![Peppers Ghost](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Peppers_Ghost.jpg)
Pepper's ghost is an
illusion
An illusion is a distortion of the senses, which can reveal how the mind normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. Although illusions distort the human perception of reality, they are generally shared by most people.
Illusions may o ...
technique used in the
theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
, cinema,
amusement park
An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...
s,
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...
s,
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
, and
concert
A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variety a ...
s.
It is named after the English scientist
John Henry Pepper
John Henry "Professor" Pepper (17 June 1821 – 25 March 1900) was a British scientist and inventor who toured the English-speaking world with his scientific demonstrations. He entertained the public, royalty, and fellow scientists with a wide r ...
(1821–1900) who began popularising the effect with a theatre demonstration in 1862.
This launched an international vogue for ghost-themed plays, which used this novel stage effect, during the 1860s and subsequent decades.
The illusion is widely used for entertainment and publicity purposes. These include the Girl-to-Gorilla trick found in old carnival
sideshow
In North America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair, or other such attraction.
Types
There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions:
*The Ten-in-One offers a program of ten seq ...
s and the appearance of "ghosts" at
the Haunted Mansion
The Haunted Mansion is a dark ride attraction located at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, and Tokyo Disneyland. The haunted house attraction features a ride-through tour in Omnimover vehicles called "Doom Buggies", and a walk-through show is display ...
and the "Blue Fairy" in
Pinocchio's Daring Journey
Pinocchio's Daring Journey is a dark ride at Disneyland in California, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Park in Paris. Located in the Fantasyland section of each park, this ride is based on Disney's 1940 animated film version of the classic stor ...
, both at
Disneyland
Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...
in California.
Teleprompters
A teleprompter, also known as an autocue, is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script.
Using a teleprompter is similar to using cue cards. The screen is in front of, and usually b ...
are a modern implementation of Pepper's ghost. The technique was used to display a life-size
Illusion of Kate Moss
The illusion of Kate Moss was a performance projected at the conclusion of the Alexander McQueen runway show ''The Widows of Culloden'' (Autumn/Winter 2006). The illusion consists of a short film of English model Kate Moss wearing a long, billo ...
at the 2006 runway show for the Alexander McQueen collection ''
The Widows of Culloden
''The Widows of Culloden'' (Autumn/Winter 2006; ) is the twenty-eighth collection by British designer Alexander McQueen for his eponymous fashion house. ''Widows'' was inspired by McQueen's Scottish ancestry, and was named for the women who wer ...
.''
In the 2010s the technique has been used to make virtual artists appear onstage in apparent 'live' concerts, with examples including
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
,
Tupac Shakur
Tupac Amaru Shakur ( ; born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known as 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper. He is widely considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Shakur is among the Li ...
,
Abba
ABBA ( , , formerly named Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida) are a Swedish supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group's ...
, and
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
. It is often wrongly
described as "holographic".
Such setups can involve custom projection media server software and specialized stretched films.
The installation may be a site-specific one-off, or a use of a commercial system such as the
Cheoptics360 or
Musion Eyeliner
The Musion Eyeliner is a proprietary high definition video projection system that allows moving images to appear within a live stage setting. The system is patented. The Musion eyeliner was invented by Uwe Maass the owner of the original patent.
...
.
Products have been designed using a clear plastic pyramid and a smartphone screen to generate the illusion of a 3D object.
Effect
![Peppers ghost low angle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Peppers_ghost_low_angle.jpg)
The core illusion involves a stage specially arranged into two rooms or areas, one into which audience members can see, and a second (sometimes referred to as the "blue room") that is hidden to the side. A
plate of glass (or
Plexiglas
Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite, ...
or plastic film) is placed somewhere in the main room at an angle that reflects the view of the blue room towards the audience. Generally, this is arranged with the blue room to one side of the stage, and the plate on the stage rotated around its vertical axis at 45 degrees.
Care must be taken to make the glass as invisible as possible, normally hiding the lower edge in patterning on the floor and ensuring lights do not reflect off it. The plate catches a reflection from a brightly lit actor in an area hidden from the audience. Not noticing the glass screen, the audience mistakenly perceive this reflection as a ghostly figure located among the actors on the main stage. The lighting of the actor in the hidden area can be gradually brightened or dimmed to make the ghost image fade in and out of visibility.
