I've been asked many times if the Rialto Theater in El Dorado is haunted; a few years ago, I wrote a book called Haunted. This is an excerpt from Ms. Pate, a psychic we took to visit the theater. She's nationally known and has helped solve many crimes by visualizing energy imprints. She was convinced the theater is haunted.
Ms. Pate entered the Rialto Theater and remarked how cold it was compared to outside. ""That's a good sign for ghosts," she said.
Seconds later, she saw the first spirit of the tour--a heavy-set man standing on the first landing of the main staircase. "I get the feeling that maybe he owned the place. He sort of takes care of everything, like a caretaker," she said, describing the man as wearing a vest and pocket watch. "Maybe he'll contact us later."
Ms. Pate proceeded to the stage of the main theater, where she saw a second spirit, a young lady dressed in 1920s attire, near the stage. "Her name is Irma," Ms. Pate announced.
As we walked into the auditorium, Ms. Pate suddenly stopped and focused on the stage again. She nodded her head and began to describe in detail the spirit of the young woman she had earlier noted.
"She's got honey-brown hair, a real light honey-brown. It's curly but it's cut close, I don't know how to express it, kind of like loose curls, and she's got a bow in her hair with ribbon, and the bow is cocked a little bit to the left."
Ms. Pate pointed to the southwest corner of the stage. "She's right there, and she's wearing an outfit with many bright colors, but I don't know how to describe it because I've never seen anything like this. It's not a dress. It is more like a fancy practice outfit. I don't think she's performing; she's practicing for something."
We walked to the east side of the orchestra pit and went down the stairs to below the stage where the old vaudeville dressing rooms were located. We walked in the first room, and Ms. Pate shook her head.
"There's a whole bunch of people in here, and there were mirrors in here." Ms. Pate pointed to the west wall where several holes in the plaster indicated something was fastened to the wall. There were also several ceiling lights together, which look like they were used in a dressing room.
Ms. Pate continued, "Where'd the mirrors go? They should be on that wall there." She pointed to the center of the west wall of the room. "This room is full of a whole lot of energy. I'm not just getting one person in particular, and it's both male and female, and they are coming and going in almost a blur. It's real, real busy in here."
We left the room beneath the stage and walked up the stairs and behind the curtains to the southwest corner of the stage. Ms. Tate immediately began to see men doing various things.
"I guess they're stagehands, and they are sitting around an old table playing cards. I think it's poker, but I'm not sure. This seems to be like a regular thing in between working gigs. That surprises me. I don't get anything negative. I don't get anything malevolent in this area so far."
We left the stage area and climbed up the east stairwell to the mezzanine, then walked in the ladies' restroom. There have been numerous paranormal sighting here over the years, and of all the accounts I have heard, the activities in and around this restroom tops them all. Ms. Pate quickly saw the aberration.
"Yes, she is a very blonde woman, and I don't know why she's here, but she's in a rush to leave, and then she comes back in just as fast. She has on a weird hat with a feather or something on it. I can't quite get it. She's dressed in something very light in color. This looks more like 1930s or '40s because her hair is cut different, low and close to her face."
Then Ms. Pate walked out of the restroom and comments about something.
"That man that I picked up downstairs, I think he runs projection equipment. I get him coming through here, and he's busy. He wasn't so much downstairs, but he is now."
Ms. Pate went to the part of the balcony where black patrons sat when the theater was segregated.
"I see a lot of people around here. There are blacks all dressed up to come to the theater. I don't know what this is, maybe a ghost, or an energy imprint, but I'm getting a black woman wearing a red dress. She's heavy--not like 300 pounds or anything, but she's a big woman, big bust--and she's wearing a red low-cut dress. I can't tell what she's about."
Ms. Pate could not have known she was in the formerly segregated part of the balcony. All the separating rails and even the seats have been replaced.
Ms. Pate entered the original projection room and immediately began to visualize something.
"What's going on in here? Maybe he's the owner or the manager. Yes, he seems to be here. But the one that's really, really active is the one in the projection room. He's all over the place. Because he's also like the handyman. I get the impression like this is his home, literally. He might have even slept here."
Ms. Pate walked to the main west staircase where she described the same man she saw earlier in the day standing at the same place, on the stairwell landing.
"He's got on a coat/vest/pants. I don't really know how old he is. He's got a bit of a belly to him. He's not real tall or anything. He's another one that smokes a cigar, and has a mustache and kind of thinning hair. I get the feeling he's got some sort of vested interest in the theater. Wants to make sure everything's OK."
That is a perfect description of the former theater manager, Mr. Robb. And the smell of cigar smoke is one of the most common of the paranormal experiences noted in the theater.
Ms. Pate seemed drained of energy. We left the theater and went outside where she sat on one of the benches and rested.
Several months later I was on the stage one morning, taking pictures of some newly hung curtains, when I distinctly heard someone walking on the catwalk high above the stage. I hurriedly left the stage, and as I walked back up the aisle I smelled cigar smoke. No one could have possibly been in the theater.
Email Richard Mason at richard@gibraltarenergy.com.
Editorial on 02/17/2019