What are you dressed as? What, a college debater? Halloween, 45 years ago

On Halloween night in 1975, a Friday night, most UW-L students probably wouldn’t be caught dead…or alive…attending a college debate between teams from La Crosse and Japan.  Especially a debate on the subject of whether the U.S. should withdraw all military forces from the Pacific basin.  That event took place at the Annett Recital Hall in the UW-L Fine Arts Building, and the admission was free.  Across the street, at Morris Hall, you could pay 50 cents to see a student production of the play “The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit.”  And at Cartwright Center, a Halloween double feature of “Psycho” and “The Birds” cost only 75 cents. If you stayed home handing out candy that Halloween night, you could have watched a TV movie about the Orson Welles “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast.  Other shows on the tube that night…”Sanford and Son,” “The Rockford Files,” “Barnaby Jones,” and “Hawaii Five-O.”  

KISS played the Sawyer Auditorium that Halloween weekend, but not until Sunday night, November 2nd.  Brownsville Station opened for KISS.  The previous night, the Lettermen performed at the Sawyer.  

TelePrompTer Cable TV in La Crosse was offering a 60% discount on installation that fall…a saving of nearly $6.  Cable was offering special sports programs including the Peach Bowl, the Blue-Grey Bowl, North Stars hockey, and All Star Wrestling, in 1975.