The Smoot Theatre is the longest standing theater in Parkersburg.Dating back to Vaudeville days, the theater was nearly demolished in the 1980s but was saved from the wrecking ball by manager Felice Jorgenson and volunteers who protected the theater for future generations. The Smoot Theatre remains an active theater featuring many famous acts, bands and shows as a reminder of its’ glorious past.
The below picture is from 1932. It captures the first presentation of the movie “Frankenstein” to play in Parkersburg. Nurses from St. Joseph’s hospital are on hand to assist anyone who is overcome during the evenings’ performance.
Many famous acts have appeared at the Smoot Theatre during its Vaudeville hey-day such as the “Singing Midgets” who later appeared in “The Wizard of Oz” as munchkins and a number of silent movie stars whose names are now long-forgotten. The Smoot Theatre was built in 1926 by the Smoot Amusement Company as a theater for vaudeville acts passing through Parkersburg at the time, but then shortly later Hollywood movies began to pull in the crowds. The Smoot went through another transformation in 1930 when it was purchased by the Warner Brothers Company and renovated into a movie theater.
Given their promotion of “Frankenstein” in the 1930s, is the Smoot Theatre haunted by something other than Mary Shelley’s monster, too? Appearances of shadow people ghosts are common in theaters, and the Smoot Theatre in Parkersburg seems not to be the exception. Cold spots are felt throughout the building as well as ghostly footsteps on the stage when no one is there. Shadowy forms from behind the curtain have been witnessed as well as unexplainable electrical problems which are so common in hauntings.
Guests become nervous in the bathrooms on the second floor of the theater, especially in the ladies room, as light footsteps will enter the rest room, followed by the smell of a woman’s lavender perfume. When women leave the stall they discover no one is there. If one sits in the theater alone, in the audience seats, it seems the very air teems with spirits wafting about the room forming strange shadows and veils of shadows overhead.
One of the strangest stories of haunts comes from the area of the second floor bathrooms. A number of women have claimed that when they are using the ladies room on the second floor, a door will open and then the clipping sound of a woman’s high heels. Once the women open the stall they glimpse a pair of red pumps walking away but without anyone in them. Before they can react, the red pumps disappear making witnesses wonder if they actually saw the red shoes. Afterwards, the air continues to stay charged with a type of static electricity and many will get shocked touching the metal spigots. There are the more esoteric aspects of ghosts at the theater and can be explained away by something natural rather than supernatural. The red pumps are a mystery, but may have something to do with the “Singing Midgets” song and dance group, although, nothing having to do Dorothy of Oz happen at the Smoot, nor did Judy Garland ever play or sing at the theater. 
However, spirits will mimic energies that are adrift in the air. Perhaps one of the signing midgets felt some kinship with Dorothy of Oz. Thus, this is just one of the mysteries that surround the Smoot and its’ rather "bashful and not appearing-very often" spooks.
Go to the Smoot's website: http://smoottheatre.com/
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