Rialto Square Theatre

Joliet's 1926 Rialto Square Theatre, a Rapp and Rapp-designed movie palace modeled after the Pantheon and Versailles, hosts at least five distinct ghosts: vaudeville performer Vivian in the star's dressing room, a mischievous child named Colin, a spectral couple in the balcony, and a Woman in White on the back staircase. Ghost Hunters Season 8 captured what staff called 'the Holy Grail,' an apparition moving through the balcony seats on camera.

A four-year-old boy tugs on visitors' clothing backstage, pokes them in the ribs, and pulls their hair. Staff have learned to say "Hi, Colin" when they feel it, because ignoring him only makes it worse.

Colin is one of at least five ghosts at the Rialto Square Theatre in Joliet, and he's the most physical. The story is that a boy named Kevin was hit by a car in front of the theater in the 1930s and died. How he became "Colin" to the staff is less clear, but the name stuck, and so did his habit of pestering anyone who lingers near the stage.

The Rialto opened May 24, 1926, after two years of construction. The six Rubens brothers wanted to build "a palace for the people," and the Rapp and Rapp architecture firm gave them one. The design pulls from Italian Renaissance, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Rococo, Venetian, and Baroque styles, which sounds like too many things at once until you see it. The lobby has a rotunda modeled after the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. The auditorium ceiling echoes the Pantheon. The whole thing cost nearly two million dollars in 1926 money. It opened as a vaudeville and movie palace, hosting live acts and first-run films for a city that was booming on steel, oil, and limestone quarrying.

Vivian is the ghost most associated with the theater's performing past. Paranormal investigators and staff believe she was a former vaudeville performer, and her territory is the star's dressing room backstage. Leann Hoffrogge, the theater's manager of event services, has described the experiences there: rapid temperature drops, a faint scent of vintage perfume, and the persistent feeling of being watched. EVP recordings captured in the dressing room picked up faint whispers. Investigators who reviewed the audio said the voice was expressing love for the theater. Vivian seems happy where she is.

The Woman in White prefers the back staircase and the balcony. She earned her name from wedding receptions held at the Rialto, where she's been spotted drifting through the space in formal white. A spectral couple has also been seen sitting together in the balcony seats during empty-theater hours, watching a show that isn't playing.

Ghost Hunters investigated the Rialto in Season 8, Episode 19, titled "Curtain Call," which aired in 2012. The TAPS team captured footage of a child's laugh in the audio feed, video of shadows moving across the balcony, and a light in the shape of a person crossing through the seats. The team's analysis produced what one researcher called "the Holy Grail" of paranormal evidence. The episode brought national attention to a theater that Joliet locals had been telling stories about for decades.

The building survived the decline that killed most American movie palaces. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and has operated as a performing arts center since. The Rialto runs its own paranormal tours now, leaning into the reputation. The tours go through the backstage areas, the dressing rooms, and the balcony, the three zones with the most activity.

At nearly a hundred years old, the Rialto has had time to collect its ghosts. A vaudeville performer who won't leave her dressing room, a boy who won't stop poking people, a bride on the stairs, a couple watching from the balcony. Five presences in a building designed from the start to hold an audience. They're just on the wrong side of the curtain.