Inaugurated in 1871 and nowadays a nightclub, the Theater Eslava has its own ghost, that of the play
Inaugurated in 1871 and nowadays a nightclub, the Theater Eslava has its own ghost, that of the playwright and politician Luis Antón del Olmet, killed there in 1923 [you can find the date 1922 on the Internet too, but press archives exist for a reason]. The murderer was a colleage and former friend of Mr. Olmet, Alfonso Vidal Planas. One day, as the rehearsal of one of Olmet’s plays, El Capitán sin Alma (The Soulless Captain) was going on, the two men, who were talking in one of the theater’s rooms, had a heated argument. Was it due to literary rivalry, or to another kind of jealousy? There were rumours about a woman involved with the two men…An actress, Mrs. Corona, heard them from her dressing room. When Vidal yelled at Olmet: ‘I’ll kill you, here or in front of your wife, it doesn’t matter!’ she ran for help, but it was too late: a gunshot was heard and, when the theather’s personal and several of the actors entered the room, they found Olmet laying on a sofa. Vidal was beside the victim, still holding his gun. I have killed him. He was a scoundrel, and he had wronged me, were Vidal’s first words. Olmet was carried to the hospital where he died that same day. Vidal later claimed that he had killed the playwright in self-defense ( according to his version, Olmet had tried to strangle him). Image source (by Tamorlan at Wikimedia Commons) -- source link
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