Light streak in Columbia Theatre photo likely wasn't a ghost

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Light streak in Columbia Theatre photo likely wasn't a ghost
September 27, 2009
By Amy M.E. Fischer
TDN.com

On Sunday, The Daily News told readers about an upcoming story on what may be a haunted local historic building. Intrigue. Mystery. Anticipation. Then, the story never materialized, like the ghosts it purported to have found.

What happened? Readers called, wondering if somehow they’d missed the article.

“I’m afraid the facts got in the way of a good story,” editor Cal FitzSimmons said.

The story that proved to be fact-challenged involved a curious photo taken inside the Columbia Theatre, which was built in 1925 and is currently undergoing a $7.1 million renovation.

Theater officials had asked Kelso resident Jerry Stevens to photograph the renovation progress throughout the building. Stevens, an amateur photographer, shot 84 photos on his Canon S-5 digital camera about three weeks ago after workers had left for the day.

When he got home and reviewed the photos on his computer, one photo stood out.

“I said, ‘What the heck is going on here?’” recalled Stevens, 56.

The photo was shot about 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 4. Stevens didn’t use a flash because the sunlight from the theater’s windows and work lights illuminated the room, and he knew the flash wouldn’t have reached the balcony. Without a flash, the exposure would be slightly longer, and so to ensure a steady shot, he set the camera — a sophisticated point-and-shoot — on a work bench at center stage, aimed at the back wall and pushed the button.

After less than 2 seconds, the shutter clicked.

“I didn’t see anything there,” he said.

But blown up later on his computer screen, the image showed a strange light snaking up and out of the bright upper window like a comet, making an arc at least 10 feet long. Thin streaks of light trail from the electric bulbs in the room and zip out of the frame. And there’s a foggy smear across the middle of the photo.

Some of the lights, however, are static. And the surrounding setting in the photo isn’t blurred. To Stevens, that meant the camera didn’t jiggle. But he didn’t have an explanation for what could have caused the lights to streak in different directions.

Stevens brought an 8-by-10-inch print of the photo to Daily News photographer Bill Wagner.

“I was more curious from a professional standpoint,” he said. “Is this something that I caught, or did I do something wrong with the camera to cause it?”

Wagner noted that three streaks of light are parallel to each other and could indicate a lens flare. But he couldn’t figure out what created the brightest, largest trail of light in the upper middle of the photo, he said.

“If he did not see something that was moving a light source through there, I don’t have a good explanation for what caused it,” said Wagner, who turned over the photo to a reporter who’s known in the newsroom for her fascination with the paranormal. Hoping to have landed on a timely Halloween tale, the reporter called theater manager Gian Morelli.

Morelli was familiar with the photo. He was also familiar with rumors that the Columbia Theatre is haunted.

According to theater marketing director Michael Cheney, people have heard disembodied footsteps in the dressing rooms and unexplained noises late at night in the empty theater. A couple people say something’s brushed by them.

But as much as Morelli loves a good ghost story, this photo didn’t give him the shivers. That’s because he knows when cars pass the theater on a sunny day, they reflect moving light into the theater windows, he said.

“I’m 90 percent sure that’s what it was,” he said, adding, “But who knows?”

Because paranormal experts believe renovation work can stir up paranormal activity in old buildings, The Daily News contacted the job site superintendent, Gene Larson of Berschauer Phillips Construction, and the Public Facilities District construction manager Nelson Graham. Had their crews had experienced anything unusual?

Not that they’d heard of, the men said.

Then The Daily News tried to reach Longview freelance paranormal investigator Kim Travis, former director of the now disbanded Southwest Washington Paranormal Research group. A couple days later, Travis called back to say she was sick in bed and couldn’t come to the newspaper office to look at the photo.

The reporter e-mailed it to her on a Friday evening to check out. Meanwhile, The Daily News editor put a “promo” in the paper alerting readers to an upcoming story about a haunted historic building.

Sunday, Travis wrote the reporter back.

“I wish I could give you a more exciting response than I am about to give you,” she wrote. “Because of the nature of the streaks, I’m not super inclined to say they are paranormal in origin, but of course, that doesn’t rule it out.”

The streaks could be caused by the camera’s exposure settings, she said.

“Typically, you will notice that they start near a bright light source, even a small one, then streak out and away,” Travis wrote. Or a dirty CMOS sensor on the camera could be the cause, although because Stevens’ other shots were clear, that doesn’t seem likely, she said.

Deflated, the reporter told her editors Monday the story was dead.

“Nobody’s saying those lights are ghosts, so there’s nothing to write,” she told them, a little horrified because the story that hadn’t panned out had already been promoted to readers. The editors shrugged, saying sometimes that happens.

But readers wouldn’t let it go so easily. The photo had already found its way to the Columbia Theatre’s Facebook page, sparking a discussion about its “freakiness.” And Travis began getting calls and e-mails inquiring about the story, wondering if the newspaper had killed it because it had somehow debunked her conclusions.

Hoping to put this ghost to rest, we decided to explain why the photo was a non-story. If spirits do walk the Columbia Theatre, don’t look for them in Stevens’ photo.