Welcome to Day 31, or as we call it in the business, "The Big Dance". Nah, nobody calls it that. It's Halloween!! Or Hallowe'en or even All Hallows Eve if you like to get all olde tymey.
Today's offering is possibly the smallest I've posted this season, but to me, it encapsulates the embodiment of Halloween memories in a wax shell. In this case a wax witch. I found this lonely witch among a miscellaneous lot of Halloween decorations at an estate sale this past summer.
This issue of Dynamite is a find from a while back. Amazingly, it's one I didn't have from my childhood days of reading Dynamite.
"Great Giant Jigglin' Skeletons" may be my new phrase of astonishment and it's what I said when I saw this set of twin jiggling rubber bones at a recent sale.
One of the challenges in collecting vintage holiday decorations is establishing the manufacturer and production year. If you don't have the original box and there are no markings on the item, it's that much more challenging. Of course, this information isn't necessary to enjoy them for what they are, but as a collector, it enhances my enjoyment of them and furthers my understanding of the progression of Halloween decorations through the years. I can't say I have a very structured or scholastic approach to determining the source and age of the items I collect. I generally do a lot of searching on the internet and through shear volume of data gathering, I'm able to stumble upon an answer. Such was the case with this small blow mold skull.
I found this in the basement of an estate sale quite a few years ago. I've always called it a "moon shelf". It looked homemade from plywood, and as it turns out, it was. My daughter hung it in her room and put knick-knacks on it. She's recently (and quickly) grown up. A whole 13 years old and wants to distance herself from the things of her childhood. Sigh.
I found a bag of these electric candle sticks at a garage sale a number of years ago. They probably date from the late 1980's to early 1990's. They're a fun spin on the more traditional white Christmas candle sticks.
This porcelain Jack O' Lantern lamp dates from 1980. It was a recent find (just last week). While it's not terribly vintage, I liked its look. It stands 8" tall.
Capitalizing (if not downright infringing) upon the popularity of "Casper the Friendly Ghost", Charlton Comics introduced "Timmy the Timid Ghost" in 1956. Casper had been in Paramount cartoons since 1945 and Harvey comics since 1952; 4 years before Charlton decided to throw its sheet into the ring. This November 1970 issue was nearly at the end of Timmy's afterlife; the comic was cancelled in 1971, though it made a brief 3-issue reprint reappearance in 1985.
Despite sporting an upswept curl and a bold red "T" on his chest to dispel any confusion with his rival, the similarities far outweighed the differences. Timmy even had a bowler-derby-wearing "Spooky"-clone friend named "Max".
When I was a kid, we had a couple books laying around in our "book box" (we didn't have any book cases) that both intrigued and frightened me. They were both Scolastic/Arrow books of ghost stories. It wasn't the content of the books that scared me, it was the covers themselves. Those books were lost over the years, but I was able to find them at various sales.
This witch has seen better days, but she was unique and not like other candles I've seen.
In 1947, a local St. Louis, Missouri entrepreneur named Arthur Wild opened a hamburger stand with a twist in Lemay, a community in south St. Louis County. With a passion for the weird and unusual, he named his restaurant "Wild's Palace of Poison". Situated at 1500 Lemay Ferry, one of the main thoroughfare's in South St. Louis County, it became a popular hangout for teens of the 1950's.
A few weeks ago, I attended the estate sale of Art's widow (Art having passed away about a decade ago). There were few mementos left of the restaurant, but I did pick up this facsimile of an original menu.
You didn't think I was out of ads, did you? Today we look at some of the standalone Halloween vignettes you could add to your ad.
A couple weekends ago I headed out garage saling by myself for the first time in a long time. Normally, my wife and any number of my kids will go along, but they were all busy that particular morning. I took one of my old routes I hadn't visited this summer and it paid off. I found a lot of vintage items which I plan to blog about after the Countdown is over, but one of the items was Halloween related.
This pumpkin blow mold sporting a jauntily worn witch's hat is smaller than my other jack o' lantern blow molds. It measures 8" tall and only about 6" across.
I often lament to my kids as we stroll down the cereal aisle how the magic of cereal is gone. Time was every box in the aisle touted prizes and mail-in orders. They were full of sugar and hope and we loved them for it.
This flexi disc was found on the back of the various General Mills Monster cereals back in 1979. We know it's 1979 not only because of their design, but because they are going to the Disco.
Continuing from yesterday's theme, today I bring you more vintage advertising slicks. These templates allowed customers to choose a themed layout for their store's advertising.
Today we look at banners. Those eye-catching headline grabbers that get you to look at the full ad.
I'll be honest, the subject of today's post hasn't seemed to be as big of a hit on the blog as I thought they would be. I think they're pretty neat, but I'm a sucker for vintage advertising. I've posted other examples of these in the past year. This time, it's Halloween ads.
These are from what I now know are known as advertising "slicks" (thanks, FrankO). These were magazines of advertising templates from which potential customers could choose for newspaper ads. Place holders like "Shop Name's" would be replaced with your business details.
These ads date from the early 1970's. I'm going to spread them out this season as I have quite a few and I don't want to bore overwhelm you all at once. Today, we'll focus on witches. Enjoy!
I picked up this "Doorways to Horror" game way back in the 90's. I've been doing this garage saling thing for a long time. I remember seeing the commercial for it in the 80's and really wanting it, but never did get it until I found it for $2 at a sale.
I'm afraid I'll need to stretch my inclusion of not-necessarily-Halloween-related items again today. But hey, aliens are scary, right? And these are supposed to be aliens, I think...or maybe they're just supposed to be our own astronauts, who technically are aliens when they land on other planets. Oh, heck, let's just get on with it.
Not long after I wrote about this bendy witch, I found this one. I've dubbed her "Hagatha".
As I mentioned in a previous post, it's been a lean year for sales, so I have to stretch the definition of "Halloween" a little. But I've always associated owls with Halloween, so hopefully I'm not stretching too much.
I picked up this can of Red Owl Ground Cloves at a garage sale a few weeks ago. They had an odd assortment for a private sale, mostly tools and utilitarian items, and the last thing I expected to find was a vintage can. This one dates from 1948.
Sheet music is something I sometimes find myself thumbing through at estate sales. If there's a piano or organ in the home, you can guarantee there's a huge stack of sheet music gathering dust (or mold) somewhere.
I say "sometimes I find myself thumbing through" because usually the stack is so daunting, I pass on it. But occasionally I will look to see if there are any interesting covers.
While this piece isn't quite a thrilling as last year's "Carbarlick Acid Rag", it's a fun cover with cute lyrics. From 1977, it's "Spook House".
Things are dark and hard to see, stumbling all around.
Creepy, crawly things are here lying on the ground.
Spider webs and icky stuff hanging in the air.
I sure hope that I don't get any in my hair!
Spooky goblins, ghosts and things making shrieks and moans.
Skeletons and monsters peer up from piles of bones.
That's right, it's that time of year again. And despite what 2020 has thrown at us, Halloween WILL go on.
And that means that the Countdown to Halloween will happen once more.
For the seventh year in a row, I've joined this jolly band of bloggers to focus all of our blogging powers toward Halloween. Together, we can win this and #SAVEHALLOWEEN!
And as is the norm (AND NOT THE NEW NORM!), my first offering this season is a bag. Specifically, this Duro brand Trick or Treat bag (model PLTT-74A). "PLTT" stands by "Plastic Trick or Treat". I'm assuming the 74-A is the year (1974).
