Biography of the Hatbox Ghost

This page is the biography of the Hatbox Ghost, as compiled from as many accounts of the man's life as can be found.

Biography

Mortal life

Ezra and Randall as children (in The Museum of the Strange and Unusual).

Some accounts suggest that the Hatbox Ghost and Ezra the Hitchhiking Ghost were brothers; besides a certain physical resemblance, they once demonstrated that they could sound exactly alike. One account shows Ezra and the future Hatbox Ghost as children, with the latter already laboring over a hat, prefiguring both his future hunched back and his later obsession with headwear and boxes in which to carry it.^[FANWORK] Another suggests that his name in life was “Horatio Ernest Topper”^[FANWORK], a name shared by his counterpart in at least one parallel universe.^[FANWORK]

Captain Pace shortly before his death (in Mystery of the Manse: Part One).

According to a version of his life-story the Ghost Host once told to a treasure-hunter, the Hatbox Ghost was originally Captain Randall Pace, of the sailing shim Pomona. He was a stern-looking man with a wide face and a black Lincoln beard, and, while at sea, wore a tricorn instead of his later top hat.

A stubborn but ultimately decent man, Pace originally made his fortune on the seas with his own ship, sailing supplies from port to port, his first mate being William Gracey, whom the Host claimed had been his own mortal identity as Master Gracey. Over time, however, Pace decided to turn to illegal pursuits, becoming a gunrunner without the knowledge of his crew.

It is worth noting that this story is only one of several conflicting life stories the Host, and other ghosts in the Mansion, have been know to relay to guests; these other versions, among other discrepancies, did not include the detail of Randall Pace. Indeed, the Ghost Host once told Elody Ghast a variation of this selfsame story where the beard-wearing captain-turned-gunrunner was himself Master Gracey while he, the first mate and future Ghost Host, had been “Mr Bloodmere”.^[FANWORK]

Death

Randall Pace's final moments in the Ghost Host's tale (in Mystery of the Manse: Part One).

In his William Gracey story, the Ghost Host claimed that on one fateful day, Pace insisted on sailing the Pomona into a storm despite the protests of his crew, as he had a secret contract with dangerous characters to deliver a shipment of weapons. As he was being confronted over this by Gracey, Pace found himself buried in rigging and shards of wood as the mast gave out from a sudden gust of wind. Pace angrily demanded that Gracey cut him free with his sword, only for the wrathful first mate to commit mutiny, beheading the helpless Captain Pace instead. After saying “a quick prayer” for the Captain's soul, Gracey placed his head in a hatbox he found below-decks and assumed command of the ship and crew, becoming the pirate Captain Blood.

In unrelated rumors, the Hatbox Ghost was claimed to have been one of Constance Hatchaway's grooms, whom she beheaded after their wedding night. When questioned about these rumors, the Hatbox Ghost would later insist that he had not been romantically involved with Constance, though he did not comment on whether she had been the one to kill him. Several accounts note that the Beating Heart Bride, who would later haunt the Attic of the Haunted Mansion together with “Hattie”, was the Hatbox Ghost's Bride, whereas in his story, the Ghost Host claimed that Emily had been his Bride.

Pickwick, for his part, was, by the time of Danny Crowe's adventure in the Mansion, under the impression that like Madame Leota, Constance Hatchaway and Captain Gore, the Hatbox Ghost was one of those who had originally died within the Haunted Mansion, which had granted them special powers over the house — with those powers manifesting, in his case, as his uncanny ability to navigate the Endless Staircases. One story suggests that the Hatbox Ghost was a clerk in one of New Orleans's finest ateliers and a long-time friend and admirer of the Bride; meeting with her in the Attic supposedly to discuss wedding arrangements, he took his chance to try and warn the would-be Bride that her intended was in fact a murderous pirate, also confessing that he still loved her. Confronted by Gracey, he was then beheaded by him, with Gracey also murdering the Bride.^[FANWORK]

Manifesting as a ghost

Pace's headless ghost as he appeared prior to regaining his hatbox (in Mystery of the Manse: Part Four).

Still according to the Ghost Host's tale, Randall Pace's ghost was summoned to Gracey Manor by Madame Leota in a fit of jealousy on the night that William Gracey was to marry the innocent Emily De Claire. Leota also gave material existence to the wrathful spirits of Pace's old crew, who had also been betrayed and left to die by Gracey and had haunted him, unseen and powerless, ever since. Pace's headless ghost headed to the Attic of the Manor, where Gracey had stashed the hatbox containing his head.

Captain Randall Pace and his newly-recovered head taunt the reformed William Gracey (in Mystery of the Manse: Part Five).

He recovered it at the exact moment that Emily, come to the Attic to find her “something old” for the wedding, stumbled upon the very same hatbox.Finding wicked delight in ruining his killer's chances at happiness, Pace, becoming the Hatbox Ghost, revealed Gracey's ghoulish past to his would-be bride.

