Special Edition: 🕯️The Haunted Strand: Ghosts Behind the Marquee
🕯️ The Haunted Strand: Ghosts Behind the Marquee
The Oracle of the Green Sight | Halloween Special Edition 2026
🎭 An Evening with Poe, and a Theater with Secrets
On Friday, September 25, I visited the historic Earl and Rachel Smith Strand Theatre in Marietta, Georgia, for the six o'clock performance of the Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy. An evening devoted to one of literature's most celebrated masters of the macabre seemed a fitting way to welcome another Halloween season.
But as I began exploring the history of the theater itself, I discovered something rather wonderful. The Strand has its own collection of ghost stories, including a woman said to sing along with movies, a playful child who apparently enjoys interfering with the backstage crew, and a mysterious presence known simply as Ghost.
And then there is the building's extraordinary connection to Halloween itself.
Before the Strand welcomed its first audience, the site had already witnessed a devastating fire.
For this year's first Halloween Special Edition, we're staying right here in Georgia, where an old movie palace has more than a few stories to tell.
🔥s A Theater Born from the Ashes
The Strand stands on the northeast corner of historic Marietta Square, where a fire destroyed the buildings occupying the site on Halloween night in the early 1930s.[1]
There is a curious discrepancy in the historical accounts. The theater's official history dates the fire to 1930, while the Marietta Visitors Bureau gives 1932. Both agree on the Halloween connection and the destruction that preceded the present building.
In 1935, the Manning-Winks Theatre Company began construction on a new Art Deco movie palace. Built in seven months at a cost of approximately $150,000, the Strand was designed to offer Marietta a thoroughly modern entertainment experience.
On September 24, 1935, its doors opened with a screening of Top Hat, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.[2]
The theater boasted air conditioning, an acoustical sound system, a fireproof projection room, and seating for approximately 1,000 people.
Imagine arriving beneath that illuminated marquee in 1935, purchasing a ticket, and stepping into a world of Hollywood glamour.
For decades, the Strand entertained generations of moviegoers. But changing times eventually brought declining fortunes. After years of alternative uses, closure, and deterioration, community efforts rescued the building.
Following an extensive restoration, the theater reopened in December 2008, with its official grand reopening following in January 2009.[3]
Its history might have ended there, as a familiar story of architectural preservation.
Except that some believe the Strand's audiences have never been entirely limited to the living.
👻 Bev: The Woman Who Sings Along
Among the theater's reported resident spirits is a woman known as Bev.
Her story appears in an account published by the Marietta Visitors Bureau, which interviewed the Strand's then-executive director, Andy Gaines, about the building's paranormal reputation.[4]
According to Gaines, Bev is associated with the second floor and has a particular fondness for singing along with movies.
I find this an especially charming detail.
Ghost stories often revolve around tragedy, anger, or unfinished business. Bev's reported behavior suggests something quite different: a presence still participating in the entertainment she apparently enjoys.
The second floor has its own fascinating history. It once housed Loudermilk Photography Studios, a prominent local business that captured generations of Marietta residents through photography.[5]
Yet there is no verified identification connecting Bev to a particular former employee, patron, or historical resident.
Who was she? Did she once visit the Strand? Was she associated with another business occupying the building?
Those questions remain unanswered.
What survives is the local account of a woman whose voice supposedly joins the soundtrack of the theater.
And Bev is not alone.
🎭 Reik: The Playful Child Backstage
The Strand's second reported spirit is a child known as Rik.
According to the same account, Rik has developed a reputation for backstage pranks, particularly turning off lights and closing doors when staff members are moving equipment from a storage closet.[6]
There is something wonderfully theatrical about a ghost whose preferred form of communication appears to be interrupting the crew.
Of course, theaters are complicated buildings. Electrical systems, shifting air pressure, aging doors, and ordinary mechanical problems can produce experiences that seem mysterious.
But the persistence of Rik's story within the theater's local folklore makes it part of the Strand's character.
As with Bev, I found no reliable historical identification establishing who Rik was, when he lived, or how he might have died.
And that distinction matters. We can appreciate the reported haunting without assigning a tragic biography to a child whose identity has never been established.
Interestingly, Gaines described the purported spirits as friendly and reported that his own years at the theater had not produced frightening encounters.
Perhaps the Strand's ghosts simply enjoy the show.
🔦 The Ghost Who Helped Find a Wallet
One of the more interesting accounts comes directly from the Strand's own archives.
