Thursday, October 22, 2009

Ghost Hunters Recap: Congress Theater

"Congress Theater", Chicago, Illinois

Steve will be trying out some new equipment. With this equipment they will be able to instantly record and review the evidence. Also, Britt Griffith and Kristyn Gartland will join them in the investigation.

The Congress Theater’s construction was started in 1925 and finished in 1927. The mob would use the basement for their meetings. Many films where shot there, plays were performed, and rock concerts too. Harry Houdini preformed there in the 1930's. Many of the reports of paranormal activity are from hearing footsteps, to seeing shadowy figures, strange balls of light, apparitions, and a female apparition. Dylan Castle, building manager, meets with TAPS to give them a tour of all the paranormal hotspots. They start upstairs in the Projection Room. A man used to live in an apartment just down the hallway and died in his sleep. Some have reported seeing a man’s ghost hanging around that room. Dylan, himself saw a man in the other room looking out a big window while he was watching a concert. He took another look at the man and saw no one standing there. The ghost basically walked out through the big window facing the theater. There used to be a solid wall there and the window was put in later. Next place he takes them is to the Third floor Dressing Rooms. He shows them a door leading to the catwalk where all the lights and sound equipment is laid out. None of the riggers will go up in that area alone because of the bad feelings they get in that space. Over the catwalk all the light bulbs seem to burn out for no reason. Just that day of the investigation that happened again. The next place is the basement where they have to go every night to kill the power to the theater. From stage right to stage left it is totally dark. Some have heard footsteps following them and more footsteps on the upper floor. The last place they go is the Stage where a woman in a blue dress is seen walking down the aisles. After they see her, she just disappears. Dylan, himself has seen someone walking up on the balcony area, back and forth down the rows, then just disappears. A night worker saw a figure walk up to him while on the stage, then just vanish. This is the end of the tour, let the investigation begin.

INVESTIGATION: Jason and Grant start out on the stage and hear a sound like something was moved on the stage. Jason asked for another movement and they started hearing footsteps and shuffling. While shining their lights at a doorway in the back of the theater, they see someone moving up there. It looked like a figure that moved across the doorway. Jason went up there and found no one. They notice that a camera was up there and hoped that it caught something. Grant joins Jason up in the lobby area where they hear a stall door in the bathroom bang but found no one there.

In the basement we see Kris and Kristyn where they noticed that it smelt moldy down there. They decided to sit and do an EVP session and saw something moving in front of a door. After asking for two loud knocks, they hear a noise and investigated it but found nothing.

Steve and Tango start in the dressing rooms where Tango felt a tapping on his shoulder as they were getting ready to walk on the catwalk. They check around and in his shirt to see what else may have caused it, but couldn't find anything.

In the projection room we find Amy and Britt. They got low EMF readings in the room and check out the huge movie reels. Then they hear a loud bang coming from the theatre seating and ran down to check it out. They couldn't find out the source of the noise.

Steve and Tango head down to the basement with some new equipment. With this, they can put sensors everywhere, monitor barometric pressure and temperature, and also it comes with a thermal camera imaging and infrared. They can capture any activity at the moment and see it instantaneity. They try knocking to see if they get a response. After tapping, “shave and a hair cut”, they got two taps, "two bits", knocked back to them. They tried again but got no response.

Kris and Kristyn are now investigating the stage and they hear footsteps in the seating area. They shined their lights into the area and hear three footsteps near them. Then it just got quiet which seemed to last for awhile.

Jason and Grant are in the dressing room area on the third floor. They check out the catwalk and Grant decides to walk across. You can hear the catwalk creaking as he moved across the unsteady looking catwalk. They think that the old wiring in the rooms up there could be why the light bulbs are burning out.

Now it is time for Steve and Tango to check out the stage. They asked questions and then Steve sees something moving in the seating area. It looked like a head moving from left to right. Suddenly, Tango sees it and gives chase but finds nothing. Like the others before them, they are getting some ghostly action in the theater and stage area as well.

Jason and Grant investigate the basement and hear noises as soon as they get down there. They find high EMF readings in the area. There is a large electrical panel in that area which could explain some of the paranormal reports.

Britt and Amy go down to the boiler room where the mob used to meet. After asking questions, the KII meter lit up. Then suddenly they hear a loud noise and they both jumped. It turned out to be the boiler turning on.

RESULTS: Boiler room, Amy and Britt, after asking "do you work here" and got a response possibly saying "no".
Stage, Steve and Tang changing the tape on the recorder picked up a noise or a voice in the background.
While sitting on the Stage, the thermal imaging camera pointing towards the seats captured something or someone moving in the doorway. It looked like a person walking passed the door.

There is definitely some sort of paranormal activity at the theater.

Go here to watch Congress Theater once again.

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4 comments:

Unknown said...

Did anyone see the person? walk by the door during the reveal?

I caught it and ran my dvr back and their is something that passed the door.

Sharon Day said...

That was interesting. About 10 years ago I was writing a novel that went nowhere, but the concept was a machine called "Medusa" that would coordinate all readings and recordings in real-time so investigators could finally find out if EMF spikes and temperature drops and EVPs occur together and learn what instruments work and what don't work. The concept is a good one, I just think they still seem to struggle with any equipment. J&G use KII, but they totally poo-poo'd it on the Manson murder place where the California dude used it. Jason seemed highly skeptical of it, then later it ended up in their tool kit. I think they saw the effectiveness when they got a conversation going, having the thing light up like it does. They still haven't said what they think it does or if it's really effective or not. I just wish they'd bring in experts. Sometimes, they seem like they're so inbred that they've lost any new ideas and new equipment and new people. It's the same old same old. Even with the new technique, it was pretty lame. Oh, and here's why the seriously need every member present during review--they showed the client the picture of the person walking in and out of the theater. Britt went into the theater and back out again when he was trying to figure out what the sound was down there (remember when he jogged down there?) Had he been there during the review, he'd have said, "dudes, that was me." I'm slowly losing respect for these guys and I hate that because they got people thinking about debunking and that's a huge contribution to the field.

DJM said...

answer to Tommy question: Yeah i definitely saw it because it moved forward then back again which was really crazy because i thought maybe it was a worker or sumthin but you could see throught it...wierd

DANDA said...

Yes, I saw the person/shadow figure walk back and forth across the far doorway during the reveal also. My daughter noticed it and brought it to my attention. We replayed it several times on the DVR and it is clear as day. It also matches up with what Jason and Grant describe in the later part of the reveal, definitely seems to be the same thing. Someone should bring this to the show's attention.