The moral of every Chicago ghost story is “ work will kill you “.
And in honor of the Oprah interview with Elliot Page tomorrow night, which I have obsessed over for hours, I wanted to tell my favorite Oprah story.
It’s a work story.
It’s a Chicago story.
It’s a ghost story.
And it reminds me of Elliot Page.
Are you ready?
The “ Are You Afraid of the Dark “ theme is playing in my head right now, how about you?
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When Oprah was making her show in Chicago, she had this big building that housed the production: Harpo Studios.
The building is downtown, close to the Chicago River and Trump Tower.
As everyone knows: in the 90s, The Oprah Show aired every single weekday.
Every documentary about the Oprah Show quotes staff like this:
“No one slept, everyone was losing their mind, everyone was working all the time, but it was fun? Haha JK no it wasn’t.”
Or:
“I love Oprah, she is the best boss. I worked 29 hours a day + got addicted to uppers but that’s fine, I would die for her.”
It was a stressful work environment.
Since no one talked about work life balance back then, because well, Oprah wasn’t even talking about work life balance, it was not part of the culture.
Staff regularly worked more than 20 hours a day.
The documentary Making Oprah talks a lot about how working on the show was the most meaningful experiences of many producers’ lives. They felt like they were truly making a difference in the world.
But: “making a difference” took a toll on their mental health, romantic lives, and families.
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So one time a senior producer on the Oprah Show was at the studio at 4 in the morning.
And she kept hearing this creepy noise, it sounded kind of like scratching.
She was also going through a divorce, and like… maybe losing custody of her kids.
She had a lot going on.
So she kept hearing the scratching, and she was like… “ Yep. That seems right. I’m losing my mind, divorce related stress. “
Then she went home.
The scratching noise happened every time she worked until 4 in the morning, which was often.
A couple of interns had heard the scratching while working late too, she found out.
But they were all like “ Yeah… this building is old. Whatever.”
One night, the producer worked again until 4 AM. But this time she heard sobbing.
Howling sobbing.
Scream sobbing.
Midsommar style sobbing, you know?
The producer was like… “ Huh. Well. I’m probably not the only one who works here going through a stressful divorce.”
The next day at a staff meeting she asked, “ Hey… Was anyone here last night at 4 AM? “
No one was.
She figured — No one wanted to admit they were here cry sobbing about their divorce. That’s fair.
But the next night the producer worked until 4 AM, she heard that scratching again.
Then she heard that howl sobbing scream.
And then, when she turned back to her desk -
SHE SAW A BLUE AND GREY WOMAN FLOATING OVER HER DESK SCREAMSOBBING AND RUNNING HER NAILS DOWN THE SIDE OF THE WALL.
AHHHHHHH!!!!
The woman was all in grey and wet — it looked like she was floating in water.
In some versions of the story, the figure says to the senior producer:
“ It’s not worth it. “
But in every version, when the producer screamed, the woman disappeared.
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The next day, the producer was like… “ What the fuck you guys??? I got haunted??? “
And she found out — A BUNCH OF OTHER PEOPLE WORKING ON THE SHOW HAD SEEN OR HEARD THE WOMAN BEFORE.
But they never said anything because they were like… “ Haha, I guess I’m addicted to uppers and finally cracking.”
Enough people had seen this woman that they started calling her “ The Gray Lady “.
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Let’s flash back to 1910 for a moment.
A bunch of industrial revolution industry machine dudes had a big boat party on the Chicago River for all their employees.
But it wasn’t an actual party.
It was a “look how rich we are” press stunt.
The boat was called the USS Eastland.
Everybody and their families at these factories took the day off and came to the Chicago River to get on the boat.
The goal was to float down the river, past every building in the business district of Chicago, and be like:
“ Haha, we’re so rich, our workers don’t even have to work today. “
But… as you know.
From 1910 to 2021 — corporations suck.
They filled the boats far over capacity.
When the captain objected because of safety issues, the bosses threatened to fire him.
And the USS Eastland sank before it even got off the dock.
Everyone on board drowned in a really horrifying way.
Over 844 people died: they didn’t have enough space for all of the bodies in the city’s morgues.
Whole families were on the boat.
And so lot of bodies just… didn’t get claimed.
They started putting bodies in the basement of the nearby business skyscrapers, where it was sort of cold-ish.
Including the building of Harpo Studio.
Where they filmed the Oprah Show.
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After the senior producer saw this woman,
Oprah was like… “ OK, this is ridiculous. No one work until 4 AM anymore.”
(Other versions of this story posit this rule came into being because Oprah herself encountered the Gray Lady while working late.)
Oprah started closing the office at 9 PM.
Here’s the thing that gets me most about this story:
Every iteration I’ve heard includes the moral — “work/life balance.”
It feels like such an Oprah moral for a ghost story.
“ The Gray Lady taught me nothing is more important than family and self-care. Thanks, Gray Lady. “
But I think the reason this story stuck with me, one of the reasons a lot of people in Chicago love this story in 2021, is because of something a little deeper than “work/life balance.”
The themes in the story, no matter which version you hear, are pretty clear.
A boss is a boss, even if your boss is Oprah. Or the boss that only lives inside your head. No work is worth your sense of self.
So this ghost story feels more relevant than ever in our post-pandemic precarious labor, branded identity economy.
When our work culture tells us not just “ DO what you love” but “ BE what you love “.
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I’ve been thinking about the Gray Lady as I watch clips of Oprah interviewing Elliot Page.
When I see how freaking dissociated and weird he is. When I hear his answers, kind of all over the place in a way that I find resonant and sad.
When I text the group chat about the interview and someone says, “ I’ve never said anything smart about my gender identity, and I certainly wouldn’t say anything smart about my gender identity in front of Oprah 10 minutes after transitioning.”
When Elliot Page talks about his obligation, his responsibility to “ make a difference” to all the other trans people in the world, who “ have it worse.”
When Elliot Page talks about being rich as hell, having infinite privilege, but also never touching a single person he was romantically involved with outside until he was 28 years old.
When, in spite of myself, I read all of the comments on every interview clip, where people question not just his gender identity, but his mental health, his authenticity, his autonomy.
Because how the world thinks about trans people in 2021 is also how the world thinks about identity -work- for everyone.
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Oprah’s interview set for Page is far from Harpo Studios (that building is owned by McDonald’s now.)
And they definitely didn’t film it at 4 AM.
But still: I kind of wish the Gray Lady could show up on that interview soundstage.
Dripping, running her nails down the side of the wall, and maybe saying:
Originally published at https://notesonfeednet.substack.com.
