Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-04-27
AHAUNTED THEATER.
Spooks Occupy Nearly Every Seat
Of a Brooklyn Playhouse.
VICTIMS OF AN AWFUL DISASTER.
Uncanny Reports Compel the Owners to
Tear the Structure Down.
FORMS WHICH THE STORIES TOOK


demolished in Brooklyn because it is be-
lieved to be haunted. 1t is large and
handsome theater, but its reputation for
ghosts is such that no profit can be made out
of it for amusement purposes. So the own
ers have decided to tear it down. An auc-
tion sale of its interior fittings will be held
next week. Immediately afterward the
walls will be razed. and during the summer
acommercial building will be erected on the
site.
This is a delayed and curious consequence
Of a memorable disaster. About 15 years
ago the Brooklyn Theater was burned. with
loss of 800 lives. That event can hardly
have faded from the minds of the American
newspaper readers anywhere, but to Brook
lyn people, so many of whom were bereaved
by the loss of relatives, and all of whom
were Mortified bY the catastrophe, it
remains vivid recollection. The fire
started on the stage while ''The
Two Orphans was being performed,
and the flames spread almost instan-
eousIy through the scenery to the
infammable ceiling of the auditorium.
The people in the parquet escaped easily.
but for those in the two galleries the exits
were so quickly closed by fire that compar-
atively few got out. The building was ut
terly burned, and out of the debris were
taken, amid the most shocking scenes, the
charred remains of the dead. Only small
number of the bodies could be identified,
and the remainder were buried together in
Greenwood Cemetery, where a monument is
inscribed to their sad memrry.
REBUILT ON THE SAME SPOT,
company, composed of half dozen Brook
lyn politicians and Office holders, and,
strangely enough, they decided to build an
other playhouse on the same ground.
Against this course they were advised by
those who believed that, under the awful
circumstances, the site was not any longer
suitable for theater, and that, on business
as well as sentimental grounds, the enter
prise was ill-advised. The dominant
man in the company was the late
Judge McCue, rich and vigorous
man, who would not be convinced of any
improperly in rebuilding the theater. So
it was done. Although the second structure
was entirely different in looks from its pre-
decessor, and had its entrance on another
street, it occupied the same space. It was a
very handsome house at first, luxuriously
fitted up, and valued altogether at $500. 900.
At chat time its only rival in Brooklyn was
the shabby and antiquated theater long
identified with the late Conways.
There was no reason-other than the holo-
caust-why the new Brooklyn Theater
should not gain fashionable and prosper
GUS career. But it did not. Every effort to
sustain it as an elegant resort failed. The
finest performances did not draw paying
audiences. People disliked to 90 for diver
sion to the place where the great tragedy
4
to somewhat lower grade of theatricals,
larize it; but here the same difficulty was
encountered, and beside stories of ghosts got
afoat.
THE GHOST STORIES.
1t was told that the spirits of the burned
300 haunted the premises, and these tales
were sufficient to keep folks away. Two
years ago, as last and desperate recourse,
the theater was turned into q ten-to-ffty
house, that is, its prices were cheapened to
the lowest extent, and it catered to the cheap
multitude. The failure has been as decisive
as before, and now demolition, as de-
scribed. has been decided upon by the
owners.
All through the unfortunate career of the
rebuilt theater, the ghost stories concerning
it have increased in number and positive
ucSs. ab urhb bucy HdTTdLeu
that spooks frequented the auditorium at
night after the performances were over, and
there were folks who declared that they saw
phosphorescent lights through the windows.
A little later a janitor gave up his job be-
cause, as he averred, he had encountered |
several of the dead members OF the company
which had performed there on the night of
the fire. On one occasion, so he said, he
entered the house after the departure of the |
audience, and saw the stage occupied by |
these ghostly actors, who were going through |
with scene of ''The Two Orphans"
A sPooK IN EVERY SEAT.
The man was a drunkard. however, and a |
liar even when sober; so his acquaintance at |
tributed his yarns Jointly to alcohol and |
invention. But they got into circulation |
nevertheless, and are now a part and parcel |
of Brooklyn tradition. But the crushing |
and final ruinous belief engendered by |
dread arose during the past |
winter. 1t was declared, nobody knows by
whom at first, but by great many later on,
that every gallery seat was nightly occupied
by the ghost of the person whose life had
been lost there in the fire.
These disembodied Spirits according to
this conceit, were usually impalpa alike |
to sight and touch, and did not hinder the
living purchaser OF the seat from sitting in
it; but the ten-centers were not less sensitive
than the dollar-and-a-half folks had been,
and they found that they really could not
enjoy themselves seated in a chair compos-
,dly with ghost. Thus it came about that
he dime parts of the house, so much de-
pended upon in cheap.priced theaters, had
been very sparsely occupied. That dealt the
inal blow to the Brooklyn Theater, and will
,ause its destruction. f. +. L.