Haunted Broadway Theaters

[Victoria Grant]

Posted: 2/19/04 at 10:45pm

Has anyone heard of any haunted theaters aside from Phantom of The Opera legend.

The Music Box Theater always gives me vibes when I see a show there.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 2/19/04 at 10:47pm

The Hirschfeld has Martin Beck's ghost supposedly. Every so rare often weird things happen--lights and doors opening.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 2/19/04 at 10:58pm

showgirl at the new amsterdam
belaso at the belasco (though he hasn't been seen in a while)
rosie at the plymouth.. oops

[WOSQ]

Posted: 2/20/04 at 10:02am

At the Harkness Theatre , formerly the Colonial, since torn down; Broadway between 62nd and 63rd.

My friend Maggie was working in the theatre and locking up one night. Making her way up the side aisle, alone in the house with just the work light on, she was whistling. As she finished one line, someone/something went on to the next phrase.

She beat a hasty exit and dined out on the story for the next month.

[Karma76]

Posted: 2/20/04 at 10:19am

some website on this

off the shadowlands website. great website to see haunted places

New York City - New Amsterdam Theatre - haunted by a Ziegfeld Follies chorus girl, Olive Thomas, who killed herself. She has been seen on the stage and in one of the dressing rooms by workmen that were doing repairs on the theatre. She holds a blue glass bottle (reportedly that held the poison that killed her).




http://theshadowlands.net/places/

[chasing_rainbows43]

Posted: 2/20/04 at 10:25am

I hold that Liza's ghost inhabits Studio 54 (and yes, I know she's alive. If you've been there, you'll know what I mean).

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 2/20/04 at 12:07pm

I saw a talk show back when Laura Linney was doing "The Crucible", and she said she saw a ghost in the theater. A woman in blue watching the show from the balcony. When she mentioned it to the theater owners, they were nonchalant "Oh, yes, you saw her, huh? Lots of people have." I can't remember what theater it was, though.

[secret-soul]

Posted: 2/20/04 at 12:16pm

There's a good chance that many of them are haunted. And it's especially important NOT to whistle in a theatre because of the sailor history. Theatres would hire sailors to be the flymen...and they would whistle to cue scenery to fly in and out...you don't want to whistle onstage...and possibly have a piece of scenery flying at your head.

[BroadwayKate]

Posted: 2/20/04 at 12:25pm

I don't know about haunted, but the Minskoff is surely cursed.... how many flops can one theater hold?

Kate

[Amneris]

Posted: 2/20/04 at 1:15pm

the winter garden... last year when friends and i stayed after to gratefully go backstage, everyone including the cast was gone.. the only people there were us 5 and the stage door guy.. we all took photos from the stage which was dumb because the house lights were off and the orch, was dark/empty... but when i got my photo back, there and i scanned it on my old comp, there were 3 figures in chairs.. 1 in the first row in a white/black suit and 2 figures in the mezz... my friends freaked out and the stagedoor guys admitted that a long long time ago someome hung themselves in the theatre from the rafters during a show. and no broadway guy..it wasnt barrett foa, jon-erik goldberg or joe machota sitting in chairs :) Updated On: 2/20/04 at 01:15 PM

[Karma76]

Posted: 2/20/04 at 1:31pm

winter gardens is in a book of hauntings.



The Winter Garden Theatre's stable of ghosts takes up only two pages, perhaps because they haven't proven sufficiently interfering with the business of the living.


Haunted Theaters By Barbara Smith

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 2/20/04 at 1:58pm

Borstal-- the Virginia

Posted: 2/20/04 at 2:59pm

the best thread!!!! I love spooky stuff!

[newyorkuniq]

Posted: 2/20/04 at 3:07pm

I like that site it's cool.

[racerchiquita76m]

Posted: 2/20/04 at 3:17pm

Interesting site...wish some of them had more details. I love scary ghost stories. There's even one about the SMALL town I come from!

Posted: 2/20/04 at 4:47pm

The Belasco Theatre on W44th Street is probably the most widely known to be haunted. The theatre opened in 1907 by David Belasco, playwirght/actor/producer/director and set designer. He alwasy dressed in priestly garb and was known as "the bishop of Broadway."

The first Belasco Theatre was in actuality Oscar Hammerstein's Republic on W42nd Street which Belasco named after himself. In October 1907 he opened his own theatre calling it the Stuyvesant. The theatre included a private apartment above the house for Mr. Belasco and his own private backstage elevator. It was in 1910 that he renamed the Stuyvesant the Belasco after losing his name on the earlier Republic Theatre on 42nd Street. Belasco died in 1931, and the Belasco was first taken over by Katherine Cornell Productions then the Group Theatre in 1934, which presented DEAD END and GOLDEN BOY. Since the mid-1940's the Belasco has been home to many flops, limited runs and a few hits, included in that group was OH, CALCUTTA! which had an entirely nude cast and sexually explicit sketchs and dances. For a time in the early 1950's it was an NBC radio playhouse.

Actors and theatre staff who have worked in the Belasco have claimed for many years to have seen the ghost of David Belasco sitting in an unoccupied box at opening nights. He is always dressed in his prietly garb. Creaky elevator chains have been heard rattling backstage eventhough Mr. Belasco's private elevator has worked for years. It is a known fact by those that have seen him that David Belasco continues to occupy his theatre on W44th Street. Be sure to look for him the next time you go to an opening at the Belasco.

Most of the above comes from Louis Botto's At This Theatre, 1984.

[chinkie azn jai]

Posted: 2/20/04 at 5:13pm

I wonder if the Marquis is haunted...you know after the suicides. =P

[GirlfriendFromCanada]

Posted: 2/20/04 at 5:22pm

I would imagine Martin Beck's ghost must be really pissed off now, especially since it's not even "his" theater anymore!

[bially082]

Posted: 2/20/04 at 5:53pm

What suicdes are you refering to at the Marquee. I havn't heard anything of that.

[chinkie azn jai]

Posted: 2/20/04 at 6:36pm

some guy jumped off the inside balcony of the marquee landing on the bar below.

[Hank]

Posted: 2/20/04 at 7:04pm

Stagehands, keep that light bulb burning.
I love these stories, and I'm living in an old house said to be haunted here in the wilds of NW NJ, which we have renovated, but managed to keep the spirits happy.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 2/20/04 at 7:17pm

The Mark Hellinger is hanunted by the ghost of Legs Diamond and/or Peter Allen.

[bially082]

Posted: 2/20/04 at 8:41pm

The Mark hellinger doesn't exist anymore. The name has changed...

Posted: 2/20/04 at 8:41pm

It will always be the Mark Hellinger.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 2/20/04 at 8:51pm

It used to be known as the Warners Hollywood. It was a picture palace designed by Thomas Lamb who also did the Loews Capital, Rivoli & Mark Strand in Times Square. Alas they are all gone now.

An interesting sidebar is that the original entrance was on 7 th Avenue. The rent for the entrance was so much that it was abandoned & is now an entrance to the space above it. What used to be the side entrance is now the main entrance