The Sorg Opera House in Middletown was built in 1891. It showed opera until 1915, when it switched to movies. In 1985 it was changed back into a stage theater. At some point the second of the two balconies was hidden behind a false ceiling, and remains up there, just the same as it was back in the 1930s, when it was the colored section.
The theater''s original owner, Paul J. Sorg, haunts the theater in his 1890s formal clothing. Witnesses who have seen him there identify him by a portrait which hangs in the theater lobby. He was an incredibly wealthy man, locally known as "the last of the robber barons," and he built the theater for his young wife, who was in love with drama and opera. Early on, Bob Hope performed here.
Footsteps are the most common occurrence here, along with the sighting of Sorg''s ghost. He paces backstage and on the catwalks overhead.
Another ghost belongs to a black man who is supposed to sit in the closed-off balcony for every performance, despite the fact that a ceiling blocks his view. The technical people who work at the theater leave programs for him sometimes.
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