In a September 2011 issue of The Patron, staff writer Manda Costoulas described an evening spent searching the darkened auditorium for a patron's missing wallet.[7]
Armed with a flashlight, she worked her way through the rows of seats as the theater grew increasingly dark.
Her thoughts turned to the building's humorously named resident presence, simply called Ghost.
Costoulas described the playful way staff attributed missing paperwork, misplaced communications, and even elevator activity to this mysterious character.
As she approached the darker portion of the auditorium, the orchestra pit became an increasingly unsettling prospect.
Eventually, she hurried toward a light switch.
When she turned on the lights and looked down, there was the missing wallet.
The account is lighthearted rather than an assertion of supernatural proof. Nevertheless, it offers something valuable: a firsthand glimpse into how the Strand's ghostly reputation existed among its own staff more than a decade ago.
Long before my visit, the theater was already telling stories about itself.
🕯️ The Light That Must Never Go Out
There is another tradition associated with the Strand, one shared by theaters around the world.
The ghost light.
A single light is traditionally left burning onstage after the performers have departed and the theater has emptied.
Its practical purpose is straightforward: illuminating an otherwise dark stage helps protect anyone entering the space from obstacles and dangerous drops.
But theatrical folklore offers another explanation.
The light is said to provide illumination for the ghosts who inhabit the theater, allowing them to occupy the stage when the living have gone home. Some traditions suggest it also helps keep restless spirits content.
Gaines specifically mentioned the ghost light when discussing the Strand's theatrical customs and paranormal folklore.[8]
It is a lovely intersection of practical safety and supernatural tradition.
A theater spends its evenings creating illusions, summoning characters, and asking audiences to believe in worlds that disappear when the curtain falls.
Perhaps it is unsurprising that theater people have developed traditions suggesting something remains after the performance ends.
🐦⬛ When the Curtain Falls, Who Remains?
Returning to my September visit, I find the setting even more intriguing now.
I went to the Strand to experience Edgar Allan Poe, a writer whose stories repeatedly explore the uneasy boundary between life and death.
Yet the building hosting the performance possesses its own folklore of unseen occupants, unexpected sounds, and mysterious backstage activity.
There is no documented evidence establishing that the Halloween fire caused the reported hauntings, nor that Bev or Rik are connected to the tragedy. Those would be assumptions rather than history.
What we do have is a beautifully restored theater, longstanding local ghost stories, and firsthand accounts that have become part of its identity.
And perhaps that is what makes the Strand such a fitting place to begin our Halloween collection.
It is not an abandoned building, forgotten and left to decay.
It is alive with music, storytelling, laughter, and audiences.
If its reported ghosts truly remain, they have chosen a rather wonderful place to spend eternity.
After all, the Strand is still putting on a show.
And somewhere beyond the glow of its famous marquee, perhaps Bev is singing along.
📚 Historical Sources & Footnotes
- The Strand Theatre, Official History; Marietta Visitors Bureau, Haunted History. The theater's historical timeline dates the Halloween fire to 1930, while the Visitors Bureau gives 1932. Both identify the fire as preceding construction of the present theater. Strand Historical Timeline | Marietta Haunted History ↩ Return to text
- Earl and Rachel Smith Strand Theatre, History of the Strand. Construction, opening date, original architectural features, and inaugural screening. Official History ↩ Return to text
- The Strand Theatre, Official Historical Timeline. Closure, community preservation efforts, restoration, and reopening. Read the Historical Timeline ↩ Return to text
- Kim Ellet, "Haunted History: The Spooky Side of Marietta," Marietta Visitors Bureau. Interview with Andy Gaines concerning the Strand's reported resident spirits. Read the Account ↩ Return to text
- Earl and Rachel Smith Strand Theatre, History of the Strand Walking Tour. Historical information concerning the building's former businesses, including Loudermilk Photography Studios. Official Walking Tour ↩ Return to text
- Kim Ellet, Marietta Visitors Bureau. Andy Gaines's account of Rik, the purported child spirit associated with backstage pranks. Read the Account ↩ Return to text
- Manda Costoulas, "Ghost: The Ghostly Ghost of The Strand," The Patron, September 2011. A firsthand staff account concerning the theater's ghostly reputation and the search for a missing wallet. Read the Original Newsletter (PDF) ↩ Return to text
- Kim Ellet, Marietta Visitors Bureau. Andy Gaines discusses the theatrical tradition of maintaining a ghost light. Read the Account ↩ Return to text
The Oracle of the Green Sight explores the places where documented history, folklore, and reported paranormal experiences intersect. Supernatural accounts are presented as attributed experiences and traditions, not independently established events.
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