Curran Theatre

The Curran Theatre has been a San Francisco landmark since opening in 1922, hosting countless Broadway productions and performances. The ornate theater with its grand lobby and classic design has entertained generations of theatergoers. However, a tragic murder in the 1930s left the theater with a permanent spectral resident.

The Curran Theatre opened in February 1922, built at a cost of $800,000 by theater impresario Homer Curran in partnership with the Shubert Corporation. Designed by architect Alfred Henry Jacobs, the venue featured elegant rose and tan interiors, crystal chandeliers built by Phoenix Day, and ceiling murals by celebrated artist Arthur Matthews. Unlike the gaudy vaudeville houses of its era, the Curran embodied refined sophistication. Homer Curran, who had abandoned his wealthy Missouri family's wheel manufacturing business to study music at Stanford, served as owner until his death in 1952. The theater has hosted over 8,000 performances and stars including Ingrid Bergman, Katharine Hepburn, and Hugh Jackman.

On the evening of November 28, 1933, just two days before Thanksgiving, 25-year-old Hewlett G. Tarr worked the box office as patrons arrived for the operetta Show Boat. Tarr had graduated from Lowell High School and spent seven years at the Curran, becoming one of its most experienced employees while supporting his widowed mother. In just a few weeks, he would marry his 23-year-old fiancée Dorothy Reade of Sutter Street after a five-year engagement.

At 7:30 p.m., a gaunt, hatless young man approached the ticket window. Without uttering a word, 25-year-old Eddie Anderson thrust a revolver through the grillwork and fired. Tarr cried out "My God! I've been shot!" He stumbled backward, fell down a small flight of steps, and collapsed. By the time anyone reached him, he was dead. Minutes later, Dorothy Reade arrived at the theater for their dinner date and wept over his body.

Eddie Anderson, a $14-a-week electrician, fled in a cab to the Koffee Kup restaurant on Geary and 18th Avenue, which he robbed of $60. He claimed his crime spree was to impress a new girlfriend, telling police "I couldn't do much on $14 a week... So I quit my job and started hoisting." The "girlfriend" denied any romance, saying they'd known each other only three weeks. Anderson later robbed the Bank of America at Geary and Jones of $1,951 and wounded a policeman in a shootout before his capture. He insisted the gun discharged accidentally when it caught on the box office grillwork. The San Francisco Chronicle headline declared: "CURRAN KILLER MUST HANG!" A jury convicted him in just seven hours—the fastest verdict on record in San Francisco. Anderson was hanged at San Quentin on February 15, 1935.

Since Tarr's death, generations of patrons and staff have reported seeing his apparition in the large mirror opposite the theater entrance. He appears as a handsome young man in 1930s clothes—"possibly dressed up for a wedding that will never happen." Theater manager Tess Collins, with 20 years at the Curran, confirmed the sightings, and a psychic assessment of the venue identified "more than 300 ghostly playgoers" haunting the space. Staff report Tarr still "works" the theater, tipping his cap to passersby and roaming the halls to check on actors. Strange sounds echo through empty corridors, and eerie footsteps are heard when no one is present.

A second ghost reportedly haunts the Curran: a little girl struck by a car across the street during the 1950s, documented on the TV series "America's Scariest Places." Little is known about her identity or why she lingers in the theater.

The Curran considers Tarr a friendly guardian angel who looks out for modern staff and patrons. According to theater lore, he only gets worked up when audience members forget to turn off their cell phones during performances.