Three Men and a Baby g-g-g-ghost
March 21, 2008
My wife and I were eating dinner with a friend this week when one of us brought up the old “there’s a little boy ghost in the background” during the forgettable “Three Men and a Baby.” I remember back in 1990, I was one of the young ones fueling the fire, because dang it … I saw the kid, too. According to the urban legend, the movie was filmed in an apartment where a little boy had committed suicide.
Good stuff, huh? Amazingly, the rumors spread just in time for the movie’s sequel.
Amazing, I’ve never actually looked up whether it was a g-g-g-ghost, an extra or just an odd shadow on the Internet until today. If you’re now familiar with Snopes.com, make yourself familiar with it, because it’s a great site for finding the truth (or lack thereof) of rumors and urban legends.
Here’s what Snopes has to say about the clip:
The figure behind the curtains is a “standee” (a stand-up cardboard cutout used for advertising displays) of Ted Danson, dressed in a top hat, white shirt, and tails, that was left in front of a window on the set and thereby “sneaked” into the background of one scene.
The standee prop was created as part of a story line involving a dog food commercial in which Danson’s character (an actor) appears, but references to the figure were cut from the finished version of the film. (The standee shows up once more in the film, as Ted Danson can be seen standing next to it when the baby’s mother comes to reclaim her child.)
The figure in the window looks slightly different in appearance from the standee shown later in the film because the distance and angle of the shot make it appear smaller, and the curtains obscure its outstretched arms.
All indoor scenes for Three Men and a Baby were shot on a Toronto soundstage; no actual residential structures were used for interior filming.
Here’s the YouTube clip (“ghost” appears 35 seconds in):
So you see, another rumor quashed. Click here to read Snopes’ account of the alleged munchkin hanging himself in the background during the filming of Wizard of Oz.
Entry Filed under: Random. Tags: boy, curtains, ghost, Three Men and a Baby.
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1.
sarah | April 24, 2008 at 11:30 am
that is a ghost for one you can tell its a little boy and 2 it wasnt there when they first walk pass the window plus its been deleted out of many copys of the film when its on tv that shot is no longer in the film .and 3 men and a little lady wasnt filmed in the same house it was filmed somewere diffrent . coz the mother of the dead kid didnt want then to film there no more since he was cought on type
2.
David | August 3, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Hmmm as pointed out in the article Three Men and a Baby was filmed in a studio not in a real apartment, so it has no connection to any childs death.The reason the cut out is sometimes there and sometimes not is because of continuity errors which crop up in most flilms. Rarely is everything in the same place when the scene is shot numerous times from different angles.
3.
Erica | August 13, 2008 at 2:41 am
I agree with Sarah, I looked myself for the “cut-out” when they walked by an didn’t see it-also, to add to Sarah’s comment,in EVERY description it say’s the “Cut-out” is wearing a top hat that I have yet to find AND those cut out’s are normally about the same size as the person portraying the character-but the cutout is the size of a young boy-possibly the dead son????
4.
Erica | August 13, 2008 at 2:50 am
Also, the picture you all are referring to wasn’t even in the same position-is actually WEARING the hat and as I mentioned before about the size thing-it’s actually HIS SIZE but the ghost scene we are referring to the figure looks TOTALLY different and is way smaller-when you look at the snopes site look at the sizes of the cutouts-and then everything else
5.
Mr Tyre | August 31, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Hi there. I hope I can put this to bed for you at last.
My name is Baxter Tyre, I was 12 when 3 Men and a Baby was released and I can tell you that that was NOT a cardboard cut-out behind the net curtains. Neither was it a ghost! I can reveal that it was, in fact, me.
Now I’ve told this story many, many times and depending on how passionate people are about the myth surrounding this scene, I often find people do not believe me. In fact, I was once slapped across the face by a medium at a convention when she felt my claim was disrespectful to the memory of the boy whose “ghost” she claimed belonged to a Hugo Havern.
Anyway, my father, Jack (aka Jammy), was actually an understudy of one of the films cameramen and between him and my father (who was previously a stuntman but retired after breaking his cocsics on set while filming Sword and The Sorcerer) they sneaked me and by best buddy Xavier on to the sound stage in Toronto.
Anyway I ended up in the scene unwittingly and was super scared that my dad would get fired if anyone found out because that was about the 20th take and the director was getting pretty p***ed. When they discovered thee people behind the movie invented this mischievous little story which was big, via word of mouth, for a while, but EXPLODED when the internet became so massive.
So thats why I’m telling you all now. I know you probably won’t believe me but there it is. I was (and still am-kind of) the boy in the movie that you all love to speculate about.
This may sound like a plug, but I’m putting the finishing touches to a book that explains the whole story. It will be released in 2009.
6.
darren saxton | September 7, 2008 at 10:13 am
Can you actually believe that a camera crew and a bunch of actors didn’t notice a young boy staring through the window. I think not. Belive me people, that is a cardboard cut out or some sort of hoax.
7.
Cherie | September 23, 2008 at 4:58 pm
If you pause the UTube clip you can see that the figure does in fact have on a top hat. I have never belleived that until now. But it is clear in the picture if you pause it.
8.
Claire | July 30, 2009 at 3:46 pm
If you watch the film you can see that when ted and his mother walk by the window, there does appear to a boy behind the curtain but keep watching and when they’ve walked right passed, you can see that it is actually the cardboard cutout of Ted Danson. You can see his face plain. I still find it spooky though!!
9.
Daisy | August 7, 2009 at 5:48 pm
FREAKY!!!! NOT
10.
Stephanie | October 18, 2009 at 11:19 pm
There were 2 other places that a ghost showed up in this movie. I can’t remember both, but one was a hand coming up out of a drawer and grabbing something off of the top of a dresser. I know it was there, because even now, I can still see it and it makes the hair on the back of my head stand up.
Does anyone else think that the producers and cast are just trying to cover their butts with the story about the cut out???