SPOOKSHOWS.COM BLOG

Photos & Short Video - My Halloween Setup 2011

2011-11-15T11:48:00.000-08:00

Each year I've put the vintage and folk art Jack O'Lanterns in the front window, but this year I ran a little late and built Catrina, an 8 foot Day of the Dead skeleton figure the Saturday and Sunday before Halloween. Catrina was placed in her "parlor", waiting to receive Trick Or Treaters. 1930s Halloween Jazz Music (Halloween Stomp CD, etc) was playing on the radio. I ran the music through the "Old Time Radio" filter in Adobe Audition's program, burned the altered music to CD. Loud thunder was heard from a large bass speaker hidden in the front yard bushes. I've skipped using lightning effects the past few years because this house is on a busy street, I think it might be too distracting to drivers and kids running across the street.

Link to short Video from my Flickr account

We had about 400 trick-or-treaters this year.

When I lived in Detroit - We just called it "Devil's Night"

2011-10-30T13:41:00.000-07:00

Click to see the larger picture and read the Japanese interpretation of Halloween, circa 1990s. I love that children "Assail the House" and "Irishmen make a fire". I suppose they are talking about Halloween day, the day after Halloween, November 1st, being "All Soul's Day" or "Day of the Dead" is when "the humans are cooking for the spirits".

Halloween!

2011-10-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

Stop motion animation by the GREAT Jason Willis! This is amazing.

Vintage Treat Bag Design

2011-10-12T16:49:00.000-07:00

I changed the Colors around a bit, but this has always been one of my favorite small treat bag designs

Always a Favorite

2011-10-02T11:59:00.000-07:00

Snailbooty's Flickr photos

Creepy Flower Encrusted Skeletons

2011-09-16T16:26:00.000-07:00

More HERE

"Trick 'r Treat Back to School" Behind the Scenes

2011-09-14T15:15:00.001-07:00

GREAT short film by Michael Dougherty - a behind the scenes look at the making of his "Back to School" film.

Sam Is Going Back To School

2011-09-08T12:27:00.001-07:00

Happy "Back to School" month. Once they clear out the back to school supplies, they will replace it all with Halloween. Yay!

Haunted House Film for NBC/Universal is looking for Home-Haunters!

2011-08-18T15:06:00.000-07:00

Attention Home Haunters! NBC Universal is looking for home haunts for their upcoming documentary. Head on over to Magic Stone Productions and fill out an online submission form!

And so it begins... Halloween 2011

2011-08-09T10:33:00.000-07:00

Traveled to Stats Floral in Pasadena yesterday. They begin setting up their GREAT Halloween displays in early August.

Stats Floral Supply

Watusi A Go-Go!

2011-06-20T16:52:00.000-07:00

I've been working with vector images all day today and remembered the packaging for the "Halloween a Go-Go" decorations from the 1950s. I redrew a representation of the old packaging and decided to make t-shirts out of them. I just had to... the packaging is too funny. "Swingin' Watusi Action"? Groovy! And at the same time I had to redraw a favorite old Trick or Treat bag image, further colorizing the image and making the two black cats "glow"

Definitely got a badly needed Halloween fix by drawing these... Only a couple of months and Halloween will start to appear in stores!

To see the newer old fashioned designs on Zazzle - click HERE

The Monolith

2011-06-15T12:35:00.000-07:00

This was an unexpected - and spooky - find far up in the hills above Burbank. It's a very old abandoned Boy Scout camp. The monolithic chimney of it's main house is all that remains, looking much like a scene from 2001 A Space Odyssey. It was built well to be able to withstand so many earthquakes and brush fires. But now, except for the sounds of wind through the brush, it's silent up here, one would never know you were in Los Angeles. I like that about LA, there are many, many hidden treasures here.

After taking this last photo, there was a loud commotion on the level below me. All I could see were branches of bushes moving violently, it may have been a mountain lion attacking something. Or the ghost of an old boy scout...

Trick R Treat - Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

GREAT Little Film! Copyright 2764 ?

