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Soon, paranormal investigators descended on the museum, often overnight, to collect haunting audio and video evidence: disembodied voices, an orb of light that zooms through a wall and a light that appears to flip off by itself.

Her publicity stunt did the trick. The museum went from earning a few hundred dollars a month to a few thousand dollars a month, as people clamored for their own ghostly encounter.

The lore of the haunted museum led to an appearance on “My Ghost Story,” which ran for six seasons on the Biography Channel.

What looks like a ghost in a historical photo of a Freestone County firefighter sitting at the wheel of an early engine gives the museum’s ghost stories an evidentiary boost. Video, audio, photos and a history of haunting, the perfecta of spectral evidence.

The segment ran as the season six finale, titled “Disturbance at the Jailhouse.”

In addition to the evidence collected by paranormal investigators, the couple was flown out to Los Angeles to shoot their interviews.

“They kept telling us, ‘Act scared,’” Sandy says. “We weren’t really scared. We were just intrigued.”

It wouldn’t be their last time in front of the reality TV lens. The couple later appeared on “American Treasures,” a show that tied antiques shopping with historic tales. Recently they were asked to appear on a show about antiques picking that’s set in Alaska, all-things Alaska being a recent television trend. They turned that down because it would require eight weeks of filming, and who can be away from work that long?

“Once you’re on their radar, they keep coming back to you,” Sandy says.

Ghost stories are still bringing museumgoers to Freestone County despite the fact that religious townsfolk put an end to the paranormal publicity.

“We just did it for the museum,” Sandy Emmons says. “The best thing you can possibly do is get as much publicity out there as you can. It generates more income.”

Powerful In Pink

Chef Blythe Beck has everything she needs to be a television star: the talent, the hardened personality, the unrelenting determination and the voice.

Just add a dash of pink and a few too many curse words, and poof; you have “The Naughty Kitchen with Blythe Beck.”

These days Beck has her work cut out for her opening Pink Magnolia, a Southern-inspired restaurant in Oak Cliff. But before that, she worked at Dallas’ Central 214, where “The Naughty Kitchen” was filmed.

The show, which aired on Oxygen in 2009, was all about Beck because that’s the way she wanted it, and she usually gets what she wants.

Even as a little girl Beck wanted to be on TV, she says. Oddly enough, the talent that got her there — cooking — wasn’t even on the menu at the time.

In college she was “The queen of takeout,” she says. But eventually, she found her way in the kitchen.

“It was sweaty and dirty and gross,” she says. “I was like, ‘I’m home.’ I went home and told my parents, ‘Mom and dad, I know what I want to be. I want to be in the restaurant business.’”

In her first culinary class, something clicked, she says.

“I thought it was like a spiritual moment,” she laughs. “There were all these raw ingredients and I put my stink all over them, and all of the sudden I made a biscuit.”

She set her sights on becoming a chef and working for Dean Fearing at The Mansion. Becoming his apprentice was her first big break.

“I got paid $6.50 an hour, and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” she says. “I was the only female, and I wasn’t allowed in the big kitchen. There was a prep area that smelled like dead fish and shame. I killed more lobsters than I ever care to remember. But once I got past the sexual harassment and the regular harassment, they were like, ‘Oh she’s not leaving.’ I stayed and stayed and stayed.”

And she worked her way up the ranks, gaining valuable experience.

From there she went became the sous chef at Hector’s on Henderson. “I told the chef, ‘Sleep with one eye open because I’m taking your job,’” Beck says. “And he laughed, but within a year I had it.”

Soon, she began shooting a “sizzle reel” to pitch her own television show.

“Getting a show on television is so hard,” she says. “So hard. You go in and pitch to everyone — Bravo, Lifetime, TLC and Oxygen, which is where I wanted to go because Oprah owned it.”

After making her pitch, she came back to Dallas, when Central 214 reached out seeking a new chef. She took the job.

“Then three weeks later we sold the show,” she says — and to none other than Oxygen.

Within a week, Oxygen’s camera crews had descended on Central 214, adding to an already hectic time.

“I’d work all day as the chef of 214, and I was doing crazy press at that time because I had just been named the executive chef of Central 214,” she says. “And I was doing press for the show and shooting the show. Then we’d shoot b-roll. I was working like 20-22 hour days. It was nuts.”

The cameras loved her. If you’ve seen “The Naughty Kitchen” and wondered if she’s acting out for the sake of the show, Beck is the first to tell you: “No, that’s all me.”

She’s both larger than life and self-deprecatingly grounded. She’s bold and outspoken, and she cusses like a sailor, but she’s also an advocate for empowering women.

One season of “The Naughty Kitchen” was enough for Beck. However, a lot of other opportunities grew out of that. She started appearing on the Food Network and the Paula Deen Network, and she won’t shy away from other opportunities in front of the lens.

“I want to be back on TV,” she says. “That’s my dream. I want to put something pink and positive on TV. I want to focus on stuff that makes us feel good — especially women. I think women feel bad about themselves a lot of the time, and it’s like, ‘Why? We’re badass.’ ” —Brittany Nunn