After she died of shock and grief, a sarcastic Pace confronted William Gracey, who had rushed to the Attic only too late. He mockingly offered to perform the wedding ceremony for them, as he was entitled to, being a sea captain with Gracey his crewman.

Then, his “work” being “done”, Pace put on a top hat and departed from the ruined ceremony, leaving the ghosts of his crew to continue wreaking havoc but claiming that for his part, he had “the rest of [his] afterlife to attend to”.

Haunting the Mansion

The Hatbox Ghost by the window of the Attic of the Haunted Mansion (in The Story and Song of the Haunted Mansion).

Nevertheless, by the time Mike and Karen visited the as-yet-abandoned Haunted Mansion, the Hatbox Ghost haunted the Attic alongside his ghostly Bride; he held up his hatbox with a wicked grin, and, with every beat of his bride's glowing heart, his head would be seen to teleport from his shoulders to within the somehow-translucent hatbox. Another guest similarly encountered the Hatbox Ghost and the Bride together in the Attic during a nightly, solo visit to the abandoned Mansion, though she did not identify him as the Bride's groom.

The Hatbox Ghost was present in the Mansion, sitting at the table in the Grand Ballroom, when “the Photographer”, the 1000th ghost in the Mansion, arrived at the house — indeed, he inadvertently scared the younger specter, sending him running throughout the house that would soon become his new home.

The Hatbox Ghost in the Attic of the Mansion in 1969 (as seen in 1969 in The Haunted Mansion).

In 1969, after the Haunted Mansion was transported to Disneyland, the Hatbox Ghost was still present in his spot in the Attic, holding up his hatbox with a leering grin, trying to scare the passing mortals in their Doombuggies with its contents. At times, his head would be visible simultaneously on his shoulder and within the hatbox.

Exile

A short time after the Haunted Mansion opened its doors to mortals in Disneyland, the Hatbox Ghost disappeared from his spot in the Attic. Hattie would later claim that he had been impressed with a family of hat-wearers and had decided to follow them home, haunting their private house for the subsequent decades until he was called back by the Ghost Relations Department, who had begun forwarding his fanmail to his new haunting address.

The Hatbox Ghost about to startle Peg-Leg Pete in 2002 (in House Ghosts).

However, according to other accounts, there was much more to the story. The Hatbox Ghost spent his decades of absence from the Mansion exploring other haunted locations around the world, which he could access thanks to the network of the Endless Staircases. Hattie, while he may have originally left of his own accord, was also kept away from the Mansion by more than his own pride; both the Disneyland staff^[FANWORK] and the Ghost Host himself insisted on keeping him out of the house despite his numerous and increasingly convoluted attempts to return. ^[FANWORK]

For Halloween in 2002, the Hatbox Ghost visited the House of Mouse alongside a large variety of other spooks.All of them joined in a performance of Grim Grinning Ghosts to scare Peg-Leg Pete out of his wits, with Hattie getting a solo performance of the line “Shrouded in a daft disguise” as he sprung on Pete from behind a grave and flashed glowing green eyes at him. In 2009, Hattie hosted a series of short documentaries entitled Tales of Two Cities intended for a living audience, travelling to notorious haunted locations in New Orleans and London and giving an overview of them.

The Hatbox Ghost's feud with Constance following his unauthorized return to the Mansion in 2012 (in Meanwhile in the Attic).

By 2012, sneaking back into the Attic against regulations, Hattie discovered that his Beating Heart Bride had been displaced by Constance Hatchaway, to whom he took an instant dislike. Criticizing her both for her general attitude to haunting and for having taken over the spot in the Mansion that was rightfully his and his wife's, Hattie launched a sort of feud between them.^[FANWORK]

Return

Hattie showing Danny around the Endless Staircases (in Disney Kingdoms' Haunted Mansion).

In 2015, the Hatbox Ghost made his “triumphant return” to the Haunted Mansion, where he had been largely forgotten by the spooks themselves even as his popularity among mortal visitors to the Mansion had grown and continued to grow.^[FANWORK]

Captain Bartholomew Gore was angered by the Hatbox Ghost having been allowed to return, griping that he was “nothing but trouble”; upon his return, Hattie had found that the Mansion was being terrorized by the ghostly Sea Captain, and reluctantly got involved in this ghost between the other ghosts of the house, helping Danny Crowe discover what he needed to do and showing him the Endless Staircases and Ghostly Materials Gallery.

From 2015 onwards, the Hatbox Ghost's spectral form & clothing were green and blue, instead of black-and-white he'd displayed in earlier periods of his afterlife. He would now haunt a platform just outside the window of the Attic, preventing friction with Constance, where he'd now keep his large collection of hatboxes and hats as well as his pet bats.