When the lights are bright in the main room and dark in the blue room, the reflected image cannot be seen. When the lighting in the blue room is increased, often with the main room lights dimming to make the effect more pronounced, the reflection becomes visible and the objects within the blue/hidden room seem to appear, from thin air, in the space visible to the audience. A common variation uses two blue/hidden rooms, one behind the glass in the main room, and one to the side, the contents of which can be switched between 'visible' and 'invisible' states by manipulating the lighting therein.
The hidden room may be an identical mirror-image of the main room, so that its reflected image exactly matches the layout of the main room; this approach is useful in making objects seem to appear or disappear. This illusion can also be used to make an object, or person—reflected in, say, a mirror—appear to
morph
Morph may refer to:
Biology
* Morph (zoology), a visual or behavioral difference between organisms of distinct populations in a species
* Muller's morphs, a classification scheme for genetic mutations
* "-morph", a suffix commonly used in tax ...
into another (or vice versa). This is the principle behind the Girl-to-Gorilla trick found in old carnival
sideshow
In North America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair, or other such attraction.
Types
There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions:
*The Ten-in-One offers a program of ten seq ...
s. Another variation: the hidden room may itself be painted black, with only light-coloured objects in it. In this case, when light is cast on the room, only the light objects strongly reflect that light, and therefore appear as ghostly, translucent images on the (invisible) pane of glass in the room visible to the audience. This can be used to make objects appear to float in space.
The type of theatre use of the illusion which
John Henry Pepper
John Henry "Professor" Pepper (17 June 1821 – 25 March 1900) was a British scientist and inventor who toured the English-speaking world with his scientific demonstrations. He entertained the public, royalty, and fellow scientists with a wide r ...
pioneered and repeatedly staged in the 1860s were short plays featuring a ghostly apparition which interacts with other actors.
An early favourite showed an actor attempting to use a sword against an ethereal ghost, as in the illustration.
To choreograph other actors' dealings with the ghost, Pepper used concealed markings on the stage floor for where they should place their feet, since they could not see the ghost image's apparent location.
Pepper's 1890 book includes such detailed explanation of his stagecraft secrets, disclosed in his 1863 joint application with co-inventor
Henry Dircks
Henry Dircks FRSE FCS (26 August 1806– 17 September 1873) was an English engineer who is considered to have been the main designer of the projection technique known as ''Pepper's ghost'' in 1858. It is named after John Henry Pepper who impleme ...
to patent this ghost illusion technique.
The hidden area is typically below the visible stage but in other Pepper's Ghost set-ups it can be above or, quite commonly, adjacent to the area visible to the viewers.
The scale can be very much smaller, for instance small peepshows, even hand-held toys.
The illustration shows Pepper's initial arrangement for making a ghost image visible anywhere throughout a theatre.
Many effects can be produced via Pepper's Ghost. Since glass screens are less reflective than mirrors, they do not reflect matte black objects in the area hidden from the audience. Thus Pepper's Ghost showmen sometimes used an invisible black-clad actor in the hidden area to manipulate brightly-lit, light-coloured objects, which can thus appear to float in air. Pepper's very first public ghost show used a seated skeleton in a white shroud which was being manipulated by an unseen actor in black velvet robes.
Hidden actors, whose heads were powdered white for reflection but whose clothes were matte black, could appear as disembodied heads when strongly lit and reflected by the angled glass screen.
Pepper's Ghost can be adapted to make performers apparently materialise from nowhere or disappear into empty space. Pepper would sometimes greet an audience by suddenly materialising in the middle of the stage.
The illusion can also apparently transform one object or person into another. For instance, Pepper sometimes suspended on stage a basket of oranges which then 'transformed' into jars of marmalade.
Another 19th century Pepper's Ghost entertainment featured a figure flying around a theatre backcloth painted as the sky. The hidden actor, lying under bright lights on a rotating, matte black table, wore a costume with metallic spangles to maximise reflection on the hidden glass screen.
This foreshadows some 20th century cinema special effects.
History
Precursors
Giambattista della Porta
Giambattista della Porta (; 1535 – 4 February 1615), also known as Giovanni Battista Della Porta, was an Italian scholar, polymath and playwright who lived in Naples at the time of the Renaissance, Scientific Revolution and Reformation.
Giamb ...
was a 16th-century
Neapolitan
Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to:
Geography and history
* Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city
* Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and Hig ...
scientist and scholar who is credited with a number of scientific innovations. His 1589 work ''
Magia Naturalis
' (in English, ''Natural Magic'') is a work of popular science by Giambattista della Porta first published in Naples in 1558. Its popularity ensured it was republished in five Latin editions within ten years, with translations into Italian (1560 ...
