical Significance
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty eight. At the close of the twentieth century,
Speaker 1: the theater was purchased by Andrew Lloyd Weber, who wrote Katz,
Speaker 1: Phanom of the Opera, Jesus Christ, Superstar and Avida, among others.
Speaker 1: This was part of one hundred and forty five million
Speaker 1: dollar bid that included nine other theaters in London. In
Speaker 1: a press interview, Weber stated that this bold move was
Speaker 1: about keeping room for fresh, unique material on the stage,
Speaker 1: noting quote, it is vital that the theater be in
Speaker 1: the hands of people who know and love the theater.
Speaker 1: Otherwise our lifeblood is taken away from us, and there's
Speaker 1: no room anymore for the old fashioned producer who will
Speaker 1: back shows that take risks. I would like to think
Speaker 1: that we will be more sympathetic to shows that deserve
Speaker 1: a break to survive. There are lots of shows that
Speaker 1: don't look good on paper and appear not to be
Speaker 1: good business, where we'll say, let's get behind this and
Speaker 1: hope it pays off. I love that. Incidentally, while I
Speaker 1: was researching this, I discovered that if you have a
Speaker 1: double last name. You have to hyphenate it in English
Speaker 1: standard writing. That's how I found it out. So I
Speaker 1: don't know when we call him Weber, if we should
Speaker 1: call him Lloyd Webber or not. But Andrew Lloyd Weber
Speaker 1: has really followed through on his promise. He spent or
Speaker 1: reported sixty pounds to refurbish the theater, restoring it back
Speaker 1: to its eighteen twelve design, while also modernizing it to
Speaker 1: include new cafes and bars to make it like a
Speaker 1: destination for your entire day. You could hang out there.
Speaker 1: It added disability access, It added more comfortable seating as
Speaker 1: well as a lot of various technical additions that enable
Speaker 1: really state of the art production values. And this renovation
Speaker 1: won the twenty twenty two Theater Building of the Year Award,
Speaker 1: which I did not know about until I was working
Speaker 1: in this but it is given out by the Stage
Speaker 1: Awards each year. Okay, time for ghosts, but before we
Speaker 1: dig into the spectral inhabitants of Juryland, we will hear
Speaker 1: from sponsors that keep the show going. Because of its
Speaker 1: long history, the theater in Drury Lane has long been
Speaker 1: rumored to be haunted, and some of these ghosts have
Speaker 1: great stories of their own. So first up is kind
Speaker 1: of a short one. It's Charles Keene, the son of
Speaker 1: actor Edmund Keene, who we mentioned earlier. You'll recall Edmund
Speaker 1: collapsed into Charles's arms on stage. Charles, like his father,
Speaker 1: became an actor, and he also became a theater manager,
Speaker 1: and his ghost is said to frequently take a seat
Speaker 1: in the front row and wait for plays to begin,
Speaker 1: and when the curtain rises and the stage lights come up,
Speaker 1: Charles vanishes. And then there's Charles Macklin. Macklin's ghost has
Speaker 1: a good bit of documented backstory on why it might
Speaker 1: be lurking in the theater, and that is related to guilt.
Speaker 1: This story is often summed up as Charles Macklin murdered
Speaker 1: another actor by stabbing him in the eye with his cane,
Speaker 1: and that is technically correct, but the actual events as
Speaker 1: they played out are more tragic. This is a case
Speaker 1: where some petty bickering escalated in a way, but a
Speaker 1: line was crossed accidentally, and it all began with a
Speaker 1: wig in seventeen thirty five when Macklin, who was a
Speaker 1: popular Irish actor who was at the height of his
Speaker 1: fame at Their Dreary, had prepared to go on stage
Speaker 1: by dressing and applying his makeup, but he could not
Speaker 1: find the wig that went with his outfit. He then
Speaker 1: saw that actor Thomas Hallam was wearing it. Hallam was
Speaker 1: a low ranking actor in the troop, kind of one
Speaker 1: of those people that filled a lot of small extras
Speaker 1: type roles, and seeing him and his wig incensed Macklin.
