His are the footsteps in the dark that cause stage lights to flicker as he approaches. He’s been called an optical illusion when he appears sitting in the auditorium, as if he were watching an old movie.
Those who have encountered him rarely see him, but they’ve all felt him — a coldness that causes the room temperature to drop — and heard him — a terrifying sound that causes many to run in fear.
“I was just about to finish painting when I heard this weird noise,” says Mike Strecher, the facility manager at Campus Theatre in downtown Denton, where it’s said the ghost of its founding manager haunts the catwalks at night. “I’ve been here long enough that I’ve heard all the noises [in the building]. This was too weird.”
Strecher walked upstairs to turn off the lights, but as he crossed the catwalk, all the hair on the back of his neck and arms stood up.
“I just kind of went, ‘Ah, I’m really scared,’” he said, “and I just decided to leave the light on in the booth and turned around.”
But the ghost known as “Mr. Harrison” isn’t evil, say those who work at Campus Theatre. He’s a friendly spirit whose antics are his way of alerting people that this historic building’s protector is still around, playing pranks in the middle of the night.
The old theater
Business manager J.P. Harrison wanted his company, Interstate Theatres, to build something that would attract the college kids attending Denton’s two colleges, then known as North Texas State College and Texas State College for Women. But some investors believed Denton already had one too many movie theaters for a small town.
“It is best to be the spoke in the wheel in an up-and-coming town than a whole wheel in a town standing still,” Harrison told the Denton Record-Chronicle in 1949.
Mr. Harrison was a businessman who often wore a gray suit jacket, white shirt and tie, and he had a far-reaching vision for the new project.
He planned to build a theater that replicated the ones being built on the West Coast. It would be extravagant, the kind that drew movie stars to attend screenings.
It would be a state-of-the-art movie house, and it would be the first movie theater to have air conditioning, a rare commodity in North Texas.
Thirty tons of steel made up the new theater, and it took more than a year to build with a price tag of more than $500,000. Built in an art deco style with rich colors and bold geometric shapes, the Campus Theatre was glamorous and luxurious, a rare treat for college students in North Texas.
The first movie shown at the new theater was I Was a Male War Bride, starring Cary Grant and Denton native Ann Sheridan.
As well as being considered a prankster, Mr. Harrison was also known as the P.T. Barnum of Denton because of his showmanship antics to draw crowds to his theater. He’d bring in live animals like sheep to raffle for the children, and he worked with the local high school drama clubs to create movie displays and hire students as actors to promote the films.
In 1967, Mr. Harrison’s dream of bringing actors from Hollywood to the Campus for a premiere came true when the theater debuted Bonnie and Clyde. Films stars Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were on hand at the premiere, as well as movie critics from across the country.
Many films were shown at Campus Theatre until it closed in 1985 due to competition from a new multiplex cinema at Golden Triangle Mall.
The building stood empty until it was purchased in 1990 by the Greater Denton Arts Council with help from the Denton Community Theatre. It was renovated and reopened in 1995 as a 300-seat theater house to host plays and musicals.
The Campus’ marquee can be seen illuminating the Square each night.
The friendly ghost
No one is quite sure when the ghost of Mr. Harrison began appearing. Mike Barrow, the managing director of Denton Community Theatre, believes the restless spirit began making his debut to construction workers who were renovating the building.
“It seems to me like there were stories of some workers, when they took certain things out of the building, they would feel that cold presence,” Barrow said. “It was a hot day, and all of a sudden, they’d feel a cool breeze blowing on them.”
Strecher has been working at Campus Theatre for more than eight years, and he’s not only felt the cold breath of Mr. Harrison, but he’s also seen him in theater seating.
“I’ve had several times where I’ve walked into the auditorium,” he said, “and I’d look over at the seat and think, ‘Oh, somebody is sitting there,’ and then I’d go by the big pillars and look again, but there’d be nobody there. I don’t know if it’s an optical illusion or …”
“I don’t think there is anybody who’s done the close at night,” explained Barrow, “that hasn’t felt like they were not alone in the building.”
Nathan Brown is a supernatural expert with an impressive body of research in such areas as world mythology and folklore, demonology, urban legends, ancient civilizations, martial arts, spirituality and world religions. He studied under the esteemed professor Evans Lansing Smith, the chairman of mythological studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute, who in turn studied under scholar Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
Brown is also the author of several popular books, including The Mythology of Supernatural: The Signs and Symbols Behind the Popular TV Show, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Paranormal and his recent publication The Mythology of Grimm: The Fairy Tale and Folklore Roots of the Popular TV Show.
“There are various theories on why ghost phenomena occur,” said Brown. “Some believe, and I tend to be among them, that it is residual energy left behind by people when they were alive. Ghosts are often seen doing the same activity, a kind of ‘energy snapshot’ left behind.”
Brown said these “energy snapshots” can be caused either by repetitive activity in a place, such as an old man who smoked his pipe and read the paper in the same chair in the same house at the same time every night for 20 years, or by an extremely traumatic event at the moment of death.
Betsy Deiterman is familiar with this “energy snapshot.” When she was a volunteer at Campus Theatre, she had several experiences with Mr. Harrison’s ghost, including hearing his footsteps and feeling his cold breath on the back of her neck.
The most complicated of her experiences happened during rehearsals for a production of Cinderella. She was talking to a friend who was sitting onstage when she noticed an older gentleman wearing a gray suit standing atop a catwalk high above the auditorium seating. She ran upstairs to catch the man, but he disappeared.
“There is no way that anybody could have walked that fast,” Deiterman said. “There is not that much distance, but there was nobody there and no shadow.”
Deiterman said she had an agreement with Mr. Harrison. When she was alone locking up the theater at night, he was not supposed to scare her. He kept his promise until six weeks before she left.
“I was doing my final walk and coming up an aisle when I heard footsteps behind me,” she said, “and I stopped and said, ‘Mr. Harrison, we had a deal.’”
Reluctantly the friendly ghost stopped and left her alone.
“I think he’s just protecting the building and making sure it’s going well,” she said.
CHRISTIAN McPHATE can be reached at 940-566-6878 and on Twitter at @writerontheedge.
IF YOU GO
If you’re looking for a supernatural experience, the Campus Theatre is one of the many stops on Ghost Tours of Denton, a walking tour around downtown led by Shelly Tucker. Tickets cost $10 for adults, $6 for ages 6-11. For a schedule and more information, visit www.ghostsofdenton.com or call 817-996-9775.
