I have a small but well-loved collection of funny Halloween masks, which I keep year 'round along the top of some book shelves in my living room. I was hoping I could add one mask a year to the shelves but most years there are no good funny masks and I have to make do with what I've already got. This year I don't know what to think. I like the middle-aged man mask with the red nose and white glasses (above), I just don't know if I like it enough to give it a place of honor on the shelf. I mean I could get the cheesy Smith Brothers beard with the penile nose (above) instead. I know that would fit in. Then again living rooms are supposed to be tasteful. But then...well, I'll think about it.
BTW, how do you like the cardboard crescent moon with the black cat on its nose (somewhere above)? The guy who designed that is my hero. He made it possible for kids to own something funny and beautifully designed for the price of a candy bar! I also like the poster of the pumpkin on the stairs.
The hanging pumpkin with the teeth is really well done but it probably costs a fortune! I don't see the point in making Halloween things that kids can't afford. Some people want to turn Halloween into a kind of adult Mardi Gras. That'll be fun for us but it'll cut the kids out. Do we really want to do that?
27 comments:
Happy Halloween!
Well, not quite yet.
That crescent moon/owl design has been around since the forties (probably longer, but I've seen it in some of our old photo albums), which brings me to the point I wanted to make: good design endures. It's a very simple design, but it's so harmonious, it's loaded with crescents and "C" curves that make your eyes almost dance around the image. As a design, it's stronger than most corporate logos I've seen.If some other culture dug this up thousands of years from now, they'd probably spend years trying to decipher it for some deeper religious or scientific meaning.
Jorge: Your mother was right. Halloween is extremely satanic and the mere act of carving a jack-o-lantern or handing up a cardboard skeleton is enough to have you thrown into the deepest depths of Hell with the murderers and rapists(and even some cartoonists probably) But the more important question is: are you going to spend your whole life worrying about your immortal soul, or are you gonna go out there and get yourself some candy, my man? It's your decision.
reminds me of this book i got from a series called Icons that contains all sorts of vintage halloween graphics, like masks, packages, deco stuff, trick or treat bags, etc.
there's some pretty neat stuff in there, if you're intersted, uncle eddie, i could löad some up
Hey Uncle Eddie,
Have you seen that show "Tripping the Rift"?
I don't think there's any danger of Halloween pricing out kids with all the paraphanalia. First, kids really don't buy things like the beautiful crescent moon deco, parents and teachers do--kids just love 'em and enjoy them. Kids buy the cheap stuff(still cheap)like wax lips and, well, wax lips is all I can think of.
And as for the "too expensive" stuff--year after year it seems the weirdest coolest things come down in price til they're affordable for normal people who don't spend a thousand dollars on their house decorating(remember what a fog machine used to cost? Hundreds! Now you can buy one at Vons for about 30 bucks).
Anyway, if a kid wanted to buy a cardboard cutout they still could, for about a dollar or so.
I'm all for Hallowe'en returning to the adult AND kids shindig it was 100 years ago, with everyone buying cool postcards and having neat Halloween parties in costume--it isn't a recent thing at all for adults to party at Halloween...it became "kids only" just in the WW2-80s era, imho. The aspect of Halloween that slightly bugs(or bores)me is that it becomes an excuse for too many costumes that have zero to with the holiday or any permutation of it("sexy nurse" outfits, political masks, junk like that). I wish there were more opportunites in american life for us to dress up anyway, and just have masquerades. And whatever happened to the swell beaux arts artists balls?--No cracks, please.
Sorry Jorge, I AM pulling your leg. I'm sorry your mother was so overprotective. You missed out on a lot of fun.
-And the cartoonist comment? It was not directed at you personally. Once again, I was being cheeky. You see, many years ago, a friend of mine, who is now a well known comic book artist,was thrown out of his home by an overly religious father that thought comic book art was "the Devil's work". I always felt sorry for him that his father used his religion to be a narrow minded bigot. I also pitied his father for being so fearful of the real world.
Jenny: Interesting comments! When I was growing up I used to buy all my family's Halloween decorations with my own money but maybe I wasn't typical. I still think Halloween is in danger of morphing back into an exclusively adult holiday but the kid side of things has improved in recent years and I might be proved wrong yet. I love the idea of beaux arts balls but I don't know much about them. Why don't you do a blog about them?
BTW, I still have the vintage Halloween pumpkin and cat you gave me years ago when we worked at Warners! Those were great presents which are still much appreciated
Pheuz: I think I have the book you mentioned but I you should publish your favorite pictures anyway! I hope you'll allow me to swipe a few for this site. It goes without saying that you're welcome to put up anything I've put up here.
WHAT??! No sexy nurse outfits??! That's practically unAmerican!
Here's the perfect Halloween party:
All the men come dressed from head to toe in empty refrigerator boxes with eyeholes cut out. (It's a new concept I invented: the male burqa.)