Haunted Air

2011-05-22T03:31:00.000-07:00

Ossian Brown's superb book of vintage Halloween photographs, with an introduction by David Lynch, is finally being released in the US on June 14th. Here are a few sample photos.

I've collected many similar photos over the years, mostly digital photos found on the Internet. I've had them printed and display them in old picture frames at Halloween.

Monster Cafe

2011-05-19T02:04:00.000-07:00

Anyone near or visiting Saltillo Mexico will certainly want to stop at the Ultra-Cool Monster Cafe! See more pictures HERE. Thanks Matthew, your place is fantastic!

Movies That Never Were

2011-05-18T10:50:00.000-07:00

I caught a quick glimpse of this while surfing the Internet and thought I somehow missed a fantastic horror movie. Until I looked closer and saw Alfred Hitchcock's name. The thought of Hitch directing "Halloween" is the stuff dreams are truly made of. For more Alternate Universe Movie Posters, click HERE.

Vintage Movie Poster Fun

2011-05-15T23:48:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been obsessed with the beautiful imagery of old movie posters. The artwork is amazing - I'd love to see a revival of this style of illustration! Enjoy the poster images here, you can click on any of them to see them in a much bigger size!

Vintage Spook Show Images

2011-05-07T17:12:00.000-07:00

Fun 1950s grahic. I've extracted and restored many vintage Spook Show images over the past few weeks and added them to my Zazzle Store.

Spook Show Posters Zazzle Shop

Coulrophobia

2011-05-05T11:52:00.000-07:00

Was there ever a time when clowns weren't scary? From a vintage Cole Brothers circus poster, modified only slightly by me...

Morphy Auction

2011-04-22T13:37:00.000-07:00

A few interesting vintage Halloween pieces in the upcoming Morphy Auction Toys & Advertising auction which ends on April 29-20.

Buy Kreepee Board Today!

2011-04-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

Sundummy - Great FREE Drone Music for Halloween Soundscapes

2011-03-13T15:26:00.000-07:00

A lot of great free Halloween-ish background music can be found on the great archive.org website. One of my favorites, Sundummy, has often been used as droning soundscape audio for my Halloween yard haunts. It's also great fun to listen to this music while dreaming up new Halloween projects.

LINK

My Dream House

2010-11-05T10:35:00.000-07:00

Definitely my dream house, except that this is completely computer generated. Image is from a British graphic design magazine.

Burbank Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T12:07:00.000-07:00

Just a few of the Halloween decor I've spotted so far in Burbank. Click on each photo for a larger image.

LIVE - House on Haunted Hill

2010-10-20T13:43:00.000-07:00

On Thursday night, October 28, 2010, House on Haunted Hill is being shown in theatres nationwide, with a LIVE (tape delay for the west coast) commentary by comedians from Rifftrax, some formerly of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. I'm going to see this at our local Burbank theatre!
Click HERE for more info about seeing the movie in a theatre near you!

Dark Ambient Music for Halloween

2010-09-28T11:20:00.000-07:00

Gas - Drei from the CD Konigsforst

I used this track in last year's Halloween yard display. A great CD, tough to find - here's a link to the original blog post - LINK

Also on iTunes as Konigsforst 3

A Lot Depends on your definition of "Treat"

2010-09-13T11:27:00.000-07:00

I'm forever captivated by the incredible Crowolf's flickr photos.

LINK to Crowolf's Flickr Stream

Holiday Auction

2010-09-02T10:02:00.000-07:00

On September 11, 2010 Morphy Auctions is having an auction of rare vintage Holiday collectibles. I've never seen many of these items. Even if you are not planning on bidding, it's a lot of fun to look at this amazing collection!

Morphy Holiday Auction - Online Catalog

Halloween Treat Bag Stamp

2010-09-01T14:41:00.000-07:00

For years, I had oodles (love that word) of vintage Trick or Treat bags that I used to give treats to the kids on Halloween night. After getting nearly 600 Trick or Treaters last year, I'm finally out of vintage bags. I tried printing bags on my color laser printer, but they often jam and use up too much ink. I thought about silk screening, but decided it would take too long.

