"Stage Stomper"

The Lincoln Theatre in Decatur is a jewel. It is a jewel for lovers of history and for actors and musicians - the acoustics in the old girl are perfection. It’s also a jewel for ghost lovers.

On Oct. 22, the Lincoln is going to be the site of a benefit for St. Jude’s called Spookapalooza. You can find information on Facebook. It will be a night of partying, costumes, music and fun - all for a good cause. And I’m sure the spirits of the Lincoln will be there, enjoying every minute of it. So, in celebration of the Lincoln and Spookapalooza, I’m going to share some of my stories and personal experiences in the Lincoln.

The Lincoln Theatre opened in October of 1916, and will be celebrating its 95th birthday. It was built on the former grounds of the Arcade Hotel, which burned down in 1915, and took an unknown number of lives. The Lincoln's stage hosted many major vaudeville acts during its heyday, including Bob Hope, Harry Houdini, Jeanette MacDonald, Chico Marx and many, many more. It later was left dark and vacant for years. It has since undergone a renovation process that has restored some of her luster, but much more is needed.

The first time I spent the evening in the Lincoln Theatre, it was a Halloween overnight with a group hosted by Troy Taylor. This was before the renovations had taken place. I remember walking on the original stage, being in awe because Houdini had been there before me and, as a memento of his appearance, a trapdoor that was built for him remained in the stage and visible, especially from below in the basement/dressing room area. Now, the stage is still there, but has been covered over and the trapdoor is no longer visible in the basement because of a ceiling being added and the dressing rooms renovated.

Anyway … as I mentioned, the acoustics in the Lincoln are amazing. Noises on the stage can be heard all the way into the upper balcony. It was perfect for the days when they didn’t have modern amplification systems and such, but not so perfect for modern-day ghost hunters wanting to keep noise to a minimum.

So my first stories will be about noise.

My husband and I, on our first overnight into the Lincoln, had been assigned a group. We were one of four groups, each rotating into a different part of the theater: The basement/dressing rooms, the stage, the main floor and mezzanine, and the upper balcony.

When we were in the upper balcony, I was finding it hard to stay awake. At this time, I hadn’t taken a camera into the theater and very few people brought sophisticated “ghost equipment” as happens now. Most people were there for the experience. It was so quiet up in the upper balcony and we tried not to move around a whole lot to cut down on the noise.

My husband and I were sitting in different places in the balcony, and he said to me after we left that he was really ticked off because someone was inconsiderate enough to be stomping around on stage. It really annoyed him. I didn’t remember any stomping around. He was amazed, because he said it sounded like someone in heavy-soled boots just stomping down, not even attempting to be quiet. I told him again that I didn’t hear it and, in fact, had been bored to tears and nearly falling asleep.

Well, my husband shared his annoyance with the “stage stomper” later with the group. None of them claimed to have heard it, either.

On another overnight, much later, I was sitting on the Mezzanine level in the back row and I was hearing an orchestra tune up. Every time I thought it was my imagination and dismissed it from my mind, it would float through the air to me again. This went on for about a half-hour. There were a few people on the Mezzanine with me and I asked if anyone else was hearing music and they all gave me a “no” for an answer.

I have a very active imagination, I will grant you that. However, I hadn’t been thinking about an orchestra to have conjured one up in my mind. And, the thing it reminded me of? Anyone who has been to Disney World and visited The Muppets in 3D knows what I’m talking about: The penguin orchestra tunes up its instruments before the beginning of the show. It reminded me eerily of that.

Unfortunately, my little “tune-up” performance didn’t appear on my digital recorder. It was obviously for my ears only.

Which brings me to tell those of you who don’t run around with other paranormal investigators that sounds are interesting things. There may be more than one recording device in a room - maybe several - and a particular voice or sound may be picked up on one, several, all or none. I’ve met people who’ve heard the sounds of a battle on one of the battlefields of Gettysburg, only to not have it picked up on a recorder or video recorder. Voices will show up on recorders that aren’t heard at the time and vice versa.

What was heard? Why was it heard by one person and not another? How could it be picked up by one device and not others in the same room? Why would people hear it, but it not show up on audio recorders or audio tracks with video? You’re beginning to get the idea of what keeps us paranormal investigators coming back for more.

More stories of the Lincoln Theatre will be coming. In the meantime, if you’d like to explore the history of the Lincoln Theatre, and Decatur’s other grande dame theater in Decatur, The Avon, I urge you to pick up Troy Taylor’s book “Flickering Images: History & Hauntings of the Avon Theater.” For some fun haunted theater stories from around the country, look up Tom Ogden’s book “Haunted Theaters.” Ogden’s book doesn’t go in-depth into the history of the theaters, just covers the basic stories. Taylor’s books are fun because he’s done the research - for better or worse in regard to legends and stories - and you get a more complete picture of the locations.

Enjoy!