Kresge's Halloween Ad – October 20, 1954

I've posted many store ads from the 1950s and 60s with a Halloween theme, featuring the latest in costumes for trick or treating. It's always interesting to see what the popular store-bought costumes were for that year.

Above is the Kresge's department store ad that ran in the Lorain Journal on October 20, 1954.

Apparently, it's pretty early in the mass-produced Halloween costume era – or at least Kresge's wasn't carrying any licensed characters that year. There's no Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, etc. Instead we get some generic costumes: clown, devil, skeleton, panda, rabbit, witch, monkey, pirate, red fox (not the comedian), gypsy, frog, dragon, kangaroo, and lion.

What – no cowboy?

There are two fairy tale types: Cinderella, and Red Riding Hood. Walt Disney's Cinderella had come out in 1950, so it might have been a licensed costume – but I doubt it.

I've tried to figure out who or what 'Jocko' was. I think he's supposed to be an organ grinder's monkey.

Since children's TV shows at that time consisted largely of outer space adventure series, there is one spaceman costume: Planet Patrol. There wasn't a childrens TV show with that name (at that time, anyway) so I'm guessing it's a knockoff of Space Patrol, a show that ran from 1950 to 1955.

Here's what the costume looked like, courtesy of the Halloween Museum website. It's pretty close to what is depicted in the ad.

The name brand Halloween candy selection in the ad is pretty bare bones (appropriately enough) including Baby Ruth Bars, Butterfingers, Tootsie Pops, Hershey Miniature Bars (ugh - miniatures back then too?), Tootsie Rolls, and Chiclets. I'm guessing that most of these would not make the Top Ten list of any candy-munching moppet these day.

I was never a big fan of any of these candies as a kid either, except for Hershey bars. I do remember getting an incredible variety of candies while trick or treating in the early to mid-1960s, and doing the trade thing with my siblings the next day. My favorite was/is Mallo Cups, but I liked Clark Bars, Nestles Crunch bars, Three Musketeers, et. I remember getting odd ones in my bag like Chunky and Turkish Taffy.

Remember this nautical themed Chunky commercial?