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It is said by more than a few that the
restored Historic Wink Theatre of Dalton, Georgia has ghastly, or
rather ghostly, goings on. Mysterious hammerings, cold spots, orbs
captured on film, “the lady in the bathroom,” film randomly flying
from reels, door knobs turning by themselves, invisible playing
children, and unexplainable noises all lend credit to the
possibility that not all of the persons patronizing the elegant
1,143-seat, three story theatre are of this world.
The Wink looms large at the center of West Crawford Street,
positioned a mere hop, skip and jump down from a bronze statue
erected in memory of Confederate Civil War hero, General Joseph E.
Johnston. On most Friday and Saturday nights the theatre’s blinking
lights and marquee beckon the public inside to catch a live play, to
watch a classic film, or to journey back in time through live
performances with classic rockers like Percy Sledge and Ronnie
McDowell.
One of the oldest structures in historic downtown, The Wink has been
around since the beginning of World War II. It saw Dalton through
days of poodle skirts and sock hops, segregation and integration,
bell bottoms and peace signs, on up to the beginning of the big hair
days of the 1980’s. Marla Maples, having grown up in Dalton,
received her first kiss within its walls. Actor Robert Blake,
playing Little Beaver to Red Rider, performed at the theatre from
time to time. Some of the older folks in town still tell of watching
a famous Western star ride his horse down the aisles. Memories
abound. First dates and marriage proposals.
Silly shenanigans like teenagers slipping out the second floor
window to smoke back in the 1950’s, or throwing popcorn down from
the balcony onto unsuspecting movie-goers below.
For many years The Wink served as the hot spot for area
entertainment but, as a result of urban sprawl, people eventually
began to drift away from downtown and gravitated toward the new
malls and more modern movie complexes. In 1980 the doors of the
theatre closed to the public after a final showing of Disney’s “The
Black Hole.” Then for two decades it sat empty, rotting and
decaying, with an audience of mere pigeons and rats.
In 1998 the city of Dalton, in need of a parking garage, arranged a
date between The Wink and a wrecking ball. That’s when my father
Troy Hall, a lifelong history buff, stepped up and purchased the
building from the city and began a harrowing and costly four-year
renovation process.
I was excited by the prospect of watching the rebirth up close. Like
most Daltonians, I had my own cherished memories of The Wink. My
sisters and I spent many magical evenings at the theatre watching
shows like “The Rescuers,” “Escape from Witch Mountain,” and
“Bambi.” The first time I entered the building after my father’s
purchase, it was dark, sad, and in an extreme state of dilapidation.
Sad, I thought, because the old building had sat empty for so long.
Or had it?
The doors of the Wink reopened to the public in July 2002 with a
sold out performance of The Platters. Shortly after that time, I
became Artistic Director and Publicist there. Weekly, if not daily,
people came to the theatre sharing stories of their experiences at
the Wink. Surprisingly, more than a few were paranormal in nature.
The stories drew me in, and my fascination with uncovering the
mysteries and truths behind these tales slowly led me toward a
growing interest in all things paranormal and straight into the
world of ghost hunting.
The first time I heard the words “ghost” and “Wink” used in the same
sentence was at the Whitfield-Murray Historical Foundation. For a
surprise, I set out to dig up all the stuff I could on the theatre
to make a scrapbook for my dad. Executive Secretary Marcelle White
asked if I’d seen the video that had been made years earlier on area
hauntings. I hadn’t, so she loaned it to me.
In the video, made by a high school student for extra credit,
Daltonian Dale Hurst tells spooky stories of incidents that took
place when his father, Leon Hurst, managed the theatre from 1971
until the 1980 closing.
Dale and I have since become friends, and he’s told me of occasions
when his father would be alone in his upstairs office outside
business hours. Sometimes Leon would hear children, with bells on
their shoes, playing and laughing outside the door. Other times the
door knob would turn, followed by an impression left in the leather
seat across from his desk.
Dale himself has had more than a few run-ins with things he believes
otherworldly inside the theatre. He’s told of times when, acting as
a projectionist, he witnessed film shoot off reels spontaneously.
He’s heard a host of strange noises, and he’s felt “a presence.”
Shortly after the Wink’s reopening, we showed the 1939 film, “Gone
with the Wind.” Once it was over, theatre volunteer Jennifer Rushing
found herself upstairs in the projection room rewinding the reels.
