Is Antioch's PM&L Theatre haunted?
The ghost that has haunted Antioch's PM&L Theatre for nearly 100 years finally has an identity.
It's Elmarie Beno.
When asked recently if she has ever seen the ghost, the long-time theater volunteer's face broke into a slow smile, then quickly turned into a wicked laugh.
"It's me," the 71-year-old said.
Legend has it a girl walks the theater, making strange noises and turning flood lights on and off.
Beno confessed to perpetuating the story, with the help of fellow theater buffs Betty and Ken Smouse, by having a little fun with people when they would inquire about the ghost.
"There was a shoemaker next door who used to work at night and make a lot of noise," Beno said. "We would tell people to come back at night to hear the ghost."
The theater, at 877 Main St., was built in 1914 as the Crystal Theater, showing movies, stock theater and vaudeville acts. It later became the Lake Movie Theater until PM&L purchased the building in 1982.
Besides the ghostly girl, there are also stories that Al Capone had tunnels dug underneath the theater leading toward Fox Lake. This fact has never been proven.
Soon after she began volunteering at the theater in 1963, Betty Smouse said she heard rumors the place was haunted.
"Most theaters end up having a ghost, that's all there is to it," said the 77-year-old Antioch resident. "I just sort of passed it off as something kind of funny."
The confession by a group of mischievous senior citizens, however, isn't enough to convince Chris Pumala, of Lake County Paranormal Investigations.
Pumala investigated the theater in 2005 and claims to have evidence of a ghost, including a girl's voice screaming on an EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) recorder and a photo of a figure standing near an exit.
"Standing in the balcony you can literally hear things, shuffling around," Pumala said. "That isn't just the place settling. We got really weird feelings about the theater and felt it was haunted."
But nothing has been able to shake Tom Hausman's long-held belief that the ghost is a figment of people's imagination, or at most, the clanking of the shoemaker's machines.
"As far as we know no one ever died here," said Hausman, who joined the theater in the 1970s. "Don't you need a dead person to have a ghost?"
Said Ken Smouse: "I have no idea if there was a ghost or not. I'm planning on haunting it, but who knows how successful I will be."
Other ghostly legends
Internet sites are filled with ghostly tales and legends. Here's a sampling of some we found:
Gurnee: The back office door of in the Honeybaked Ham building reportedly shuts by itself and the light in the office turns on and off. A girl has also been heard screaming and has been seen on security cameras.
Lake Zurich/Barrington: Many drivers along Cuba Road have reportedly passed an old, abandoned house on the far east end of Cuba and see a congregation of people standing around a large white flame in the field near the house, then suddenly the flame disappears in a flash of white light and all of the people seen so clearly standing around the white flame have disappeared.
Mundelein: About 40 years ago, exorcisms were reportedly performed at Carmel High School. Most of the time they were fake and nothing happened. But once, a young boy was having an exorcism and nothing happened he was still doing all sorts of impossible things. One day after the priests performed this exorcism each priest died a horrible death. A train hit one in a car crash, another in a house fire and the third. After all of the priests died the boy next died. It is said today that every Friday night you will see the boy walking around out side the school. And every full moon it is said that the priests try to cast out the spirits of the young boy once again.
Vernon Hills: There's a girl who was killed and thrown in the lake and you can find baby hands in the lake because she was having a baby at the time and now she haunts everyone
Wauconda: There is a pond in Larkdale where it is said a little boy drowned. If you drive by the pond past midnight, you will see the little boy standing next to a 'no swimming' sign near the pond.