Item 5
Source:
This was collected by me (Elise Suarez) in an informal Zoom interview with my friends and fellow IU students: Emilyann (Emily) Long, Cassie Ruch, Allyson McBride, and Harrison Sutton. The interview took place on Sunday, March 21, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. This legend was told by Cassie Ruch, a senior.
Text:
IU Auditorium’s Bloody Stage
Cassie: So, I have a story about the IU Auditorium as well. His name was Richard Dorson, I think? Yeah, so he was a construction worker and he fell from a scaffold onto the stage, and a massive puddle of blood, um, was always there. Like, no one could ever get the stain off, they even replaced the stage, and the bloodstain came back. Um…yeah. I don’t know about that, but I guess so? Maybe someone put paint on it or maybe the bloodstain really came back. Anyway…But then the ghost construction worker plays tricks with the people performing and, like, causes the lights to flicker and the sound to be all messed up.
Elise: Cassie, what did you say the guy’s name was?
Cassie: Richard Dorson.
Elise: Well, I can tell you if somebody did die in the auditorium, it wasn’t Richard Dorson. That’s the name of a folklorist, but he did pass away while he was working at IU.
Texture and Context:
Cassie continued her informal legend-telling session immediately after the legend she told in Item 4. The texture did not change much between the two legends, as we see the same informal interjections of “um” and some unsureness of if she is telling the legend correctly. We also see her interject with her personal opinion about this legend while she is still telling it, and ultimately, she tells this legend in a tone of disbelief, as she does not think it has much truth to it.
As previously stated, the immediate context of this legend’s telling was that it came immediately after a discussion about the previous legend, as the informant was ready to share her legends at once and no one in the group had heard either legend. The fact that the group had not heard the legend gave no room for variants to occur and very little room for discussion. Immediately after this legend’s telling, we discussed the legend about the real Richard Dorson, and pointed out how odd it was that his name was associated with a construction worker who died in the auditorium. We also discussed ghost stories from our former high schools’ auditoriums, and that turned into discussion about our hometowns, effectively ending the IU legend collection.
Interpretation:
This legend deals with tradition. Specifically, this telling of the legend can highlight how traditions overlap and create a new (and more historically inaccurate) version of any particular legend. The gruesome story of the blood stain reappearing on the stage of the auditorium was likely very memorable for people, as there are many ghost stories about various auditoriums—enough to give them their own subgenre, perhaps—due to the general liminality of the location. Richard Dorson’s name was likely mentioned because people have probably heard that someone affiliated with IU had passed away and had their own supernatural legends. These legends likely overlapped to give the unnamed construction worker a name and to make the legends about Richard Dorson seem scarier than they actually are.
In this telling, performance plays a big role as well. Aside from the fact that I personally became skeptical when Richard Dorson’s name was mentioned, the informant told it in a way that made it clear she did not believe it was true. This caused the group in general to laugh off the legend, so to say, as none of us had any reason to give it credibility, especially after the historical inaccuracy was pointed out. Had this legend been told in the auditorium itself, or even told by someone who believed it to be true, the legend would have been much creepier and seemed more credible, particularly if someone who was more familiar with the auditorium was the one who told it.
Conclusion
A common thread between all the legends in this collection is the fact that they are all gruesome and unsettling legends from the Indiana University Bloomington campus. These legends are still told today, in casual settings and in more “official” settings like the Folklore and Ethnomusicology Student Association’s “Ghost Walk” or during freshman orientation events. Further, these legends are things that are commonly told to incoming freshmen and play up certain aspects of campus life that are already stressful. The stress of moving into a new residence hall is worsened by the possibility of spotting a vengeful ghost searching for her missing face. The stress of exams is increased when a story is told about a girl who lost her mind while preparing for midterms, leading to her eating a rotting arm. The stress of joining a new organization or walking home at night is added to with the prospect of hearing the cries and screams of invisible infants and their mangled mothers or spotting a cruel doctor’s sorrowful specter. The stress of performing in front of a crowd is made unbearable by the tale of a man who died on that very stage, and a bloodstain that just won’t go away. All of these legends prey on already-present fears that college students have, increasing the scare-factor and memorability of the legends themselves. While the rational mind knows that most of these legends did not really happen, one cannot ignore the possibility that they could. After all, anything is possible in college.