Ghostly Bartender in The Bird Cage Theatre

[Mundo Osterberg]

While on one of my many visits to, "The Town Too Tough To Die", we made our regular visit to The Bird Cage Theatre. We were the first ones to go in that morning and the only ones to go into the theater. We thought we were the only ones in there. I took some photos and being a 35mm camera, we weren't able to see the photos until we got them developed a couple of weeks later. When I saw this photo I realized we weren't alone, what looks like a bald-headed man is peering out from below the stage. When I showed it to Maria, she said she never saw or heard another living soul and I never saw him while taking the photo or afterwards. We continued through to the other sections, no one was there and no one had come in during our entire time. When we got to the exit the lady who runs the gift shop talked with us as she opened for the days business. The three of us talked for about 20 minutes, still no one entered.

 On the next trip down to Tombstone we showed our photo to the lady who does the Ghost Tours of the Bird Cage and she said it looked like a bartender in period clothes but there was no one there who looked like him.

 Very strange things still  occur in The Bird Cage.

[Chris Lampe]

Very cool picture!  It appears that there is a blond haired person (woman?) peering over the guys right shoulder.  I've never been to Tombstone but could other visitors have access to the area below the stage?  Could they have come in by another entrance? 

[Sue Cauhape]

The man under the stage looks rather corporeal to me. But the light is bright and he's obviously "there". If you didn't see him at the time, I congratulate you on a winning ghost picture.

[Gay Mathis]

Looks like 2 spooks, Mundo...

[Wolfgang]

A very good documentary about the ghosts of Tombstone repeats occasionally on the History Channel.  I saw part of it again just the other evening.  Most is about the Bird Cage.  Ghosts are so common that the staff / owners pay them no attention at all. 

[anthony martin]

   Tombstone in general is crawling with ghosts-the pebble thrower,the saloon swamper and the famous stage hand at the Birdcage.That old theatre has produced some great examples of electronic voice phenomena as well.About 7 years ago a friend of mine took some atmospheric nighttime shots of Tombstone.A closeup of the doors of the Birdcage produced a very clear bearded grizzled face staring back at him from behind it's front doors.Thanks for sharing a great photo!

[Sue Cauhape]

I love the stories about Tombstone ghosts. There's a good one about a male ghost who hated women. When a woman and her dog tried to spend the night in his house, he drove the dog nuts first, then the woman decided it would behove her to leave.

[Buck Grizzly]

"""A closeup of the doors of the Birdcage produced a very clear bearded grizzled face staring back at him from behind it's front doors."""

 

OK you caught me.  lol

[anthony martin]

  Buck,

     I knew it--sleeping one off in the museum after a busy night at Big Nose Kate's!

       Years back I did a fake ghost photo of my girlfriend-I shot an image of an old mansion's staircase and big leaded glass window on the landing from the perspective of the hallway ground floor,then positioned my then girlfriend in an 1890's dress in the spot looking over the rail and I re exposed the image.It was just a cool shot for one of my gallery showings.A copy of the photo given to the owner of the house has shown up in at least three articles and on several websites touted as a dramatic and exceptionally good ghost photo and has been attributed to famous old houses in various towns-my inadvertent contribution to urban legend!

[Buck Grizzly]

We did some postcards when I worked at Old Tucson for the park and my cousin, one of the gunfighters was in Tombstone at Boot Hill museum and there he was a ghost image in the grave yard. Come to find out the company that made the post cards for both places illegally used his image. I think they sent him $500 to keep things out of court. Funny thing he probably would have let em just take a picture of him in costume and never would have said a word about it, he was just wondering how they got his picture.

　

I usually get in trouble when I’m in Big Nose Kate’s, ain‘t been in trouble or there in a long time.  lol

[Mundo Osterberg]

Back when the Crystal Palace had a band and dancing, Maria and I would whoop it up there and then walk/stagger down to the Legends of the West Saloon for a nightcap. Dang, that was a good time.

But I digress..........

The Bird Cage Theatre has the front entrance off Allen and the exit out the side street. I've only seen the big blond at the door and someone manning the exit/gift shop, no one seems to know who this man is and I took this photo back in 2000.

I've zoomed in on his face and it looks like he's wearing wire-rimmed specs, or he has four eyes, and possibly a goatee. I never noticed anyone over his should, I figure one spirit is enough.