Three Men and a Baby: "Ghost Boy" Urban Legend

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J.J. Walters
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Three Men and a Baby: "Ghost Boy" Urban Legend

#1 Post by J.J. Walters »

Some of you probably know about this already, but for those that don't (like me a couple of days ago) you may find this interesting....

There is a scene in Three Men and a Baby that has apparently become a huge "Hollywood Urban Legend" over the years. I stumbled upon it when watching an episode of TV Land's TV Myths & Legends the other day. Instead of explaining the scene in question (with Ted Danson and Celeste Holm, both of whom have appeared on MPI), I'll just post the links that lay out the whole situation:

Wikipedia
Snopes

Pretty weird, huh? When you watch the scene, it REALLY does look like a little boy peering out from between the curtains! It's really quite creepy, even when viewing it out of context from the rest of the film. It's also very easy to notice in the background. I find it amazing no one noticed it during editing. It's even more amazing that nobody noticed it until the film was released on video.

YouTube clip of the scene in question (:53)

When you look at the closeups, it's pretty obvious that it is indeed the cardboard cutout of Danson's character in a tux, and not a "ghost" or a person standing there. Darn. What I find perplexing is how the cutout in the window changes so much in the one continuous, non-cutaway, scene. When you first see it, it is much farther to the right, and almost entirely obscured by the curtain; you only see the left edge of the cutout, the left arm of the tux. When they walk back past the window again, the cutout is nearly perfectly centered in the window! They say the camera angle and distance has changed, but it sure doesn't appear that way when you look at the two shots closely. It really, really looks like somebody moved the cutout in between the two shots of them passing the window. :?

How bizarre, how bizarre.
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#2 Post by golfmobile »

What I don't understand is how a life-size cut-out of 6-foot Ted Danson got shrunk to the size of a little boy. The "little boy" shadow doesn't look anything like the standee.

As for the "shotgun" picture, I had to look to "see" that, as it looked to me obviously like the black-pants-clad leg of the standee with a ruffled curtain in front of it.

The ghost boy looks the spookiest to me.

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#3 Post by Shermy »

I remember when this rumor first appeared back in 1990. Today it would probably be debunked online fairly quickly, but back then, it slowly spread via newspapers and word of mouth. The end result was a huge boost in video rentals.

I'm surprised no one has ever asked Selleck (or any of the cast) about it. Then again, maybe they were asked and I just never heard about it. I always thought it was staged by the crew- probably just for fun. I also thought the "ghost boy" resembled the kid that played young Josh Baskins in "Big".

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#4 Post by ConchRepublican »

Reminds me of the rumored ghost in the Tavern on the Green scene in Ghostbusters.

Supposedly a kid could be seen in the windows as they panned by.
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#5 Post by DigitalMan »

Yes, that "Ghost Boy" story has become one of the great movie urban legends.

Another really good one is the munchkin who hung them self on the set during the filming of "The Wizard of Oz." This one also turns out not to be true, but is nevertheless interesting....especially when you see the footage!

As usual for things like this, go to Snopes for details:
http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/ozsuicide.asp

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