The Ghost of Old Mother Riley?

[fudgetusk]

I was learning how to use computers at this establishment. People began to talk about how the building was haunted by Old Mother Riley. If you aren't aware of Old Mother Riley's films then I will describe her as a man (Arthur Lucan)who dressed up as an old lady for supposed comedic effect. She...he was quite famous in his day. I was a fan and had seen his films as a child.

Anyway. It transpires that the building where I was learning about spreadsheets and databases used to be a theatre and Lucan died there, back stage.

One day I was in the toilet, alone, and heard what immediately sounded to me like some paper TOWELS being ruffled about.

Weird.

Later I got on the internet and researched Lucan. Turns out his real name was TOWLE.

Was that the spectral hand of Old Mother Riley playing with those paper towles...erm...towels? Was he making a pun on his own name?

It may be connected that later on we(around thirty people) heard an almighty shattering of glass in the building. It sounded like it was in the room with us. We could find no reason for this.

A few days later the building was burgled and a large window smashed.

 

[UnknownUnknown]

Strange set of coincidences to be sure.

You say that before your experiences that 'people were talking about how the building was haunted.' Any chance that someone could have been winding you up to alleviate the boredom of learning about spreadsheets?

 

[JamesWhitehead]

Lucan and McShane were a weird pair to be sure! Married in real life, they played mother and daughter on the stage. A tempestuous marriage by all accounts - so the notion of continuing violence after death is oddly fitting!

They endured as music-hall act for many years and their films were mainly relegated to the kiddie's matinees, which is where I encountered them in the '60s. The only one which gets much discussion these days is Old Mother Riley Meets the Vampire and that was because of the participation of a cash-strapped Lugosi.

 

[Ermintruder]

Lucan and McShane were a weird pair to be sure! Married in real life....

Similar in that unsettling way to The Krankies, and also sharing/pre-empting some of their routines.

A few days later the building was burgled and a large window smashed.

The lack of physical evidence for the premonition / 'vardøger' noise, as a shared subjective experience, is very interesting. I'm suddenly reminded of a dropped cutlery drawer, in a hotel kitchen. Sounded a hell of a lot like glass breaking. Possible in any way?

heard what immediately sounded to me like some paper TOWELS being ruffled about.

No chance that this noise was coming from the adjacent Gents/Ladies toilets, via an air conditioning vent or by traversing the ceiling void?

All very intriguing...

 

[Naughty_Felid]

I was learning how to use computers at this establishment. People began to talk about how the building was haunted by Old Mother Riley. If you aren't aware of Old Mother Riley's films then I will describe her as a man (Arthur Lucan)who dressed up as an old lady for supposed comedic effect. She...he was quite famous in his day. I was a fan and had seen his films as a child.

Anyway. It transpires that the building where I was learning about spreadsheets and databases used to be a theatre and Lucan died there, back stage.

One day I was in the toilet, alone, and heard what immediately sounded to me like some paper TOWELS being ruffled about.

Weird.

Later I got on the internet and researched Lucan. Turns out his real name was TOWLE.

Was that the spectral hand of Old Mother Riley playing with those paper towles...erm...towels? Was he making a pun on his own name?

It may be connected that later on we(around thirty people) heard an almighty shattering of glass in the building. It sounded like it was in the room with us. We could find no reason for this.

A few days later the building was burgled and a large window smashed.

Towle? What this guy is doing the haunting?

 

[Vardoger]

Theatre Ghosts and Hauntings

Arthur Lucan

Location: Hull (Yorkshire) - Tax office built on site of the Tivoli Theatre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Arthur died in his dressing room in the theatre. He was known for his dislike of taxes (and tax men) so it was no surprise that his ghost came back when the Inland Revenue building was placed on top of the theatre. His spirit is dressed as Old Mother Riley, a character he played in fourteen films.

http://www.paranormaldatabase.com/reports/theatredata.php?pageNum_paradata=2&totalRows_paradata=112

 

[gattino]

Similar in that unsettling way to The Krankies

Tying Old Mother Riley and the Krankies together (there's an image), one of the former's costars was Little Jimmy Clitheroe...a comedian of restricted growth who, like Janette/Jimmy Krankie, played a schoolboy well into middle age.