Online, I found simonstamp.com and set to work scanning and cleaning up a vintage treat bag design that would work using just one color. The size of the stamp is about 4x5" and is perfect to stamp on the blank merchandise bags I bought a few years ago. Simon Stamp Company manufactured, and sent this to me, in less than a week! I'm really happy with their work. Now, I have to go to Michaels and get a giant stamp pad. Stay tuned.

http://www.simonstamp.com/

LIFE Photo Archives

2010-08-23T23:38:00.000-07:00

WONDERFUL vintage Halloween photos can be found at the LIFE magazine photo archives.

Halloween at Stats

2010-08-23T10:38:00.000-07:00

GREAT stuff appearing at Stats Floral in Pasadena. They have been making quite a few of their own custom Halloween props. This year they've created custom lamps seen in some of the photos below. Click on any photo for a larger view.

LINK: STATS FLORAL

A Two Story Black Cat

2010-08-14T09:25:00.000-07:00

HUGE Halloween black cat inflatable decoration, it's 2 stories tall! Check out the video of it in action at Hammacher Schlemmer

Jack O'House

2010-07-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

I want to live here!

Link to image

The Return of Elvira and "Movie Macabre" !

2010-06-22T12:23:00.000-07:00

Over a year ago, I was lucky to attend an anniversary showing of Elivra's first movie, with a live appearance by Elvira herself. During the Q&A she hinted that there was a possibility of making more of her "Movie Macabre" TV shows. Well, she did it! She will be back on TV in time for Halloween 2010.

Here's a link to her myspace blog page with details: LINK

Halloween Chalkware Guy

2010-05-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

I sold this little guy on ebay several years ago. It's one of the best, and largest, Halloween chalkware pieces.

Abstract Audio Systems - Dark Ambient music

2010-05-28T15:20:00.000-07:00

Cdbaby.com is a good place to buy dark ambient music for your Halloween haunt. They carry CDs from many independent artists whose music is not available elsewhere. Right now, I'm listening to the track "Bromia" from Abstract Audio Systems' CD entitled "Dark Terrain". CLICK HERE to listen to samples. Be sure to listen to track 5 - "Bromia".

Amityville House For Sale!

2010-05-25T11:06:00.000-07:00

This is a photo I took in 1978 of the house at 112 Ocean Avenue (now 108 Ocean Avenue) in Amityville NY. It's changed a lot since the 1970s, and now it can be yours for $1,150,000, although I'm sure they will accept a lower offer. Here's a link to the real estate listing with current photos of the house - LINK Evidently, the annoying fly problem is finally gone.

And here is a great photo of James Brolin and Margot Kidder from the first Amityville Horror movie. Margot signed the photo for me at Monsterpalooza in Burbank in 2009.

The Orphanage DVD

2010-05-22T11:26:00.000-07:00

Watched this amazing DVD last night, it's the best ghost story I've seen in many years. Visually stunning, and the acting is top notch. I HIGHLY recommend this movie!

The Orphanage Blu-Ray DVD

The Orphanage DVD

Halloween Big Stuff

2010-05-19T14:24:00.000-07:00

Very LARGE Halloween props can be found at Big Stuff.

Halloween Cakes

2010-05-04T11:58:00.000-07:00

Amazing work here - LINK

Support the Endangered Tree Octopus

2010-04-01T10:43:00.000-07:00

Please help us save the rare Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus by signing up for the "Trick or Treat for Tree Octopus" program. Like Unicef, you can build your own collection box and go door to door on Halloween, or any day, asking your neighbors for candy corn or shrimp.

When you have filled the box with treats, hang it on a branch in a forest where tree octopuses dwell. The tree octopus enjoys the challenge of removing these treats from the box.

Link: SAVE THE ENDANGERED TREE OCTOPUS

The Monster Art of Robert Scott

2010-03-21T11:40:00.000-07:00

GREAT work here!

