In “If You Could Read My Mind” Gordon Lightfoot sings: “…Just like an old time movie ‘bout a ghost from a wishin’ well.” Is there such a movie?
I’d say probably not–no more than “Just like a paperback novel, the kind the drugstores sell” is a reference to a particular book. It just rhymes with “what a tale my thoughts would tell.”
Damn good song, though.
There was a movie that had a little girl ghost in a wishing well. I don’t remember the name of it, but I think it was a disney movie. I saw it a long time ago.
A little girl ghost got these two kids living in her house to go into the wishing well, and on a ledge in there was one of her dolls.
I might be mistaken since it was so long ago, but I have been trying to figure out the title so I could see it again. I want to say it was about the time that escape from witch mountain was out.
Pretty sure it has nothing to do with the song, but just wanted to put my two cents in, and maybe someone could help me with the title of the movie.
It might also be a way of saying an ungranted wish, or a lost wish. A euphamism? (sp?)
There is an Abbott and Costello movie where Lou Costello and a woman character are killed and their bodies are in the bottom of a well. Their spirits rise and commit shenanigans. But I always thought that movie (sorry I forget the name) might be the one Lightfoot was referring to.
“The Time Of Their Lives” (1946).
That sounds like Child of Glass, a made-for-TV movie from Disney. The girl ghost’s dog leads one kid to the ledge in the wishing well, where the other kid and the ghost’s doll are resting. It can’t be the movie referred to in the song, though, as the movie first ran in 1978, and the song was released in 1970, IIRC.
I don’t know about the Abbott and Costello movie (The Time of Their Lives), but I think it’s likely that the ghost in a wishing well is merely metaphorical and in light of the fact Lightfoot wrote it about and during the break-up of his first marriage, not too hard to figure out.
Maybe he saw this painting.
Oh, well, if we’re moving away from films… there’s a children’s game called “The Ghost in the Well” which has been documented since the 19th century. https://twitter.com/AlmanackTweets/status/1451107236982390790
From this site: Lyrics for If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot - Songfacts
"I talked to Gordon after a concert at the Front Row Theater near Cleveland in the 1980’s. During the conversation he stated that he liked to write his music while drifting alone in a boat. I mentioned that a phrase in the song reminded me of Abbott & Costello movie where Costello whas a ghost trapped near a wishing well. Gordon confirmed that that moview was the inspiration for the song’s phrase.
- Bill Walker, Massillon, Ohio"
Welcome to the straight dope message board. And thanks for reviving an interesting thread with new information.
Yes. I just saw that movie on Creature Features. Thanks 
The Time of Their Lives is one of the most interesting, and unusual, of all the Abbott and Costello films. Made during one of the times when their relationship was at its most strained, it deviates from the standard pattern where the boys were a team doing their typical straight man-comedian burlesque routines. Instead, they play independent, unrelated characters and have almost no interaction with each other. Costello’s ghost haunts an old farmhouse, and Abbott’s character is largely unsympathetic.
Despite the deviation from their usual formula, it’s an entertaining movie, kind of a refreshing change from the usual A&C schtick.
Bud Abbott liked this film because he had a chance to do a lot of physical comedy. Usually Lou got all of that.
This movie was what I thought of when I read the OP, not realizing that it was a zombie. For the record, I’ m certain that we discussed this before on the Board.
It occurs to me that it’s probably also the only Abbott & Costello movie in which we see Lou savagely gunned down by musket fire. I wonder what the kiddies in the matinee audience thought of that?
Not many people know that Gordon Lightfoot has the gift of precognition. He foresaw not only the movie Ringu and its American equivalent The Ring, he envisioned a time, perhaps still to come, in which those movies would be considered old-timey.
Speaking of old-timey, he just played an old theater in town, and man, did he look, and sound, even older than his 80+ years. Could barely hear him.
But that song lives on… Rick Beato analyzed it, and loves it:
I can’t see that painting without thinking about a nasty Caran d’Ache cartoon that appeared during the Dreyfus Affair, picturing Emile Zola emerging from a toilet, holding a puppet Dreyfus (note the caption).
Did he foresee that Free would come along with a much better song featuring a wishing well?
Lou made a surprisingly good romantic lead and showed he could do pathos.
Bud was a villain in the early scenes (set during the Revolution), but was neutral in the modern scenes, and redeemed himself in the end.
Great tune. I think that and their other hit ‘All Right Now’ is as good or better than anything Paul Rodgers did with Bad Company.
Much better song than IYCRMM though? Eh, certainly rockier, but it’s like saying apples are better than oranges.