'' (''Natural Magic'') includes a description of an illusion, titled "How we may see in a Chamber things that are not" that is the first known description of the Pepper's ghost effect.
Porta's description, from the 1658 English language translation (page 370), is as follows.
From the mid-19th century, the illusion, today known as Pepper's Ghost, became widely developed for money-making stage entertainments, amid bitter argument, patent disputes and legal action concerning the technique's authorship. A popular genre of entertainment was stage demonstrations of scientific novelties. Simulations of ghostly phenomena through innovative optical technology fitted these well.
'
Phantasmagoria
Phantasmagoria (, also fantasmagorie, fantasmagoria) was a form of horror theatre that (among other techniques) used one or more magic lanterns to project frightening images, such as skeletons, demons, and ghosts, onto walls, smoke, or semi- ...
' shows, which simulated supernatural effects, were also familiar public entertainments. Previously, these had made much use of complex
magic lantern
The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a si ...
techniques, like the multiple projectors, mobile projectors and projection on mirrors and smoke, which had been perfected by
Étienne-Gaspard Robert
Étienne-Gaspard Robert (15 June 1763 – 2 July 1837), often known by the stage name of "Robertson", was a prominent Liégeois (now part of Belgium) physicist, stage magician and influential developer of phantasmagoria. He was described by C ...
/Robertson in Paris early in the century. The new illusion, soon to be labeled Pepper's Ghost, offered a completely different and more convincing way to produce ghost effects, using reflections not projection.
A claim to be the first user of the new illusion in theatres came from the Dutch-born stage magician Henrik Joseph Donckel, who became famous in France under the stage name
Henri Robin. Robin said he had spent two years developing the illusion before trying it in 1847 during his regular shows of stage magic and the supernatural in Lyons. However, he found this early rendering of the ghost effect made little impression on the audience. He wrote: "The ghosts failed to achieve the full illusory effect which I have subsequently perfected." The shortcomings of his original techniques "caused me great embarrassment, I found myself forced to put them aside for a while.”
While Robin later became famous for many effective, imaginative, and complex applications of 'Pepper's Ghost' at Robin's own theatre in Paris, such shows only began mid-1863 after
John Henry Pepper
John Henry "Professor" Pepper (17 June 1821 – 25 March 1900) was a British scientist and inventor who toured the English-speaking world with his scientific demonstrations. He entertained the public, royalty, and fellow scientists with a wide r ...
had demonstrated his own method for staging the illusion at the London Polytechnic in December 1862.
Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin, contemporary French grand master of stage magic, regarded Robin's performances and other 1863 ghost shows in Paris as "plagiarists" of Pepper's innovation.
Jim Steinmeyer
Jim Steinmeyer (born November 1, 1958) is an American author, inventor, and designer of magical illusions and theatrical special effects. He holds four US patents in the field of illusion apparatus, including a modern version of the Pepper's Gho ...
, a modern technical and historical authority on Pepper's Ghost, has expressed doubts as to the reliability of Robin's claims for his 1847 performances.
Whatever Robin did in 1847, by his own account it produced nothing like the stage effect whereby Pepper, and later Robin himself, astonished and thrilled audiences during 1863.
In October 1852 Pierre Séguin, an artist, patented in France a portable peepshow-like toy for children, which he named the 'polyoscope'.
This used the very same illusion, based on reflection, which ten years later Pepper and Dircks would patent in Britain under their own names. Although creating illusory images within a small box is appreciably different from delivering an illusion on stage, Séguin's 1852 patent was eventually to lead to the defeat of Pepper's 1863 attempt to control and license the 'Pepper's Ghost' technique in France as well as in Britain.
Pepper described Séguin's polyoscope:
"It consisted of a box with a small sheet of glass, placed at an angle of forty-five degrees, and it reflected a concealed table, with plastic figures, the spectre of which appeared behind the glass, and which young people who possessed the toy invited their companions to take out of the box, when it melted away, as it were, in their hands and disappeared."
In 1863 Henri Robin maintained that Séguin's polyoscope had been inspired by his own original version of the stage illusion, which Séguin had witnessed while painting magic lantern slides for another part of Robin's show.
