Spirit hunt
By John Worthen
For Between Editions
Between Editions will be on site Saturday at the Rialto Theater as Spirit Seekers of Arkansas searches for ghosts. We’ll be filming the event for this blog. A public Q&A session begins at 5 p.m. at the theater, but the actual investigation will take place later that evening.
Built in 1929, the Rialto is said to have numerous ghosts or spirits within.
Richard Mason, who owns the building, brought in a psychic last month to search for spirits. The News-Times covered that event on March 1. Carol Pate said she saw numerous spirits during her tour of the theater, including a heavyset man upstairs.
“I get the feeling that maybe he owned the place. He sort of takes care of things, like a caretaker,” she said, describing the man as wearing a vest and pocket watch. “Maybe he’ll contact us later.”
Pate proceeded on her tour to the stage of the main theater, where she saw a second spirit, a young lady dressed in 1920s attire, near the stage. Another, a little boy named Charlie, was seen by Pate in the lobby.
“There’s been an explosion,” she said, leaning against her companion for support. “He lost his daddy. This is where he came to be happy. He wanders through here.”
Pate sat in the main lobby for a moment to rest — she gets “woozy” when she uses her gift, she said — before making her way back to the sidewalk where she proclaimed the Rialto “a very interesting place.”