The Majestic Theatre

Madison's oldest theater, open since 1906, is home to a shadow entity called the Putty Man with impossibly long rubbery arms, a vaudeville ghost named Joe who hanged himself in the green room in the 1920s, and at least one unseen presence that wished Rocky Horror cast members good luck before their show in 2000.

Two college students were studying in the balcony of the Majestic Theatre one evening in the 1980s when one of them stood up to stretch. Behind her friend, she saw something that didn't make sense: a figure made entirely of shadow, with long, rubbery arms that hung past where its knees should have been. It waved one of those impossible limbs over its head in a slow arc. They ran.

The Putty Man, as he came to be known, is the strangest resident of Madison's oldest theater. But he's not the only one.

The Majestic opened on December 15, 1906, built by brothers Edward and Otto Biederstaedt on King Street. Admission cost fifteen cents. Gray-uniformed ushers greeted patrons while Charles Nitschke Jr.'s Arion Orchestra played. Within months, contractor John H. Findorff added a balcony and theater boxes, pushing capacity to nearly 500. Architects Claude and Starck designed the building with an irregular footprint that bends from King Street toward Doty Street, following the triangle-shaped block it sits on.

The theater's early years carried their own weight of grief. Edward Biederstaedt's wife died by suicide in November 1911, on the eve of a competing vaudeville house opening across town. Edward died four months later. By 1912, the Majestic had shifted from live vaudeville to motion pictures, and by 1930, it had converted to talkies. In 1924, its stock company featured future Hollywood stars Ralph Bellamy, Edmond O'Brien, and Melvyn Douglas before any of them were famous.

Then there's Joe. Ghost tour guides in Madison tell the story of a vaudeville performer who hanged himself in the green room in the 1920s. Most accounts give him the name Joe, though no historical record confirms it. His presence tends to show up in smaller ways: a voice in an empty hallway, footsteps where no one's walking.

The most documented incident happened just before the theater temporarily closed in 2000. Cast members preparing for a Rocky Horror Picture Show performance heard a voice call out "Good luck with the show!" from somewhere in the empty theater. During the same run, at least one performer reported having their hair yanked by something they couldn't see. The Rocky Horror show had been running midnight screenings at the Majestic since June 3, 1978, a 21-year tradition. If Joe was the one wishing them luck, he'd had plenty of time to become a fan.

An employee mopping the floor one night looked up to see a man on the balcony, waving at him. He went upstairs to tell the man the theater was closed. The balcony was empty. A separate account describes a figure in the balcony whose arm appeared to detach from its body before the whole shape dissolved. Whether that's a different sighting of the Putty Man or a separate presence entirely, nobody's sure.

Tour guide Lisa, who leads Madison Ghost Walks through the area, has a simple theory for why the Majestic attracts this kind of attention. "All good theaters seem to have spirits," she's said, "because being theatrical takes a lot of blood, sweat, and tears."

The Majestic reopened in 2007 under Matt Gerding and Scott Leslie, who turned it into a 600-capacity live music venue hosting everything from local DJs to touring bands. The irregular hallways and old balcony haven't changed much. Neither, it seems, have the tenants nobody invited.