The Monster Art of Robert Scott

1954 Woolworth's Halloween Ad

2010-03-13T13:55:00.000-08:00

Click to see the large version, it's a fantastic ad.

1950s Halloween Hard Plastic Party People

2010-03-13T10:50:00.000-08:00

E Rosen Company - rare 1950s Halloween "Party-goers". These are made of hard plastic and were originally candy containers.

Vintage Ceramic Ghost

2010-03-13T10:27:00.000-08:00

A very large older ceramic ghost - it's eyes and mouth light up, it looks great at night. Purchased in the 1990s at Dark Delicacies in Burbank, CA.

Bat Lighting Fixtures

2010-03-10T08:06:00.000-08:00

Spooky Victorian Era lighting reproductions from Rejuvenation.

Shivers - Shudders - Thrills

2010-03-06T14:49:00.000-08:00

Wonderful 1930s Mel-Roy Spook Show Window cards.

I love the text on the first card - "If while lights are lowered, and in pitch darkness a cold, clammy hand touches you, don’t get excited or alarmed; it may be a friendly spirit. When you are face to face with the supernatural don’t get scared. "

M Griffin - Fabrications CD

2010-03-04T11:05:00.000-08:00

Mike Griffin is the founder of Hypnos recordings. This CD, Fabrications, is great for ambient listening, Halloween inspiration/daydreaming, or for the background sounds of a yard haunt.

Link to CD and music samples

Photos from Halloweens Past

2010-02-25T13:39:00.000-08:00

I've always found most old Halloween photos to be WAY too creepy! I think it has to do with the photos usually being posed oddly and taken in the daytime.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-15T14:58:00.000-08:00

The wonderful artwork of Eric Pigors.

His Website

A Real House on Haunted Hill

2010-02-09T14:03:00.000-08:00

In 1959, the wonderful film "House on Haunted Hill" was released. The exteriors for the movie were filmed at the famous Ennis House in the Los Feliz district of Los Angeles, just a short drive from where I live. While the Ennis House was simply a spooky looking set for a great movie, it overlooks the backyard of a real life 1959 horror house which has sat abandoned for over 50 years.

On the night of December 6, 1959, Dr. Harold Perelson murdered his wife with a ball peen hammer, attempted to murder his oldest daughter, and then killed himself by taking poison. The two youngest Perelson children woke up during the murder, and saw their father in the hallway. He told them them they were having a nightmare and they should go back to bed, which they did.

Police found Perelson dead on the floor next to his wife’s blood-soaked bed. He was clutching the hammer. Next to his bed, investigators found a copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy, opened to Canto 1. “Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost ... ,” read the passage.

Police made quick work of the case, the children were moved to the East Coast to live with relatives and the house was locked up, nearly untouched, for 50 years. Visitors to the house say that they can see through some of the windows where pans and dishes have been placed to catch rain water leaking through the roof. A 1959 artificial Christmas tree still sits in one of the rooms, with wrapped presents nearby. Neighbors have taken to attending to the lawn as necessary for the past 50 years.

For the entire eerie story, please read THIS.

Cafe In The Crypt

2010-02-03T10:11:00.000-08:00

This is a really fun place in the center of London, next to Trafalgar Square. In the basement of St Martin in the Fields church is a wonderfully creepy cafe called "Cafe in the Crypt". It is an 18th century crypt with vaulted brick ceilings. The headstone pictured above was on the floor near my table.

Cafe in the Crypt - St Martin in the Fields

Astrapophobia

2010-02-02T15:36:00.000-08:00

Photo of Ball Lightning

During the first 21 years of my life, I lived in Michigan and experienced my share of violent thunderstorms. When I was a teenager, the storms where I lived seemed to increase in their violence. There were often tornado watches and warnings, and there was plenty of lightning.

On the night of June 14, 1968, we had yet another severe thunderstorm. I was sleeping in a bedroom I shared with my 3 brothers. I was in the top bunk of a bunk bed, and as the storm raged, I could actually feel the electricity in the air. The feeling was odd - my muscles tightened, and the hair on my arms stood up with each new bolt of lightning. I got out of bed, needing to use the bathroom. Closing the bathroom door, I switched on the bathroom light. Before I could take my fingers away from the switch, I saw a blinding light, the power in the house went off, and arcing sparks shot out of the bathroom light switch towards my fingers, in almost the exact way that one would see the arcs of electricity coming out of a toy plasma sphere.

At nearly the same second, I heard my older sister scream as I've never heard her scream before. The thunder we had just heard was deafening, my ears were ringing. I opened the bathroom door and both my mother and sister were standing there. My sister was shaking. No one knew exactly what had happened. My sister said her back hurt. Someone got a flashlight, my mom looked at her back, and saw that tiny holes were burned into her nightgown. Then we looked in her bedroom. We saw nothing at first, but then we aimed the flashlight toward the ceiling. In the very corner of the room were two perfectly round charred holes. We knew that lightning had hit, the lightning had caused ceiling plaster to melt, and that is what splattered over my sister and her bed, causing the burns and holes in her nightgown and bedding. Everyone stayed awake that night for quite a long time, most of us were afraid to go back to sleep.

Click to enlarge newspaper article

The next morning, city workers came to check out the ceiling holes created by the lightning. At that time, we were told that it was "ball lightning" that hit the house. Ball lightning is very odd, it's not always directional, it's a bright "ball of energy" that travels rather slowly and erratically. We found out that the lightning hit the corner of my sister's room, then made a second hole going out. It traveled across our driveway and went through our neighbor's house, making a hole in their outside wall, and another one in an inside wall where it then travelled down a heating duct and exploded in their basement.

Severe storms eventually became a regular feature of my life in Michigan. Our house was to be hit at least 2 more times while I lived there, once hitting our metal basketball pole and missing me by about 5 feet.

I was thrilled to find that after I moved to Los Angeles, they do not have such severe electrical storms. To this day, I have a slight fear of lightning, the fear is most intense when lightning occurs in the middle of the night.

I have a couple more interesting lightning stories, but will save them for another time. One involves my Mom and "ball lightning" while using a Ouija board!

Ghost in the Closet

2010-02-01T02:22:00.000-08:00

I grew up in an older house in Michigan. I lived there for over 20 years, and during that time unexplained "events" occurred.   The things that happened in that house did not happen often, but when they happened, they tended to be "big".    Really big.

One of my earliest memories of this phenomena occurred during one of my older sister's birthday parties. I was about 4 years old, they were playing hide and seek. I was too young, and not really part of the party, so my sister and her friends hid, one went to seek them out, and I decided to watch.

I remember thinking that one of the best places to hide in the house was in our downstairs coat closet. The closet was about 3 feet deep and 5 feet wide. Besides being able to hide among the heavy winter coats, there were also enough boxes on the floor to easily conceal one's feet and legs.

After a short time, everyone was found except for one person. My sister and her friends were convinced that she was hiding in the basement so they all went downstairs. I ran to the coat closet and opened the door. Sure enough, there were feet standing on top of an old 8mm projector case. I pulled the coats aside and saw a child peering back at me.   He was thin, pale, and seemingly frightened. He put his finger up to his lips and made a "Shhh" sound. I heard my sister and friends coming back up the stairs and so I quickly closed the closet door.

My sister found the friend who was indeed hiding in the basement, but I explained to them that there was one more in the coat closet. They laughed and told me that everyone had been found. I angrily opened the door and said "He's right HERE!"   Except there was no one there. I dug through the coats and I recall being very frightened. Where did that boy go? There was no other way out of the closet.  To get out, he would have had to open the door and walk past me. He didn't.

The memory of this event has made me feel uneasy off and on during my entire life. I still cannot make sense of what happened and who/what it was that I saw. Little did I know that in future years similar things were going to occur in that house, both to me and to my younger brothers.

