New Amsterdam Theatre is said to be haunted by actress Olive Thomas, who was in Paris on her second honeymoon in 1920 when she accidentally took her husband Jack Pickford’s mercury bichloride pills, prescribed for his syphilis. Her ghost is said to appear at the theater where she once worked, clutching a blue pill bottle. She is said to appear mostly to men; it is advised that if you are one of those she chooses, react in a calm and friendly manner so as not to upset her. After all, she’s been through a lot!
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Geographic Information
- Address:
- 214 West 42nd St.
New York, NY
United States
Get Directions » - GPS:
- 40.7561111, -73.98793390000003
- County:
- New York County, New York
- Nearest Towns:
- Weehawken, NJ (1.9 mi.)
Long Island City, NY (2.2 mi.)
Manhattan, NY (2.2 mi.)
Hoboken, NJ (2.5 mi.)
Union City, NJ (2.5 mi.)
West New York, NJ (2.6 mi.)
Guttenberg, NJ (2.6 mi.)
New York City, NY (3.0 mi.)
North Bergen, NJ (3.6 mi.)
Fairview, NJ (3.9 mi.)
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Disclaimer: The stories posted here are user-submitted and are, in the nature of "ghost stories," largely unverifiable. HauntedPlaces.org makes no claims that any of the statements posted here are factually accurate. The vast majority of information provided on this web site is anecdotal, and as such, should be viewed in the same light as local folklore and urban legends.
My father was chef engineer at the New Amsterdam Theater in the 1980’s up until the time that Disney bought them out. New Amsterdam was part of the Nederlander Producing Company in those years. I remember running around that place as a kid when it was in derelict condition, I was lucky I didn’t hurt myself in there, but we were always out of there before night. Anyway, with respect to the ghost of the young woman in the New Amsterdam Theatre, my Dad would tell us about MANY strange happenings there. One of his stories had to do with the appearance of a young woman’s ghost in one of the dressing rooms appearing to one of the guards. The poor guy had a full on panic attack and my Dad tried to calm him down, I believe he ended up going to the hospital. At night, absolutely no one would venture in to those dressing rooms alone, no way, no how. The NYPD was a regular visitor to the theatre for intruder calls at night in the 80s. There was another story about an elevator call bell that would go off to summon the elevator, once in a while, the elevator operator would arrive at the floor and find the ghost waiting. All of the regulars who worked at the New Amsterdam knew about her minded their Ps and Qs. The ghost light was ALWAYS left lit at night. My Dad was always a serious guy, nothing phases him, but he was scared to be in that place at night.
A “New” New Amsterdam Theatre Ghost ( Full Figure Apparition )
In January of 2018, I took my daughter to the New Amsterdam Theatre to see a performance of Disney’s Aladdin. After the show, we waited for the Theatre to empty out and ventured from our seats in the balcony to the lower level to take this a photo. I took this photo and some others on my I-phone and didn’t pay any attention to them again until I uploaded them tonight. In the picture, I noticed a person in the background. I wouldn’t have thought anything of it except I noticed that this person’s head looked a little strange. When I zoomed in, I noticed the face looked like it had not features. What really caught my attention was that you will notice that you can clearly see one of his legs and his shoe looks like a sneaker when you look at the other leg, it disappears midway but you can barely make out a white whisp where the other shoe would be. The figure is transparent in a few places as well. I am assuming that this ghost is wearing a white sneaker shoe, making me think it may be a spirit from as early as the 1970’s.