char *(null)="
movie.theatre
movie.theatre
From: udahner@mcl.ucsb.edu (Name withheld upon request)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Movie Theater Ghost (story)
Date: 23 Feb 1995 05:10:09 GMT
You *can* still post stories here, right? ;)
I used to work in a General Cinema in Redondo Beach, California. There
were three theaters on the grounds (three seperate buildings), the
largest of which I worked in. This theater was also directly adjacent
to a LARGE old cemetary. When I first started there, I heard the other
workers joke about "the ghost" in the theater. I didn't think much about
it, thinking the proximity of the cemetary would lend itself to ghost
stories, legitimate or not. After a few weeks, I was given a tad more
responsibility and would open or close the theater with one of the assistant
managers.
The theater had an upstairs projector like any other theater. There was
a small employee locker room (since we wore uniforms) that you had to
pass through the projector room to get to (the projectors are automated,
so there was never anyone up there). Next to that there was a tiny room
where we popped all of our popcorn. For starters, the projector room always
freaked me a little. It was VERY dark and shadowy, and unless you happened
to be coming on or going off a shift the exact same time as someone else,
you were always up there alone. I thought I saw things move in the shadows
out of the corner of my eye as I walked through it. I could've imagined
that, I guess, but what was definitely not imagined was the Really Cold Spot.
This happened on the wall the divided the popcorn room and the projector
room. Popping corn always generated TONS of heat (and was thus the least-
favorite duty of the theater workers) and since there was no ventillation
in the room, it got stiflingly hot in there. The wall between the two
rooms always heated as well -- except for the Cold Spot. It was at eye
level, roughly the shape of a head and shoulders (like a "bust" of someone).
No matter how long you'd been popping popcorn and how hot it got in the
popcorn room and subsequently the wall, there was still a Cold Spot.
What's worse: the spot *moved*. Not while anyone was actually feelng it
(as far as I know), but it would be at different places along the wall,
and it would move sometimes within minutes of someone locating its
position. It was weird. Once another woman reported seeing *eyes* in
that corner of the projector room, and she never went upstairs again,
just stashed her personal stuff in the manager's office and changed in the
restroom. One of the assistant managers also refused to go up there, at
least by himself. The other assistant manager had an interesting story
to tell, too, which I'll get to in a minute...
My own experiences (other than the Cold Spot and the generally creepy
feeling up there) were mainly limited to the concession stand. Doesn't
sound like a very spooky place, does it? As I started opening and closing,
often back-to-back, I began to notice weird things happened overnight.
Cabinets I *know* I locked (with keys and a small padlock) were unlocked
and open in the morning. Supplies were moved around and knocked over in
the supply room directly behind the concession counter. *Several* times
I felt a cold chill and a breeze, like someone had just run past and I
was feeling the wind in their wake. Twice another worker behind the
concession stand reported feeling the same thing the same time I had. I
*suppose* someone could've come back in and done all that overnight,
but it would've had to have been either the two assistant managers or
the manager himself. We were a pretty small, closely-knit group; I
doubt *any* of them would've done anything like that, ever. And keeping
it up over a year seems even more unlikely.
So: the assistant manager's story. One night she was closing with one
other woman. They were getting ready to leave and the other woman had gone
back up to the employees' room to get her things. There's an in-house
phone in the projector room, and she called down to the office to tell
the asst. manager that there was someone in the theater. She said there
was a weird woman standing down by the curtain. The asst. manager went
to check it out. This wasn't all that unusual, sometimes transients
tried to stay in the theater after closing, and since the alarm hadn't
been set it was possible (albeit unlikely) that someone had managed to
sneak in the exit doors and was down there messing around.
The asst. manager went into the theater. What she saw was a pale,
greyish-looking woman in a plain long skirt and a blouse. She had
long hair pulled bakc at the nape of her neck, and the asst. manager said
she distinctly remembers seeing the skirt moving and strands of hair
moving behind her head, as if there was a breeze blowing, but there wasn't
a breeze inside the theater! As the asst. manager walked down the aisle
towards her, she told the woman the theater was closed. As she got
closer, she could see the woman's mouth moving, as if she were talking,
but the asst. manager couldn't hear her saying anything. The woman
wasn;t looking at her but out into the theater. As she got closer,
the strange woman suddenly looked straight at her as if noticing her
for the first time, and suddenly VANISHED. No movement, no disturbance
behinmd the curtain, NOTHING. She was simply there one moment and gone
the next.
The assistant manager was extremely shaken, natch. She ran out of the
theater back into the lobby. She nearly had a heart attack when she
thought she heard footsteps coming after her -- she *did* hear footsteps
but they were those of the other worker running down the stairs from the
projector room -- *she had seen the whole thing*. She had been watching
from the window in the projector room until the strange woman vanished,
then she freaked and ran out of the projector room and down to the lobby.
Neither woman would stay in the theater by themselves after that.
Just a note: I never met the woman who'd been watching from the
projector room, because she'd quit before I was hired, but I *did* get
to know that assistant manager. She was a very level-headed, calm
woman whom everybody liked, and I can't imagine her making something
like that up. The fact that the *manager* believed her story -- although
he wouldn't tell me any others -- gives it even more credibility.
Whatever happened, something weird was definitely going on in that
theater!
--
Dahner Brid "Anyone can be a husband, lover; sooner them
FDC Princess Leia than me when they discover their domestic bliss
is shelter for their failing." -- "Chess"
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