WESTWOOD—The Pascack Valley went back in time in November 1981—and they didn’t even need a DeLorean to do it.
Sneakers were swapped for saddle shoes and acid-washed jeans jackets gave way to cardigans when the Pascack Theatre held its Nostalgia Night. The evening was a gala benefit for Pascack Valley Hospital and a grand reopening for the theater, which had just completed a major renovation.
Guests were invited to dress up like it was the 1940s—for a special screening of the Humphrey Bogart–Ingrid Bergman classic “Casablanca.”
With ticket prices set at $4 for adults and $2 for children, the evening offered a program of vintage entertainment preceding the main feature. There were old cartoons like Looney Tunes and Betty Boop, Movietone newsreels, and a follow-the-bouncing-ball sing-along.
The movie house itself was built in 1928, a state-of-the-art facility with a single screen and room for 1,200 guests. It was the era of silent films, when music from a pipe organ added ambiance and stirred suspense during key moments in the storyline. The typical bill in those days included a cartoon and newsreel followed by two feature films (these were shorter than ours today). There was also a stage for live performances. The schedule regularly included vaudeville acts, concerts, plays, and lectures.
The theater showed “Casablanca” on its original run in spring 1943, and alongside the film it advertised the sale of war bonds. The theater also loaned its space for a wartime nutrition course that aimed to teach housewives about home canning. During World War II certain foods were being rationed in America, and people were encouraged to grow their own vegetables and preserve them.
“Casablanca” packed the house during its one-night-only reprise in the autumn of 1981. Before and after the show, downtown Westwood was teeming with hundreds of moviegoers dressed for another era. Some guests drove their classic cars to the theater. An arc lamp sent a beam of bright light into the sky above Center Avenue.
The Westwood News reported, “Almost no one in the audience was surprised when Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid showed up at Humphrey Bogart’s cafe and casino in ‘Casablanca.’ The lack of suspense, however, did not dull the enthusiasm of the sellout crowd when the screen classic was shown on the huge screen at the Pascack Theatre in Westwood. Movie fans applauded Bogart when he appeared, clapped lustily for Bergman, enjoyed the slick performances of Peter Lorre and Claude Rains, and sighed with nostalgia as the love story unfolded to the strains of “As Time Goes By.’”
Another “throwback” of the evening was a very nostalgic door prize: a set of dishes. This was a clever nod to the practice of giving out dishes to encourage theater attendance during the Great Depression. The weekly “Dish Night” at the Pascack Theatre was very popular among the women of Westwood in the 1930s—so much so that other organizations worked their schedules around it. Moviegoing became essential in order to collect a complete set of dinnerware.
Kristin Beuscher is president of Pascack Historical Society.