Rivoli Theatre

A neighborhood movie palace built in 1927 in the Irvington Historic District. The theater opened on September 15, 1927 and has served the east side community for nearly a century.

The Rivoli Theatre opened on September 15, 1927 as the first Universal Studios-owned theater in Indiana, built at a cost of $250,000 under the direction of Carl Laemmle Jr., president of Universal Pictures Corporation. Designed by architect Henry Ziegler Dietz in the Spanish Mission Revival style, the showplace at 3155 East 10th Street featured ornate iron brackets, faux second-floor balconies, a red clay tile roof, Indiana limestone details, leaded glass windows, solid brass fittings, and terrazzo floors made from Riviera black marble. With 1,500 seats and the largest stage in Indianapolis at the time of its construction, the Rivoli was equipped with a Robert Morton "Golden Voiced" organ and complete backstage facilities for theatrical productions. Universal sold most of its theater holdings in 1937, and the Rivoli changed hands multiple times before Charles Richard Chulchian purchased it in 1976. The theater closed in 1992 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.

The Rivoli is haunted by a spirit known as Lady Rivoli, believed to be a former patron who never left. Lady Rivoli makes her presence known by stealing and misplacing work equipment, causing stress for employees and performers who find their tools relocated to impossible locations. But she is not alone. Visitors have reported seeing a well-dressed couple seated in the auditorium -- the man in an old-fashioned tuxedo, the woman in a lovely white dress -- who vanished when the owner rushed over to check, finding no one else in the building. A former employee from the late 1970s and early 1980s reported regularly seeing a gentleman wearing a hat seated in the second or third row before the theater opened for the day. The same employee was once told to stop making noise while working alone, only to discover the person who reprimanded them was in another part of the building entirely.

The women's restroom is a particular hotspot: faucets turn on by themselves, lights flicker, toilet stalls flush without anyone in them, and stall doors open and close on their own. Throughout the theater, a smoking cigarette butt has appeared in an ashtray out of nowhere, objects move across surfaces, and items go missing only to reappear in different locations. A person who rented an apartment above the theater experienced cookware and canned goods mysteriously relocated overnight, and saw apparitions in the living room. Chulchian himself researched the location and found reports of supernatural activity on the site predating the theater's construction, leading to the persistent belief that the Rivoli was built on top of Native American burial grounds. The Rivoli Center for the Performing Arts acquired the building in 2007 and has been working on restoration, with the ghosts apparently approving of the efforts to bring their beloved theater back to life.