The celebration of Halloween in 1955 was pretty different from now, as you will see from this assortment of ads and clippings from the pages of the
Lorain Journal back then. It was still a holiday for kids; adults hadn't appropriated some of the fun for themselves quite yet as they do now. Children still wore mostly homemade costumes, as it was very early in the days of the licensed characters.
Pumpkin carving was a treasured ritual, done the old fashioned way (with no elaborate stencils yielding results designed to impress). Mary Hricovec, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Hricovec of Stoney Ridge Rd in Avon is shown carving a jack o'lantern below in a photo that ran on October 27, 1955. (I believe Mr. Hricovec is the 'Tom' of Tom's Country Place.)
Kids pulled stunts and pranks on Halloween and the
Lorain Journal did a preemptive strike against the tradition with this editorial that was printed in the October 28, 1955 edition.
There weren't very many store advertisements with a Halloween theme. Goodyear stores had a Halloween Party Sale with 'false faces for the kiddies when accompanied by adults' in this ad that ran on October 24, 1955.
And Muir's Cut Rate Drug Store featured Halloween Party Costumes as well as Candy Treats in this ad from October 27, 1955.
(I don't think anyone is buying too much Kodachrome these days. And hey, there's a Dancing Doll not unlike Lanky Long (the subject of
this post, as well as this two-parter with
Part 1 and
Part 2.)
This Kresge's ad from October 27, 1955 focused on Halloween Candy for "Trick or Treat" Callers. There's no mention of not-so-fun sizes – just odd candies, such as Butter Cream Corns, Orange and Black Kisses, Beechies, etc.
Lastly, some lucky kids had the privilege of appearing in this special Halloween photo feature courtesy of well-known
Journal reporter LuElla Kepler. It ran on October 29, 1955.
The ad calling a 21 inch TV a giant is pretty comical. We have laptops almost the same size today and we carry them wherever we go.
ReplyDeleteThe Goodyear ad features "new treads," which I assume means the tires were recapped - in other words, the old treads shaved off and new ones added. Do tire stores even offer recapped tires these days?
ReplyDeleteThe radial tire of today is hardly recapped anymore due to modern tire designs getting more miles out of them compared to the old bias ply tire or yesteryear.Todays tires can get up to 75K miles out of them compared to a bias ply getting only 20K.Recapped radials for the semi trucking industry are more readily available as it is pretty expensive replacing 18 tires so the recap is still a viable alternative to save money.That's why every now and then you see a tread laying out in the middle of a highway.As it was probably a recap that had peeled off.
DeleteMy older brother, Jon, was what you call a "Master Reconstructive Embalmer." That boy could carve pumpkins like nobody's business. Beautiful, if temporary, works of art.
ReplyDelete