Speaker 1: Hallam was persuaded to give up the wig and he
Speaker 1: went to the props room to get another and switch out,
Speaker 1: and that might have resolved things, but when Hallam then
Speaker 1: came back with his new wig, he threw the original
Speaker 1: wig at Macklin said something kind of, you know, incendiary,
Speaker 1: and after a brief moment where it still seemed like
Speaker 1: things might be okay, Macklin reportedly said to Hallam, quote,
Speaker 1: God damn you for a blaggered scrub rascal. How durst
Speaker 1: you have the impudence to take this wig. Hallam replied
Speaker 1: by saying that Macklin was also a rascal, and Macklin
Speaker 1: picked up his cane and thrust it in Hallam's face.
Speaker 1: It seems like this was intended like as an admonishment
Speaker 1: and a threat. He was not trying to strike him
Speaker 1: in the eye, but then Hallam was bleeding profusely from
Speaker 1: his eye. Maclin later described his own shock at the
Speaker 1: scene quote, good God, said, I what have I done?
Speaker 1: And I threw the stick into the chimney. He sat
Speaker 1: down and said to mister Ames's son, who was dressed
Speaker 1: in woman's clothes, whip up your clothes, you little bee,
Speaker 1: and urine in my eye. But he could not, so
Speaker 1: I did. As we know, sometimes people have used urine
Speaker 1: to treat wounds, thinking it was sterile. You don't do it.
Speaker 1: Don't pee on wounds, and especially not eye wounds. But
Speaker 1: Maclin really thought he was being a good guy uh
Speaker 1: by doing so. But at this point this seemed like
Speaker 1: a gross but minor injury. Hallam was taken into a
Speaker 1: room to lie down where he could be treated. One
Speaker 1: of the women in the troop was looking after him,
Speaker 1: and meanwhile, the play started and Maclin went on and
Speaker 1: did his role. But then when the show was over,
Speaker 1: Maclin was informed that the wound was actually quite serious
Speaker 1: and that it was very likely going to prove fatal,
Speaker 1: and at that point he fled the theater. Hallum died
Speaker 1: the following day, and Macklin surrendered himself to the police
Speaker 1: after a wilful murder indictment was issued. Macklin was tried
Speaker 1: at the Old Bailey and represented himself in the end.
Speaker 1: After many character witnesses passed through to support Macklin's story
Speaker 1: that the death had been accidental and that he had
Speaker 1: been shocked and upset when he realized what had happened,
Speaker 1: the actor was found guilty not of murder but of manslaughter.
Speaker 1: His sentence was that he was quote to be branded
Speaker 1: on the hand and discharged. It seems like he may
Speaker 1: not have ever even been branded though, and when he
Speaker 1: went back to the stage he was applauded by the
Speaker 1: audience in attendance, although there were protesters who wanted him
Speaker 1: fired permanently. Yeah, he actually sued the organizer of those
Speaker 1: protests and won. It kind of dragged out for a
Speaker 1: long time where he tried to kind of regain his reputation,
Speaker 1: and it dragged out because Macklin lived a long time
Speaker 1: after this incident. He died in seventeen ninety seven at
Speaker 1: the age of ninety seven. He appeared to have always
Speaker 1: carried guilt with him though, regarding what had happened, and
Speaker 1: he is now said to be seen walking near the
Speaker 1: spot where he accidentally stabbed Hallum. We actually did a
Speaker 1: whole episode on the life of the next Ghost. That
Speaker 1: episode came out in twenty twenty three, although we did
Speaker 1: not talk about his after life. This is Joseph Grimaldy.