Dircks and Pepper
Henry Dircks
Henry Dircks FRSE FCS (26 August 1806– 17 September 1873) was an English engineer who is considered to have been the main designer of the projection technique known as ''Pepper's ghost'' in 1858. It is named after John Henry Pepper who impleme ...
was an English engineer and practical inventor who from 1858 strove to find theatres which would implement his vision of a sensational new genre of drama featuring apparitions which interacted with actors on stage.
He constructed a peepshow-like model which demonstrated how reflections on a glass screen could produce convincing illusions.
He also outlined a series of plays featuring ghost effects, which his apparatus could enable, and worked out how complex illusions, like image transformations, could be achieved through the technique.
But in terms of applying the effect in theatres, Dircks seemed unable to think beyond remodelling theatres to resemble his peepshow model. He produced a design for theatres which required costly, impractical rebuilding of an auditorium to host the illusion.
The theatres, which he approached, were not interested. In another bid to attract interest, he advertised his models for sale and in late 1862 the models' manufacturer invited John Henry Pepper to view one.
John Henry Pepper
John Henry "Professor" Pepper (17 June 1821 – 25 March 1900) was a British scientist and inventor who toured the English-speaking world with his scientific demonstrations. He entertained the public, royalty, and fellow scientists with a wide r ...
was a scientific all-rounder who was both an effective public educator in science and an astute, publicity-conscious, commercial showman.
In 1854, he became the director and sole lessee of the Royal Polytechnic where he held the title of Professor.
The Polytechnic ran a mix of science education courses and eye-catching public displays of scientific innovations.
After seeing Dircks' peepshow model in 1862, Pepper quickly devised an ingenious twist whereby, through adding an angled sheet of glass and a screened-off orchestra pit, almost any theatre or hall could make the illusion visible to a large audience.
First public performance in December 1862—a scene from
Charles Dickens’s ''
The Haunted Man—''produced rapturous responses from audience and journalists.
A deal was struck between Pepper and Dircks whereby they jointly patented the illusion. Dircks agreed to waive any share of profits for the satisfaction of seeing his idea implemented so effectively.
Their joint patent was obtained provisionally in February 1863 and ratified in October 1863.
Before Dircks' partnership with Pepper was a full year old, Dircks published a book which accused Pepper of plotting to systematically stamp Pepper's name alone on their joint creation.
According to Dircks, while Pepper took care to credit Dircks in any communications to the scientific community, everything which reached the general public—like newspaper reports, advertisements and theatre posters—mentioned Pepper alone. Whenever Dircks complained, he said, Pepper would blame careless journalists or theatre managers. However, the omission had occurred so repeatedly that Dircks believed that Pepper was deliberately striving to fix his name alone in the minds of the general public.
A good half of Dircks' 106-page book, ''The Ghost'', comprises such recriminations with detailed examples of how Pepper hid Dircks' name.
An earlier 1863 ''Spectator'' article had presented the Dircks/Pepper partnership thus:
"This admirable ghost is the offspring of two fathers…. To Mr. Dircks belongs the honour of having invented him…. and Professor Pepper has the merit of having improved him considerably, fitting him for the intercourse of mundane society, and even educating him for the stage."
Popularity
Short plays using the new ghost illusion swiftly became sensationally popular. Pepper staged many dramatic and profitable demonstrations, notably in the lecture theatre of London's Royal Polytechnic.
By late 1863, the illusion's fame had spread extensively with ghost-centred plays performed at multiple London venues, in Manchester and Glasgow, Paris and New York.
Royalty attended.
There was even a shortage of plate glass because of demand from theatres for glass screens.
A popular song from 1863 celebrated the 'Patent Ghost':
"At Music Halls, Theatres too,
This 'Patent Ghost' they show.
The Goblin novelty to view,
Some thousands nightly go."
By his own account, Pepper, who was entitled to all profits, made considerable earnings from the patent.
He ran his own performances and licensed other operators for money. In Britain, he was initially successful in suing some unlicensed imitators, deterring others by legal threats, and defeating a September 1863 court action by music-hall proprietors who challenged the patent.
However, while in Paris in summer 1863 to assist a licensed performance, Pepper had proved unable to stop Henri Robin and several others who were already performing unlicensed versions there. Robin successfully cited Séguin's pre-existing patent of the polyoscope, of which Pepper had been ignorant.
During the next four years Robin developed spectacular and original applications of the illusion in Paris. One famous Robin show depicted the great violinist
Paganini being troubled in his sleep by a demon violinist, who repeatedly appeared and disappeared.
During the next two decades, performances using the illusion spread to several countries. In 1877 a patent was registered for the United States.