She was alone.
“The most bizarre thing happened,” she has since told me. “I saw a
dark shape pass by me, and then the film began shooting from the
reels for no apparent reason at all. I was scared, but I forced
myself to finish up.”
Dale Hurst is now the manager of Carmike Cinemas in Walnut Square
Mall, Dalton. He has been in the theater business all his adult
life. He said he has not experienced film shooting off reels
anywhere but at The Wink. He can offer no logical explanation for
the phenomenon.
“There’s no doubt about it,” Dale said. “There’s something there.
Whether it’s good, bad or indifferent, it’s there. I have two
college degrees. I consider myself to be pretty well educated and
scientifically oriented. You’ve got to prove something to me. Just
because something goes bump in the night doesn’t mean I think it’s a
ghost, spirit, or something like that.”
Isidro Esparza, a handyman employed by my father, was involved in
the renovation process from day one. Although Isidro firmly stands
behind his belief that “there are no ghosts,” he admits he doesn’t
like to be in the theatre alone.
“I’ve heard things,” Isidro said. “But you’re going to hear things
in old buildings.”
Isidro shared details of one occasion when he heard something he
can’t explain.
“I was alone in the theatre,” he told me. “It was right before the
grand re-opening and I was sitting in the storage room in the
upstairs mezzanine hammering some nails in the back wall. I put the
hammer down and turned around to get a sip of my water. That’s when
the hammering started back, only I wasn’t doing it. Nobody was doing
it. I sat and listened and tried to figure it out. It kept going but
I couldn’t figure it out.”
Some time after hearing Isidro’s hammering account, I came across an
article that ran in The Daily Citizen-News on April 16, 1980.
Written by former newspaper publisher Neely Young, “Child Lives at
The Wink” describes first-hand haunting accounts told by Leon Hurst.
“A strange thing occurred one Sunday afternoon at 12:30,” Hurst told
Neely. “No one was at the theatre but me and I began to hear a
hammering sound. I went down into the auditorium and it sounded like
someone beating the walls with a hammer. I figured some construction
was taking place next door. Upon checking, I found that there was
not a single person in any of the buildings in the entire block. The
hammering continued for about 10 minutes and stopped. This happened
for two consecutive Sunday afternoons and lasted about 10 minutes
each time.”
Isidro Esperanza and Leon Hurst provide three separate examples of
mysterious hammerings. Going with the idea that the hammering is
“otherworldly,” the questions of “who is hammering” and “why” come
to mind.
The Wink was built by J.C.H. Wink. Construction began in 1939, but
Wink would not live to see the doors open to the public. He died
April 1, 1941, before construction was complete. Building “a
small-town version of Atlanta’s Fox Theatre” had been Wink’s dream.
It was the central focus of his life at the time of his demise.
My personal thoughts link the hammerings with J.C.H. Wink and
unfinished business. So I asked my friend and business partner, Drew
Hester, what his thoughts are on the subject. Drew and I are
directors of “Historic Dalton Walking Ghost Tours,” and of PSI – a
society of ghost hunters specializing in researching and
scientifically collecting data on paranormal activities.
Additionally, Drew is a certified Parapsychologist, UFOologist, and
the North Georgia Representative for the American Ghost Society.
“The hammerings seem to me like your typical residual haunting,”
Drew said. “Residual hauntings are scenes that play over and over
again like a film loop and in these cases the spirits are unaware
that we are in their presence. I would say this is a sign of
unfinished business, but it also seems to me that whatever is making
these sounds is in visitation, meaning that they are not grounded –
or stuck – in the theatre, but are triggered to come back when
something such as construction is being done.”
One of the most widely talked about entities in the theatre is
commonly referred to as “the lady in the bathroom.” The lady hangs
out in the women’s restroom on the second floor. Several patrons
have reported experiencing “cold spots” and feelings of unease while
in the restroom. I too have felt a presence, while standing before a
mirror in this room on a couple of occasions.
In the winter of 2003 Judy Hall, a cousin of my father’s by
marriage, was inside the first stall in this restroom during a
performance of “The Drifters.” Believing herself alone, Judy claims
to have heard a flush coming from another stall. Conversationally,
she said hello. No one answered. After exiting her stall she glanced
underneath the adjoining stalls, looking for feet. There were none.
