Hitchhiking Ghosts

**The Hitchhiking Ghosts** also known as **Phineas**, **Ezra** and **Gus** are three characters from the Haunted Mansion. They are also the, "Poster Ghosts" for the Haunted Mansion, effectively serving as the mascots for the attraction.

## History

The Hitchhiking Ghosts are three spirits inhabiting the Haunted Mansion in New Orleans, Louisiana. They are known respectively as Phineas, Ezra and Gus with Phineas being a cloaked traveler often proposed to have been a snake-oil salesman, Ezra being a tall and gaunt skeleton, and Gus having been an elderly prisoner. The three work in some form for the Haunted Mansion's bureaucracy, being said by the manor's Ghost Host to help the mansion fill its quota of inhabitants. Due to this it is likely that they were employed by the *Ghost Relations Department*, the organization responsible for the bringing of spirit residents into the Haunted Mansion.

### Alternate versions

#### Ghost Gallery

The Ghost Gallery is a non-cannon backstory created by Magic Kingdom cast-members to explain the history of the Haunted Mansion and is where the names Phineas, Ezra and Gus originate in regards to the ghosts. In this story they were named Prof. Phineas Queeg, Ezra Dobbins and Gus Gracey with Gus having been a member of the Gracey family's Ohio branch who was arrested murdering his entire family and was then sent to an insane-asylum. In the asylum he met Phineas Queeg who was an imprisoned snake-oil salesman and Ezra Dobbins who was a sexual-deviant before the three escaped and went their separate ways.

Gus shipped himself in a crate to the Haunted Mansion with intentions to murder the rest of his family but was imprisoned by Master Gracey's mistress Madame Leota who trapped him in a crypt within the manor's cemetery. He would go on to commit several other murders such as that of the musical Jones family before he died when his ball-and-chain dropped down a well when he tried to murder a cat with it. Following his death he became a ghost and feeling pity for him, Madame Leota summoned the spirits of Phineas and Ezra to keep the prisoner company. As for the other two Ezra had died when a mayor's overweight daughter sat on him and shattered his chest while Phineas died from lead poisoning when he cut his lip on the bottle of one of his elixirs.

#### SLG Comics

In the non-cannon SLG Haunted Mansion comics, Ezra, Gus and Phineas were of no relation to one another until after their respective deaths where they met up in the Haunted Mansion. Gus was a shepherd on a Caribbean Island during the early 18th century who was imprisoned in a fortress after accidentally crashing a wedding. Gus would be freed from prison when the port was attacked by the pirate ship *The Wicked Wench* which freed him with their cannon-fire and leading to him escaping in a rowboat only to drown when his ball & chain was knocked into the water.

Ezra here is named Ezra Gasser and was a prankster who laughed himself to death after getting his fingers caught in a cursed Chinese finger trap. Phineas on the other hand was a quack named Dr. Phineas Q. Hackenbush.

## Appearances and allusions

### The Haunted Mansion

The Hitchhiking Ghosts appear in the mausoleum of the Haunted Mansion, hitchhiking into guests' vehicles to follow them home until they return to the Haunted Mansion. Gus makes an additional appearance at the end of the graveyard where he is seen singing with the beheaded knight and the executioner. In Walt Disney World, they also have tombstones outside the front of the mansion labelled as, "Ezra", "Gus", and, "Phineas".

### Star Tours

The three are homaged in the Tokyo Disneyland version of Star Tours where three droids F-*25-OJSx*, *F-24-AMTx*, and *HHG-RX* mimic the Hitchhiking Ghosts at the end of the attraction.

### Trader Sam's

Tiki mugs in the likeness of the Hitchhiking Ghosts are displayed in and sold in *Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar* and *Trader Sam's Grog Grotto*. Additionally, the *Shrunken Zombie Head* drink is modelled after the, "Leering head" mould used by Ezra (among other characters).

### World of Disney

One of the old animator's tables from Disney Springs' Walt Disney Studios has a Marc Davis etching of the Hitchhiking Ghosts on it.

### In other media

#### Television

##### 2004 Disneyland Advert

A 2004 advertisement for Disneyland featured the Hitchhiking Ghosts leaving the Haunted Mansion and then spending time hitchhiking on the base of the Matterhorn, maniacally entertaining themselves on the elevators of the Hollywood Tower Hotel, but being mortified at the sight of the dolls on *It's a Small World*.

#### Printed Materials

##### Disney Kingdoms

The Hitchhiking Ghosts are minor characters in Disney Kingdoms: The Haunted Mansion, first appearing in the ballroom where they are transformed into a monster by the villainous captain and later saying goodbye to the protagonist as he leaves.

## Trivia

* Ezra's, "Leering head" is also featured in Phantom Manor for a Ticket Seller in Phantom Canyon, Thunder Mesa. Due to this, this character has been given the nickname of, "Ezra".

## References

1. ↑ https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2013/05/star-tours-the-adventures-continue-opens-at-tokyo-disneyland/