When I was in elementary school I remember we had a field trip to the Pantages Theater in Hollywood, California. I remember the interior was really quite beautiful, and made me think of a castle, or palace. The Pantages is located at 6233 Hollywood, Blvd, and yes, it is haunted. The theater was originally completed in the 1930’s, and was a stage theater. In 1949, it was purchased by Howard Hughes, and it became part of old RKO Pictures, and it was turned into a movie screen theater. In 1967, it was purchased by Pacific Theaters, and was then turned back into an all stage theater, and the Broadway Touring Company performed there. There is a reason for me giving you all of this information before we talk about the hauntings, and I am getting to that…..lol.
Since 1932, there has been a woman spirit that visits when the theater is dark and quiet. She is believed to be a woman who was a patron, and who also had dreams of becoming a performer, died during one of the performances. They say her singing can be heard, day or night. Once, during a performance in 1994, her voice was picked up during a live performance, and they said she was singing along with the performers.
Howard Hughes, supposedly haunts the second floor in and around what used to be his office, and is now a large conference room. Employees have reported cold spots, and sudden passing of air, like someone walking by. Twice, there have been reports of a tall male entity, walking around the corner to what used to be his office, and sometimes there is even the scent of a smoke.
Alexander Pantages, was a very gentlemanly man, and his ghost is said to have helped an older employee of the theater, after she fell down in the theater when it was dark, and she could not see. Apparently, he took her by the arm and escorted her to the door and when she turned the lights on to thank him, there was no one to be found.
I did not experience any paranormal activity while I was there, but it sure would be fun to go back, and see what I could find now.
My daughter recently completed a Theatre Arts class at Circle Arts Theatre in New Braunfels, Texas. She really enjoyed the class, and learned plenty from the experienced instructors there. She had a recital on December 12th, and my youngest daughter and I were able to attend. The theatre itself has a lot of history, and used to be one of the Wurstfest’s old factory buildings. The actual Circle Arts Theatre was founded in 1968 by Elizabeth Elliott. While we were waiting for the program to start, my daughter and I were the first to arrive and chose our seats. I wanted to get some pictures for Sera, and started taking pictures of the stage and seating. My daughter Raylee, sat in her seat and requested a picture and I thought it would be cute to get a shot of the whole seating area, and her sitting alone. Well, I was looking through those pictures and I found that sitting a two rows up from her was an orb that I had not noticed before.
Apparently my house was not the only house on Fenton Street that was haunted by ghosts! This story was sent in by Margie B. a friend of mine who also lived on Fenton Street when she was 12. Here is her story:
Well one night I was woken up ….I thought I saw my my mom walk by my door. I always slept with my door open so the bathroom light could come because my little sister was scared of the dark and she would only fall asleep with it a light coming into our room (did i mention she was 2yrs old and i was 12yrs old)…. well anyway, I got up because my mom doesn’t usually get up so late. (i don’t think) .. I looked at the clock and I think it was almost 3am. As I walked to my door I looked down the hallway to the front entryway where the front door was. There I saw a shadow figure turn left towards the kitchen/dinner area. I walked down towards the entry way and flipped the the lite on to the kitchen. I walked about a 2 or 3 steps and I saw the shadow go in to the living room. So I followed it and as I walked around the couch I saw the shadow go into the entry way to the front door. As I followed the shadow I would turn the lights on as I went. For some reason I felt safe in the light. This house was somewhat strange at night and even though we lived right in front of the street lights the house was always pitch dark at night. Even with the curtains my mom bought to let in light it was still dark during the day. The hallway had a mirror in the hallway and a door that closes off the entry way so that no one can go to the bedrooms if you didn’t want them to. I looked down the hallway past the entry way but the door was closed. I don’t really remember if I closed it or not so I walked to it but something told me to leave it closed. It was really dark in that hallway I thought to myself, but the lights where on so I felt safe. I retraced my steps and shut off all of the lights as I went. When I came to the hallway I opened the door just a bit and flipped the switch. It felt really cold in the hall but I walked over to my mom and my step dads room. The door was closed so I opened the door and realized my mom had been sleeping the whole time. Then I heard something behind me and I turned quickly. Nothing was there that I could see but I felt very scared. Then I remembered that I still had to turn off the hall light before I went into my room. So I opened my door that I did not remember closing. As I did this I did something I normally never do especially at night. I looked into the mirror and saw something. It was a face and it seemed to float out from in the mirror. I felt frozen but I knew that if I did not move quickly, what ever that thing was, it was going to hurt me. Well, I wasn’t about to stand there just looking, so I ran into my room, closed the door, and jumped into my bed. I covered my head like all kids do. Then the light from the bathroom turned on and I saw something walk past my door. I could see the shadow walking past and stop in front of my door. It started to turn the knob and I realized I hadn’t locked the door. So I screamed “YOU CANT COME IN, GO AWAY!!” The door started to shake as if someone was trying to get in and the door knob just shook back in forth. I fell asleep with the covers over my head and in the morning I asked my mom why she was walking around the house trying to scare me. She looked at me puzzled and told me she hadn’t been up at all last night . I never said anything about the face in the mirror, but several years later my mother and I were talking about the house on Fenton. She asked if I had seen anything in the house and I told her I didn’t like the face in the mirror. She looked surprised by my answer and said, “You saw the face?” I told her ”Yes” and that is why I slept with my door closed. She said she was afraid of it, and thought that it would hurt someone, but that she thought that it only showed itself to her!!!
The Jerome Grand Hotel is a restored 30,000 square foot hospital building from the early 1900’s and is considered Verde Valley’s highest public building. The Hospital closed in 1950 after 23 years of service to the residents of Jerome, Arizona. Jerome is a hot spot for ghosts and the Jerome Grand Hotel is no exception. It has been said that in the 44 years the the hospital was vacant people could hear the elevator running even though it was empty. The building was purchased in 1994 and restored to its current state as the Jerome Grand Hotel. There have been witnesses to the footsteps in the hallways, poltergeist activity in the lobby, and many other paranormal experiences. The hotel itself offers Ghost Hunting tours where they provide EMT meters, IR thermometers, and even digital cameras to hotel guests only. So if you are interested in visiting the Jerome Grand Hotel, here is the current information:
