POCATELLO — To say the history of the Chief Theatre in Pocatello haunts Randy Dixon would be accurate.

Not only has Dixon combined forces with Jack McCurdy,  Lance Holladay and Kristine Hunt to create a Facebook page and a display at the Bannock County Historical Museum dedicated to the history of the Chief Theatre, he was actually touched by a ghost inside the theater before it burned down in 1993.

Dixon had been a key player in founding the Chief Theatre foundation in 1984 to restore the Old Town icon after it had closed as a working movie theater. The Chief first opened its doors to customers in Pocatello in 1938.

A fan of the movie theater when it was functioning as a hub of entertainment in the Gate City, Dixon spent many hours inside the old building helping with the repairs and upgrades needed to keep it alive.

Many nights Dixon was the last person in the theater, and it was his job to turn out the lights and lock the doors.

“It was an exact routine,” Dixon said as he pointed to a layout of the theater on display at the county museum.

The first thing Dixon had to do was turn off all the house lights. Then he had to make his way to the projection room and kill the last lights before maneuvering in the dark back to the lobby.

“I found myself moving pretty fast,” Dixon said.

Despite his fleet feet, Dixon said at least once he was touched on the back of the neck by something.

The Facebook page created by the Chief Theatre Project team shows a photo taken of Chief Theatre manager Bob Anderson explaining carbon arch projectors to a group of people in 1948 and in the right corner is the ghost-like image of a man’s face.

Dixon said he’s pretty sure the old theater was haunted.

None of that has deterred Dixon’s conviction to not let the history of the Pocatello movie theater become nothing but a ghost.

“I just don’t want the history of the Chief to go away,” Dixon said.

In addition to the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ChiefTheatreProject, the team has put together an impressive display at the museum that contains many pieces and photos of memorabilia that captures moments when the Chief was the main draw in Pocatello, ending with the relighting of the neon sign that graced the building for decades.

The museum display opened June 6 and will remain in place until Labor Day.

The original Chief Theatre seated 1,245 and included a balcony.

According to figures that Dixon was able to gather, the Chief had more than 4 million customers in the first 10 years it operated.

Movie posters on display at the museum tell the story. There is a big poster from the Chief’s showing of “The Sound of Music” as well as posters for “Superman” and “Jeremiah Johnson.”

A photograph taken when the old 1948 western “Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay” shows a giant pair of Lee jeans above a group of Chief employees dressed in western attire and Lee jeans.

The museum display is rich in captured Chief history with photos of the inside the theater taken after it first opened taken by Pocatello photographer Tommy Barrett. The photos capture the intricate murals that graced the walls and ceiling of the inside of the theater.

The murals depicted scenes of Indian battles, and Dixon remembers watching a western inside the Chief as a 5-year-old and being drawn into the world of the murals as he watched a wild battle scene on the screen.

Setting below the photos are two of the original seats from the theater that survived the 1993 fire and next to them are two film reels from the original theater. Original marquee letters are also on display.

A small display case shows off some of the smaller items from the Chief’s history, including a Western Union call switch that was in the manager’s office so he could alert company when films needed to be picked up or delivered. There’s also an old film splicer and examples of old newspaper adds for coming attractions.

A drinking fountain rescued from the Chief is also in the display along with a door with two large metal arrows that served as handles at the original Chief.

Dixon said the project is a labor of love and he appreciates how much the Bannock County Historical Museum and its director Lynn Murdoch helped with making the display come to life.

It was a project that took months to complete.

“The last couple of days were the best because I could see it come together,” Dixon said.