Barry Claude is a character appearing in Phantom Manor.
Biography[]
Barry Claude was an oil-field master who either lived in or often travelled to Thunder Mesa where he was one of at-least four suitors to have seeked the hand of Mélanie Ravenswood only to have been killed by her father Henry Ravenswood who believed that no man was good enough for her. In the case of Barry, he was mauled to death by a bear which Henry in some form had set upon him.
Barry would be laid to rest along Mélanie's other suitors in a crypt near the part of Thunder Mesa which collapsed in 1860. He presumably haunts Ravenswood Manor and/or Phantom Canyon along with the other victims of Henry and the earthquake.
Appearances[]
Barry first appears indirectly in portrait form in the Stretching Room where his portrait with Mélanie changes to show her disapeared and stretches to show him standing atop a tree with a bear and her cub below.
Later in the music-room, a small framed portrait of Barry can be seen resting on the piano.
At the end of the attraction, Barry's tomb can be seen with his corpse still attempting to propose to Mélanie, his skeletal hand protruding out of the wall in which he was sealed.
The skeletal hand of Barry Claude emerging from it's crypt in an attempt to reunite with Mélanie.
Trivia[]
- The appearance of Barry's arm protruding from his tomb is likely a nod to the scene in The Haunted Mansion where a ghost's arm can be seen protruding out of a tomb. In Barry's case however, the occupant of the tomb is trying to break out rather than wall itself in.
- Claude's depiction in the Stretching Room of dangling over a large height with a hungry animal-predator at the bottom could make him the Phantom Manor equivalent of the Tightrope Walker.
- The name Barry Claude is an allusion to "Bear Claws" as he was torn apart by bears.
- This is not the only character within Phantom Manor who died at the hands of a bear. The Fur Trapper found in Boot Hill was killed in 1865 by a bear which ate him for dinner.
- It is possible that the bear found in Boot Hill was the bear-cub seen in the Stretching Room portrait of Barry Claude. Barry died circa. 1860 and it takes 3-4 years for bears to reach maturity, making it so that it would have been likely for the cub to have been capable of killing the trapper in 1865.