Month of The Mansion: Meet & Greet: Master Gracey (with Les) (31 Days of Halloween)

Moviefan12: Ah, welcome back foolish ones and today,  we look at perhaps one of the most important characters from the Mansion and one that has many influence from the fans in adaptations that feature this character.  Join us as we look at the Master of the Mansion, as we look at Master Gracey.  






LES: Hmmm he almost looks like an old time U.S. President the way that portrait was painted. Very regal and gentlemanly, he is.

Moviefan12: Considering that he was alive in the late 1800's.  So many gentlemen dressed that way.  Now, we shall look at his personality.



Personality


Moviefan12:  Master Gracey is an interesting sort as while he is important to the Mansion, it is named after him after all.  (Not canonically until 2012 and only at Disney World however), you never see Master Gracey in the Mansion.  All you see is his Tombstone in Liberty Square.

And it reads ... 

No Mourning Please at his request

We can only be left to speculate on what sir Gracey was like in the living but to have an epitaph that asks for no mourning, one must wonder if he lived  a good life and was content in death. Perhaps unlike the other 998 inhabitants, he found peace in the afterlife.  Of course,  there is also the belief that Master Gracey losing his beloved bride put him in a state of depression. And he may have had too much grieving when he was alive and wanted to put the pain behind him in the afterlife.  It is interesting to note that in Disney World before the interactive queue was installed in 2011, a maid or butler would place a rose on Master Gracey's tombstone every morning.  

  












A small gesture perhaps but  could this show that the staff that worked for Gracey had a great deal of respect for Master Gracey.  Oh, and those who dare to take the rose,  could  have beeen haunted by one of the spirits from The Haunted Mansion.  One other interesting thing to note is that is through the fan's that Sir Gracey has become as the Master of the Mansion as that was not the original intent of the Imagineer who wrote his epitaph. 

According to Imagineer X. Atencio (who penned the epitaph), the title of "master" on the tombstone was meant to imply a male too young to be called "mister," and not the master of the house

However, Walt Disney World picked up on this notion and decided to use this assumption and especially with The Aging Man portrait, which you saw him in his youngest form up above.  

Now as my colleague and I will discuss with our Ghost Host Meet & Greet, Master Gracey is sometimes mistaken for the Ghost Host and even in official WDW merchandise, the two characters are listed as being one and the same.  






LES: WOW!….the older one looks like James Buchanan…the 15 President…how ’bout that?….I can see why he’s sometimes mistaken for the Ghost host…he looks official and looks to match that magnificent voice of Paul Frees.

Scares Inside The Mansion

Moviefan12: Perhaps, scares isn't the right word to use to describe the dearly departed Master Gracey's place in the Mansion.  As we observed up top, there is the Aging Man painting and his gravestone along with one other item for Gracey.  

In the Servants Quarters, there is a bell for Master Gracey's bedchambers.  For a man that has very little presence in the Mansion, he stills contributes quite an impact to it.




LES: He does…and it’s pretty subtle unless you’re looking for it. In fact, before ”The Haunted Mansion” film, I didn’t even know his name WAS Master Gracey.

Moviefan12: That seems to be as good a place as any to move onto his...

Scares Outside The Mansion

Moviefan12: Most adaptations that feature the Mansion follow the fan theory that Master Gracey is the Master of the Mansion but seeing as we know so little about Master Gracey, his personality is left up to interpretation.  In the Slave Labor Graphics Comics,  he was known as William Gracey, who went by the alias, Captain Blood and hanged himself after his bride-to-be, Emily died.

In the film adaption, he was Edward Gracey, and he lived in Gracey Manor, which was built by his grandfather and he too hanged himself after his love, Elizabeth killed himself.

And while there aren't many good things to say about the 2003 movie, I do think Nathaniel Parker as Gracey was one of the few bright spots in the film as he is a truly good person that is deeply heartbroken by losing his love and you even feel more of the anguish, when he finds out that his trusted servant, Ramsley was the one behind  the death of his beloved.  Something to note here of both of these adaptations is that Master Gracey is given the death of the Ghost Host.  As it is the Ghost Host who hanged himself.

This is yet another example of how these two characters are combined because when it comes to Master Gracey in the Mansion in the parks, we do not know how he died.  But it is established that the Ghost Host died by hanging.  Minor but a bit interesting to see how these two characters are so often combined even by the company that they come from.  

Star

LES: Well, if you’re romantic, let’s say that Master Gracey died of a broken heart…kind of like Christopher Reeve did in ”Somewhere in Time”(Random plug for a great cult classic film….). It kind of makes you wonder just what the relationship was between Master Gracey and the Ghost host, you know?

Moviefan12: Indeed, that is one relationship that I would like to seen explored in media adaptations with how these two are so often combined.  Why not explore the bond that Master Gracey and the Ghost Host had.

What Does Master Gracey Bring To The Mansion

Moviefan12:  As Les & I have observed, there is very little that we know about Master Gracey but going by the little we do know, I feel that that Gracey brings a sense of tragedy and lost love to the Mansion.  As Les pointed out, it is possible that Master Gracey died of a broken heart. And in many ways, that makes him the saddest figure in the Mansion.  





LES: The fact that there’s so little known about him gives the rider the opportunity to create the backstory in their imagination-which I think is all for the better. The mystery of it all is quite compelling and leaves it up to us to fill in the blanks as we like.