In Britain, theatre productions using Pepper's Ghost toured far outside major cities. The performers travelled with their own glass screens and became known as "spectral opera companies".
Around a dozen such specialist theatre companies existed in Britain. A typical performance would comprise a substantial play where apparitions were central to the plot, like an adaption of Dickens' ''
A Christmas Carol
''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. ''A Christmas C ...
,'' followed by a short comic piece which also used ghost effects. One company, for instance, 'The Original Pepper's Ghost and Spectral Opera Company' had 11 ghost-themed plays in its repertoire.
Another such company during a single year, 1877, performed at 30 different places in Britain, usually for a week but sometimes for as long as six weeks.
By the 1890s, however, novelty had faded and the vogue for such theatre was in steep decline.
Pepper's Ghost remained in use however at sensational entertainments comparable to 'dark rides' or 'ghost trains' at modern funfairs and amusement parks: a detailed account survives of audience participation in two macabre entertainments, which both used Pepper's Ghost, within a 'Tavern of the Dead' show which visited Paris and New York in the 1890s.
Since the 1860s, “Pepper’s Ghost” has become a universal term for any illusion produced via a reflection on an unnoticed glass screen. It is routinely applied to all versions of the illusion, which are now quite common in 21st century displays, peepshows, and installations in museums and amusement parks. However, the specific optics in these modern displays often follow Séguin's or Dircks' earlier designs rather than the modification for theatres which first brought Pepper's name into enduring usage.
Modern uses
Amusement parks
The world's largest implementation of this illusion can be found at
The Haunted Mansion
The Haunted Mansion is a dark ride attraction located at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, and Tokyo Disneyland. The haunted house attraction features a ride-through tour in Omnimover vehicles called "Doom Buggies", and a walk-through show is display ...
and
Phantom Manor
Phantom Manor is a dark ride attraction in Frontierland at Disneyland Park in Disneyland Paris. Phantom Manor is the park's version of The Haunted Mansion attractions at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland, although it is design ...
attractions at several
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, Inc., formerly Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. and informally known as Disney Parks, is one of The Walt Disney Company's five major business segments and a subsidiary. It was founded on Apri ...
. There, a -long scene features multiple Pepper's ghost effects, brought together in one scene. Guests travel along an elevated
mezzanine
A mezzanine (; or in Italian language, Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft ...
, looking through a -tall pane of glass into an empty
ballroom
A ballroom or ballhall is a large room inside a building, the primary purpose of which is holding large formal parties called balls. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions and palaces, especially historic man ...
.
Animatronic
Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions.
It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy a ...
ghosts move in hidden black rooms beneath and above the mezzanine. A more advanced variation of the Pepper's Ghost effect is also used at
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
''The Twilight Zone'' Tower of Terror, also known as Tower of Terror, is a series of similar accelerated drop tower dark rides located at Disney's Hollywood Studios, Tokyo DisneySea, Walt Disney Studios Park, and formerly located at Disney Ca ...
.
The walk-through attraction Turbidite Manor in Nashville, Tennessee, employs variations of the classic technique, enabling guests to see various spirits that also interact with the physical environment, viewable at a much closer proximity.
The House at Haunted Hill
The House at Haunted Hill is a high-tech haunted attraction at a home in Woodland Hills, California. The attraction, technically a yard haunt, showcases a mixture of age-old tricks such as Pepper's ghost, and advanced special effects and multi-ch ...
, a Halloween attraction in Woodland Hills, California, employs a similar variation in its front window to display characters from its storyline.
![Pepper's ghost with video screen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Pepper%27s_ghost_with_video_screen.jpg)
An example that combines the Pepper's ghost effect with a live actor and film projection can be seen in the ''Mystery Lodge'' exhibit at the
Knott's Berry Farm
Knott's Berry Farm is a theme park located in Buena Park, California, owned and operated by Cedar Fair. In 2015, it was the twelfth-most-visited theme park in North America and averages approximately 4 million visitors per year. It features 40 ...
theme park in
Buena Park, California
Buena Park (''Buena'', Spanish for "Good") is a city in Orange County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census its population was 84,034. It is the location of several tourist attractions, namely Knott's Berry Farm. It is about 12 mi ...
, and the ''Ghosts of the Library'' exhibit at the
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum documents the life of the 16th U.S. president, Abraham Lincoln, and the course of the American Civil War. Combining traditional scholarship with 21st-century showmanship techniques, the museum ...
in
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest o ...
