Research Paper On The Blue Lady
Allison Devcich
Matthew Fleming
English 201 C
6-March-2015
Feeling Blue You can frequently see a faint figure of her in the glare of the fish tank or feel her presence as you cuddle by the fire pits. She will warn you though, in a soft whisper, to not go near the edge of the cliffs. Spirits and ghosts continue today to be the epitome of many scary movies and urban legends. The ones that have real life encounters tend to make for the scariest stories. The Blue Lady is one of the best customer’s at the Moss Beach Distillery and the star in many stories from visitors of this restaurant. Her presence fills the restaurant daily resulting in creepy encounters with customers and employees. Although the blue lady is seen as an urban legend, …show more content…
many people continue to believe and to spread the story because as humans we like the sensation of being scared and the adrenaline it brings about in us.
The blue lady traces back to 1927 when the first restaurant, “Franks Place”, opened on the cliffs of Moss Beach, California. During the prohibition this spot became popular for many film stars and politicians from San Francisco. Franks Place eventually closed down and is now called The Moss Beach Distillery. It is a thriving restaurant with one major quirk, its constant visits by the blue lady. The legend has come in many different forms, but the article, Moss Beach Distillery, on the Haunted bay website says that, (S) some 72 years ago, a gorgeous, young woman met by terrible chance a dangerous man who played the piano for whom she fell madly in love with. She often wore blue and was apparently already married. While she was walking on the beach with her new lover, she was killed. Her lover survived, and she continues today to come back and search for her lover at the restaurant. (par. 2)
The restaurant has been featured on multiple ghost television shows, such as Ghost Hunter Tech TV and Strange Universe TV, that date back as far as 1997. According to the restaurants website, (P) “the ghost hunters used devices to study magnetic fields around the site to figure out the point of the blue lady.” (“Unsolved Mysteries Historic Restaurant Ghost”, par. 4) In both of the television shows they described areas of movement where the ghost hunters believed the blue lady to be. They snapped photos that showed light spots on the picture. The ghost hunters believed these very miniscule light spots to be the blue lady. The devices that they used could have picked up on numerous other things going on outside the restaurant. The day they filmed was a cold, foggy day which means that they could have easily just seen movement in the fog and the air which would have triggered their devices. Since this was all televised the producers had to ensure that they had a good story to televise, so they led viewers to believe that the blue lady was present with them when in fact the weather and movement outside is what triggered their devices.
In the second video, Strange Universe TV, a construction worker told an account about a day at the construction site, (DQ) “the plumber came up and said not to flush the toilets, just as he said it, the pipes burst...there was nobody downstairs, we were all upstairs.” (“Unsolved Mysteries Historic Restaurant Ghost”, par. 2) Mistakes and problems often occur on construction sites when crew members are working with piping and plumbing. There could have been a plumbing issue or a pipe that broke that resulted in the toilet to flush. Or even better, someone could have simply accidentally flushed the toilet even after he told the crew members not to. Instead the crew member that was interviewed for the TV show probably wanted a better explanation for the reason why the toilet flushed unexpectedly and chose to blame the incident on the blue lady.
Along with the TV show accounts there have been many more accounts made by customers and employees that the restaurant website reports:
(BQ) Many strange events have been documented since that time that can not be explained such as mysterious phone calls from no one, levitating checkbooks, locked rooms from the inside without any other means of entry, women diners losing one earring and then several of these are found in one place weeks later, date tampering with computers, sightings by small children. We are glad she is not destructive with her pranks and continue to hear of new events that cannot be explained. (“Unsolved Mysteries Historic Restaurant Ghost”, par. 4)
The blue lady is one of the oldest legends on the coastside and the subject of many creepy stories.
The restaurant continues to spread the story and elaborate the truth by creating gimmicks to make it seem as though the blue lady is at the restaurant. There is a paragraph about her in every menu and a landmark sign in front of the restaurant that explains her story. They want to create an experience for customers just as any “themed” restaurant might create. When customers come to the restaurant they are not just coming for food and an amazing view, but they are also coming to see the blue lady. They are intrigued by her story and what the story does for them. Upon reading many yelp reviews, many people said they did not see the blue lady but were going to come back to the restaurant again to find …show more content…
her.
Urban myths about ghosts are easy to be infatuated with.
