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Author Topic: Haunted or Hoax? Chris Byrne Expert Film Handler Posts: 102 From: Kirwan, Australia Registered: Jan 2003 posted 02-04-2003 09:19 PM                     Surely some of you Techers have a haunted auditorium. They say there is a ghost in cinema 4 here in Townsville? I don't know about that, however my wife and mother were watching 'Her Majesty Mrs Brown' two or so years ago and were the only two in the cinema. Without saying a word to each other during the movie they both noticed a man sitting directly in front of them (3 rows in front and a couple of rows to the side.) When the house lights come up to preset on credits he was not there. They both turned to each other and went silent. Even popcorn was on the seat. I shit you not!  |  IP: Logged Barry Martin Expert Film Handler Posts: 203 From: Newington, CT USA Registered: Jul 2002 posted 02-04-2003 09:31 PM                        Interesting, I have one story to share. I was closing one night and the last projector to shut down was (of course) in the most distant, dark, and quiet end of the booth. I walked over to the projector to shut it down and looked at a window in a door in front of me, noticing for the first time since starting projection that the lights were off in the stairwell on the other side. When I got closer (still walking to the projector) I thought I saw something "looming" over me in my reflection in the window and quickly turned around, to find nothing of course. A little freaked out, but just convinced it was my imagination in a very dark, quiet place I went on shutting down and started to walk back towards the main booth hall. All of a sudden I heard this huge crash that could only have been film cans being tossed at the floor. I paused, more freaked out now than ever, and decided it was more than time to just go home. The next morning the film cans in that end of the booth were all in order, and nothing was broken so it remained a mystery. Needless to say, I always got the hee-bee-gee-bees in that area of the booth from then on.  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 02-04-2003 11:53 PM                     We seem to have something going on. We have a changing room for employees just below the booth. On several occasions poeple coming up to change clothes after the concession closes have come to the booth to inquire who the older tall older gentleman in the front of the balcony is. The story is that he is Robert Coulter the brother of one of the men who had the theatre built. He was manager from 1928 until 1971 when he retired and passed away shortly after. The seat he is seen in is the one he always used when he watched a movie. None of those seeing him had knowledge of the story. Frequently while standing at the port waiting to make a changeover a fleeting figure will be seen reflected in the port glass. Strange but true. I have been told by a customer who studies the occult that theatres are one of the places most often reported as haunted.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 02-05-2003 02:01 AM                     It's because cinema people can't get it out of their blood. Once we die we must continue to have something to do with the cinema. I know I plan on haunting many a theater with bad presentations.  |  IP: Logged Gracia L. Babbidge Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 709 From: Bowdoin, Maine Registered: Aug 2000 posted 02-05-2003 02:43 AM                        I'm one of those 'lucky' people that has a heightened sensitivity to the supernatural, or paranormal energies if you will. When I first started at my current theatre, I noticed that the far end of the booth (nearest to machine #10) had a very creepy feel to it. I also noticed that the hallway below that end of the booth had a very weird feel to it, but a lot less creepy. Some of the kids I have worked with have seen odd things going on with the lighting in that part of the hallway. I have actually seen two different entities in the booth, and gotten a fairly clear look at them, or as clear as they would let themselves be seen. One appeared to be a young man, wearing a white shirt & blue jeans, he doesn't bother me, and I don't think he hangs out in the booth all the time, he's just curious. Many times I've caught him watching me thread projectors 7, 8, & 9. The other one is creepy. It's a tall, thin figure, all in black. He likes to mess with the booth equipment. We have had some truly unusual issues with the machines at the end of the booth that he haunts. Finally, one day I decided that I'd had enough of the creepy one's mischief, and bitched him out. Yeah, sure, that may sound crazy, and had someone entered the booth in the middle of my doing that, they probably would have thought that I had honestly gone nuts. But you know what? It worked. No more trouble from the figure in black.  |  IP: Logged Jon Bartow Master Film Handler Posts: 287 From: Massachusetts Registered: Nov 1999 posted 02-05-2003 09:09 AM                     Gracia, Do you remember that mall in it's original state? (indoor hallways, a bunch of stores) Now the building is more than 60% empty because they turned it into a strip mall. The empty, warehouse-like rooms out back (over 200,000 square feet!) have been hiding places for the scum of the area for years. I personally know of half a dozen ways to get in the back without a key or tripping an alarm. (don't worry, you can't get into the theater without a key or a very BIG sledge hammer). The cops have made the back parking area a part of their regular rounds for years. Did they ever make the old theater back there into a bar? They were supposed to a couple of years ago. Anyway, it wouldn't supprise me to hear that several (or many) murders had occured in that old mall. Jonathan  |  IP: Logged Bernard Tonks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 619 From: Cranleigh, Surrey, England Registered: Apr 2001 posted 02-05-2003 09:45 AM                     I like this old one posted by Joe Schmidt: ‘Here it comes folks….The A2 and the Porno House’ First, it is necessary to create a little atmosphere so you can visualize what the place was like. All of us here know what an Altec A2 system is, and I think most of us know what a porno house is. For those who might not be sure, I’ll just say that if the Priest in Cinema Paradiso had seen any of the award-winning cinematic masterpieces shown here, he would have dropped his bell and passed out dead on the floor. Toto’s mother would have hauled him home and locked him in the basement, grounded for the next 75 years. If any here are still not sure, I suggest to PM Mark Gulbrandsen who should be able to elucidate. The house itself is best described as an old downtown vaudeville house built during the 1920’s. It had a HUGE stage, with a grid 75’ high. Far up at the top of the balcony was a crackerbox projection booth built in the nitrate film era. The projection angle was a steep 45 degrees and the screen had to be tilted back slightly to minimize keystoning as is often the case in such situations. Getting up to the booth was a long hike usually requiring two rest stops along the way. It was a good idea to carry extra oxygen, as you would be wheezing in a manner similar to the Coyote after an encounter with the Road Runner. Most of the seats in the balcony had not been sat in for decades and thus had a heavy coating of black dust, except for a few in the front row of the balcony, which could be used by special privileged guests occasionally. These were kept covered by some large sheets to keep off the dust. A few seats near the booth door also were kept up in good condition. This was the nicest part of the theatre, very clean and carpeted, with an immaculate rest room and a refrigerator. Downstairs, there was no carpeting. The seats were all set in cement, and there was a large drain down in front. The octogenarian janitor’s cleaning technique was to wash the place down with a hose under the seats and then collect all the “stuff” from around the drain and place it in garbage cans. Backstage was a dark, gloomy and dismal place, illuminated only by a 10-watt bulb in a rickety brass gooseneck fixture above the ancient light board, an affair with many resistance rheostats, switches and fuses. This light board was so old it dated back before Edison had invented electricity. Several signs were posted: HANDS OFF! DANGER!!!! DO NOT TOUCH! KEEP AWAY!! The stage lighting was just footlights and those old-fashioned square flood things hanging from long pipes suspended from the grid far above. The screen frame was suspended by steel cables and counterweighted, so in theory it could be flown if necessary. Behind the screen, on a platform with wheels, was the A2 speaker. If one peered up into the dismal black gloom, many old ropes with frayed ends could be seen hanging. The stage was reputed to be haunted, even since the time a janitor had hanged himself from one of the many ropes wafting down from the grid and conveniently available. The concession lady had walked back to the stage to start the antediluvian air-conditioning system, and carrying her flashlight, to help light the way... and there was the old janitor, hanging from the rope, swinging baaaaaaack and forth, baaaaaaaack and forth, like a pendulum. Terrified, she ran screaming out to the lobby, the police were called. The body had to be cut down and the first show was late in getting started that day. Ever since then, the elderly box-office lady and the elderly concession lady were very nervous about the stage, and hated to have to go back and start the air-conditioning system, which was almost an adventure in itself. Neither of them ever went back there alone again, but always together, if they went at all. As much as possible they wanted the projectionist to go back there and start it. Pushing the buttons brought