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Mystery at the Theatre

Duration: 1:21 minutes
Accession No: TWCMS : 2009.251
This story has been viewed 2715 times

Summary
Vera tells us about one of the ghosts of the Sunderland Empire theatre.

By Vera Callaghan


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Video transcript

When my children started school at 5 I got a part time job working at the Empire theatre. After working for a few weeks I was sent up to the gallery. As we were doing all the seats up there, there was an old time music hall started, but as I swept and washed the seats I heard these noises scratching and moaning. When I asked what it was they said ‘that’s the ghost of Molly Moselle’. The story was Molly was a wardrobe mistress with the show ‘The Dancing Years’ and she’d been engaged to the leading man in the same show. However, after a fall out he got engaged to the other leading lady. So on the Saturday after the matinee Molly went out to post a letter and she never ever was seen again after that. Police were called in and the Empire was searched top to bottom. All the huge baskets which held all the costume, everything, all the holds and corners were searched. She left her handbag at her digs and all her belongings, she was not planning to run away. As she left to post the letter she met one of the cleaner and said ‘see you tonight at work’ and that was the last time Molly was ever seen.  

Vera tells us about one of the ghosts of the Sunderland Empire theatre. Posted on 09/11/2009 at 02:37:12

did they ever find the body or what happened to herPosted on 10/11/2009 at 05:47:46

Well i was talking to a person at the theatre who is a guide there and they said 20 years later they found a highly decomposed body & it's belived to be molly masselle . however she was a well known flirt so many people belived she ran away .Posted on 23/12/2011 at 19:49:48

Spent many an hour,on my own, in the theatre, and never experienced a thing, apart from the cold air that always circulated from the concrete roof in the gallery, down to the front stalls.Posted on 12/01/2012 at 09:38:31

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