Speaker 1: Here's the very short version of his life. Joseph Grimaldy,
Speaker 1: who went by Joe, was born December eighteenth, seventeen seventy
Speaker 1: eight into a theater family. His father, Giuseppo was known
Speaker 1: to be harsh and abusive, and when the elder Grimaldi died,
Speaker 1: Joe became famous. He really eclipsed his father's reputation. Grimaldi's
Speaker 1: fame came from just how far he was willing to
Speaker 1: push himself physically in the interest of comedic entertainment. He
Speaker 1: would perform tumbling tricks, pratfalls, and all kinds of slapstick.
Speaker 1: And he painted himself stark white, which is why he
Speaker 1: is sometimes called the first modern clown. Eventually, his physically
Speaker 1: demanding act wore down his health. He retired in eighteen
Speaker 1: twenty eight. There are some aspects of Grimaldi's haunting story
Speaker 1: the evidence of a bit of confusion or even some
Speaker 1: willful obfuscation of reality to just bolster the stories of
Speaker 1: a ghost, one that comes up a lot is that
Speaker 1: he requested to be beheaded before being buried because he
Speaker 1: wanted to make sure he was not buried alive. So
Speaker 1: this detail is usually used to explain stories that people
Speaker 1: have of Grimaldi's clown painted head hovering in some of
Speaker 1: the theaters audience boxes, But it was actually his father
Speaker 1: who made that request in his will. That is an
Speaker 1: order that's said to have been carried out by Joseph's
Speaker 1: sister Margaret. The stories of Grimaldy's theatrical hauntings are usually
Speaker 1: pretty tame, although depending on your point of view, they
Speaker 1: could be considered assaultive. He is known to kick people
Speaker 1: in the rear. Often this is to get a hesitant
Speaker 1: actor to go out on stage, or just as prankish
Speaker 1: behavior behind the scenes, but there have also been actors
Speaker 1: who stated that they could feel him moving them on
Speaker 1: the stage, sort of placing their limbs in a certain
Speaker 1: way or shifting the direction their body was facing, and
Speaker 1: that the result was always a better reaction from the
Speaker 1: audience than they were getting before Grimaldy's ghostly guidance. Grimaldy
Speaker 1: is also alleged to haunt Joseph Grimaldy Park that was
Speaker 1: once a cemetery, and it is where the clown is buried.
Speaker 1: Dan Lenno, who was born George Wild Galvin in eighteen sixty,
Speaker 1: is another well known ghost of the Dreary. His two
Speaker 1: is a story that's largely charming, but then has a
Speaker 1: rather tragic end. He was born into performing. His entire
Speaker 1: family was made up of traveling actors and comedians, and
Speaker 1: he started on the stage as a toddler at age three.
Speaker 1: Leno quickly rose to fame as a young adult and
Speaker 1: became famous as a pantomime performer. He often appeared in
Speaker 1: drag and was famous for a stage version of Mother
Speaker 1: Goose with a title role written expressly for him. Leno
Speaker 1: was dedicated to charitable works and took particular interest in
Speaker 1: causes that helped other performers. Sometimes he is touted as
Speaker 1: the highest paid performer of his day. He performed for
Speaker 1: King Edward the seventh and was nicknamed the King's Jester
Speaker 1: after the monarch gifted him an elegant tie pin. In
Speaker 1: the early nineteen hundreds, but also in the early nineteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: Leno started misusing alcohol. This is apparently a problem that
Speaker 1: ran in his family. In nineteen oh three, he had
Speaker 1: a mental breakdow down, and he was institutionalized for several
Speaker 1: months at London's Camberwell House Asylum. After his convalescence there,
Speaker 1: he did return to the stage, but only briefly. He
Speaker 1: gave a performance on October thirty first, nineteen oh four,
Speaker 1: and he died that same night. His cause of death
Speaker 1: is reported differently from source to source, citing everything from
Speaker 1: heart trouble to overwork. Most modern historians think he had
Speaker 1: some medical problem that was the result of alcohol misuse.
