Everyone has a favorite ghost movie. Not all are rattling chains and pitiful moans in the night. Some of the best are played strictly for laughs. Take the classic black and white film, Topper, starring Cary Grant, Constance Bennet, and Roland Young. After all these years the movie is still funny. Though we may sympathize with his predicament of being befriended by two ghosts, we still have the option of laughing at his problem. After all, Topper is the only person who can see the pair of meddling ghosts. Topper was so popular with audiences that a television series starring Leo G. Carroll ran for a few years in the early fifties.
Another reason Topper was so popular is that it gave us a chance to chuckle at ghosts rather than cringe in fear of them. While it's true ghosts can be annoying and frightening there are humorous aspects to a haunting as well.
Years ago a classmate's mother told me the story of a ghost that haunted the ladies room at a local movie theatre. It was rumored that the ghost would slap any young woman who dared stare at herself in the mirror, too long and too lovingly. Conceit was apparently very annoying to this ghost. It was believed that the ghost was that of an old time movie star who'd been banished from the studio when a car crash ruined her good looks. Heartbroken, she'd gone to the theatre and drank poison in the ladies room. While most everyone denied believing the story, women took their own compacts to repair make up and only gave the mirror a quick glance for fear or raising the ghost's ire. No point in taking chances.
Ghostly love affairs have been immortalized in films over the years. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and the more recent Ghost are two tales of ghostly love. Grandma used to tell us children about a young man she knew who claimed that every time he visited the theatre alone the ghost of a beautiful young lady sat beside him and held his hand. Probably just trying to keep him from eating all the popcorn.
At another theater that has since been demolished there was supposedly a ghost who liked to lock women in the ladies room when they dawdled at powdering their noses. No one was ever certain of the ghost's identity. Perhaps he was a film director with little patience for time wasters and egos.
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