, as well as the depiction of Maori legends called ''A Millennium Ago'' at the
Museum of Wellington City & Sea in New Zealand.
The
Hogwarts Express
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry () is a fictional Scottish boarding school of magic for students aged eleven to eighteen, and is the primary setting for the first six books in J. K. Rowling's '' Harry Potter'' series and serves as a m ...
attraction at
Universal Studios Florida
Universal Studios Florida (also known as Universal Studios or USF) is a theme park located in Orlando, Florida. Primarily themed to movies, television and other aspects of the entertainment industry, the park opened to the public on June 7, 1990 ...
uses the Pepper's ghost effect, such that guests entering "Platform " seem to disappear into a brick wall when viewed from those further behind in the queue.
Museums
Museums increasingly use Pepper's ghost exhibits to create attractions that appeal to visitors. In the mid-1970s James Gardener designed the Changing Office installation in the
London Science Museum
The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019.
Like other publicly funded ...
, consisting of a 1970s-style office that transforms into an 1870s-style office as the audience watches. It was designed and built by Will Wilson and Simon Beer of Integrated Circles. Another particularly intricate Pepper's ghost display is the Eight Stage Ghost built for the
British Telecom
BT Group plc (trade name, trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is th ...
Showcase Exhibition in London in 1978. This display follows the history of electronics in a number of discrete transitions.
More modern examples of Pepper's ghost effects can be found in various museums in the United Kingdom and Europe. Examples of these in the United Kingdom are the ghost of Annie McLeod at the New Lanark World Heritage Site, the ghost of
John McEnroe
John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was known for his shot-making and volleying skills, his rivalries with Björn Borg and Jimmy Connors, and his confrontational on-court beha ...
at the
Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum
Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum (WLTM) is the largest tennis museum in the world. The museum was inaugurated at The Championships centenary event in 1977. On 12 April 2006, The Duke of Kent declared the brand new Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum open ...
, which reopened in new premises in 2006, and one of
Sir Alex Ferguson
Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson (born 31 December 1941) is a Scottish former football manager and player, best known for managing Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football managers of all tim ...
, which opened at the
Manchester United Museum in 2007.
Other examples include the ghost of Sarah (who picks up a candle and walks through the wall) and also the ghost of the Eighth Duke at
Blenheim Palace.
In October 2008 a life-sized Pepper's ghost of
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne (13 September 1969 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian international cricketer, whose career ran from 1991 to 2007. Warne played as a right-arm leg spin bowler and a right-handed batsman for Victoria, Hampshire and Australia ...
was opened at the
National Sports Museum
The Australian Sports Museum (formerly the National Sports Museum) is a museum dedicated to Australian sport and is located within the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia. There are exhibits for sports such as cricket, Australian ...
in Melbourne, Australia.
The effect was also used at the
Dickens World
Dickens World was a themed attraction located in the Chatham Dockside retail park in Kent, England. It was themed around elements of the life and work of Charles Dickens. After a soft opening in April, Dickens World officially opened to the pub ...
attraction at Chatham Maritime, Kent, United Kingdom. Both the
York Dungeon
York Dungeon is a tourist attraction in York, England. York Dungeon depicts history of the dungeon using actor led shows, special effects and displays of models and objects.
The York Dungeons reopened in March 2013 after a period of closure du ...
and the
Edinburgh Dungeon
The Edinburgh Dungeon is an underground tourist attraction in Edinburgh's city centre, on East Market Street, which uses live actor shows and interactive rides to show various historical events from Scottish history in a scary fun style, with au ...
use the effect in the context of their 'Ghosts' shows.
Another example can be found at Our Planet Centre in
Castries, St Lucia, which opened in May 2011, where a life-size
Charles III
Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...
and Governor-General of the island appear on stage talking about
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
.
Television, film and video
Teleprompter
A teleprompter, also known as an autocue, is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script.
Using a teleprompter is similar to using cue cards. The screen is in front of, and usually be ...
s are a modern implementation of Pepper's ghost used by the television industry. They reflect a speech or script and are commonly used for live broadcasts such as
news program
News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either video production, produced local programming, ...
mes.
A demonstration of Pepper's ghost was shown in a segment of ''
Mr. Wizard's World''.