Speaker 1: Comedian Stanley Lupino described his encounter with Dan Leno's ghosts
Speaker 1: to the press in nineteen twenty three. The following account
Speaker 1: from Lupino ran in The Register, a newspaper in Adelaide, Australia.
Speaker 1: Quote He stated that while asleep in his dressing room,
Speaker 1: he was awakened by curtains moving and saw a form
Speaker 1: flit across the room and disappear through a locked door.
Speaker 1: Later he saw the face of Dan Leno. He rushed
Speaker 1: out of the theater and spent the rest of the
Speaker 1: night at a hotel. The next evening, he said, ay
Speaker 1: be well known in the theatrical world, who had come
Speaker 1: to visit me and my wife was alone in my
Speaker 1: dressing room while I was performing on the stage. She
Speaker 1: fainted and afterwards, although she had heard nothing of my experience,
Speaker 1: declared she had seen the ghost of Dan Lenno. Leno's
Speaker 1: ghost is said to be heard clogging throughout the theater,
Speaker 1: and if you catch a whiff of lavender, that is
Speaker 1: also attributed to him, as he reportedly wore the scent
Speaker 1: when he was alive. Sometimes it is Dan that gets
Speaker 1: the credit for assisting performers with their staging and body
Speaker 1: position instead of Grimaldi. He has even been reported to
Speaker 1: pat actors on the back after a good show. Drury
Speaker 1: Theater's most famous ghost, though, is the Man in Gray.
Speaker 1: He's the one who's been spotted the most, but he's
Speaker 1: also the one we know the least about. According to legend,
Speaker 1: this man appears in the upper circle and he's dressed
Speaker 1: in eighteenth century clothing. He wears a tricorn hat and
Speaker 1: a writing cloak and carries a sword. And the Man
Speaker 1: in Girl is a very welcome spirit. It has become
Speaker 1: one of those theater superstitions that his appearance blesses a
Speaker 1: plays run. If you don't get the Man in Gray
Speaker 1: to stop by during your pre production and rehearsals. Your
Speaker 1: show might be doomed to flop. But who is he?
Speaker 1: This is one that has a very compelling but awfully
Speaker 1: difficult to corroborate detail that sometimes offered as the explanation
Speaker 1: of his identity. Many accounts of the jury say that
Speaker 1: during renovations in the nineteenth century a skeleton was discovered.
Speaker 1: A nineteen thirty nine article about the theater written by
Speaker 1: John Shan of The Guardian states of the man in
Speaker 1: gray quote, this friendly apparition has been seen coming out
Speaker 1: of the upper circle bar and vanishing through what was
Speaker 1: once a passage to the stage by persons who know
Speaker 1: nothing of the odd discovery made by workmen about eighty
Speaker 1: years ago, while making alterations a wall where is now
Speaker 1: the upper circle bar was pulled down. Behind it was
Speaker 1: a small room. It contained a table and a chair,
Speaker 1: and in the chair sat a skeleton with a dagger
Speaker 1: in its breast. You may laugh at the ghost, but
Speaker 1: the skeleton is a fact. An inquest was held on it.
Speaker 1: But I never managed to turn up any mention of
Speaker 1: the skeleton or an inquest in any newspapers. You would
Speaker 1: think that would have been written about. Additionally, there's a
Speaker 1: wild and I mean wild range of dates given by
Speaker 1: various sources for the renovation that uncovered this skeleton you'll
Speaker 1: see them that run from eighteen forty all the way
Speaker 1: into the late eighteen seventies. I searched throughout all of
Speaker 1: those time periods with a variety of different search chains,
Speaker 1: and I did not turn up a single newspaper mention
Speaker 1: to that end. Holly also wanted to include another quote
Speaker 1: from that twenty fifteen Guardian article that we mentioned at
Speaker 1: the top of the show. The writer Andrew Dixon conferred
Speaker 1: with a woman and named Efa Monks, who's a theater
Speaker 1: professor at Queen Mary University of London, about the theater
Speaker 1: and why the theater community seems so prone to see ghosts.
