Friday, October 29, 2021

Gray Drug Halloween Ad – 1971

Fifty years ago this Halloween, Gray Drug was offering a few of the same costumes that were found in the store's 1970 ad. This included Mr. Fantastic (strangely wearing a mask) from the Fantastic Four of Marvel fame, and eye-patched Jonathan Kidd from Fantastic Voyage.

New in the 1971 ad (replacing Spider-Man and Bingo from the Banana Splits) were Heckle and Jeckle (well, at least one of the madcap magpies) and Bugaloo Boy.

The Heckle and Jeckle costume is pretty good, with a nice demented grin. Ideally, however, you would need two kids to be wearing the same costume to properly depict the pair of identical mischievous birds.

As for Bugaloo Boy with his antennae, I’m assuming he was a character on the Sid and Marty Krofft show called The Bugaloos (another show I don’t remember). Unfortunately, only a female version of the species appears to have survived the inevitable trash bin or garage sale.

Anyway, the pumpkin lamp shown in the Gray Drug ad is on eBay right now. Here are a few photos from its listing.
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Here’s the version of the lamp with dancing skeletons that was mentioned in a comment.
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5 comments:

  1. Mike MOctober 29, 2021 at 3:11 PM

    Thanks for the Halloween memories this week Dan! I remember picking out a trick or treat costume each year, always a big decision. Then there was that awkward time when you weren't sure if you were too old to go anymore, then decided "one more year". I think everyone had one of those lamps in their front window in the 70's. Happy Halloween to all!

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  2. -Alan D HopewellOctober 29, 2021 at 4:24 PM

    My nephew got one of those pumpkin buckets stuck on his head when he was four; he's now thirty-seven, with two sons of his own, who, as far as I know, have never stuck pumpkin buckets over their heads.

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  3. Mike KozlowskiOctober 29, 2021 at 5:02 PM

    ...What I remember most to this day about Gray Drug was the TV tube testers. To this day I can still see Dad pulling one of those sealed glass marvels out of our Sears Silvertone B&W set and taking it to Gray's so we could see if it was working or not, and then if not, hope like heck they had one in stock.

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  4. MikeOctober 29, 2021 at 9:26 PM

    Good read

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  5. AnonymousOctober 30, 2021 at 12:36 AM

    We had that blow mold Jack O Lantern lamp.Only ours had skeleton guys dancing on the base instead of a witch.There must've been different variations of it.I might still have it out in the garage.Thanks for reminding me about it Dan.

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