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The Elgin and

Winter Garden Theatre

~ Toronto, Ontario ~

Professional actors consider it a bad sign if a rehearsal is perfect. The play will have a very short run after a perfect rehearsal, or will go very badly. Similarly, it is extremely unlucky to speak the tag line, or the last line of the play, during rehearsals.

Marcus Loews felt that the architecture and decoration of his theatres was meant to be just as entertaining as what was being presented on stage. Little did Marcus know that in 1982, the two theatres together would be declared a National Historic site. The last, stacked (one theatre on top of another), Edwardian theatre in the world.

The site is also one of the most enchanting haunted locations in all of Canada. These two theatres were originally built by Marcus Loews as a flagship. His motto was, “We sell tickets to theatres not shows.” Marcus was born on May 7, 1887, in Queens, New York, into a poor, Jewish family. He left school at the age of nine to sell newspapers and lemons on the street. Marcus continued to work hard and started and failed at more than one business venture. He was bankrupt before he reached the age of twenty.

Then Marcus met Adolph Zukor, who became his friend and partner. Marcus purchased Zukor’s penny arcade business and set about expanding it across the United States.

During an opening of an arcade in Cincinnati, he was told of a competitor who was successful with motion pictures rather than mechanical machines. He promptly struck a deal with the Vitagraph Company for the necessary equipment and films, borrowed chairs, and based on nickel admissions, grossed almost $250 that very first day!

In New York, he bought a Brooklyn burlesque house and converted it into the Royal, a first class house that mixed vaudeville bills and movies.

Next, Marcus made a deal with brothers Joseph and Nicholas Schenck to form the Fort George Amusement Company in 1906. Over the next decade he worked on a slow and methodical plan to obtain theatrical dominance. By November of 1918, he owned 112 theatres throughout North America that offered the mix of vaudeville and movies.

He died on September 5, 1927 at the age of fifty-seven, bequeathing a $30-million-dollar estate to his wife, Caroline, and his sons. According to the Ontario Heritage Trust, “This complex was the Canadian flagship of Marcus Loew’s legendary theatre chain and was designed by Thomas Lamb, as a double-decker theatre complex. It contained the Winter Garden Theatre, which was constructed seven storeys above Loew’s Yonge Street Theatre (renamed the Elgin Theatre in 1978).”

The Davies Takacs Lobby has been the scene of several paranormal encounters.

The Winter Garden Theatre

Loew’s Yonge Street Theatre opened on December 15, 1913, and on February 16, 1914, the Winter Garden Theatre opened. The Ontario Heritage Trust adds, “The two theatres were distinct; the Elgin was all gold leaf and rich fabrics, a formal theatre of plaster cherubs and ornate opera boxes. The Winter Garden Theatre was a botanical fantasy, its walls hand-painted to resemble a garden, its ceiling a mass of real beech boughs and twinkling lanterns.”

The gold-and-marble domed “hard top” lower theatre (The Elgin) was home to continuous vaudeville shows and movies. The upper level, the Winter Garden Theatre, was an atmospheric country garden beneath the stars. This theatre was built for the big-time vaudeville market, and it had reserved seats at premium prices, that catered to the middle class. As well as competing in a different market, the upper theatre was used for theatrical experimentation without posing the risk of closing the lower theatre.

~ ~ ~

The Ontario Heritage Trust describes the acts, “The theatres played host to such great acts as George Burns and Gracie Allen, Sophie Tucker, Milton Berle, and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.”

According to the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre booklet, “Loew’s Yonge Street Theatre was the larger of the two theatres, seating 2,149. The Winter Garden Theatre seated 1,410 patrons.

“The Elgin could accommodate a show that consisted of eight to ten vaudeville acts, interspersed with newsreels and a silent movie. This downstairs theatre was the ‘grind’ house, with continuous daily shows starting at 11:00 a.m. The Winter Garden Theatre was intended as the more prestigious of the two theatres, featuring higher ticket prices, reserved seating, and a single evening performance.”

The popularity of vaudeville declined with the advent of talking pictures. In May of 1928, the Winter Garden Theatre was closed. The theatre remained closed for more than half a century, a time capsule of a bygone era. Loew’s Yonge Street Theatre (The Elgin) remained open.

By the 1960s, the staircase leading up to the Winter Garden Theatre was hidden behind a partition wall and a drop ceiling. The existence of the Winter Garden Theatre was all but forgotten.

