1913 Broadway vaudeville palace at 1564 Broadway widely cited as the most-haunted theater in New York, with reports of more than 100 spirits including acrobat Louis Bossalina and Judy Garland.
1564 Broadway, New York, NY 10036
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Broadway show tickets vary by production and seat; typically $89-$249 for the current production. The theater is not open for public daytime tours.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Modern accessible Broadway theater following the 2018-2024 renovation that raised the theater 30 feet above street level.
Equipment
No Photos
Est. 1913 · Most Prestigious Vaudeville House In America · Judy Garland's 1951 19-week Run · 2018-2024 Engineering Renovation · Broadway Theater Landmark
Martin Beck, the western vaudeville impresario behind the Orpheum Circuit, opened the Palace Theatre on March 24, 1913 in a Broadway-Times Square that was rapidly becoming the center of American commercial entertainment. The 1,743-seat theater was designed by Milwaukee architects Charles Kirchhoff and Thomas Rose, with an interior that fused Beaux-Arts proscenium decoration with sumptuous Italian Renaissance ornament.
From 1913 through the mid-1930s the Palace was the most prestigious vaudeville booking in America. To 'play the Palace' became synonymous with reaching the top of the vaudeville profession. Performers who appeared at the Palace in this era included Sarah Bernhardt (whose 1915 appearance is often credited with establishing the theater's reputation), Fanny Brice, W.C. Fields, Sophie Tucker, the Marx Brothers, Eddie Cantor, Will Rogers, and Bob Hope. The Palace continued booking vaudeville-style programs into the early 1930s, longer than most rival houses, but the form was ultimately killed by the combination of the Great Depression and sound film.
Following vaudeville's commercial collapse, the Palace converted primarily to movie programming and operated as a film house through the mid-20th century with occasional live engagements. The most celebrated of these was Judy Garland's October 16, 1951 opening, which extended from a scheduled four-week engagement into a 19-week record-breaking run. Garland returned for additional engagements at the Palace and built a deep personal association with the venue. Tradition holds that a stage-left door was constructed specifically to facilitate her surprise entrances.
From 1965 the Palace returned to legitimate Broadway use, hosting productions including Sweet Charity (1966), Applause (1970), Annie Get Your Gun (1999), Aida (2000-2004), Beauty and the Beast (1994-1999), and the Liza Minnelli, Diana Ross, and Bette Midler concert engagements that became signature events of late-20th-century Broadway.
Beginning in 2018, the theater underwent an unusual renovation in which the entire 14-million-pound auditorium was lifted 30 feet above street level to permit construction of ground-floor retail and a new lobby at street grade beneath. The theater reopened in 2024, retaining its 1913 interior decoration while becoming one of the most technically accessible houses on Broadway.
Sources
According to Playbill's survey of haunted Broadway theaters and the Cinema Treasures feature on the Palace, more than 100 distinct ghost entities have been reported at the theater across its century-plus of operation. The Playbill account identifies the most consistently reported figures: a white-gowned cellist who plays in the orchestra pit (last reportedly appearing to Andrea McArdle during her Beauty and the Beast run); a sad little girl who looks down from the balcony; a quickly-walking man in a brown suit who passes open office doors late at night; and a boy who rolls toy trucks on a landing behind the mezzanine.
The most-cited specific entity is the apparition of an acrobat falling from the air. The Cinema Treasures feature and Playbill account agree that this entity is associated with Louis Bossalina, an aerial acrobat injured at the Palace on August 28, 1935 when he fell 18 feet during a performance. Bossalina survived the fall but reportedly suffered ongoing injuries; he died in 1963. Theater lore holds that those who see the falling-acrobat apparition will themselves soon die — a belief documented in multiple Broadway-ghost surveys as the Palace's most famous superstition.
Judy Garland is the other consistently named entity. According to Playbill and NYC Tourism, performers and staff report a sense of presence near a stage-left door reportedly built specifically for Garland to allow her surprise entrances during her 1951 run. The presence is described as benign and is typically reported during performance hours rather than in empty-theater conditions.
The full count of 100+ entities reported at the Palace is essentially a folkloric claim aggregating decades of performer and staff anecdotes. Playbill's editorial framing presents the haunting as part of Broadway tradition rather than as documented paranormal activity. The Palace itself does not market or program around its haunted reputation; its post-2024 reopened operation is focused on production runs of major Broadway musicals.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Attend a Broadway production at the Palace Theatre. The theater reopened in 2024 after a multi-year renovation that raised the auditorium 30 feet above street level to allow ground-floor retail. The interior preserves the 1913 Kirchhoff & Rose vaudeville-palace design; the theater's haunted reputation is part of Broadway folklore but no public ghost programming is offered.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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