Vintage Halloween Collectibles Research (1900-1979)

The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 2: NEW! Volume 2 of The Halloween Retrospect is anticipated for release December 2023! Content for the return of THR book series for vintage Halloween collectors is complete, and the author is finishing up the final steps toward offering the new book together with poster and timeline card inserts. Availability will be announced on the THR website in the near future.  In the new edition, the library’s archivist is excited to announce a feature article working with an incredible archive of material located at  Framingham History Center . In that very town of Massachusetts, home to Dennison's historic operations, the archive houses a treasure trove of company material (that were gifted back to the organization from Avery). The resulting article (with THR’s typical detail) discusses the mysteries surrounding Dennison’s long line of autumn-themed publications (with some amazing revelations provided by documents of the archive). And all of this ties...

Catalog Books & Archives: The archivist/librarian has been on a two-week excursion visiting museums, but is back now to catch up on a couple of recent entries over at The Halloween Retrospect concerning various archives and books that are available to people researching the vintage markets. Vintage Halloween Catalog Book First, I wanted to recommend to anyone who is really starting to dig more deeply into the actual data of vintage Halloween collectibles, this 2003 publication by Ben Truwe The Halloween Catalog Collection: 55 Catalogs from the Golden Age of Halloween . It's chockablock full of pages from vintage Halloween catalogs ranging in years circa 1900-1979 - and there is more about this book and author in the blog over at The Halloween Retrospect: see Truwe's Catalog Book .  While previously available in both book and compact disc, it sadly appears it is out-of-print in all past formats. The only manner of finding a copy currently is trying to find one in the overhe...

The Halloween Retrospect: Looking for a way to show this poster insert, a 1926 advertisement, that comes with The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 1 , a remnant from the interior of a vintage weather forecaster came to mind. Yes, the poster is real, it's just the interior here that is conjured - a tongue-in-cheek take on websites with those oh-so modern interiors advertising fine art.  March's Halloween Page (1926) as a poster in a haunted house. There is more to read about such things in a blog entry titled 1926 Halloween Poster  on The Halloween Retrospect website, that includes a bit of information on the tools that were used to re-create this advertisement as a poster print, as well some more images of those fun weather forecasters. Vintage remnant of The Weatherman Jr. And for those interested in purchasing a copy of The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 1 , the listing is currently active on Etsy . I thank you too for buying on that platform, as this allows me to inspect eac...

The Halloween Retrospect: It sounds a bit funny to say, particularly for those who think Halloween is anything but normal  - but in this instance it's a bit of word play on a meaning few use these days, when a "normal school or normal college [was] an institution created to train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum." ( wikipeida ). So, circling back to that title, Normal Halloween , this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to a time when vintage Halloween products (fun and spooky) abounded in the pages of the vintage catalogs that supplied those instructors.  Get the classroom ready for Hallowe'en, The Bogie Book. (1926) There is more to read about such things in a blog entry titled  Bogie Book Ad, 1926 on The Halloween Retrospect website. Yet for a full perspective see “Normal Halloween: Holiday Novelties & Early Twentieth Century Youth” in the printed book ( via Etsy checkout ). The article discusses vintage Halloween products availabl...

The Halloween Retrospect: A new chapter here at The Sane Halloween Observer is ready! If you slogged through the last entry ( What Next? ) you read the news that this blog will move toward support of recent project  The Halloween Retrospect  archive library, for subject matter that very much aligns with that already found here. In fact, not only did some blog content originate here to be expanded upon in print, there's most likely a tidbit or two in way of interesting facts, items, or images left out of print that will instead find there way here.  The author has finally ordered a small initiating batch from the printer, and these should go on sale during the shortening days of summer as we head into the 2023 fall season! Keep an eye on the THR website, particularly the  Publications page, or to learn more about The Halloween Retrospect here's the About page. ( Update : available now as of July 26th ). Cover art for The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 1 by Bindlegrim ...

Sane Halloween Observer: If the date on the back-end of this editor is believed, this draft began in the first half of the year 2021. At that time, it didn’t seem too distant from the previous entry of May 2020 yet this publishes nearly three years later! While conspicuously quiet on the front-end of the blog, it is not due this author’s decreased attention concerning vintage Halloween collectibles. In fact, I have been busy developing a different approach on the topic, directed less on updates/entries via the internet but to instead pursue a more traditional and satisfying reunion with the tactile world.  2019-2022 Beginning in autumn 2018, I returned to university studies, coinciding with dwindling entries in 2019, for who could possibly write one additional word between the constant discourse and papers required from a degree. In those educational pursuits, (cued from my multi-mixed media background in art, design, web development and database interactivity), I delved into a con...