Halloween shows at the Elmwood playhouse became a staple for a few years. Monies were raised for various organisations, including the theatre itself.
One time, we decided to do the House on Haunted Hill as a radio show. Which is a 1959 campy supernatural horror film directed by William Castle. The film stars Vincent Price and Carol Ohmart. Price plays an eccentric millionaire. Frederick Loren, who, along with his wife Annabelle, has invited five people to the house for a “haunted house” party. Whoever stays in the house for one night will earn $10,000. As the night progresses, the guests are trapped within the house with an assortment of terrors. The film utilized many props used in carnival haunted houses to generate fear and terror. Including a skeleton which was on a high wire and let go to ‘Float’ down the aisles of the movie house. We, of course, were performing this on stage and also used various tricks and props. In the story, at one point, the characters come across a deep pool of acid. We used a fish tank, which we filled with water, and pretended it was real acid by throwing in a large plastic rat filled with Alka Seltzer tablets. So, it would fizz like crazy… Unfortunately to ours and the audience’s amusement, the rat would not sink and had to be poked by one of the actors until it sank. It brought the house down with howls of laughter. Live theatre….gotta love it.