The Elgin Theatre continued to operate as a movie house. As the decades passed the theatre gradually slipped into disrepair. On March 17, 1978, Leow’s Yonge Street Theatre was renamed The Elgin Theatre.

In 1981, the Ontario Heritage Trust purchased the building. Prior to launching into a massive restoration of the theatres, the successful production of Cats ran for nearly two years at the Elgin Theatre. The Trust adds, “The most successful pre-sales theatrical event in Canada at the time.”

In 1987, a $29 million restoration initiative of the building and the two theatres was begun. The trust describes this awesome task of restoration and the treasures that were found during the process.

“The gilt plaster detail work in the Elgin Theatre required more than three-hundred thousand wafer-thin sheets of aluminium leaf. The walls of the Winter Garden Theatre had to be cleaned using fifteen-hundred pounds of raw dough to avoid damaging the original hand-painted watercolour artwork.”

According to the Elgin and Winter Garden booklet, “The Winter Garden Theatre’s most unusual aspect, its leafy ceiling, was still intact; the leaves, brittle and dust-covered, had to be replaced. For this purpose more than five thousand real beech branches were harvested, preserved, painted, fireproofed, and woven into wire grids suspended from the theatre ceiling.

“In the downstairs Elgin Theatre, major plaster elements [including the theatre opera boxes] had been removed and the original colour scheme obscured by as many as twenty-seven layers of paint in some areas. Using the original design drawings and historic photographs as guides, missing elements were faithfully recreated, damaged elements repaired, and the original colour scheme accurately restored.”

The Trust states, “More than sixty-five thousand square feet of new space was created, including the lobby and lounge areas, and an eight-storey backstage pavilion housing modern dressing rooms and two rehearsal halls.”

On December 15, 1989, the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres re-opened. “The theatres have once again become one of finest theatrical stage complexes.

“One of the greatest treasures discovered during the restoration, is the world’s largest collection of vaudeville scenery — hand-painted flats and drops dating from 1913. Several restored pieces, including the magnificent Butterfly and Scarab Scenery Flats, are now displayed in the theatre centre.”

Imagine an entire theatre, intact with all its decor, sealed up for so many years! A perfect recipe for spirit activity, time travel, and spiralling energy! Is this the case?

According to Cecilia Aguilera, an employee who works in the box office located in the lobby of the theatre, “We are not haunted, nor are we petrified. The theatre is like a vortex of energy.”

Late one afternoon this past fall (2013) I met Linda Atkinson, who had agreed to tour me through the building. Linda is a delightful and informative volunteer tour guide of the theatres. She displays enthusiasm and shares a deep connection to the historical perspective of the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres and to the spirits who come and go in the building. She is very aware of, and familiar with, the spirits and the energy that inhabit the structure. She described many of the areas of the building where one can potentially see a spirit and experience spiralling energy.

She began with the spirit they call the Lilac or Lavender Lady. During the 2002 theatre season there were four months when the Winter Garden Theatre was “black” (a term used to describe a time when no shows are playing). There is a superstition that an emptied theatre, left completely dark, will invite a ghost to take up residence. Another version of the same superstition claims that the ghosts of past performances return to the stage to relive their glory moments. To prevent this, a single light is left burning at centre stage after the audience, actors, and musicians have gone.

It was during this black time that Cecilia and a co-worker, who is a medium, went up to the Winter Garden Theatre to check on a seating plan.

Cecilia describes a spirit encounter in the Winter Garden Theatre.

“We went together because we did not want to be up there alone. We opened the doors to the theatre and were greeted by a beautiful lilac smell. It was like walking into a garden. We carried on with our business. I went back later to the theatre doorway, but the smell was gone. It was a girl. I just know it. Some people smell lilac and other visitors smell lavender. We call her the Lilac/Lavender Lady.”

Linda described a time when she and Cecilia had an unexplained encounter in the box office in the lobby.

“I was in the doorway of the box office and Cecilia was sitting in a chair inside the office. [For some background, from 1913 to 1919, where the box office is today was once Helen’s House of Hats, a retail store in the theatre]. I could feel this swirling energy behind me. It went past me and Cecilia could feel something go by her. The energy never made a sound.” Cecilia believes this swirling energy is associated with a spirit. She said, “The spirit gets bored and wants some company!”

This spring Cecilia and two volunteers, Stephen and Tim, heard something.

“I was sitting in the box office and the guys were next door. Tim suddenly heard a whistle. He came around to see if I had heard it. A minute later, Stephen appeared around the corner and said, ‘who whistled?’ There was no one else present at the time.”

