Forum Theatre

A ghost named Charley, said to be a 1950s projectionist, haunts the second-floor balcony of this 1927 Jonesboro theater. EMF readings have been detected and unexplained figures appear in photographs, though the Foundation of Arts staff who work there daily say they've never seen him.

The Strand Theatre opened on January 1, 1927, with Laura La Plante in "Butterflies in the Rain" and a Wangerin organ played by organist Prince Parkhurst. The 1,262-seat theater had a parquet, balcony, and gallery behind a Neo-Georgian facade of light stone over red brick. Jonesboro had never seen anything like it. Somewhere in the decades that followed, a ghost named Charley moved in.

Charley is supposed to have been a projectionist at the Strand during the 1950s. The details of how he died or why he stayed are vague, which is unusual for a theater ghost. Most haunted theaters have a clear origin story: a stagehand fell, an actor died on opening night, a fire killed the orchestra. Charley's backstory has none of that. He just showed up in the stories, attached to the second-floor balcony where the projection booth used to be.

The phenomena are low-key. Charley appears in group photographs taken inside the theater, a face or shape in the background that nobody saw when the picture was snapped. Mikel Wewers, the Interim Executive Director of the Foundation of Arts, which now operates the venue, described the ghost as "right in the middle" when asked whether Charley was friendly or menacing. Not quite Casper, not quite a poltergeist. Wewers also acknowledged that nothing has been "documented or scientific evidence, just more of rumor."

Paranormal investigator Ed Underwood brought electromagnetic force equipment to the Forum and picked up readings, though the details of those readings haven't been published in any formal report. Theater staff say they've never actually seen the ghost themselves. The creaks, the wind, the age of the building all offer simpler explanations, and Wewers pointed that out: "The creaks and, you know, the wind blowing and just the old building. It can really let your imagination go."

The city of Jonesboro bought the Strand in the late 1970s, renovated it, and renamed it the Forum Theatre. The Foundation of Arts has run it since as a live performance venue. They've leaned into the ghost story rather than running from it, giving Charley his own room during their "House of Villains" event.

The Forum is an honest case of a theater ghost that's more mascot than menace. The EMF readings exist. The photographic anomalies exist. The named ghost with a specific location in the building exists. But the staff who work there every day will tell you they've never seen him, and the executive director calls it rumor. Charley haunts the balcony the same way a lot of theater ghosts haunt their buildings: as a story people enjoy telling, attached to a place old enough to make it feel plausible.