Casey Ward married Marie Ward in 1937. At the subsequent reception at their home, Wester Drumlins, Casey and Marie were trapped dancing to the song "The Band Played On", unable to stop. Their guests, believing the Wards to be playing a prank, departed the party believing all was well.
Casey and Marie continued to dance non-stop for five weeks, with the gramophone needle snapping back to the beginning of the song. At that time, one of their guests returned to Wester Drumlins and discovered them still dancing, with madness in their eyes but the same smiles on their faces. The Wards' shoes had been worn away and their feet were bloody. It was rumoured that Casey and Marie had made a deal with the devil that they had subsequently reneged upon, leading the "force" to take control of their bodies.
The Wards were subsequently admitted to the London County Mental Hospital, and both died on the same day, exactly one year after their wedding.
Casey and Marie's story was covered in the local press, with a newspaper article written by a journalist who made light of the situation, not seeming to understand its seriousness. It later became known as the urban legend "As Long as You Both Shall Live".
In 2021, Rani Chandra investigated the veracity of the story as part of a history of Wester Drumlins she was writing for the Into The Unknown blog, and was surprised to discover the Wards' tale was real. She found the article about them "dancing the night away", as well as records from the mental hospital and the local parish. (PROSE: The Very Real Mystery of Wester Drumlins [+]Loading...["The Very Real Mystery of Wester Drumlins (short story)"])