Sterling Opera House: No Ghosts There
Ghosts? WTF?
Wow…is it me or does it seem like the press is really scrounging around for news lately?
Check out this news report about a “haunted” opera house in which Rich DiCarlo, Valley Arts Council, claims that he snapped a photograph of a woman in a Victorian-era dress. Not to say that they are imagining things or creating a hoax, but what are they trying to pull here? Just because you can trace a line around random objects, and make it resemble a human figure does not mean it’s a ghost.
No wonder there is no funding for parapsychology when you have stuff like this passing as “ghosts”. Does this qualify as a haunted building? Does it even qualify as news-worthy?
Source: WTNH
Derby (WTNH) – An old, deserted opera house in Derby is said to be haunted. News Channel 8’s Kent Pierce went inside to check it out.
The phantom of the opera only exists in movies and plays, but in Derby they say they have a phantom haunting the Sterling Opera House. It hasn’t been used for years, but the Valley Arts Council is in the middle of renovations. Some people were inside one Halloween and say they saw something spooky.
“We thought we saw a rat on the railing, hey look a rat on the railing, and upon further examination, it had like wispiness of smoke coming off of it. So, before running out of the building like a scardeycat, I took a couple of shots straight up,” said Rich DiCarlo, Valley Arts Council.
DiCarlo took some pictures, one of which shows what appears to be a woman in a Victorian-era dress.
“Mr. Sterling, who was building the Opera house back then, died a couple years before the completion. We’re trying to see if maybe his wife took over the building and maybe that’s the person who’s watching over this place,” DiCarlo said.
Just a few weeks, another photo shows strange orbs hovering seats in the audience. A paranormal investigator has come to the opera house and reportedly captured more images. The building does have a long history. Harry Houdini performed here. Amelia Earhart spoke here. If there are spirits hanging around, Rich Dicarlo says they don’t mean us any harm.
“Whatever it is or whatever they are, it’s a comfortable feeling,” he said. “It’s a friendly ghost.”
Written by Javier Ortega - javier@ghosttheory.com
Get GhostTheory updates faster! sign up to our RSS Feeds or
add us on Twitter
Excellent article! I am in the process of working on a “Haunted or Hype?” piece myself. I’ll be sure to reference this. Bravo!
[...] Sterling Opera House: No Ghosts There – “You call that evidence? How desperate are papers for stories if they print this as newsworthy?” That’s the essence of this awesome post by Javier. [...]
Courtney Mroch,
Good luck on “Haunted or Hype” piece. Let me know when it’s done. I’d love to read it and discuss it here on GhostTheory.
Thanks
-Javier
Lighten up man! Its Halloween, what better time to do a story on this type of thing. I would have loved to be a fly on your wall when you found out that there is no Santa Clause.
I heard that Paranormal Investigator, Richard Felix from That TV show “Most Haunted” had taken a similar photo in the Opera House last summer. He verified the evidence. I hear that several major paranormal groups and a few television programs are interested in investigating there. Is it a hoax? or is it pure genious? What better way to draw attention to a building that needs a little attention, Perhaps this is the spark that will get the place open
Its all open for interpretation and the photos are on display in the Arts Council’s Gallery at 37 Elizabeth Street in Derby that has the original as well as the outlined ghost pictures. There most certainly is a woman behind the railing. The other one with the orbs is quite incredible as well…I believe
I’ve seen the actual pix. There is a lady shadow. They have them at their gallery in Derby in a case. They are pretty cool about it and let you take them out and examine them. I usually don’t believe in this stuff but the pix are pretty darn good evidence to me. Xavier should show the other picture without the outlines. Its easy to mock what you don’t know. Show the other one witout the yellow lines and you have the other side of the story. That place has alot of history and it would be unusual if that place did not have something going on.
@Johnathan B
@PB Rodriguez
At the time when I posted the story, there were no other pictures available.
The problem with these ghost photo claims (like the ’smiley face orbs’) is that we all know that the mind has a knack for making patterns out of random visual objects. So this is really not scientific to say “well if it looks like a ghost, then it must be a ghost.”
-Javier