Читать книгу Ghosthunting Kentucky - Patti Starr - Страница 16

LEXINGTON, FAYETTE COUNTY

FOR TWO YEARS JEFF WALDRIDGE, one of my GCI members, Chuck Starr, my husband, and I planned the future of ScareFest, a horror and paranormal convention to be held in Lexington, Kentucky. Since the historic Kentucky Theatre was going to show the movies that featured the ScareFest horror stars, we thought the theater would be a good place for the fans to have a ghost investigation.

I met with Fred Mills, the manager of the Kentucky Theatre, to talk to him about the history and hauntings of the theater. The theater was in pristine form the day I entered the ornate Italian Renaissance lobby. Its rich, golden colors and magnificent marble floor were stunning. I had never before seen such a luxurious movie theater. While talking with Fred, I learned that he had been with the theater since 1963. He told me that the theater opened in October 1922, with a special feature that made the Kentucky Theatre stand out from all the other theaters in Lexington: a house orchestra and a Wurlitzer symphonic organ that played before every movie. Could you imagine being seated in such a luxurious and elegant theater as the curtains opened to a musical overture played on the Wurlitzer organ? As you looked forward you saw lyrics flashed upon the huge white screen as everyone joined in to sing “My Old Kentucky Home” before the movie started. As they say, “Those were the good ol’ days.”

“Over the years the theater became one of the most popular places to go in the evening for entertainment,” Fred said, “since there were no cable TVs, VCRs, Internet, Netflix, and so on. Back in the 1970s we started to offer the midnight movies hosted by WKQQ radio. We called it the “Double Q Midnight Movies,” and it became a popular social event. Later we brought in the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which became a cult movie with a huge following. Even today it still brings a good crowd.”

“In all the years that you have worked here have you had any experiences with ghosts?” I asked. Fred thought a moment and then said, “I have heard stories from some of the employees, and they seemed to think the theater is haunted. The mostoften-talked-about experience among the staff is the apparition of a man sitting by himself in the lower seating area of the old theater. The ones who saw him said that he always sat in the number-two chair. One day, when one of the guys was telling this story, RT Baxter, the projectionist at the time, laughed and told us that he knew who the ghost was. He was a former projectionist who worked at the theater for many years. One evening he died of a heart attack while running a movie up in the projection room. RT told us that after this guy started the movie he would go down into the seating area and sit in seat number two to make sure the sound was good. He didn’t want anyone to complain about the sound being too loud or too low. After a few minutes he would get up and go back to the projection room. RT told everyone not to be afraid of him and to go on about their jobs.”