Speaker 1: Her answer was delightful. Quote. Theater is a ghostly experience
Speaker 1: if you think about it. It's concerned with the unearthing
Speaker 1: of texts that, in the case of the Greek tragedies,
Speaker 1: might be two thousand years old, and an experience that
Speaker 1: comes back night after night, but which also disappears in
Speaker 1: front of your eyes as it does so sounds pretty
Speaker 1: ghostly to me. I love that take. Yes, That's what
Speaker 1: makes live theater so great, right, It's you're the only
Speaker 1: people experiencing that moment in history together, which I love. Yeah,
Speaker 1: those are the Drury Lane ghosts. A little later on
Speaker 1: the ghosts than I would have liked, but we just
Speaker 1: don't have that much info. Yeah, I really wish I
Speaker 1: could have unearthed some magical mention of the body or
Speaker 1: skeleton allegedly found in the wall. Not a peep. If
Speaker 1: there's one out there, I'd love to see it. But
Speaker 1: I do have listener mail from our listener Amanda, who writes,
Speaker 1: Hello there, Holly and Tracy. This is my first time writing,
Speaker 1: but I just listened to your weekend classic on the
Speaker 1: Bell Witch, and I couldn't have been more excited. Growing
Speaker 1: up in Kentucky, everyone would hear tales of the bell
Speaker 1: Witch around Halloween, but my first recollection of hearing the
Speaker 1: story was from our lunch room monitor at our Catholic
Speaker 1: elementary school during October. She would read any and all
Speaker 1: ghost stories to us during lunch, but the bell Witch
Speaker 1: always indicated the start of ghost story lunches for the school.
Speaker 1: If you walked past our cafeteria, you would have seen
Speaker 1: two hundred kids as quiet as mice waiting for the
Speaker 1: next scare scene. Fast forward thirty years to your Saturday classic,
Speaker 1: and I was back in that black and white tiled cafeteria.
Speaker 1: But I really appreciate how toward the end both of
Speaker 1: you discussed all the permutations of the legend. I was
Speaker 1: listening waiting for things to be said that weren't, because
Speaker 1: obviously each ghost story has their own embellishments. I want
Speaker 1: to say our Catholic elementary school's version had a down house,
Speaker 1: and I would love to hear all of the local variations.
Speaker 1: Thank you both for such a wonderful show. You bring
Speaker 1: so much joy and reverence to all the topics you share,
Speaker 1: which makes listening each week a true pleasure. Attached is
Speaker 1: my pet tax our German shepherd guardian angel Bear, who
Speaker 1: would listen with me on our walks, as well as
Speaker 1: our senior chunky orange boy Chewy fourteen years old, and
Speaker 1: crazy baby girl Kenny, who's in October Baby. Like me,
Speaker 1: All our babies are rescues, although Kenny came to us
Speaker 1: via the cat distribution system and we couldn't be happier.
Speaker 1: Keep up the incredible work and know the three of
Speaker 1: us are always excited for the next episode. Bear is
Speaker 1: so beautiful and these cats listen, I'm telling you, I
Speaker 1: love a goofy orange cat. I just love them. And
Speaker 1: Kenny is also incredibly cute. So thank you, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you for sharing this with us. I love the
Speaker 1: Belwitch story and I love that that was part of
Speaker 1: their elementary school tradition. That time sounds great. I wonder
Speaker 1: if they included the looking for her toothpart. And I
Speaker 1: have a spawned an assortment of like local folklore, as
Speaker 1: local ghost stories often do. Yeah, it's the best. It's
Speaker 1: one of the things that makes Halloween great. It unites us.
Speaker 1: We all want to hear the stories, and it's a
Speaker 1: good way to share stories of our history, even if
Speaker 1: they sometimes get a bit embellished. If you would like
Speaker 1: to write to us, you could do that at History
Speaker 1: Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. You can also subscribe on
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.