Little Leota

**Little Leota** or the **Ghostess** is a character from the Haunted Mansion.

## History

"Little Leota" was a woman who is presumed to have been a relative of Madame Leota, a Romani clairvoyant and sorceress. Madame Leota would hold her operations in a large antebellum estate in New Orleans, Louisiana that she would haunt following her demise. Little Leota too seemed to have affiliations with the household as she would become one of its spirits following her own demise as-well.

Little Leota would posthumously become the, "Ghostess" of the Haunted Mansion alongside its undead, "Ghost Host" who was of unknown relation to her but considered her to be lovely. Little Leota's occupation in the manor seemed to imply a connection between her and its, "Ghost Relations Department", working to bring new spirits and soon-to-be-deceased mortals into the manor to fill up its quota.

### Alternate versions

#### Ghost Gallery

The Ghost Gallery is a non-canonical backstory for the Haunted Mansion which was created by cast-members of the attraction in Walt Disney World. While not in the attraction's main continuity it has been responsible for many elements of the Haunted Mansion's lore in official materials and spin-offs.

In this version of the story, Little Leota was born in Florida as the bastard daughter of Master Gracey and his mistress Madame Leota. They lived within Gracey Manor in upstate New York where Little Leota grew into being a troublemaker. When she was young the girl murdered her handmaiden Prudence by literally scaring her to death and would also sneak out of the mansion at night to spend time in the village tavern, drinking with pirates.

As a young woman she moved to New Orleans where she seduced plantation-owner Jamie Padgett while sleeping with her European lover Nicholas Crown behind his back. Together Little Leota and Nicholas deceived Jamie into believing Nicholas had turned Jamie into a vampire as a means of tricking him into hiding within a coffin. The two would then seal the coffin with a hammer and nails as a means of murdering Padgett to inherit his large antebellum estate.

Little Leota died outside of Gracey Manor following a failed attempt to seduce three of the mansion's servants that ended in her luring them to a quicksand pit behind the manor to be killed. Little Leota herself died when the branch she was watching them from snapped, dropping her into the Hudson River where she drowned and where she corpse pruned up into the size of a large doll.

## Appearances and allusions

### Haunted Mansion

Little Leota appears in the mausoleum at the end of the attraction where she is a miniature spirit asking guests to, "Hurry Back" and bring their death certificates. In Disneyland she is seen in a flooded area of the mausoleum before guests exit back into the living world while in the Magic Kingdom and Tokyo she sits over a passageway in the mausoleum that guests pass under.

## Connections

### Phantom Manor

An incarnation of Madame Leota appears in Phantom Manor, set within Ravenswood Manor in Thunder Mesa, Arizona.

## Trivia

* In blueprints, Little Leota shares her, "Ghostess" moniker with the Birthday Ghost in the ballroom.
* Little Leota's role in the attraction is frequently replaced in spin-off materials by other characters:
	+ In Phantom Manor, a miniature Melanie Ravenswood used to fill in Little Leota's niche while being played by Oona Lind who portrays Phantom Manor's Madame Leota. The figure was removed following the 2018 refurbishment however the audio remains.
	+ In Disney Kingdoms, the Ghostess is replaced with Constance Hatchaway.
	+ In Haunted Mansion Holiday she is replaced by Sally.
	+ In the 2003 Haunted Mansion film she is replaced by Madame Leota.