Do you believe in ghosts?
When many think of haunted houses, places made up of actors and actresses, blood, gore, grotesque props and eerie music often come to mind. Haunted houses do their best to provide customers ample scares for their dollar during the Halloween season, and after the thrill is over, they go home knowing that the horror they witnessed was fake.
Or was it?
Have you ever witnessed paranormal activity or simply felt that you were being watched? Have you ever felt breath on your neck when you know no one else was around or experienced a chill that runs through your body even on the warmest of summer days?
Most Point Park College students don’t realize that this phenomenon is actually closer than they think.
Legend says that the Pittsburgh Playhouse of Point Park College is one of the most famous local “hot spots” for paranormal activity.
While many theaters around the world are said to harbor this kind of activity, the Playhouse is unique in the number and various “people” who now inhabit it. Among the most popular are the Lady in White, John Johns, Weeping Eleanor, Gorgeous George and the Bouncing Red Meanie.
‘I’ve been to the playhouse several times for shows and I’ve never witnessed anything supernatural there. I guess it would probably be harder to notice when there is a crowd there. The theater itself does kind of have an eerie feel to it, though,” said Bob Koval, a Pittsburgh native who regularly attends shows at the theater.
Rumor has it The Lady in White, the first of the ghosts to appear, died in the 1930s when a church was where the Playhouse now stands.
On her wedding day, she found out that her husband had been cheating on her and shot and killed both the husband and his mistress. She then killed herself, no one really knowing how, but either by a self- inflicted gunshot wound or hurling herself off of the balcony of the Hamlet Street Theater, the theater where she was employed.
She can still be seen from time-to-time parading around in her white wedding dress with her gun in hand. John Johns, an actor at the playhouse in the 1950s died less gruesomely than the Lady in White. He died at the theater before he made it to the hospital and his foot steps can now be heard in his dressing room at night.
“One night he was attending a banquet in the restaurant which used to exist in the Playhouse basement when he collapsed of a heart attack,” according to legend of the Pittsburgh Playhouse at www.about.com.
The third of the five spirits has never actually been seen before, but Weeping Eleanor is said to be heard crying at night.
Previous to the Playhouse’s existence, there were houses in its place and Eleanor’s was one of them.A fire swept through the houses killing only Eleanor and her daughter.
There are no legends evident of why Gorgeous George haunts the Playhouse, but he apparently likes to scare people by tapping them on the shoulder among other things.
His name is sarcastic because he was actually quite scary.
Finally, the Bouncing Red Meanie has a connection to the Playhouse that is also unknown. He is said to be an energetic red figure who was brought to life by a seance at the theater.
He made his mark in the 1970s by bouncing all over the walls, levitating and pacing.
He appears to be the uneasiest of all of the spirits that now haunt Oakland theater.
The next time you walk the halls of the Pittsburgh Playhouse or any other theater, you might want to keep your eyes, as well as mind, open, not only to the performance, but to what is going on around you.
You never know whom or what you may run into.