All the women come dressed in whatever costume they can create out of an 8-inch-square swatch of [sheer] fabric - heels, optional.
Okay, who's coming to my Halloween party?
mike you are a scamp!!!!
can i use all the swatches you gave me, atleast?
Marlo, you are invited!
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I have not seen many great (scary) costumes for Halloween either over the past few years. I've been trying to do a headless horseman character. So far I can secure all the components except for one...the headless part. There has to be a way to look acephalic without having fake shoulder over your head.
Jorge: No.
Eddie, thanks for keeping the cat! That was the same year you drove home wearing a new Halloween mask on your head and when Dorothy came out to greet you in the car you sent her into conniption fits and were horrified at the resulting chaos of your little girl screaming in terror from you, running after her and saying in muffled sonorous tones: "NO! Wait! It's ME!"...remember? ; ) I love that story.
Here is a weird vintage photo of a Halloween party, circa 1932 or so...I collect vintage Halloween stuff, too--mostly pre-WW1 postcards, as they're so weird and beautiful, and also some of the neat little wax figural candles that were sold when I was wee. My grandmother in Missouri would send us a huge care package every year that would arrive wiithout fail the week before Halloween filled with: wax lips, candles in the shape of witched and ghosts and owls, and all those cardboard punch-out decorations...along with some candy and candy cups and plastic pumpkins. Just as good as Xmas, almost better!
And I loved better than any toy my first halloween costume proper, a full-body leopard suit with matching hat with ears and a tail! I know, that isn't scary per se but it sure looked good. I loved all the cheesy plastic-mask-and-nylon-onesie things they'd sell at Safeway, too...ah, reverie!
Look at this one too. What a sentiment!
Jenny: I remember that! I guess that was a joke that backfired.
The Halloween care package is a great idea! Some sending all that stuff with a cake made it seem more special. I'm a changed man! From now on my kid relatives are going to get a Halloween care passage!
Was roasting nuts supposed to have a double meaning?
No, Eddie, I think the "roasting nuts together" was entirely innocent but let's face it, a lot of wags read this blog(oh, you WAGGISH cartoonists), and there's a reason the Hayes office banned the oath "aw, nuts!" from movies in the 30s. ; ) Dumb of me to allude to any double meaning that isn't there, though.
Have you ever read any old party books about hallowe'en events? I mean, books from the 1800s-20s? There was an entire young adult/romantic aspect to the holiday lost today, which is why about 50% of the postcards from the era have illustrations of the old thing of looking into a mirror with a candle at midnight on Halloween to see your future husband's face...funny, no one seemed to look for their future wives in the mirror--maybe they were afraid even then of ol Bloody Mary(remmeber that one?).
"I included a contemporary Halloween-time cereal box with a monumentally stupid message about nurturing on the back."
Hahahahahahaha! I've noticed that same stupid, pandering BS myself on the back of Cheerios.
Also General Mills has started this "whole grain" campaign where their cereal boxes are slapped with CONTAINS WHOLE GRAIN!!!" on the front..like that makes Lucky Charms any better for you.
When Cheerios added this message to their box, I bought it and took it home and counted how many times the words "whole grain" was used on the box.. 31 times. On ONE box!
RedTango aka Cynthia Petrovic
(remember me, from WB??) :)
Jenny: I didn't know that Halloween was ever connected with romance. Maybe it's connected with hayrides and harvest parties. Fascinating stuff!
Cynthia: Holy Cow! How are you? It's good to hear from you! How has life been since we worked at Warners together?
I'm doing pretty good, Eddie. You can check out my site at tangoland.com and see what I've been up to.
By the way, really entertaining blog. Your observations and commentary on life's many entertaining oddities and quirks is a nice change from people blogging about taking their cat to the vet or painting their toenails.
However, if *you* wish to post about cats and vets and painting your toenails please, don't hesitate..I am sure it will be quite an amusing and originally told tale! :)
Cynthia: Cats and toenails....hmmm, not a bad idea. Your Tango site was great! Is that your kid in the picture? If it is I'm real happy for you because she looks like she's a lot of fun!
Hahaha! No, that's probably me. I never did end up reproducing. :)
Oh, wow, I know what you mean about those vintage Halloween designs. I was able to find an old 40's witch cutout at this flashy Halloween superstore for 99 cents! Now it's proudly hanging on my dorm door. There's some pretty good stuff at the company's website, too (Beistle), including a design very similar to your cardboard one, along with a skeleton playing RAWK guitar, and a witch go-go dancer: http://www.beistle.com/images/catalog/large/01315.jpg
Allamort: Thanks for the Beistle URL. I'll explore it as soon as I can.
Cynthia: You should have let people think the little girl was your kid then everybody would marvel at the likeness.
If that last picture you posted was a real mask, I'd imagine that the kids wouldn't even dare ask candy the moment they see someone wearing that mask!
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