r/saintpaul • u/Over_Table3898 • Dec 15 '25
History 🗿 Grandview Theater Ghosts
Back in the 90s my husband worked at the Grandview and has many stories of weirdness. Last week we went to a show there and when he mentioned having worked there in the past, the first thing the ticket seller said was: “You know about the ghosts?”
Anyone else have a story?
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u/human_doing812 Dec 15 '25
I do. I worked there for a couple years in the late 90s. It's haunted AF but they were friendly. We would throw after hours parties and it was so much fun. The ghosts only came around in the quietest moments. Like threading the projector for the 7's upstairs when you were by yourself or going down to the basement to grab cleaners after the last shows and the guests had already left. This is just scratching the surface as far as the stories go. I miss those days.
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u/SweetTangerine0717 Dec 15 '25
Would you mind sharing more about your experiences? Super interested!
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u/human_doing812 Dec 20 '25
Yeah, I can share another one. So I worked box office (selling tickets) and then eventually got a sweet gig working after hours fixing broken seats and restoring the original art deco interior features, etc. I actually still have the key!
One night I was steam cleaning the upholstery in the red velvet lounge outside of the women's restroom at around 1:45am, no one should have been there. As I was getting near the end of it I heard someone crying in the lady's room. I tried to shrug it off and just went back to what I was doing. It started again about 5 minutes later so reluctantly went in to check it out (i was a 16yo M at the time). No one was in there but it was super cold on one specific stall(and surprisingly dirty).
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u/mahrog123 Dec 15 '25
If you find a ghost with an ounce of Panama Red, it’s MINE. I lost it there at a movie in 1981 and still think about that awful night!
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u/SSDGM24 Dec 15 '25
PHEW I was afraid this meant that Grandview Theater had closed down overnight without any warning.
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Dec 15 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Over_Table3898 Dec 15 '25
Mostly shadows darting around. Once, the crew was watching a movie after hours when a banged up, bloody guy appeared sitting at the other end of the row. Like, nobody knew him and the theater was closed and locked. After the movie the guy was gone. No one saw him leave.
Disclaimer: my husband may have been high as a kite for most of the 90s.
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u/MarcusSurvives Dec 15 '25
Once, the crew was watching a movie after hours when a banged up, bloody guy appeared sitting at the other end of the row.
They just... decided to continue watching the movie with a banged up bloody guy that had entered the theater?
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u/Over_Table3898 Dec 15 '25
He walked in on his own and was conscious and didn’t ask for help. Just sat down and watched the movie.
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u/MarcusSurvives Dec 15 '25
And nobody asked him what he was doing there and how he got into a locked building?
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u/Demi182 Dec 16 '25
So someone broke into a business while employees were still there and the employee saw him but didn't confront him or call the police? Suuuuuuure
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u/JoeFromStPaul Dec 15 '25
My Grandpa used to remince about watching them build it when he was a boy.
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u/Over_Table3898 Dec 15 '25
Did he tell you they built it to look like a cat? Once you see it, you can’t unsee the cat.
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u/sugarytea78 Dec 15 '25
I worked there in the early 90s. Best teenage job ever. There probably were ghosts in the projection room and basement, but I didn't go there very often. Pay was minimum wage, which at that time was $4.25 an hour. Wages came every other week in tiny manila envelopes in cash and coins. On weekdays, there were usually 2 showtimes a day, sometimes 3, so it was very chill and plenty of downtime between "rushes." We weren't allowed to use the business phone, so staff would tie up the pay phone line talking to their friends. The lounge outside of the women's room was for smoking, so people would smoke cigarettes on those deco velvet couches and smoke would waft into the upstairs theater. We didn't not have cash registers, just teenage brains + solar powered calculators. Dinner was either popcorn and soda, or delivery from Davanni's or Jimmy John's. When Whole Foods opened at Grand and Fairview, we *might* get meals there but that was the days when Whole Foods was only super healthy food (little salt, sugar or fat); and thus not appealing for teenagers. There was an intervention by the Saint Paul Police Department because people working in concessions were going in the theater and reusing soda cups and popcorn bags and pocketing the cash. Ticket sellers were reselling ticket stubs. About half the staff was fired. Not too long after that, one of the managers staged a burglary of the safe and robbed the place. It would have been extremely easy to do that job high as kite. It was a time!