On 1 June 2013,
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
broadcast ''Les Dawson: An Audience With That Never Was''. The program featured a Pepper's ghost projection of
Les Dawson
Leslie Dawson Jr. (2 February 1931 – 10 June 1993) was an English comedian, actor, writer, and presenter, who is best remembered for his deadpan style, curmudgeonly persona and Mother-in-law joke, jokes about his mother-in-law and wife.
Earl ...
, presenting content for a 1993 edition of ''
An Audience with...'' to be hosted by Dawson but unused due to his death two weeks before recording.
In the 1990 movie ''
Home Alone
''Home Alone'' is a 1990 American Christmas comedy film directed by Chris Columbus and written and produced by John Hughes. The first film in the ''Home Alone'' franchise, the film stars Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Hear ...
'', the technique is used to show Harry with his head in flames, as result of a blow torch from a home invasion gone bad. CGI was not able to produce the desired results.
Early electro-mechanical arcade machines, such as
Midway's "Stunt Pilot" and
Bally
Bally may refer to:
Places
*Bally, a historical spelling of Bali
*Bally (from the Irish ''baile'') or townland, a traditional division of land, as well as a common prefix in the names of settlements throughout Ireland
*Bally, Bally-Jagachha, a c ...
's "Road Runner," both made in 1971, use the effect to allow player-controlled moving vehicles to appear to share the same space as various obstacles within a
diorama
A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle mode ...
. Electrical contacts, connected to the control linkages, sense the position of the vehicle and obstacles, simulating collisions in the games' logic circuits without the models physically touching each other. Various arcade games, most notably
Taito
is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, vending machines and jukeboxes into Japan. It b ...
's 1978 video game ''
Space Invaders
is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter and set ...
'' and
SEGA
is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...
's 1991 video game ''
Time Traveler'', used a mirror-based variation of the illusion to make the game's graphics appear against an illuminated backdrop.
Concerts
An illusion based on Pepper's ghost involving projected images has been featured at music concerts (often erroneously marketed as "holographic").
At the 2006
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
s, the Pepper's ghost technique was used to project Madonna with the virtual members of the band
Gorillaz
Gorillaz are an English virtual band formed in 1998 by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, from London. The band primarily consists of four fictional members: 2-D (vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guitar, ...
onto the stage in a "live" performance. This type of system consists of a projector (usually
DLP) or LED screen, with a resolution of 1280×1024 or higher and brightness of at least 5,000 lumens, a high-definition video player, a stretched film between the audience and the acting area, a 3D set/drawing that encloses three sides, plus lighting, audio, and show control.
During
Dr. Dre
Andre Romelle Young (born February 18, 1965), known professionally as Dr. Dre, is an American rapper and record producer. He is the founder and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, and previously co-founded, co-owned, and ...
and
Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (born October 20, 1971), known professionally as Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg and briefly Snoop Lion), is an American rapper. His fame dates back to 1992 when he featured on Dr. Dre's debut solo single, " ...
's performance at the 2012
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (commonly called the Coachella Festival or simply Coachella) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. ...
, a projection of deceased rapper
Tupac Shakur
Tupac Amaru Shakur ( ; born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known as 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper. He is widely considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Shakur is among the Li ...
appeared and performed "
Hail Mary
The Hail Mary ( la, Ave Maria) is a traditional Christian prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the Gospel of Luke: the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary (the Annunciation) and Mary's ...
" and "
2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted".
The use of this approach was repeated in 2013 at west coast
Rock the Bells
Rock the Bells was an annual hip-hop festival that originally took place in Southern California only, but has since toured throughout the world. The concert featured a line-up of high-profile alternative hip-hop artists, often headlined by a mor ...
dates, featuring projections of
Eazy-E
Eric Lynn Wright (September 7, 1964 – March 26, 1995), known professionally as Eazy-E, was an American rapper who propelled West Coast rap and gangsta rap by leading the group N.W.A and its label, Ruthless Records. He is often referred t ...
and
Ol' Dirty Bastard
Russell Tyrone Jones (November 15, 1968 – November 13, 2004), better known by his stage name Ol' Dirty Bastard (often abbreviated as ODB), was an American rapper. He was one of the founding members of the Wu-Tang Clan, a rap group primarily fr ...
.
On 18 May 2014, during the
Billboard Music Awards
The ''Billboard'' Music Awards are honors given out annually by '' Billboard'', a publication covering the music business and a music popularity chart. The ''Billboard'' Music Awards show has been held annually since 1990, with the exception of ...
