How the almost 100-year-old theatre honors its eternal visitors.
By Amey DiSisto
Tampa, FL — There’s nothing quite like the smell of buttered popcorn inside an (almost) 100-year-old theatre. With winding stairwells creating secret passageways, flickering warm lights igniting dancing shadows, and a gargoyle or two greeting you with knowing eyes, the Tampa Theatre creates an environment of mystery and curiosity. But it is not just families, theatre buffs, and architecture enthusiasts that find themselves in the hallowed hall — it’s the dead, too.
The Tampa Theatre was built in October 1926 by architect John Eberson. It was the height of luxury, offering the highest levels of service to its community for decades. However, after World War II and the changes surrounding the community of cinema as a whole, there were talks that the theatre would have to shut its doors and be demolished to make way for other endeavors. With community pushback and countless groups banding together, the Tampa Theatre got to keep its reels spinning and is still standing today.
Though the number of living original attendees is low, some say that the theatre holds a few… deathly loyal visitors. Witnesses have claimed to hear jingling keys with no person to attribute it to, getting taps on the shoulder when they’re alone, or seeing full-body apparitions appear in an empty room right before their eyes. The sightings are not just coming from the paranormal-enthused — skeptics have also had run-ins with those from the other side.
One would think that to have many ghosts roaming the theatre, there would need to be an abundance of deaths happening at the Tampa Theatre — fear not! There has only been one reported death at the Tampa Theatre, back in the late 50s.
On Friday, May 15, 1959, ticket-taker Robert Lanier came to work as he always did. Lanier was in his golden years, happily spending his retirement as an usher, making friends with all who entered the theatre. With his buttoned uniform and zest for life, Lanier was well-known in the area and had become a celebrity within the theatre. Upon set-up, when the employees were getting themselves ready for another night of showings, Lanier was left alone at the entrance. A coworker in a different area had heard a loud crash, thinking a sign of some sort had fallen. Upon investigation, Lanier’s coworkers were met with a grisly scene. The beloved usher was on the floor unconscious, his head bleeding heavily, with no one else to be seen.
While some theories say that the usher was simply getting older and could have possibly tripped on his own feet, some believe a more troubling end came to Lanier. Fridays were paydays for Tampa Theatre, and though Lanier would have gotten paid, the paycheck was never found. Some think that Lanier had been mugged by someone outside the theatre who fled the scene.
Though we may never know what happened to Robert Lanier in his final moments, some say he still waits at the front of the theatre, making sure all tickets are accounted for, even in his late retirement.
This next otherworldly guest was a mystery in her own right. A mother and daughter were taking a public tour on their first visit to the theatre. During the tour, they became distracted by the beautiful woman in white standing on the staircase. Peering down the mezzanine, the young girl stayed locked in place. When the tour guide, Jill, went to meet the 12-year-old girl and her mother, they said they were looking at the actress who was getting ready to scare them around the next corner. Jill felt her heart drop. She explained that they didn’t have actors, and more terrifyingly, there was no one else even in the theatre at the time.
This ‘Woman in White’ who was seen periodically on the mezzanine was a mystery for a while. She had no backstory, unlike Robert Lanier, and there weren’t enough facts to truly give her a story. A psychic had been to the theatre and explained that a spirit there had been in an accident, “like she had been hit by a truck”.
The psychic had a feeling that the woman knew who she was, but couldn’t quite grasp where she was. It wasn’t until 2020 that research went into trying to find this enigmatic woman. Months into research, there was a hit in the form of a postage-stamp-sized article from 1924 about a woman named Marie Cossler. It wasn’t a truck that had taken the life of Cossler, but a streetcar that had struck her on Franklin Street in February 1924, just before the construction of the Tampa Theatre had commenced. The woman didn’t know where she was as she died before the theatre had stood there, hence her aimless roaming around the hallways and stairs.
The most famous of the theatre ghosts is none other than Foster “Fink” Finley. Finley was a projector operator six days a week from 1930 to 1965, sunup to sundown. He was known to be a perfectionist and was rarely seen without coffee, a cigarette, and a 3-piece suit. Finley was a staple in the Tampa Theatre community, and though he spent most of his time in solitude up in the projection room, he was always cleanly shaven, even if that meant he was shaving on the job.
Finley, like many projectionists at the time, suffered from respiratory ailments. When lung cancer killed him, many felt the loss of Fink Finley. He worked for as long as he could, and his passion for cinema still looms throughout the theatre today.
With the most sightings, Finley makes his presence known. The smell of coffee, cigarettes, or his lilac aftershave wafts throughout the rows of seats in the balcony, just steps away from his prized projection room. Later projectionists who don’t work to his liking have gotten locked out of the lockless room, and newbies at the craft who weren’t fast enough have been tapped on the shoulder to keep up.
Finley’s greatest performance came in the form of his own movie. A group called Motion Picture Video called up Tampa Theatre to make a documentary about their ghosts. During their stay, the ghosthunters and their guests set up a way to communicate with the ghosts. The closer the spirit got to the technology, known as a REMPOD, it would beep faster and faster. As the group continued to get Finley to “respond” or make the beeps longer, the more they tried to push the envelope. It was already incredible that Finley, a known tech fanatic, was interacting with the REMPOD this much, and on video.
Janet, one of the guests, in a panicked enthusiasm, yelled, “Okay, Fink, if that’s you, can you make the lights turn on?!” While Janet meant the lights on the REMPOD, Finley had his own interpretation. The lights of the balcony flashed on in a way so dramatic that it left everyone knowing it could only be Finley.
These are not the only patrons of the supernatural that roam the Tampa Theatre, and the ghost tour is not your only chance to catch a glimpse of these characters. There are spooky movie screenings the entire month of October, along with the University of Tampa sponsoring a screening of The Phantom of the Opera on Friday, Oct. 24. Depending on where you sit, you may just be accompanied by the mystery ghoul of seat 308.
The Tampa Theatre boasts 99 years of cinema, shows, spirits, and passion. The souls that choose the theatre as their final resting place are honored in every inch of the building. The eternal respect of history and the push to fully capture real stories guarantee both living and passed-on individuals get the appreciation they deserve.
Whether you’re a believer or not, there is no denying the stories that pass through 711 North Franklin offer a peek into the supernatural and some pretty entertaining ghost stories.
Jill said it best, “What is the paranormal if not simply the things we cannot explain?”
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Photo courtesy of Amey DiSisto.