The unsettling part being, to quote wikipedia, "He never married, and lived, latterly in Blackpool, with his widowed mother, to whom he was very close.[4] He never grew any taller than 4 feet 3 inches, and until later life[4] could easily pass for an 11-year-old boy, the character he played in The Clitheroe Kid.[5] He died at 51 in 1973 from an overdose of sleeping pills, on the day of his mother's funeral.[6]" A tragic ending to be sure but the degree of closeness to his mother was alluded to salaciously some years ago I seem to recall - by Victor Lewis Smith, it may have been - with the claim they shared a single bedroom, with an implied nudge nudge wink wink.

Mind you Hollywood Babylon made similar innuendo about the Ventriliquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy Charlie McCarthy...A photo of the pair was captioned "What's a few splinters between friends"

 

[Mythopoeika]

I used to watch the Clitheroe Kid in its final year or so.
It was a bit odd, and seemed a bit dated when compared with other children's TV at the time.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

They tended to avoid close-ups of Jimmy Clitheroe; it took a lot of slap to fill those creases!

His radio shows were what I recall better; maybe because some of them were revived on Radio Seven - as it was then called - about ten years ago. They originally went out on Sunday lunchtimes; Ken Dodd's shows were another fixture. They seemed very much of their time and depressing because they were so contrived.

His strange personal life, or lack of one, was the subject of a Radio Four programme some years ago.

 

[fudgetusk]

Strange set of coincidences to be sure.

You say that before your experiences that 'people were talking about how the building was haunted.' Any chance that someone could have been winding you up to alleviate the boredom of learning about spreadsheets?

I would have heard them come into the toilet as it was a very small room. And would someone really play with a paper towel as a pun on the word Towle?

 

[fudgetusk]

Similar in that unsettling way to The Krankies, and also sharing/pre-empting some of their routines.

The lack of physical evidence for the premonition / 'vardøger' noise, as a shared subjective experience, is very interesting. I'm suddenly reminded of a dropped cutlery drawer, in a hotel kitchen. Sounded a hell of a lot like glass breaking. Possible in any way?


No chance that this noise was coming from the adjacent Gents/Ladies toilets, via an air conditioning vent or by traversing the ceiling void?

All very intriguing...

>>Sounded a hell of a lot like glass breaking. Possible in any way?

There was no dining areas and the sound definitley came from within the room. One guy said the sound was right in front of his face.

>>No chance that this noise was coming from the adjacent Gents/Ladies toilets, via an air conditioning vent or by traversing the ceiling void

I doubt it. You know when a sound is close up. It was a gentle ruffling not like the sound of someone noisily drying their hands.

 

[Graylien]

Old Mother Riley Meets the Vampire is even more woeful than Bela Lugosi meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. Lugosi's character isn't even a vampire. Old Mother Riley meets the Cheap Looking Robot would be a more accurate title.

 

[UnknownUnknown]

What were the other stories that your group were telling? I'm wondering whether anyone has had similar experiences in the building, or if they all seem quite different.

 

[fudgetusk]

What were the other stories that your group were telling? I'm wondering whether anyone has had similar experiences in the building, or if they all seem quite different.

No other stories. Apparently Lucan's body is buried on the outskirts of Hull(the city where he died) and the graveyard is supposedly haunted by him. I wonder if he wears his old mother riley costume.

 

[UnknownUnknown]

No other stories. Apparently Lucan's body is buried on the outskirts of Hull(the city where he died) and the graveyard is supposedly haunted by him. I wonder if he wears his old mother riley costume.

I'd be disappointed if he didn't!

 

[GNC]

If he didn't wear his OMR costume, how would you know it was him? And if he did, how would you know it wasn't some random little old lady ghost without really having a good look?

 

[The_Discordian]

The only place I'd heard of Old Mother Riley was in the Kinks' "Village Green Preservation Society", which coincidentally also namechecks Dracula (implicitly referred to upthread) and Sherlock Holmes, who, coincidentally, was namechecked in the last thread I read on this forum today, which was about.... coincidence!

Is that weird? Or am I reading too much into it?

 

[Naughty_Felid]

The only place I'd heard of Old Mother Riley was in the Kinks' "Village Green Preservation Society", which coincidentally also namechecks Dracula (implicitly referred to upthread) and Sherlock Holmes, who, coincidentally, was namechecked in the last thread I read on this forum today, which was about.... coincidence!

Is that weird? Or am I reading too much into it?

It never hurts to mention the Village Green Preservation Society.