Curious, she began pushing the doors open one by one. Upon opening
the last door to find no inhabitant, the toilet once again flushed.
This time, before her eyes. Judy now refuses to go upstairs alone.
Custodians claim “the lady” plays occasional tricks on them. Stall
doors open and shut while they are cleaning the restroom. Toilets
flush. Toilet seats that are supposed to be down are raised, and
vice versa.
So who is this lady, and why is she hanging out in the restroom?
Research and interviews, conducted by myself, has left me with no
clear answers to date.
“I think there is at least one intelligent spirit inside the
theatre,” Drew Hester recently said. “And when I say intelligent I
mean a human spirit, or someone who has died and has yet to cross
over. These spirits will interact with witnesses and even with their
surrounding location. These spirits have personalities and will
often portray that toward those who see them. I believe we have this
very type of spirit in the upstairs ladies bathroom.”
“The number of accounts that have been told either to myself or that
I have overheard mention the figure of a lady that seems to be
conscious or aware of the people who visit the Wink,” Drew went on
to say. “Some of the stories date back many years and to this day it
seems that some people are still quite afraid to go into the
bathroom.”
The history based ghost tours Drew and I lead begin with the Wink
Theatre. Every now and then, when we talk of the paranormal
occurrences within the theatre a tour taker will step forward and
share her own experience with “the lady” in the bathroom.
A fellow group of paranormal researchers out of Atlanta, known as
The Foundation for Paranormal Research (FPR) visited the Wink on two
separate occasions, upon my invitation. They are a nonprofit,
non-religious, scientifically oriented investigative group
specializing in ghosts and other phenomena that can be associated
with the paranormal.
During their “ghost camps,” both small and large orbs were captured
by digital cameras on stage, outside the projection room, and in the
Wink’s basement. Orbs are transparent or colored balls of light that
many believe to be some form of spirit energy.
The FPR claims to have made contact with “the other side” through
EVP, or Electronic Voice Phenomena. This is a process of recording a
spirit voice on tape. A female voice, undetectable by the human ear,
was captured in the balcony, just in front of the projection booth.
The voice clearly said, “I see people.”
On one of these two investigations, the FPR used dowsing, or
divining, rods. These copper rods, generally used to find
underground water or unmarked graves, are a popular ghost hunting
tool. In theory the two rods, when held in the still hands of an
individual, will cross once contact with “the other side” has been
made. From this point “yes” and “no” questions can be asked using a
single rod. If the rod moves up and down, the spirit’s answer is
believed to be “yes.” Likewise, if the rod moves from side to side,
the spirit’s answer is believed to be “no.”
The FPR believes they made contact with a female spirit in the
lady’s upstairs restroom at the theatre using both their dowsing
rods and a psychic. According to their psychic, there were eight
spirits inside the theatre on the night in reference.
I recently asked Drew his take on the former manager’s office, where
Leon Hurst would see the door knob turn followed by an indention in
the seat across from his desk.
“If I had to make an educated guess, I would say that since the
office belonged once to Mr. Wink himself, this would be a prime
location for him to return to in visitation,” he said. “Being that
it was his office, he would have made this very much like his home
away from home, and since he passed on before the theatre was
completed it carries all the more weight for him to come back to
visit every now and then.”
“How about the film spontaneously shooting off the reels in the
projection room?” I asked Drew.
“This is your typical poltergeist-like activity,” he answered.
“Polter, in German, meaning ‘noisy’ and geist meaning ‘ghost.’
Basically this means that a spirit was able to obtain enough energy
to literally take over the projection reels and control them itself.
Now this doesn’t mean it was doing it in a harmful way, but more
than likely it was just trying to make itself known. We have to keep
in mind that 99 percent of the time that a ghost makes a noise or
creates activity it is doing so that we may remember them and how
they lived.”
Are there logical reasons for these occurrences? Could they be
products of overactive imaginations? Or is the Historic Wink Theatre
really inhabited by or visited by ghosts? I wish I could answer
these questions point blank, but clearly cannot. Are there things
going on inside the theatre that are outside the normal realms
society clings to? Absolutely. For those who believe, no
explanations are required. For those who do not, none would suffice
anyway.
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