The Spirits of the Orpheum Theatre

Posted: 01.28.2025 | Updated: 10.02.2025

Few places are as breathtaking as Phoenix, Arizona. It’s where vibrant urban life meets the natural desert backdrop adorned with hues of reds, yellows, and greens.

However, something more unsettling lurks beneath this picturesque scene, and it’s not the cacti. A plethora of haunted locations and ghost stories surrounding this desert city. It’s one of the most sought-after places for ghost enthusiasts.

Some of these stories hide in the Orpheum Theatre, located in downtown Phoenix. Once the city’s highlight, it now stands as a tucked-away historical gem with a dark past. As its name unintentionally suggests, the theatre is known for more than its variety of entertainment. It’s also for a meeting place between the living and the dead.

Curious to see what else hides around the corner in some of Phoenix’s most haunted spots? Phoenix Ghosts invites you for a chilling experience you won’t soon forget! Be sure to visit our site and book a ghost tour with us today. Be sure to check our blog for more unsettling stories surrounding some of Phoenix’s most haunted locations.

Is the Orpheum Theatre Haunted?

The Orpheum Theatre is one of Phoenix’s most prominent historical locations, nestled underneath the towering architecture of downtown Phoenix. It hosts a gallery of live shows with some of the entertainment world’s most renowned names.

However, it also holds another reputation as well: It’s known to entertain not just the living but the dead, making it one of Phoenix’s most haunted venues. 

History of the Orpheum Theatre

Downtown Phoenix’s entertainment scene changed forever with the opening of the Orpheum Theatre on January 5, 1929. It was built by Jo E. Richards and Harry Nace during Hollywood’s golden age, with the only stage big enough to handle traveling vaudeville shows that changed weekly. 

Its audience (made up of 1,800) sat in a garden surrounded by Spanish-style buildings and murals of mountains and forests under puffy, white clouds that drifted across a deep blue-domed sky. Add in the incorporation of the earliest form of air conditioning in America’s hottest city, and you have the perfect venue for anyone who’s anyone to be seen in Phoenix.

The theatre was sold in November 1929 and aptly renamed the Nace Paramount Theatre in 1946. Its name was changed to Paramount Theatre in 1950 and continued to host many of the entertainment world’s most notable names, including Henry Fonda and Mae West. 

Time brought its own challenges to the theatre by 1983, when its entertainment dwindled down to mainly Spanish-speaking films and an occasional concert booked by Feyline Present Inc. It was almost certain that what was once a staple of Hollywood’s glamour days would soon be a demolition site. 

That is until the City of Phoenix acquired the block containing the theatre as the future site of its 20-story city hall to be built in 1984. The theatre was placed on the National Register of Historic Places a year later. The city began a multi-million dollar restoration for the theater in 1988.

A few years later, the theatre’s original name was restored, and it now operates under the name Orpheum Theatre. Today, it continues to entertain ticket-goers—and some say the dead—with its stunning Spanish Baroque architecture and diverse array of performances. 

Hauntings Overview

The Orpheum Theatre has captured the allure of patrons since its birth in the 1920s with its artwork, architecture, and variety of entertainment.

Almost a century later,  they continue to add to the experience for ticket-goers, with some unaware that the theatre is now reputed to be haunted by a slew of restless spirits. 

One of them is named Maddie, a ghostly female patron who has been witnessed by some as being dressed in mid-20th-century clothing. She is usually sitting on the balcony or in the back row of the theater, taking in a show.

She doesn’t simply sit still, however. Some patrons have felt her tapping them on the head during a performance. People across the street have also seen Maddie walking along what used to be the theatre’s second floor.

Another ghost believed to haunt the Orpheum Theatre is a playful feline from the 1920s. Since the early 2000s, people have reported hearing a cat moving around purring, doing what cats love to do above their heads. What’s odd is that it would be where no cat could stand. 

Even the theatre’s stage is believed to be stained with an otherworldly energy. A sound technician, on one occasion, allegedly recorded what sounded like a fistfight happening on stage. The sound is believed to be connected to a fight that supposedly did happen there, involving an orchestra drummer who was distraught over the death of his wife. 

It’s up for debate if there’s a shroud of truth to this sad story, but it’s not the only one the Orpheum Theatre holds. Something more infamous happened here that many say is connected to another one of the theatre’s ghosts. 

Foul Play? 

The Orpheum Theatre was once the scene of what would ironically make a great plot for a murder-mystery performance. It took place in the theatre’s second-story office that once belonged to its original owner, Harry Nace. 

Nace’s body was found in the office after he succumbed to two fatal gunshot wounds. Since then, several eerie encounters have been reported, all circulating around his office. People have reported hearing male voices call out to them and talk to them. However, the most unsettling detail from these accounts is that they have even heard these voices specifically call out their name. 

Haunted Phoenix

Standing among the western landscape is Phoenix, Arizona; a vibrant city teeming with history that carries through its neighborhoods and around every city block. What makes history so fascinating is the abundance of secrets it hides within, however. Many of them hide in the dark corners of its historical landmarks, carrying on the desert night air. 

One such landmark is the historic Orpheum Theatre, nestled on 203 W Adams Street in downtown Phoenix. It stands as a dazzling architectural gem born in the starlit days of Hollywood, hosting a countless range of performances to this very day. However, there is another history that lies inside this historic entertainment venue that’s much darker. 

It’s what has made many believe that The Orpheum Theatre remains one of the most haunted locations in the City of Phoenix to this day. 

There’s a more haunting side to Phoenix waiting to be explored, with its spectral inhabitants waiting in the shadows. Phoenix Ghosts invites you on a spine-tingling ghost tour to visit some of Phoenix’s most haunted locations! Visit our website today while spots are open.

Keep reading our blog for more Phoenix ghost stories, and stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Sources:

• https://www.kjzz.org/2019-10-31/content-1280136-haunted-phoenix-reawakening-sleeping-spirits-orpheum-theatre
• https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/ghostly-guests-at-the-orpheum-theater
• https://www.orpheumphx.com/media-center/history
• https://www.azhauntedhouses.com/real-haunt/orpheum-theatre.html