Haunted Movie Theater

I lived in San Francisco for 4 years in the mid ‘80s. I worked as a theatre manager for a couple years at the ‘Regency I Theater’ located on Van Ness.

It is no longer a theater and is now vacant. I was told some history of the building, that it was once a dance hall in the late 1800’s among other things. The building was 5 stories, and had been renovated to become a movie house. There were two floors under the main floor and two floors above. The 1st basement floor was a huge lounge bar area, dark, dusty and cluttered and below that floor was an old huge kitchen area where the electrical room is located also dark. There was no lighting, the ushers used their mag lights when the had to be down there. The floors above the main floor were old dressing rooms and odd shaped rooms. The odd shaped rooms seemed to be rooms that after the renovations became unusable, except for storage. They were too small for a person to stand upright or sloped. Also, there was a grand marbled staircase in the main lobby that came to a dead end at the top.

My first day of training, I was sitting in the office with another manager and she was showing me the daily paperwork. I began to hear stomping and tapping on the ceiling, but in a rhythm, kind of like line dancing or a chorus line dancing right above me. I jokingly asked if there was a dance studio above us, and the answer made me laugh…"it’s the ghosts". I was the new girl, I left it at that.? Also, I should add, I'm a believer in ghosts because of past experiences as a child.

As I became more familiar with the ushers and stand workers, I began hearing more references to the ghosts and odd sightings. The current ushers would initiate the new ushers by scaring them, telling the new guys the ghost stories, etc…although sometimes it backfired. One of the last duties of the closing usher was to go downstairs the two flights to the old kitchen area and turn off the electricity by grabbing a large lever and pulling it down(or was it up?). Well, the head usher would tell the new guy that he had to go down stairs to do this and then another usher would hide in any of the many dark corners off the stairway or behind the numerous pieces of old equipment down there. Late one night I was waiting for the ushers to come back upstairs so we could leave and lock up, when running full speed out of the theater doors is the head usher pale and scared. He can’t even talk immediately. He tells me he’s waiting for the new guy to pass by him in the dark stairway to scare him and he gets grabbed and breathed on from behind.

There wasn’t any room for another body behind him, and us 3 were the only ones in the building. He never went downstairs again.

Back to the chorus line dancing sounds. I was beginning to get used to it, but the sounds had to have an explanation. So one evening when I was in the office and it started, I grabbed the master keys and went upstairs, and found the room above the office. It was one of the odd shaped rooms. When you opened the door, the room was only 4 feet tall and about 20ft by 20ft, and very quiet with old movie one sheet posters & old ticket machines stored in there. I saw no dancing girls or heard anything.

One morning, before opening for the afternoon matinee, I was alone, awaiting the opening usher to tap on the front glass doors, I was working on candy inventory in the office. I’m inside the office, right near the open door and in my peripheral vision I see a male in black and white walk past right next to the office door through the lobby. The ushers wore black pants and a white dress shirt. I hardly budged and just spoke out loud to what I thought was the opening usher, Hey Alex! How’d you get in?? No answer. I get up from the desk to look for him in one of the concession stands where it looked he was going to hang up his street clothes as the ushers did. No one there, when I hear the tap, tap, tap at the glass front doors. I retrace my steps past the office and go the other direction to the front doors and there’s Alex!!

One late show while the last movie of the night was in progress and the main lobby was empty, I was walking over to the ticket machine to empty it for the night and as I passed the grand stairs that went to ‘no where’, I notice a male figure in a black tails tux and top hat and cane walking down those stairs(getting goosebumps remembering) He was very elegant but was almost transparent and fading fast then gone in a matter of 5 seconds.

I had also seen individuals seated in the balcony projectionist area, which was off limits to the public, thinking it was an usher on break, or just making sure one of the public was not up there, I would investigate…no one would be there.

I loved that job and only left because I moved back down south to San Diego.


By: ebauer@premiercarriagetrade.com