People want to experience the supernatural and be thrilled by what it has to offer. Whether or not the blue lady is real, people still like the fear factor of a good ghost story. According to an article written by Allegra Ringo, in “The Atlantic”, Why Do Some Brains Enjoy Fear?, One of the main hormones released during scary and thrilling activities is dopamine, and it turns out some individuals may get more of a kick from this dopamine response than others do. (Ringo, par. 3) Ringo also says that, “people also feel more confident after they have been in a scary situation.” (Ringo, par. 4) All of these are reasons why we suffocate our ability to think critically so we can experience, even if just for a short while, fear or the thrill from a
story.
The story of the blue lady and the media environment are very similar in the sense that both tend to exaggerate the truth in order to create a sensation for their audience. When you turn on the 10 o’clock news, it is often about kidnappings, murders, arrests, protests and other very dramatic events because anything less would bore their audience. After hearing such stories in the media, people immediately tend to not think critically about what they are being told since they are so captured by what’s being reported. These reactions cause the media to be less concerned about the credibility of the story and more concerned about the shock value and getting peoples attention. Because of this, viewers buy into their broadcasts and postings because they want to believe that they are true, just as people want to believe in the blue lady. The sense of adrenaline and the psychological effects that people experience offers an emotion that would be ruined if they rationally thought about the truth of the matter. The fact that people like being scared when they hear a ghost story, is also true of why people like being shocked and amused when they hear a dramatic story on the news or social media. They want to experience this sensation and believe what they’re being told even though it may not be completely true. So remember to put on your critical thinking cap the next time you’re scrolling through your facebook feed and see a picture of a black and blue dress that your friend swears is gold and white.
Works Cited
Bigue, Christa. "Moss Beach Ghost Story: The Blue Lady." Half Moon Bay, California Patch. N.p., 28 Oct. 2011. Web. 21 Feb. 2015.
McDuffee, Keith. Moss Beach Distillery epically fails at duping the Ghost Hunters.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc, 2008. online
"Moss Beach Distillery." Haunted Bay. Haunted Bay, 8 Sept. 2009. Web. 21 Feb. 2015.
"Moss Beach Distillery." Yelp. Yelp Inc., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2015.
Ringo, Allegra. "Why Do Some Brains Enjoy Fear?" The Atlantic. Atlantic Media
Company, 31 Oct. 2013. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.
"Unsolved Mysteries Historic Restaurant Ghost: The Blue Lady in Moss Beach
Distillery Half Moon Bay." Unsolved Mysteries Historic Restaurant Ghost: The
Blue Lady in Moss Beach Distillery Half Moon Bay. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2015.
Matthew Fleming
English 201 C
6-March-2015
Feeling Blue You can frequently see a faint figure of her in the glare of the fish tank or feel her presence as you cuddle by the fire pits. She will warn you though, in a soft whisper, to not go near the edge of the cliffs. Spirits and ghosts continue today to be the epitome of many scary movies and urban legends. The ones that have real life encounters tend to make for the scariest stories. The Blue Lady is one of the best customer’s at the Moss Beach Distillery and the star in many stories from visitors of this restaurant. Her presence fills the restaurant daily resulting in creepy encounters with customers and employees. Although the blue lady is seen as an urban legend, …show more content…
many people continue to believe and to spread the story because as humans we like the sensation of being scared and the adrenaline it brings about in us.
The blue lady traces back to 1927 when the first restaurant, “Franks Place”, opened on the cliffs of Moss Beach, California. During the prohibition this spot became popular for many film stars and politicians from San Francisco. Franks Place eventually closed down and is now called The Moss Beach Distillery. It is a thriving restaurant with one major quirk, its constant visits by the blue lady. The legend has come in many different forms, but the article, Moss Beach Distillery, on the Haunted bay website says that, (S) some 72 years ago, a gorgeous, young woman met by terrible chance a dangerous man who played the piano for whom she fell madly in love with. She often wore blue and was apparently already married. While she was walking on the beach with her new lover, she was killed. Her lover survived, and she continues today to come back and search for her lover at the restaurant. (par. 2)
The restaurant has been featured on multiple ghost television shows, such as Ghost Hunter Tech TV and Strange Universe TV, that date back as far as 1997. According to the restaurants website, (P) “the ghost hunters used devices to study magnetic fields around the site to figure out the point of the blue lady.” (“Unsolved Mysteries Historic Restaurant Ghost”, par. 4) In both of the television shows they described areas of movement where the ghost hunters believed the blue lady to be. They snapped photos that showed light spots on the picture. The ghost hunters believed these very miniscule light spots to be the blue lady. The devices that they used could have picked up on numerous other things going on outside the restaurant. The day they filmed was a cold, foggy day which means that they could have easily just seen movement in the fog and the air which would have triggered their devices. Since this was all televised the producers had to ensure that they had a good story to televise, so they led viewers to believe that the blue lady was present with them when in fact the weather and movement outside is what triggered their devices.
