Haunted Ontario 3. Terry Boyle

went together because we did not want to be up there alone. We opened the doors to the theatre and were greeted by a beautiful lilac smell. It was like walking into a garden. We carried on with our business. I went back later to the theatre doorway, but the smell was gone. It was a girl. I just know it. Some people smell lilac and other visitors smell lavender. We call her the Lilac/Lavender Lady.”

      Linda described a time when she and Cecilia had an unexplained encounter in the box office in the lobby.

      “I was in the doorway of the box office and Cecilia was sitting in a chair inside the office. [For some background, from 1913 to 1919, where the box office is today was once Helen’s House of Hats, a retail store in the theatre]. I could feel this swirling energy behind me. It went past me and Cecilia could feel something go by her. The energy never made a sound.” Cecilia believes this swirling energy is associated with a spirit. She said, “The spirit gets bored and wants some company!”

      This spring Cecilia and two volunteers, Stephen and Tim, heard something.

      “I was sitting in the box office and the guys were next door. Tim suddenly heard a whistle. He came around to see if I had heard it. A minute later, Stephen appeared around the corner and said, ‘who whistled?’ There was no one else present at the time.”

      Whistling is expressly prohibited in the theatre, pertaining to all parts of the building, particularly the dressing rooms, where it is said that if heard, someone (not necessarily the whistler) will soon be out of work. The reason for this superstition is that prior to the advent of walkie-talkies, cues for theatre technicians were called with a sailor’s whistle. Therefore, one who whistles in a theatre may, inadvertently, call a cue before its time, and set all manner of catastrophes into action. Should this happen, someone would likely get fired.

      One theatre usher wrote in to the Toronto and Ontario Ghosts and Hauntings Research Society and referred to the Lilac/Lavender Lady with this story: “There is a female patron who is believed to have been stabbed in the Winter Garden Theatre washroom [that is now closed]. She dragged herself to the elevator [the elevator is operated by ushers] where she waited, but no one came. She died there. ... A lot of ushers, including myself, [without touching the controls] have been taken up to the fifth floor [Winter Garden Theatre level], but there is no one there. Sometimes there are not even any shows playing there at the time.”

      Linda’s story is a little different. She related a story involving a “sensitive” named Marian, who visited in 2011, during the Doors Open Ontario event.

      “Marian had seen an ad in the paper advertising the Doors Open event at the theatre. She had never been nor had any knowledge of the place prior, but knew she needed to visit the Winter Garden Theatre and unexpectedly ended up in the fourth row in both theatres despite hundreds of people in the room.

      “She told me she could see a scene unfolding, very much like watching a movie. This is what she had to say. “The Lilac Lady is in the balcony. She secretly followed her husband to work. She suspected her husband of having an affair.

      “He arrived at the box office with a lady friend and purchased two tickets. His wife, who was following some distance behind, purchased a ticket for an opera box seat in order to observe him. Once everyone had been seated she stood up and glared down at her husband in the audience seats. This caused quite a commotion. He called out to her. He knew she could ruin him if she wanted to do so.

      “The wife fled up the balcony stairs. The husband pursued her. He caught her in the women’s washroom. He beat her about the face until she bled. The husband then fled the theatre with his female companion.

      “The wife was bloody from the violent encounter. The wife then crawled to the elevator but she did not die as a result of the beating.’”

      Linda and Marian then walked up the stairs to the balcony box where the woman had been seated.

      The chair in the box office where the Lilac/Lavender Lady sits.

      Linda continued, “As soon as we entered the box, Marian turned her attention to the third chair. I sat down in the chair. I no sooner sat down than I felt absolutely frigid. I had to get out of that seat. Marian said, ‘It is the Lilac Lady.’ While we were standing in the opera box we were engulfed in a scent of lilac. It lasted for only half a minute.”

      Linda adds, “Production people often see a lady in this box. When someone goes up to the balcony box to tell her that she must leave the theatre, they find that she has vanished.”

      I contacted Marian and asked her to share her experience in the Winter Garden Theatre. “When I entered this theatre I had asked Linda if this theatre was haunted. When I walked up the aisle to the back of the theatre I felt a chill. I felt something had passed through me. I could feel a cold spot there.

      “I was drawn to an opera box on the right side of the theatre. Linda took me upstairs to the balcony. There were four seats in the area. I could smell cheap lilac water.

      “I kept standing up and looking down to the seat where I was seated in both the Elgin Theatre and Winter Garden Theatre and realized I was put there for a reason. I wanted to point my finger at a man that occupied the seat I was in earlier.”

      Marian described the cheating husband.“He had red hair parted on the side. He wore a cardboard collar, tie, and waistcoat. He had a handle-bar mustache. His lady friend wore a white hat with paper flowers going all around the rim.

      “I could see him looking up and seeing her/me. He ran up the aisle while the wife took the hallway towards the ladies room on the upper level.” Linda, another tour guide and I all felt a cold spot up there as well. I envisioned him running up the steps and following his wife into the washroom. She threatened his career and in turn he beat her viciously. He was livid and brutal. Afterwards he stops to wash the blood off his hands in the vintage basin. I believe this man to be a well-known banker from Bay Street.

      “I see her crawling out of the washroom to the elevator.”

      This was only one of the spirits Marian witnessed that day. She also saw the spirit of a young girl.

      “I saw her by the original box office in the front of the theatre building. Her name is Annie. The last initial is E. She is a child street walker. She has curly brown hair. Her appearance is bedraggled. She is unkempt and wearing an old outfit. She often begged for spare change as the patrons came in and out of the theatre doors.”