Staff of the Rivoli Theater portrayed ghosts for the Municipal Recreation Department’s Halloween Saturday afternoon show. The Manitowoc Herald Times featured the event with an article on October 30, 1953 saying, “Eight young misses will portray the roles of ghosts in serving as ushers at the event for the kiddies. Their adopted theme song will be ‘A-Haunting We Will Go’.” The ushers for the evening included Natalie (Spooks) Lueck, Betty (Spirits) Fronk, Nancy (Shadow) Henrickson, Dorothy (Goblin) Shavlik, Shirley (Screams) Richard, Shirley (Shreaks) Beth, and Lou Ann (Groans) Prausa.

It was rumored that after her death, "a figure in white had nightly been seen hovering about her former abode, and that sweet strains of music had softly floated from there, borne of the midnight air. However that may be, certain it is that this spot ever held something for mystic for the passerby, especially in the sway of the moon when rising vapors from the river bottoms, assuming fantastic forms, lent flights to one’s imagination.”

“Hence the derivation of the name, that of Phantom Hallow.”

Traditionally, Halloween is not only a spooky time of year, it’s also a time to play harmless tricks on people. But for a suspected group of young boys in Manitowoc in 1898, they set out on the eve of Halloween to put an emphasis on the trick over the treat and tallied up quite the list of damages.