forth the most incredible screeching and shuddering of ancient gasping machinery being brought to life that anyone could conceive of. Imagine the howls of agony by a very old elephant that has just been bitten by an octopus and you might get the general idea. I’ve always regretted not stopping by there sometime with my Walkman Pro and a microphone to make a tape, this would have been a sound effect to end them all. Very few people knew of the secret switch on the light board that could turn on a few of the stage lights without having sparks fall down out of them. The entire stage was covered with the Dust Of Centuries save for a pathway that had been worn into the dust along the trek to the theatre’s climate-control machine room. About all the stage was used for was storage, there were crates scattered about with mysterious things in them, some resembling coffins, and there was a legend that one of the crates contained a mummy, but no one knew for sure, and no one wanted to investigate. As everyone here on film-tech knows, “Never Disturb A Sleeping Mummy In A Haunted Stage!” The Altec A2 was driven by a Century Deluxe sound system, the top of the line tube system made for them by Altec. Installed about 1952. There were two power amps with 807 tubes which could be run separately or switched in together for more power. Combined with the A2, this system could deliver stupendous sound from a film with a good sound recording, but all there was in porno films was mostly moaning and groaning. Occasionally there might be a bit of good music in a porno film, but not often. We did have an excellent record player with a Shure cartridge for intermission music and the only time the poor speaker got to show its stuff was with a good record playing. It had deep and powerful bass response and the whole place would jump. But all the rest of the time... just gasping, moaning and groaning. What a terrible waste, I always thought. Years passed, and 1977 rolled around with Star Wars and the first installations of Dolby Stereo for other films. We needed speakers for other houses, and I had the thought that the A2 could be cannibalized, broken down into chunks, carried off and used to much better advantage elsewhere. “You Can’t Do That!” people said. “What are we going to use for sound in the Big House?” I proposed, “If I can come up with a suitable substitute, and if nobody can tell the difference, can we make the swap, which will save a lot of money too?” The big boss said OK. So I trotted over to the electronic supply place and bought a 12” utility speaker and one of those wall baffles with a slanted front to mount it in, just to make things look good, although actually I didn’t think the baffle was necessary. With some help, rolled the A2 back from the screen on its platform, slid over a couple of crates, brought a rickety stool over from the light board, put it on top of the crates and set the 12” speaker on top. This stool was so old it probably would have collapsed had anyone tried to sit on it, but it was perfect to hold the speaker. I disconnected the line from the A2 and hooked it up. The quality of the moaning and groaning was undiminished and crystal clear. None of the clientele attending the performances ever seemed to notice any difference, and no one complained. Of course a central component of my speaker theory was the people didn’t come to listen to the sound anyway, but for something else. So everybody won. And the A2 went happily on to better things. Fin  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 02-05-2003 10:29 AM                        Gracia would have fun in one of my former workplaces, which is situated behind a church, on the site of its former graveyard. The site was a newspaper printing works for 150 years before the cinema opened, so I presume it was deconsecrated and the remains removed back in the nineteenth century. Never saw anything spooky, though I did once have 3 polyester platter wraps on the anniversary of Dick Turpin's [a notorious criminal who was eventually captured in York] execution.  |  IP: Logged William Phillips Expert Film Handler Posts: 117 From: Cardigan, Wales, UK Registered: Feb 2002 posted 02-05-2003 02:30 PM                        The theatre I work in used to be the towns old slaughter house. It can be creepy on your own here.  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 02-05-2003 03:15 PM                        quote: The theatre I work in used to be the towns old slaughter house. It can be creepy on your own here. Does the "smell" ever leave an old slaughter house? I have the "pleasure" of driving past a rendering plant (or "animal by-products recycling plant") on the way home from work. Close your windows in the summer.  |  IP: Logged William Phillips Expert Film Handler Posts: 117 From: Cardigan, Wales, UK Registered: Feb 2002 posted 02-05-2003 04:02 PM                        The smell apparently took a few years to go, but now its ok. The projection room has large windows due to it also being a sound and lighting box. So if you are alone at night and all the lights off in the hall it can be a bit spooky, espically as you catch a glimpse of your reflection in the windows( or is it someone else).  |  IP: Logged Dave Hall Film Handler Posts: 16 From: Watford, UK Registered: Jan 2003 posted 02-05-2003 04:37 PM                     yeh, we have a ghost who lives in screen 5, known as Norm. All of our ushers refuse (I kid you not) to go clean screen 5 alone. Many times while rehearsing prints late at night we have seen him walking up the aisle stairs in the screen. Sounds weird but often at least 2 people in the screen will notice at exactly the same time. As for weird happennings inside the booth, 2 of 3 prints we had of LOTR TT wrapped themselves around the underarms of the platter whilst the last reel was plating on. 2 different operators, 2 different platters! Norm got the blame for that one too.  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 02-05-2003 05:07 PM                     I worked three theatres that where haunted two by former projectionists. The old Warner Theatre (Hollywood Pacific) in Hollywood is haunted by Sam Warner. He died back in 1927 the night before "The Jazz Singer" opened in New York. When I worked the house strange things would happen. I talked to long time employees that said the same things like lights and doors. But it was a Great house to work. The next house is the Vogue Theatre in Hollywood. It is haunted by 4 spirits. The theatre dates back to the early 30's. Before the theatre was built a school was located on the site. A fire killed two kids. Then a long time projectionist, who had been working that theatre for 40 years. His name was Fritz, I ran into Fritz during a film festival in 2000. I was working the AFI Film Fest at the Vogue. So one night before a 7:30 show, I went half way down stairs to see if we were going to hold the show. No way came up or went down stairs. The booth was never locked, we never used the lock during the fest. I'm about 15 feet away from the booth door. So I go back to open the door. It's locked , one is around but me. I can see the deadbolt is in use. So I go to the second door. It is locked also. That door was about 25 feet away from the other door. So I go back to the main booth door. It's still locked, I start going back downstairs. Then I went back to the booth door. Now it's unlocked , so I go inside to see if anything happened inside. Later I found out alittle more about Fritz. The other person at the Vogue was a employee who worked over at the Chinese Theatre. He hung himself back stage, a few years earlier. The other theatre was the old GCC Sherman Oaks 3-5 Theatre. (that unit was replaced after the Northridge earthquake) That theatre was haunted by George a projectionist that got murder by his roommate. That booth always ran different after George died. It had a strange feeling in and around the booth. The funny thing about this was. The GCC Sherman Oaks theatre was two units (Twin & a Triplex). George always worked the twin, never the tri-plex theatre. I never worked the the Tower Theatre located in downtown Los Angeles. But one day the projectionist that was working died during his shift. The local had to send a relief operator to work the booth. The story has it the projectionist that died was sitting in the big easy chair in the booth. So when the other one got to the theatre, he found that they had placed a sheet over the other operator.  |  IP: Logged Josh Jones Redhat Posts: 1207 From: Plano, TX Registered: Apr 2000 posted 02-05-2003 06:41 PM                        I heard this quote in one of the best Spanish films we ran last year, El Espinazo Del Diablo, The Devil's Backbone. "What is a ghost? A tradgedy condemned to repeat itself time and again? A moment of pain perhaps. Something dead which still seems to be alive. An emotion suspended in time; Like a blurred Photograph; Like an insect trapped in Amber. A ghost, Thats what I am." That film still gives me the chills Josh  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 02-05-2003 07:38 PM                        Bill Gabel wrote: quote: The old Warner Theatre (Hollywood Pacific) in Hollywood is haunted by Sam Warner. He died back in 1927 the night before "The Jazz Singer" opened in New York. When I worked the house strange things would happen. I talked to long time employees that said the same things like lights and doors. But it was a Great house to work. That theatre is now the site of the USC Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) and its digital cinema lab. New screen, new sound system, and side-by-side Christie DLP-Cinema and Kinoton 35mm film projectors. Kodak and other digital cinema vendors are working with ETC in evaluating components and systems for future digital cinema systems there.  |  IP: Logged

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