Ghosts on Broadway Tour

In my hunt for cheap or free things to do in NYC I found a tour called "Ghosts on Broadway" that started in front of Belasco Theatre today and decided to check it out.

Our tour guide was Marilyn, one of two ladies who gives tours under the company name - Street Smarts N.Y.

She was originally from Texas and after visiting New York when she was 20 (she's now in her 60s) she came back knowing she would live here someday - so she read every book she could find about the city. And as she has gotten older, she has become a big participant in historic preservation - listing the Merchants House as a place that she helped raise funds for. Because of her knowledge of where area ghosts are located (she also has a tour in SoHo) she even got to be on the Carson Daly Show when it was filmed on the East Coast - saying that none of her friends were up that late to see it, but she enjoyed the experience anyway...she even got her own dressing room! ;)

She said that the most popular places for ghosts to be are theatres and pubs.

The tour wasn't ALL about ghosts, some of it was more about the history of the theatres too. Unlike the walking tours I took in San Francisco - Marilyn didn't have a mic so sometimes the traffic would drown her out. We had a small group - I think if you were on the outside of a larger group it might not be worth it to go because you couldn't hear her. But if you CAN hear her - it is worth going to. Gives you lots of places and names to google! ;)

The first ghost she talked about was Belasco himself. It is said that he likes to show up for the opening night of performances. He had an office/apartment above the theatre area that was accessible by elevator back in the day, but the cables have since been cut so the only access is from a stairwell. Even though the elevator is no longer working, some actors claim that late at night they can hear an elevator running.

From there we headed to the Algonquin Hotel where Dorothy Parker's ghost is said to reside. Back in the day, The Algonquin was a regular meeting place for The Roundtable, Dorothy Parker being one of the members. She also resided at the hotel and since she has passed she apparently has been known to hide guest's belongings. Every New Year's the staff of the hotel dress as ghosts and bang pots and pans in hopes of keeping Ms. Parker's ornery actions to a minimum the following year.

On a side note - the hotel is known for having a house cat. The current one is named Matilda and she has her own email address!

Next to Belasco, Roxy's ghost at Radio City Music Hall is the most famous. He has a seat in the front row of the first balcony - many have reported putting the seats up after a show only to find one down the next day. Once again, he most typically is spotted on opening night.

Non-ghost fact - The Winter Garden Theatre which used to be home to Cats and now shows Mama Mia - is a renovated horse auction barn.

The Palace (which is now showing Legally Blonde: The Musical) used to be the ultimate vaudeville house. Their loading dock was built large enough to let an elephant walk thru! Back in the 1950s a performer on a high wire fell and his ghost is said to haunt the theatre today.

There is also a story that after her one woman show, Judy Garland invited a friend backstage and took them onstage to give them a bulb from the stage lights. The friend took the bulb home and it continued to work long after Judy Garland died. Then a fire struck the friend's house - everything was destroyed, except for the bulb - and it still worked!

The building known as the Times Square Info Center was once the Empire Movie Theatre. The theatre seats that still exist there are from the original theatre and you can still see rectangular holes in the wall where the projectors used to sit.

The Hilton Theatre simply propped up the original facade while rebuilding the backside of the theatre.

The New Amsterdam Theatre is home to another famous Broadway ghost - former Ziegfeld girl, Olive Thomas. Much scandal surrounded her death in Paris. Her husband, Jack,was the brother of Mary Pickford and although he was suspect (they had a bumpy marriage), stories say that he was so distraught over the death that he tried to throw himself overboard on the way back to the U.S. Before marrying Jack she was said to have an affair with Ziegfeld himself (even though he was married to Billie Burke - most famously known as Glinda from The Wizard of Oz - he was known to cheat on her a lot.)

The theatre is the only remaining example of an art nouveau theatre in New York. It was extensively renovated to its original look by Disney who is now using it for their Mary Poppins Musical. The original design of the theatre was by the uncle of Oscar Hammerstein. It was horseshoe shaped and midnight productions used to be held on a rooftop theatre which has not been renovated for use today.

The New Victory Theatre is the oldest theatre in Times Square. Although the facade looks original it was actually rebuilt from pictures to look like it once did.

Note - Many of the theatres in Times Square were converted to movie theatres in the 40s and it wasn't until the late 80s that many began to be changed back - if they still existed.

Down the street from these theatres is the AMC Empire Theatre (where I saw the "Rescue Dawn" screening.) Hard to believe, but the building was actually moved 25 yards to the east when AMC acquired it.

We continued on to Hell's Kitchen to a spot next door to The Actor's Studio (which is a renovated church). A building marked 428 (W. 44th St.) used to be home to Actress/Talk Show Host - June Havoc. She would often talk on her show about hearing unexplained noises in her apartment. Finally she got Hanz Holzer - self proclaimed ghost hunter - to visit. He discovered that she did indeed have a ghost named Lucy Ryan. The problem with Lucy is that she did not realize she was dead - she just thought she was hungry. To this day people still hear noises in the upstairs of the apartment.

Our last stop was what some say the "most haunted place in NYC" - 420-22 Clinton Court. Some say that the area most known for ghostly activity used to be owned by George Clinton. At least 5 ghosts have been discovered there. 3 of which occurred via accidents on the stairs - because they saw a ghost... One ironically happened when a grandchild of Clinton's was running around in a bedsheet (acting like a ghost that they had heard stories about) and fell while running up the stairs.
Some of the stories are hard to find via the internet, so perhaps some still remain hidden in books. Or perhaps many stories are to be taken with a grain of salt. Either way, I still got to find out more about the history of the theatre district and got more ideas for future books to read! :)