Whistling is expressly prohibited in the theatre, pertaining to all parts of the building, particularly the dressing rooms, where it is said that if heard, someone (not necessarily the whistler) will soon be out of work. The reason for this superstition is that prior to the advent of walkie-talkies, cues for theatre technicians were called with a sailor’s whistle. Therefore, one who whistles in a theatre may, inadvertently, call a cue before its time, and set all manner of catastrophes into action. Should this happen, someone would likely get fired.

One theatre usher wrote in to the Toronto and Ontario Ghosts and Hauntings Research Society and referred to the Lilac/Lavender Lady with this story: “There is a female patron who is believed to have been stabbed in the Winter Garden Theatre washroom [that is now closed]. She dragged herself to the elevator [the elevator is operated by ushers] where she waited, but no one came. She died there. ... A lot of ushers, including myself, [without touching the controls] have been taken up to the fifth floor [Winter Garden Theatre level], but there is no one there. Sometimes there are not even any shows playing there at the time.”

Linda’s story is a little different. She related a story involving a “sensitive” named Marian, who visited in 2011, during the Doors Open Ontario event.

“Marian had seen an ad in the paper advertising the Doors Open event at the theatre. She had never been nor had any knowledge of the place prior, but knew she needed to visit the Winter Garden Theatre and unexpectedly ended up in the fourth row in both theatres despite hundreds of people in the room.

“She told me she could see a scene unfolding, very much like watching a movie. This is what she had to say. “The Lilac Lady is in the balcony. She secretly followed her husband to work. She suspected her husband of having an affair.

“He arrived at the box office with a lady friend and purchased two tickets. His wife, who was following some distance behind, purchased a ticket for an opera box seat in order to observe him. Once everyone had been seated she stood up and glared down at her husband in the audience seats. This caused quite a commotion. He called out to her. He knew she could ruin him if she wanted to do so.

“The wife fled up the balcony stairs. The husband pursued her. He caught her in the women’s washroom. He beat her about the face until she bled. The husband then fled the theatre with his female companion.

“The wife was bloody from the violent encounter. The wife then crawled to the elevator but she did not die as a result of the beating.’”

Linda and Marian then walked up the stairs to the balcony box where the woman had been seated.

The chair in the box office where the Lilac/Lavender Lady sits.

Linda continued, “As soon as we entered the box, Marian turned her attention to the third chair. I sat down in the chair. I no sooner sat down than I felt absolutely frigid. I had to get out of that seat. Marian said, ‘It is the Lilac Lady.’ While we were standing in the opera box we were engulfed in a scent of lilac. It lasted for only half a minute.”

Linda adds, “Production people often see a lady in this box. When someone goes up to the balcony box to tell her that she must leave the theatre, they find that she has vanished.”

I contacted Marian and asked her to share her experience in the Winter Garden Theatre. “When I entered this theatre I had asked Linda if this theatre was haunted. When I walked up the aisle to the back of the theatre I felt a chill. I felt something had passed through me. I could feel a cold spot there.

“I was drawn to an opera box on the right side of the theatre. Linda took me upstairs to the balcony. There were four seats in the area. I could smell cheap lilac water.

“I kept standing up and looking down to the seat where I was seated in both the Elgin Theatre and Winter Garden Theatre and realized I was put there for a reason. I wanted to point my finger at a man that occupied the seat I was in earlier.”

Marian described the cheating husband.“He had red hair parted on the side. He wore a cardboard collar, tie, and waistcoat. He had a handle-bar mustache. His lady friend wore a white hat with paper flowers going all around the rim.

“I could see him looking up and seeing her/me. He ran up the aisle while the wife took the hallway towards the ladies room on the upper level.” Linda, another tour guide and I all felt a cold spot up there as well. I envisioned him running up the steps and following his wife into the washroom. She threatened his career and in turn he beat her viciously. He was livid and brutal. Afterwards he stops to wash the blood off his hands in the vintage basin. I believe this man to be a well-known banker from Bay Street.

“I see her crawling out of the washroom to the elevator.”

This was only one of the spirits Marian witnessed that day. She also saw the spirit of a young girl.

“I saw her by the original box office in the front of the theatre building. Her name is Annie. The last initial is E. She is a child street walker. She has curly brown hair. Her appearance is bedraggled. She is unkempt and wearing an old outfit. She often begged for spare change as the patrons came in and out of the theatre doors.”