Prized Possession of Paramount Joe
It is said that a death had taken place during early renovation of the Paramount Theatre, and that the ghost of the man has haunted the Paramount ever since.
In the early 1940s, four construction workers of the Boyd Theater Company in Cincinnati, Ohio were working the renovations. It has been reported that all but one man, Joe, had gone to lunch. When the other three came back, Joe was found dead, hanging from the curtain rigs. Ever since, sounds have been heard, stuff has been missing, cold drafts have been felt and some people even claim that the images of a man have appeared in the rafters of the old theatre.
However, they claim he's a "friendly ghost" — someone who looks out for the building and it's theatre-goers. When Billy Ray Cyrus filmed his 'Achy Breaky Heart' music video here, he was told about the Paramount Joe legend. Billy Ray was known to talk to Joe between breaks, laughing and joking, even requesting help sometimes.
Normally, each performer featured at the theatre would hang an autographed 8x10 photograph on the 'Wall of Fame' in the box office. For every female employee who was working there at that time, Billy Ray personally autographed large colored posters. He also made a special one for his ghostly buddy, Paramount Joe. Each lady put her poster close to their desk, while Joe's was hung in the box-office closer to the other artists. As time went on, the wall became full of other artist's 8x10s, and the theatre manager said some posters had to come down to make room for other artists.
Since there were so many duplicate posters of Billy Ray, she asked the women to remove their posters. No-one wanted to take down their own personalized Billy Ray poster, so they took down Joe's. When the ladies came to work the next day, they found each and every 8x10 knocked off the wall - broken frames and shattered glass littered the ground. However, a single poster remained - the poster belonging to Paramount Joe.
To this day, the very same poster remains in the Paramount Theatre in a special place in the Marquee Room, now part of Paramount Joe's Rising Star Café, which is open to the public.
Location
Paramount Art Center
Ashland, KY
1300 Winchester Ave
Ashland, KY 41101
United States
Sources: