Vintage Halloween Collectibles Research (1900-1979)

Sane Halloween Observer Fortunes by the Luminous Spirit  or   How to Stretch Your Ectoplasm and get Cooler Spooks! Following the spooklight glow of the previous entry  Luminous Halloween , an interesting opportunity for a bit of compare-and-contrast occurred recently with two vintage Halloween games (one by the very same  American Novelty Corporation of Omaha, 1943-1950). Although the condition of said game was not optimal, the outsider-art smorgasbord of this game ( another example shown below ) offers a ton of lo-fi messy fun - crazy fonts (some with random shadowing),  odd charms, symbols, and creatures, all surrounding a witch acting as the game's spinner. Best of all, we've got that fun glow-in-the-dark ink overlay (shown below). The game sold for around $50. Overlay of previous image with a shot in total darkness (see first image). Another vintage Halloween game, of similar ilk, went for about 6x that amount! Arguably, this latter...

Sane Halloween Observer While Beistle's vintage oeuvre gets plenty of attention (that I don't suspect it will need much repeating here), some of the smaller details get lost "in the shuffle" shall we say? The Kitty Card Game  from the late 1920's is often shown with the packaging and instruction sheet, while perhaps the best part, the imagery of the individual items, is only hinted by a stack of nearby cards. I thought it would be fun to create this quick collage of the 10 hatching-effect sketches seen in the deck.

Sane Halloween Observer Here's a bit of fun for both newbie and seasoned collectors? Look at this selection of lanterns, candy packages, toys, and more. Can you name which of these is a diecut ? Now that you've looked them over, do you have your answer? Well, before you read onward for the solution, can you say for certain what a diecut is exactly? While not technically incorrect, the terminology "diecut" seems to be used without much understanding by many folks in the Halloween community as a word generalizing a certain range of flat 2-D hanging decorations. It is interesting to see how many mis-understand what diecut really means. This is most obvious when a remnant shows up at auction and is called a diecut. Or a long-time seller lists an item with sloppy hand-cut edges claiming it must have been a bad day at the factory. While the first instance is still a diecut (just referenced incorrectly), a ragged hand-cut edge on anything is not .  Die-cutting...