, an illusion of deceased pop star
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
, other dancers, and the entire stage set was projected onto the stage for a performance of the song
"Slave to the Rhythm" from the posthumous ''
Xscape'' album.
On 21 September 2017, the
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...
estate announced plans to conduct a reunion tour with
the Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention (also known as The Mothers) was an American rock band from California. Formed in 1964, their work is marked by the use of sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows.
Originally an R&B band ...
that would make use of Pepper's ghosts of Frank Zappa and the settings from his studio albums.
Initially scheduled to run through 2018,
the tour was later pushed back to 2019.
A projection of
Ronnie James Dio
Ronald James Padavona (July 10, 1942 – May 16, 2010), known professionally as Ronnie James Dio, was an American heavy metal singer. He fronted and founded numerous bands throughout his career, including Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio and H ...
performed at the Wacken Open Air festival in 2016.
Swedish supergroup
ABBA
ABBA ( , , formerly named Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida) are a Swedish supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group's ...
returned to the stage in May 2022, as digital avatars performing much-loved hits using technology which is an updated version of Pepper’s ghost.
Political speeches
NChant 3D telecast, live, a 55-minute speech by
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
, Chief Minister of Gujarat, to 53 locations across Gujarat on 10 December 2012 during the assembly elections.
In April 2014, they projected Narendra Modi again at 88 locations across India.
In 2014, Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyep Erdogan delivered a speech via Pepper's ghost in Izmir.
In 2017, French Presidential candidate
Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Jean-Luc Antoine Pierre Mélenchon (; born 19 August 1951) is a French politician who was a member of the National Assembly for the 4th constituency of Bouches-du-Rhône from 2017 to 2022. He led the ''La France Insoumise'' group in the Nation ...
gave a speech using Pepper's ghost at a campaign event in
Aubervilliers
Aubervilliers () is a commune in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, Île-de-France region, northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Albertivillariens'' or ''Albertivillariennes''.
Geography
Localisati ...
.
See also
*
Camera lucida
A ''camera lucida'' is an optical device used as a drawing aid by artists and microscopists.
The ''camera lucida'' performs an optical superimposition of the subject being viewed upon the surface upon which the artist is drawing. The artist se ...
*
Camera obscura
A camera obscura (; ) is a darkened room with a aperture, small hole or lens at one side through which an image is 3D projection, projected onto a wall or table opposite the hole.
''Camera obscura'' can also refer to analogous constructions su ...
*
Front projection effect
A front projection effect is an in-camera visual effects process in film production for combining foreground performance with pre-filmed background footage. In contrast to rear projection, which projects footage onto a screen from behind the p ...
*
Head-up display
A head-up display, or heads-up display, also known as a HUD (), is any transparent display that presents data without requiring users to look away from their usual viewpoints. The origin of the name stems from a pilot being able to view informa ...
*
Magic lantern
The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a si ...
*
Optical illusion
Within visual perception, an optical illusion (also called a visual illusion) is an illusion caused by the visual system and characterized by a visual perception, percept that arguably appears to differ from reality. Illusions come in a wide v ...
*
Reflector sight
A reflector sight or reflex sight is an optical sight that allows the user to look through a partially reflecting glass element and see an illuminated projection of an aiming point or some other image superimposed on the field of view. These sig ...
*
Schüfftan process
The Schüfftan process is a movie special effect named after its inventor, Eugen Schüfftan (1893–1977). The technique consists of covering part of the camera's view with a mirror, allowing filmmakers to assemble an image from multiple par ...
*
Catadioptric telescope
A catadioptric optical system is one where refraction and reflection are combined in an optical system, usually via lenses ( dioptrics) and curved mirrors ( catoptrics). Catadioptric combinations are used in focusing systems such as searchlights ...
References
Further reading
*
Pepper, John Henry (1890). ''The True History of the Ghost''. London: Cassell & Co.
*
*
*
*
*
Gbur, Gregory J. (2016). ''Dircks and Pepper: a Tale of Two Ghosts'' ''Skulls in the Stars'' website]
*
iarchive:magicstageillusi00hopk/, Hopkins, Albert A. (1897). ''Magic, Stage Illusions, Special Effects and Trick Photography''. New York: Dover Publications.
*
Dircks, Henry (1863). ''The Ghost'', London: E & F.N. Spon.
*
Robert-Houdin, Jean-Eugene (1881). ''The Secrets of Stage Conjuring''. London: George Routledge.
External links
*
*
{{Display technology
Magic tricks
Optical illusions
Phantasmagoria