Broadway Ghost Stories: Self-Guided Audio Walking Tour

The walk starts in Duffy Square, the north end of Times Square, by the statue of Father Duffy and the red steps over the TKTS booth. You hear about the ghost light, the one bulb left lit on every Broadway stage at night, and the telling's of what it is for.(3 min)

From the sidewalk you look at the Palace, at Broadway and 47th Street, the Valhalla of Vaudeville from 1913, where Judy Garland's 1951 comeback ran 19 weeks. You hear the stories told of her ghost, and what the actor Ryan Van Den Boom said he heard in a dressing room in 2012.(4 min)

On West 45th Street you look up at the Lyceum's mansard roof and the penthouse built in it for the impresario Daniel Frohman, whose theater opened in 1903. You hear the story the house manager, Emily Petrain, tells of Mr. Frohman and a paper towel machine that would not stop. (Outside Tour)(4 min)

You hear why the Imperial's white terracotta front on West 45th Street is only 20 feet wide, and why some who have seen odd things here believe Ethel Merman opens its doors. The ballet girls of Billy Elliot told of a spirit in their dressing room, which they named Fred. (Outside Tour)(4 min)

Just west of Eighth Avenue on West 45th Street you look up at Al Hirschfeld's neon self-portrait as an inkwell and at the box office panel that still reads Martin Beck Theatre. You hear the story Joanna Gleason tells of the letter M that came back to her dressing room mirror during Into the Woods. (Outside Tour)(4 min)

You hear about the New Amsterdam, opened in 1903, later home of the Ziegfeld Follies, reopened by Disney in 1997. Dana Amendola of Disney Theatrical tells of a night guard, a woman in a green beaded gown, and the Ziegfeld Girl the guard picked out from photographs: Olive Thomas. (Outside Tour)(3 min)

You hear about the old Lyric, where Sarah Bernhardt and the Marx Brothers played, and whose narrow three-story arch of 1903 still stands on 42nd Street. You also hear the story told of Clyde Fitch taking a bow at the 1909 opening of his last play, months after his death. (Outside Tour)(4 min)

On West 43rd Street you find Henry Miller's Theatre carved high on the 1918 front of today's Stephen Sondheim Theatre, which juts from the glass tower around it. You hear about Miller, and the actor Kevin Duda's story of an elevator that stopped when he said Miller's name. (Outside Tour)(4 min)

At the Algonquin you find the bronze plaque naming it a National Literary Landmark and hear how the Round Table lunches began here in 1919. You also hear of Dorothy Parker's ashes, buried in 2020, and the story told of her ghost, which guests stopped reporting after the burial.(4 min)

On West 44th Street you look up at the fourth-story rooms built for David Belasco over his 1907 theater, with their Palladian window. You hear the stories told of his ghost watching from the balcony after his death in 1931, and of the white-haired man the actor Daniel Breaker saw. (Outside Tour)(4 min)