The Theatre Royal Haymarket

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2 Responses

  1. Red Don says:

    Re: The Theatre Royal Haymarket
    The author Andrew Green had th efollowing to say about the case:

    Margaret Rutherford endeared herself to thousands in the film ‘Blithe Spirit’and further increased her popularity in the plays of Agatha Christie’s crime novels. Michael Flanders, another highly popular entertainer, starred in the show ‘At the Drop of Another Hat’and also became a television personality in his own right. Both had experienced phenomena in this old but appealing theatre. Dame Flora Robson is another who thought she witnessed the ghost of a former manager, John Buckstone, who died over 120 years ago.

    Buckstone has been heard whispering in one of the dressing rooms and some years ago, one actor opened the door of the room saw the figure wearing a long frock coat sitting in a chair. He immediately closed the door, locked it and called the fireman. When they arrived and opened the dressing room door, they found nothing. Two firemen, however, saw a man’s face staring at them through one of the windows. The ghost has been identified as Buckstone from an old photograph. It was Olga Barnett, assistant stage manager for one of the shows, who saw him standing behind Michael Flanders’wheelchair during a show and on enquiry learnt several members of the audience had commented on ‘the tall gentleman in the old frock coat’. The story goes on that the phantom only appears when productions are successful, but, perhaps, this idea is fostered to offset some of the untold fear of the nervous.

  2. Ian Topham says:

    Re: The Theatre Royal Haymarket
    The ghost of John Baldwin Buckstone was also possibly seen by Sir Donald Sinden (Born 9 October 1923) when he was performing in ‘The Heiress’ during 1949.  Whilst heading toward the stage from the dressing room, Sir Donald and the actress Gill Cadell passed a solid looking figure in period costume looking out of a window onto Suffolk Street.  They mistook the figure as Ralph Richardson, as his dressing room was located on this floor.  They greeted him but recieved no reply or acknowledgement.  Having descended a flight of stairs they realised that Richardson should have been on stage, they went back up to discover who the person was but they were nowhere to be seen.