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Date Posted: 07:46:38 10/07/09 Wed
Author: Officer Torch
Subject: Reminising on Halloween

Well, stores had Halloween merchandise displayed almost a month, the guy across the street is setting up his front lawn with spooky stuff, and perhaps we can enjoy some fright night shows on TV soon, or watch 'em on our favorite DVDs, for another trip down memory lane. Might be fun to reminise on yesteryear for awhile. C'mon, let's hear your stories, maybe also favorite Halloween flicks.

Hmm..let's see, in my area, we had TV shows hosted by Zacherly (I think)...he was great at mixing up noodles, cabbage and the like to conjure up a brain of sorts. I vaguely recall Elvira, though not often...the vixen, kinda fun stuff. Others included...umm...Chiller Theater, you know, the one with the hand popping out of the grave....others also; darn age is taking it's toll here, so help me out

Further, going door-to-door saying "anything for Halloween?" or trick or treat...though God help ya if you pulled any trick in my neighborhood, where everybody knew everybody. If you ventured out, it was important to examine your booty before consumption....some things never change.

Halloween costumes..how about an old sheet, or stuff around the house. Money was maybe tight and there were no specialty Halloween stores...we had a couple of five and dimes having 2 toy tables and maybe some dime masks...fancy ones for a quarter. Rubber band usually broke in an hour.

No organized events then like nowadays, but think organization and supervision a must now. But in reminising, I had a ball. Hmm....I digress, so, let's watch for our favorite shows perhaps; mine were always the old Universal flicks...Frankenstein "stuff," Dracula, The Mummy, Wolfman, etc, you know, the staples we kinda hold onto. Nowadays, I still enjoy these, but like some of the updated flicks also.(Wish more were released with closed captioning...what?)

Say, Joystar, welcome aboard...I'm one of the guys mostly from the other side of the light bridge, Flash Gordon stuff, but visit here now and then. Both are fun/educational places with nice people.

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Replies:

[> Re: Reminising on Halloween -- Tim, 09:31:01 10/07/09 Wed [1]

Lots of great memories of the Halloween holiday for me too. Going out with the spooky mask held on by a thin rubber band, rather uncomfortable to wear if it happened to be a warm October evening, but still great fun.

Around here "Trick or Treat" was the thing to say when the door opened. I don't recall "Anything for Halloween?", but it may have varied from region to region. There was always one house that would leave a big bowl on the front porch with a note asking that you take just one. Most kids were pretty honest, and while I suspect a few took more than one piece, I never saw anyone empty out the entire bowl, lol.

A scary movie or two might be aired, especially if the holiday fell on a Friday or Saturday. There were no VCR's, satellite dishes or even cable, so your choices were limited by today's standards. If you were lucky one of the Universal Dracula or Frankenstein flicks would be shown, a perfect finish to a Halloween holiday.

John Zacherle, now age 91, was the famous Zacherle or Zacherley to you guys who grew up in the northeast.

It's great to see you back, Officer Torch! Give my regards to the merciless Ming.

Tim


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[> [> Re: Reminising on Halloween -- Joystar, 13:55:35 10/07/09 Wed [1]

Hello Officer Torch! My regards also to the Emperor Ming!
I, too, grew up in the Northeast. I'm a little bit young for Zacherle, but I did sneak peeks with my older brother. I cut my teeth on Chiller Theatre and Supernatural Theatre too! In my day, Halloween was a cross between Heaven (Boris Karloff and candycorn) and Hell...if you had a dog, like I did, he was driven nuts by ringing doorbells! Very few kids dressed as monsters in my neighbourhood...just stuff like hobos,princesses, gypsies and the occasional skeleton. Since we only went to the houses on our own street, we were always home in time for the movies that showed up on TV. (g)

My favourite Halloween was different. It was 1970 and I was a High School Jr. The Jr and Sr classes sponsored a charity showing of Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein for the local Red Cross. I made 5 posters on Black oaktag with day-glow green lettering dripping with "blood". It was fun. What knocked ME for a loop was seeing the films as James Whale had created them...without interruption and on a large screen.

A classmate's father knew "somebody" in the business, and these films were VIRGIN...straight out of the can. I realised at that moment, what I was seeing. The shimmering beauty of the "silver screen". It was love at first sight!

Now, in my mid 50s, I still spend every Halloween with "Jimmy" Whale, "Dear Boris" Karloff and special Colin Clive...hoisting a mineral water toast in a glass beaker:
"To a New World of Gods and Monsters!"

May God Bless them all...
JS


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[> Re: Reminising on Halloween -- DAN, 13:54:16 10/07/09 Wed [1]

I also have a lot of great Halloween memories.

My first time out trick or treating, as we called it, was way back in 1955 in NYC. I was 6 years old. I'd knock on someone's door, and when they opened the door I'd say "Trick or Treat" and get maybe a handful of pennies from one place, then the next person might give me a nickel or a dime. And there were even some people that would give out quarters to each kid, which was a lot of money to give out in those days.
Nobody ever gave out candy to me any time I went out, they'd only give out money, which was fine with me.

My first costume was a skeleton, one of those store bought ones made out of a thin silky material and a mask with a thin rubber band. I wore this same costume for the next Halloween too.

By 1957 I had outgrown the skeleton suit and my mother bought me a larger costume, only this time it was a vampire costume which I really liked because I had just seen Dracula for the first time on Shock Theater a few weeks earlier, and I remember how much I enjoyed that film at the time.

1957 is the year the Universal horror made to TV and I got hooked on them right from the start.

From 1957 until about late 1965 I didn't have to wait for October to come around, the Universal horror films were shown on a weekly basis the year round in NY.

Now that I have just about all the Universal, plus many of the other studios horror films on VHS and DVD....I can watch them anytime.

But it's still fun to catch one of the old movies on TV now and then.

And I agree with Tim, it's great to see you back Torch.


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