1972 Kmart Halloween Ad

Here's another vintage Halloween ad, this one for Kmart from the October 19, 1972 Journal. Kmart must have decided not to spend a lot of money carrying a line of expensive, licensed TV characters. 

Instead, there's a generic owl, witch, kitten and – Gus the Ghost? Who he?

I don't know, but there are a few Gus the Ghost costumes for sale on eBay right now. (Note the box is just labeled 'GHOST.'

Although Gus the Ghost seems to be a Casper the Friendly Ghost ripoff, there was a book published in 1961 called Gus Was a Friendly Ghost. So was the costume actually based on the literary character?

We probably don't have a ghost of a chance of finding out for sure.