Ghost may haunt Florida theater

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla., Oct. 31 (UPI) -- A Florida movie palace turned community theater may be haunted by the ghost of a patron who always revisits the same seat in the upper balcony.

The apparition has been spotted several times in Seat BB1 at the Richey Suncoast Theater, The Tampa Tribune reported. Those who have seen it believe it is the ghost of Willard Clark, a theater buff and patron of the arts in the area who is honored with a plaque at the theater.

A ghost-hunting group, Haunted Hunters PSI (paranormal scientific investigators) spent the past two Saturday nights in the theater, setting up cameras, voice recorders and other equipment after the final curtain.

So far, the group has found no sign of Willard Clark. But John Sullivan, who founded the group after moving to the Tampa area from New York three years ago, claimed one of the recorders picked up a woman saying "I'm not dead."

The theater was built in 1926 as a grand movie palace named after Thomas Meighan, a silent film star who owned a house in the area. It was converted to a community playhouse in 1972.