Gray Drug Store Halloween Ad – October 1970

Gray Drug is one of those forgotten drug store chains, not unlike Leader Drug Store, Cunningham Drug, etc. Apparently it just wasn’t big enough to survive on its own, and was sold to Rite Aid (my least favorite drug store chain) in 1987, according to its Wikipedia entry.

But fifty years ago, Gray Drug was still around, with a few local outlets, such as the one at O’Neil Sheffield Center. Above is the chain's Halloween-themed ad that ran in the Monday, October 26, 1970 edition of the Journal.

There are a few costumes featured in the ad, but it’s a real grab bag. The ad helpfully identifies some of them, noting, “Be the envy of your crowd as The Spiderman, Banana Splits, Jonathan Kidd (?) or Mr. Fantastic! Be a lovely Fairy or gay Gypsy.”

I don’t know, but I think whoever created the drawing of “The Spiderman” (why the Ohio State-like “the”?) costume either didn’t have a sample photo or had never seen a comic book or TV cartoon featuring Spidey.

My spider sense tells me this is a crummy rendering!

Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four doesn’t look very fantastic either, with the addition of a mask, and missing his iconic greying sides.

At least the mask of Bingo from the Banana Splits is a reasonable facsimile. (Bingo was never my favorite Banana Split. He wasn’t the leader like Fleegle, funny like Drooper or an oddball like Snorky. I rank him as the George Harrison of the team.)

Lastly, like me you’re probably wondering: who is the aforementioned Jonathan Kidd? A descendant of Captain Kidd?

Nope. Apparently he was the eye-patched team commander in the animated cartoon series Fantastic Voyage. The character wasn’t in the movie version starring Raquel Welch (which we saw as a summer movie). Here’s a screen grab from the series.

And here’s the costume.

I guess John Wayne made eye patches cool again in True Grit.