Glorious Nightmare

I had a glorious nightmare that took place inside a movie theater. It was a luridly illuminated theater with shadows darkening every corner and the back rows of seats. The place reminded me of the Rialto theater in South Pasadena. The theater was populated by the ghosts or the reanimated corpses of long dead film stars. They all had completely black eyes, like Ray Milland in "The Man with the X-ray Eyes". I recognized Gloria Swanson and Joan Crawford somehow mingling with fiendish Buddy Epsen.

I was afraid of all of them, they all seemed on the verge of going haywire and attacking me. In addition, fire was spreading though the theater. For the moment they seemed under control and I was determined to escape from them.

I addressed them all together and bade them to stay, stay and burn in the consuming fire. They stayed in their seats, looking about with their black eyes. I ran out of the theater, down the back stairs, thrilled that they had obeyed me and would be destroyed. Once I was safe I realized with horror that I had forgotten my flash drive in a backpack in the theater lobby.