When the time came, the projectionist called the union to have the man sent over to relieve him. Several minutes passed, and no response. Since the projectionist had to leave as soon as possible, he turned the booth over to the manager after about thirty minutes had passed.

The minutes became hours, and still no relief man.

Later that day, a fine baby girl was born to the projectionist and his wife. Upon returning to his job the following week, a call came from the union B.A. stating that, the reason he couldn't get the relief operator to respond, was because the man had DIED just minutes before the phone call! A neighbor found him slumped over in his living room chair, next to the phone.

One dies, and one is born. True story.

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Better Projection Pays!

Man do I have a story to tell, and in the month of October no less. Seems appropriate.

The Theater I work in is an ol Vaudeville house, built in 1925 by the Lyons Family. It seems that the two Lyons brothers were ummm ladies men. Well story has it, and I have read the papers in the archives, that the brothers had been seeing the same showgirl without each other knowing about it for some time. Needless to say, that never produces good results. Well, the older brother shot the younger brother, with a 2 shot Derringer no less, right in the back. He died, right in the dressing room while talking to the showgirl. The older brother was taken to a mental Hospital, and the family reluctantly continued to run the Theater for some time. I couldn't track down when it changed hands, but it must have been in the 40's sometime.

Well, the dressing room... still on the building!! It's there, behind the black velvet in Theater #2. Stage left to be exact. Lift up the lower masking, and look in, and the Grand entryway with real pillars is still plainly visible.. very eerie in itself. I have looked in a hundred times, every time gives me the "williws"

Now some stories:
The first time I encountered "Herschel" as we have dubbed him was in 1990 when I was still an Asst. manager. An usher and myself were sent to clean up the upstairs hallway, bummer. So we got to cleaning, and the last thing was a bunch of old 4 foot flourescent tubes. I ask him, "Hey, have you heard how loud these things are?" upon him saying "no" I launched one into the old storeroom at the end of the hall nothing in there but old STEEL chairs and old STEEL shelves even an old old projector. Well needless to say we both took off running when I threw it. I stopped when I heard nothing. I couldn't believe it... it didn't break? What a gipp!! Noah the usher was the first one to enter the room, like foive feet in front of me. He went in the door and just stood there, hands locked at his side, and mouth wide open, he looked so scared, he scared me. I asked him what was wrong and all he could mutter was a week "Help me" now I was really scared thought a spider or something was right there (Noah hates bugs)as I walked in, I saw what still remains as the most unexplainable thing I have ever seen. The bulb still in perfect condition, was standing perfectly on end SMACK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM!!! I grabbed Noah, and to say that we almost killed each other running out, down the hallway, down the stairs and to the street outside is an understatement. We were both scared beyond belief, and I noticed that Noah was really having a hard time. I had goose-bumps the size of B-B's, and so did Noah, but he was standing in the middle of the street, and wouldn't talk or anything. He wouldn't come inside the Theater, I wasn't crazy about it either, but I had to get a bag, because Noah was hyperventilating. I told our Manager what happened, and he just laughed, called us crazy asses, and ask if the upstairs was cleaned up. It wasn't. DAMN!! So, I went upstairs, grabbed the last two boxes of junk, and started down the stairs whistling and talking very loudly, very loudly. But you know what? I had to see if what I saw was what I saw, you know? So I slowly went back tothe room and looked in. Man should have left well enough alone on this one. The bulb was now in the far left corner of the room, 20 feet from where it last was. And to make matters worse, there were more handprints in the old dust left on the bulb at the opposite end of where I had it, time to go!!
It's been 10 years now, and Herschel and I are great friends. He still plays around now and then, but mostly with the kids on staff. A knock here a knock there, footsteps, and shadows, our stockroom for dry goods is upstairs between booths. One kid Tom, my Shift Supervisor, refuses to go up there. He claims that he was walking out, and he saw a shadow, felt cool, and then felt something go right through him. Virtually all of my staff has had some experience or another with him. Even the most die hard disbelievers have admitted to something.
I have seen shadows, felt like someone was watching, had the cold-walk-through-you feeling, and many other things. Hell, when I get scared, I actually talk to him, I feel better. You know when he gets the worst. Anything with ghost stories... we had the Sixth Sense, and he went buck wild. I found broken CD's, split right in the middle, like a laser cut them. And when we got a 2nd print of it, as I was making it up, an old lead steam radiator fell over in the booth. That bothered me because it was attached to the floor by a 2 inch pipe... which was snapped clean. Made a hell of a noise, and definitely prompted me to call it a night.
Believe it, or don't believe it. I am just telling you my stories. Or, maybe I could put you in touch with some of the many people that I don't know fom Adam or Eve, that when experiencing a problem with the film have said " We knocked on the glass, and the guy just stared at us" I quickly ask "The guy with the moustache in a vest?" To a person, they have all said "Yes" So, after giving them passes, I fel pissed, because I have never SEEN him. Only felt him. It may sound strange, but I would like to see him, just to ask what's up. Oh well now I'm sure you think I am crazy, but stop by sometime, I'll show you around, and if you're lucky introduce you, too.

Brad--I'm not sure where the reflection would be coming from, if that's what's causing the shadow, as I was closing and all the projectors at that end of the booth were off at the time...but if YOU would like to come chase it, be my guest!!

I close this Tuesday, so we'll see what happens...

All they do is flip switches and stuff. I think they just like to 'mess' with people. The worst thing they have ever done is to throw those oil cans.

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First is the theater that we have in Kent, Ohio, which we just called "Plaza Kent". I don't know the stories completely, but three persist. One has an asistant there freaking out because she kept hearing her named called in a low moaning voice everytime she was in the stockroom (even when she was the only person in the building). Another story from the same theater had a customer complaining that there was someone behind the screen during a showing. She and some others inside the auditorium demanded an usher investigate. It should be said that the usher did see movement and hear crashes behind the screen when he entered the auditorium, but nothing was found (and no, it was not light on the wall or sounds from the speakers). Lastly, in the same auditorium, a different usher, and a projectionist reported seeing a man's head poking out of the port and _through_ the glass. Kinda freaky.

The second theater we owned with paranormal activity has since been sold. Like Kent, we just called this one "Plaza Beaver Falls" after the Pennsylvania town it was located in. The stories might be a little believable at this place because people _did_ get killed here in 1985 when a tornado leveled a grocery store. Our owner bought the plot cheap, and built a nice little cinema. One of the auditoriums does have some weird activities like light fluctuations and cold spots, but nothing serious that I would class as "paranormal".

Just remember, psychics tell us that in order to have spirits caught between dead and undead, they should have suffered much pain and anguish just before death in order to haunt a particular building or plot of land after death.

Geoffrey Weiss posted elsewhere that he was writing a paper about neighborhood movie theatres and was seeking stories. This made me think that some good cinema ghost stories might be interesting to recount.

I did a search on 'haunted' before starting a new thread and came across this thread so it seems appropriate to continue this thread. I am sure that there must be other haunted cinemas stories other there that have not yet been recounted.

I find the topic qute interesting - it would make a great coffee table book with pictures of the cinemas and details of the stories etc.

I have a couple of questions too. Firstly has there ever been a haunted Drive-in Theatre? And secondly what is the general consensus about these cinemas ghost - have the experiences suggested that they are malevolent, cheeky or just a curiosity.

I also found the following on the Internet (spooky)
http://www.epost.co.uk/bristoltimes/13_03_01/story03.html

More spookiness
http://ppi.org.uk/barrow.html

Ghostbusters?
http://ppi.org.uk/about.html

Woooo....

The shopping center theatre where I spent many of my early years in the business had a reputation for strange happenings.

One night, after the regular shows, we decided to run the feature that would be showing starting Wednesday. Everyone on the staff was settling into the seats and I was in the auditorium chatting along with everyone when suddenly the main curtain opened. I looked up in the booth and there was nobody there to press the button. As far as I knew, ALL of us were in the auditorium and the doors were locked.

I started the film, went downstairs and stood in the back, listening to the projector and watching the film. A few minutes into the film the masking curtains changed from scope to flat. This time I knew there was nobody in the booth, so a few of us went behind the curtain to see if anyone was hiding back there. Nobody. Nothing.

I started the next reel and partway into it the curtain closed. About then, everyone decided that they were VERY tired and wanted to go home. I unlaced and rewound, and left with the couple of employees that were willing to stay with me until I was through buttoning up.

Nothing further was said of the incidents, but a couple of times after that there were occurances of the curtains and masking closing or opening in the middle of a show without reason. The wiring was checked, switches examined; there was no clue except that in each case the motors were doing the physical work of moving the curtains, as they could be heard in the background noise.

After a month or so, the phenomenon stopped completely.

