Arts & Entertainment

'Ghost Hunters' Find Spirits at the Rialto; Show Airs Next Week

The Syfy Channel program spent a night at the historic downtown Joliet theater and what they found will be shown at 8 p.m. Oct. 17.

Is Joliet's Rialto Square Theatre haunted? There may be definitive proof, but you'll have to wait for the Ghost Hunters show on Wednesday night to find out for sure.

A crew from the Syfy Channel's paranormal program spent a night in July exploring the 86-year-old theater and apparently had some luck contacting spirits from the other side, said Annette Parker, the Rialto's director of marketing and sales. What they encountered will be revealed on the "Curtain Call" show, which airs at 8 p.m.

While several Rialto staff members were interviewed for the program, only theater techinical director Lori Carmine was there when members of The Atlantic Paranormal Society were in the building and let in on what they found. Alas, she's been "sworn to secrecy, Parker said.

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"I've tried to find out, but she's really good at (keeping it secret)," Parker said.

(A brief preview of the show can be seen at www.syfy.com/videos/Ghost Hunters/Promos/vid:2604295.)

Find out what's happening in Jolietwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

While she's never encountered any ghostly apparitions herself, Parker does admit there's one storage area in an old office section of the building that always makes her feel "weirded out."

Her co-workers have been more fortunate in crossing paths with the other-worldly inhabitants of the theater, she said. One they've reported seeing is a woman in a wedding dress; another is a young boy, she said.

"The little boy shows himself quite often," she said. "He's kind of a trickster, and eight times out of 10 he's there (when they do paranormal tours of the building)."

Parker said she thinks the ghosts are "spirits who seem to enjoy being there."

"There never seems to be anything evil or bad about them," she said.

As for the paranormal tours, they're led by the All Seeing Paranormal group, who take people along as they investigate "hot spots" in the building, Parker said.

Tickets for the five-hour tours, which typically take place from 6 to 11 p.m., are $35. For more information, call 815-726-7171, Ext. 210.


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