Broadway's Spookiest Ghost Stories

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This time, the reader question was: What are some of the most famous Broadway ghost stories?

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Spooky season is upon us and in honor of Halloween, I’m answering the reader question: what are some of the most famous Broadway ghost stories?

I recently participated in a panel about Broadway ghost stories at the Museum of Broadway and it was agreed by all: some Broadway houses have many haunted tales… and others seem to have no ghostly spirits at all!

One of the most haunted theaters on Broadway is reportedly the Palace. When the Palace originally opened in the heart of Times Square in 1913, it specialized in housing vaudeville acts in addition to theatre. Many who have worked at the Palace have claimed to have either heard its old rickety elevator rattling when not actually in use, or to have heard screams coming from the theater’s fly. In 1935, an acrobat named Louis Borsalino was performing in a vaudeville show at the Palace when he missed grabbing onto another acrobat’s arms and fell. As such, it is assumed that the wails from the fly are coming from the ghost of Borsalino—but perhaps not, since he did thankfully survive the accident. An acrobat named Sie Tahar Ben Belhassen who opened a bill was not so lucky in 1926. He remarked to a stage manager, “They say opening acts always die at the Palace but Sie Tahar no die.” He was then found dead in his dressing room after completing his act. So the ghost of the Palace may be Ben Belhassen although no one seems to remember him…

One of my favorite ghost stories I was told for my book series, The Untold Stories of Broadway, belongs to Joanna Gleason. When she was starring in Into the Woods at the Martin Beck (now the Al Hirschfeld) in the late 1980s, at the end of each performance week, she would move her makeup to the end of her dressing room table and organize it, to make it easier for the end-of-week cleaning staff to do their job. Several times, when she came back to the theater, there were two blushers moved to the opposite side of the table and there was an “M” written on her mirror. Joanna thought someone was pranking her (Bernadette, is that you?) and she forgot about it. Years later, she was being driven to a TV job when the vehicle passed the Martin Beck Theatre. Joanna told her driver she had  onceplayed that house, and the driver shared that his mother had worked there many decades before! It wound up that she was on the housecleaning staff and she especially loved looking at the stars’ makeup… and her name started with an M…

According to legend, the ghost of the Al Hirschfeld Theatre is Martin Beck himself, because he did not like when the theater’s name was changed. In a few places in the theater, including an outdoor box office window, one can still see the name “Martin Beck” on display, which should help in warding off the ghosts…

The most haunted theater on Broadway is widely agreed to be the Belasco. The ornately designed building on 44th Street was built by one of Broadway’s most eccentric personalities. The impresario David Belasco dressed in priestly robes, was known for wild tantrums, and built an extensive 10-room apartment over his theater. Belasco revolutionized theater lighting as well as several other elements of the stage, and his theater is gorgeous, from its glass detailing by Tiffany to its intricate woodwork. Of course the most glamorous part of the building was undoubtedly the Belasco apartment which is sadly no longer. Once boasting a dance floor, a genuine water fortress, a pew from Shakespeare’s church, hidden Japanese pornography wall panels, and a steam room, the Belasco apartment was accessed from the theater by a small elevator.

Ghostly stories at the Belasco abound. The two most frequently experienced ghosts are David Belasco himself and a mysterious blonde lady in a robin’s egg blue dress. The legend is that the blonde woman was an actress who went up to Belasco’s apartment in the elevator and was later pushed down the elevator shaft. It is said that if a production at the Belasco Theatre dresses a character in a blue gown for one scene, the ghost will be kept at bay. (Supposedly there were no ghosts present when Oh! Calcutta! played the Belasco in the 1970s; the spirits did not enjoy the nudity!) Folks at the Belasco also report sightings of a looming male ghost wearing robes, as Belasco once wore. Even the non-believers among us might be won over by some of the Belasco Theatre’s ghost stories. Frequently, new artists to the theater have no idea about the ghostly legends and when they report sightings to the house staff, they are shocked to hear that established details on what the ghosts look like match up with what they themselves saw…

The oldest continually operating theater on Broadway is the Lyceum. Built in 1903, the Lyceum feels thrillingly old-fashioned, and thus it’s no surprise that those working at the theater have thus felt ghosts in their midst. The Lyceum’s original owner, Daniel Frohman, had an office on top of the theater, with a trap door built into the space so he could watch what was going on below on stage from his perch. Frohman’s wife, Margaret Illington, was an actress who appeared on the Lyceum stage, and Frohman would wave a white handkerchief at her from the trap door whenever he felt she was overacting. So maybe the ghost of the Lyceum is Daniel Frohman with his handkerchief… or maybe it’s a perturbed Margaret Illington!

Although the Lyceum is technically the oldest continually operating theater on Broadway, acting as a Broadway house since 1903 with no break, the New Amsterdam Theatre did open just before the Lyceum did, that same year. Unlike the Lyceum though, the New Amsterdam fell out of use for many decades before Disney Theatrical rescued the theater and restored it to its former glory. During the New Amsterdam’s heyday, one of its Ziegfeld Follies girls was Olive Thomas, now perhaps the most famous ghost on Broadway. Olive died tragically at the age of 25 of an accidental overdose. Before that however, she was hailed as one of the most beautiful women in America, lavishly praised as Ziegfeld’s most popular showgirl, and catapulted to silent film stardom. Olive was very beloved at the time of her demise and there have been endless sightings of her at the New Amsterdam since her death in 1920. The lush New Amsterdam Theatre often reports sightings of an apparition dressed up like a flapper. Olive is so present that stagehands even say, “Good night, Olive” as they leave the theater at night…

The Great Theater Massacre of 1982 sadly resulted in five Broadway houses being destroyed to make way for the Marriott Marquis Theatre. Despite protests and efforts to fight the destruction, the Gaiety, Astor, Morosco, Bijou, and Hayes Theatres came down and in their place was erected the behemoth of a hotel with the Marquis Theatre inside that is an anchor of Times Square today. It only makes sense then that the Marquis would be somewhat haunted, built on the bones of five existing Broadway theaters. Several expensive accidents involving the theater’s water curtain or sewage system could be blamed on ghosts that are still protesting the Marquis in spirit…

A few others of Broadway’s 41 houses were mentioned as potentially having haunted spirits lurking about, but the six theaters mentioned above are known to be the most ghostly on Broadway. Of course, most Broadway houses do possess a ghost light, a brightly burning bulb that is set up on stage whenever the theater is otherwise dark. Legend varies on the ghostlight with some claiming that it is meant to ward off ghosts and others saying it is meant to welcome ghosts to the space. Of course it also has safety purposes, allowing light into the space so that accidents do not occur. There is even an apocryphal tale that the first ghost light was set up after a burglar broke into a Broadway house, fell into the orchestra pit, and then sued the theater for lack of safety precautions! If that tale is true, undoubtedly that burglar is one of Broadway’s many ghosts…

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