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The Tower Theatre in Springfield, MO, also housed the district office for our area upstairs with the theater manager's office and the projection room.

After a day of meetings, etc., the DM and I were on our way out. As was our custom, we arrived at the top of the stairs and hollered out, "Good night. See you tomorrow!" A reply of "Goodbye!" was received from the projection room.

We proceeded downstairs to the lobby and noticed that every single person working that night was located behind the ticket counter. We glanced briefly at each other, casually told the group "Bye! We'll be out-of-reach the rest of the night" and promptly left the premises.

This summarily confirmed for us the stories we had heard through the years of the existence of three different poltergeists in the building ... one backstage, one in the auditorium and one upstairs.

I ran that theater as a relief operator for several days. When the regular operator came back from vacation, I asked him about the possible haunting.

His reply was, "Yes, without a doubt. Don't worry about him - he is a harmless ghost." Then he went on to tell me this story. He was the projectionist the night this happened. However, the exact dates I am a little foggy on.

It was in the '30's, I believe, when some old guy came to the theater to watch a show every night practically without fail. He never spoke to anyone. He was considered a "regular" customer. In fact, so regular, the theater management wanted to give him some free passes, probably because he looked like a street person.

They tried to follow him out several times, but he ducked into the alleys, and just disappeared and was never seen.

Then, for no apparent reason, he never came back to watch a movie, so after a period of time, the theater staff thought he just passed away.

Well, one night several years later, while the movie was running, the audience went into a panic. The projectionist stopped the show, and brought up the house lights. After the audience settled down a little, people were asked what the hell happened.

The answer from each one was that suddenly, an image of a guy came flying out of the screen and followed projection beam to the booth. When the interviewees were asked to describe what this person looked like, the discription fit that old guy guy that came and watched the movie every night several years back.

You figure - I believe it, I was there to witness the erie feeling every night when I walked into that theater alone. I'll never forget it.

Dim the lights... let everything go quiet and spooky...

Good, I've set the scene.

There is a story of a poltergeist car at the Coburg Drive-in Theatre here in Melbourne Australia. It is one of those big, old american cars from the 50s - a Dodge Phoenix I think. Rumor has it that the car has a sense of humour and likes to block people's views of signs, screens etc.

Word is that the ghost car has been seen in various places at Coburg Drive-in. It comes and goes and then just vanishes. Seriously spooky stuff. The site was formerly a tip and it is speculated that somebody was buried alive in their car there.

Strangely enough one of the places the ghost car has been seen is floating around the top of the ticket box at the entrance to the drive-in. I think David will confirm having seen this apparition. I have seen it for myself and in fact in one of the photos on David's
page you can just make out the outline of the ghostly apparition floating near the top of the ticket box (at least that is what it looks like to me). It scared the living daylights out of me.
http://www.drive-insdownunder.com.au/australian/pictures/coburgpic0.JPG

Spooky stuff.

cheers Peter

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Phillip T. Gallagher was known for his constant cigar. He was also regarded by all in the industry, as the best projectionist between Toronto and Montreal. He was a family friend that I had the pleasure to know in my youth, and all the more pleasure to work with, shortly after I became a projectionist. I have no doubt that he knew more about projection then, than I do now. He was, in short, one of the few projectionists I knew, that I could honestly classify as a "showman", so much did he care about his performance.

In an ironic way, it was, perhaps. somehow fortunate that Phil never got to see the destruction of his thearte, the Paramount, Peterborough, to the automated dual it was to become. He died as a result of a fire at his home in 1972. Shortly after that, the theatre was re-modeled, and I was placed in that position as temporary projectionist by the local.

I used to break down and make-up the film at night, after the show.

As a whole, I think every theatre has their own legends and myths about ghosts and gremlins in their booths. This goes for new buildings as well.

I guess I will always be the skeptic...

Joe - why must it always be that to be scary a photo taken must be either blobbish, out of focus, distant or not recognisable? Give a person a clear photo of a ghost and they don't believe you. Oh well.

Seriously though, in the course of doing research for my web site "Drive in Theatres of The South Pacific" at http://www.drivein.ws [gratuitous plug] I came across a local legend about a faceless woman who used to haunt the ladies bathroom at the former Waialae Drive-in in Hawaii. I must admit that I find this story quite fascinating. From other websites I have seen it appears that since the drive-in closed, the displaced ghost has been seen at other nearby buildings.

It is stories like this that really spice up a web site.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/6166/faceless.html

cheers Peter