By Tyler Ingram, Ridgefield Historical Society Collections Manager
The Halloween season in Ridgefield is nearly in full swing. Whether it’s trick or treating on Main Street, picking a pumpkin at Jesse Lee, or participating in the annual Halloween walk, everyone has a favorite Halloween tradition.
This month’s items from the collection, a novelty envelope of “nerve powder” handed out to promote the movie Curse of the Cat People at the Ridgefield Playhouse, plus ticket stubs found in a scrapbook of Helen (Keeler) Kallos (2022.057.056), represent a tradition of a bygone era: a late-night double feature at the Ridgefield Playhouse.
This Halloween double feature at the Ridgefield Playhouse ran in the mid-1940s, and featured Courage of Lassie and Curse of the Cat People. Typically, films were packaged this way as a means of getting ticket sales for lesser “B” movies that ran before the more popular “A” movies. Those who paid the 60-cent cost of entry for a ticket to this screening had to first sit through the 9 pm showing of Courage of Lassie, and only then were able to enjoy Curse of the Cat People at midnight.
The show was promoted with this gimmick of “Nerve Powder”, which contained “enough nerve strengthener to enable you to be scared to death.” Perhaps it was not necessary at all, as Curse of the Cat People was praised for its atmosphere and exploration of childhood loneliness rather than the typical blood and gore one would expect from a midnight double feature.
Movies in Ridgefield were originally shown in Town Hall, with live musical accompaniment, but with the advent of sound, the building was not equipped to show the latest releases. The Ridgefield Playhouse first opened on March 23, 1940, on a property originally owned by the Ridgefield Library, following a town subscription drive supporting the creation of the theater. It played its final show in November of 1973, when the building was purchased and converted to a bank.
The old Playhouse building has now been replaced by the Prospector Theater, returning the site to its original purpose, and a new Ridgefield Playhouse opened in 2000, at the old Ridgefield High School auditorium, serving as a venue for live dance, music, and theater performance.
While neither institution scares visitors to death with midnight double features, entertainment and Halloween spirit can still be found in abundance this time of year in Ridgefield.