In the second video, Strange Universe TV, a construction worker told an account about a day at the construction site, (DQ) “the plumber came up and said not to flush the toilets, just as he said it, the pipes burst...there was nobody downstairs, we were all upstairs.” (“Unsolved Mysteries Historic Restaurant Ghost”, par. 2) Mistakes and problems often occur on construction sites when crew members are working with piping and plumbing. There could have been a plumbing issue or a pipe that broke that resulted in the toilet to flush. Or even better, someone could have simply accidentally flushed the toilet even after he told the crew members not to. Instead the crew member that was interviewed for the TV show probably wanted a better explanation for the reason why the toilet flushed unexpectedly and chose to blame the incident on the blue lady.
Along with the TV show accounts there have been many more accounts made by customers and employees that the restaurant website reports:
(BQ) Many strange events have been documented since that time that can not be explained such as mysterious phone calls from no one, levitating checkbooks, locked rooms from the inside without any other means of entry, women diners losing one earring and then several of these are found in one place weeks later, date tampering with computers, sightings by small children. We are glad she is not destructive with her pranks and continue to hear of new events that cannot be explained. (“Unsolved Mysteries Historic Restaurant Ghost”, par. 4)
The blue lady is one of the oldest legends on the coastside and the subject of many creepy stories.
The restaurant continues to spread the story and elaborate the truth by creating gimmicks to make it seem as though the blue lady is at the restaurant. There is a paragraph about her in every menu and a landmark sign in front of the restaurant that explains her story. They want to create an experience for customers just as any “themed” restaurant might create. When customers come to the restaurant they are not just coming for food and an amazing view, but they are also coming to see the blue lady. They are intrigued by her story and what the story does for them. Upon reading many yelp reviews, many people said they did not see the blue lady but were going to come back to the restaurant again to find …show more content…
her.
Urban myths about ghosts are easy to be infatuated with.
People want to experience the supernatural and be thrilled by what it has to offer. Whether or not the blue lady is real, people still like the fear factor of a good ghost story. According to an article written by Allegra Ringo, in “The Atlantic”, Why Do Some Brains Enjoy Fear?, One of the main hormones released during scary and thrilling activities is dopamine, and it turns out some individuals may get more of a kick from this dopamine response than others do. (Ringo, par. 3) Ringo also says that, “people also feel more confident after they have been in a scary situation.” (Ringo, par. 4) All of these are reasons why we suffocate our ability to think critically so we can experience, even if just for a short while, fear or the thrill from a
story.
The story of the blue lady and the media environment are very similar in the sense that both tend to exaggerate the truth in order to create a sensation for their audience. When you turn on the 10 o’clock news, it is often about kidnappings, murders, arrests, protests and other very dramatic events because anything less would bore their audience. After hearing such stories in the media, people immediately tend to not think critically about what they are being told since they are so captured by what’s being reported. These reactions cause the media to be less concerned about the credibility of the story and more concerned about the shock value and getting peoples attention. Because of this, viewers buy into their broadcasts and postings because they want to believe that they are true, just as people want to believe in the blue lady. The sense of adrenaline and the psychological effects that people experience offers an emotion that would be ruined if they rationally thought about the truth of the matter. The fact that people like being scared when they hear a ghost story, is also true of why people like being shocked and amused when they hear a dramatic story on the news or social media. They want to experience this sensation and believe what they’re being told even though it may not be completely true. So remember to put on your critical thinking cap the next time you’re scrolling through your facebook feed and see a picture of a black and blue dress that your friend swears is gold and white.
Works Cited
Bigue, Christa. "Moss Beach Ghost Story: The Blue Lady." Half Moon Bay, California Patch. N.p., 28 Oct. 2011. Web. 21 Feb. 2015.
McDuffee, Keith. Moss Beach Distillery epically fails at duping the Ghost Hunters.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc, 2008. online
"Moss Beach Distillery." Haunted Bay. Haunted Bay, 8 Sept. 2009. Web. 21 Feb. 2015.
"Moss Beach Distillery." Yelp. Yelp Inc., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2015.
Ringo, Allegra. "Why Do Some Brains Enjoy Fear?" The Atlantic. Atlantic Media
Company, 31 Oct. 2013. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.
"Unsolved Mysteries Historic Restaurant Ghost: The Blue Lady in Moss Beach
Distillery Half Moon Bay." Unsolved Mysteries Historic Restaurant Ghost: The
Blue Lady in Moss Beach Distillery Half Moon Bay. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2015.