| The History of the Bama Theatre The Bama Theatre is an older building in downtown Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It was built in 1938 and is the premiere preforming arts center in Tuscaloosa. The building is huge and a very good example of early 1940's style theatre architecture. The inside of the building has obviously been remodeled since that time however the main theatre are seems to have remained in it's original state for the most part. A huge stage with balcony's on either side greet you as you walk into the main theatre area. An upper Balcony near the projection room would be a great place to watch a show put on by the The student Drama Department, or random musical acts like The Deadstring Brothers, The Steeldrivers, Joan Baez, or Aimee Mann some of the great acts that have preformed here at the Theatre. The main theatre area seemed to be active with the sound of footsteps frequently heard by our group on the stage as if someone was walking around or near us maybe curious as to what we where up too. While we did not pick this up on our recorders, the sound was heard by several of our members alone and in groups. A strange phenomenon indeed. Investigation of the Bama Theatre The Bama theatre has several locations within the building that have an obvious history as well. An old Coal shoot located in the basement tells of the history of how the old building would have been warmed before the days of forced air. Two Huge shoots located on either side of the building connect to large rooms for storage in the bottom of the building. This made for a creepy place to look for paranormal activity. We didn't find much near the coal shoots but in the main basement area. Old and very narrow spiral staircases extend up to the second floor dressing rooms and down as well into the basement area. The upstairs dressing rooms are old and still have the wood plank walls so common in older buildings. Mirrors extend down the dressing room wall and the rooms are very small but seem to connect in a maze, a strange area especially in the dark. The basement location located under the spiral staircase has a huge EMF field due to a massive electronic air and heat unit located there. However looking over the ceiling and walls you can see where this may have been the main area used to heat the main staging area due to old black suit that still stains the ceiling and walls there. Also an older breaker box located in the area (no longer in use) also gives us a glimpse of the history left there. Since there was a lot of EMF disturbance in the basement our readings where discounted as with most of the building. However while in the basement we did experience several strange things. Voices called the name of our newest part timer Jake Ferrell. Heard by Jake and investigator Michelle Smith, not a hallucination due to hypersensitivity to EMF due to the fact that both investigators heard this. Also I experienced something in the basement as well. I still can't say it's not due to my own hypersensitivity but some black and with mass seemed to move from a shadowy location and once my eyes adjusted to the image it seemed to be right on top of me. Not something that would typically scare me but I did jump upon realizing how close it was. Again I can't say that this wasn't something due to EMF but strange none the less. Our night was long and while I did expect more activity to be present we did gather some evidence, outside of our personal experiences. You can view that more EVP's from the Bama Theatre on the EVP Page. We where truly honored to have an opportunity to investigate such a historical location and look forward to being able to get back to Tuscaloosa and North West Alabama Soon. At this time we have ruled the haunting of the Bama Theatre to be inconclusive, we did not gather enough evidence to say that it is certainly haunted. However we do not discount our personal experiences. Audio Evidence |
Former Investigator Jake Ferrell and Faith Serafin were investigating the surrounding room of the building when in an upstairs bathroom we caught the voice of what sounds like a small child asking "Help Me." |
| The Bama Theatre Tuscaloosa, AL |
- This clip is a response to a question
investigator Michelle Smith ask
Investigator Bert Overton. There was more
then one response.
- In this clip we captured an odd "moaning"
that came from the corridor behind the
projection room