As of this writing, my childhood home has been vacant and unsold for nearly 10 years. While it's technically vacant, I very much doubt that it's truly "empty".

The Prelinger Archives

2010-01-30T16:50:00.000-08:00

The unintentional comedy of educational films from the 1950s can be seen at archive.org's Prelinger Archives. Above, a scene from the 1951 film "Drug Addiction".

Drug Addiction 1951

The Darkness Only Stays The Night

2010-01-20T23:37:00.000-08:00

Link to original image

Treat or Treat

2010-01-19T23:47:00.000-08:00

The wonderful whimsical art of Bob Lizarraga.

The Blogarraga

Gift Shrouds

2010-01-11T11:48:00.000-08:00

Beautiful gift wrap for ghoulish gift giving and creepy crafts.

Gift Shrouds

The Museum of Talking Boards

2010-01-09T00:11:00.000-08:00

The Museum of Talking Boards is a great site with dozens of images of vintage talking boards and planchettes. The artwork and information presented on this site is fascinating.

The Museum of Talking Boards

How To Run a 1946 Halloween Party

2010-01-04T15:58:00.000-08:00

The Spirit Bottle

2010-01-02T12:44:00.000-08:00

I've created some new designs, and a new Zazzle shop. I ordered a t-shirt of the above design from them, it is AMAZING, if I do say so myself. I'm very happy with the quality of Zazzle's t-shirts and other products.

Here's a link to the shirt above, some other new designs are seen below.

More designs at the Zazzle Shop, with more to come. I particularly like Zazzle as you can customize shirts to any style or color.

Vintage Halloween - Link to my Vintage Halloween Zazzle store.

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T15:48:00.000-08:00

Pluck and Luck

2009-12-30T15:56:00.000-08:00

A wonderful old magazine cover from May 9, 1900

A Collection of Jack O'Lanterns

2009-12-29T12:51:00.000-08:00

Halloween Desktop Wallpaper

Regurgitating Horrors!

2009-12-23T15:22:00.000-08:00

Ah, Kara Kum of Hollywood. How could it possibly be a bad show if it's "from Hollywood"? The "Cannibals of Curitiba with King Lungri". I would have loved to have seen this show.

Vintage double sided Party Favor Cup

2009-12-23T14:44:00.000-08:00

Vintage Cardboard favor cup. I love the "ghost" at the top of the piece.

He Waits

2009-12-20T15:31:00.000-08:00

Halloween is over, and he waits behind the house, lighting up nightly at dusk, becoming alive. He allows the cute smiling snowman and happy lights have their own turn in the front yard. He wants them to think that they run the show. At least for now. He's got nothin' but time.

The Castle Green

2009-12-19T14:56:00.000-08:00

Earlier this year, they gave tours of the historic Castle Green Hotel in Pasadena, now apartments and condominiums. I shot the photo above during the tour, I've always loved this 1890s building. It feels very haunted.

The Castle Green

I Miss Halloween

2009-12-19T13:45:00.000-08:00

He's just waiting for the thaw.

Link to original flickr photo

The Dark Places of the Earth

2009-12-18T15:05:00.000-08:00

GREAT ambient music for Halloween. It was available on CD in a limited edition, but you can hear samples and buy this wonderful soundscape on iTunes.

iTunes - The Dark Places of the Earth

Lustmord's Website

Owl Tell Your Fortune

2009-12-17T15:49:00.000-08:00

GREAT design for a vintage Halloween Fortune Telling game, and much safer than baking those sizzling hot metal charms into a cake!

Halloween Midnite Spook Party

2009-12-15T18:20:00.000-08:00

Wonderful vintage ad for a Midnight Halloween Spook Show

1920s Beistle Halloween Invitation

2009-12-13T12:37:00.000-08:00

Always a favorite - this one was loaned to me many years ago for scanning purposes from Pamela Apkarian-Russell, the Halloween Queen. She now owns Castle Halloween! Visit the link below!

Castle Halloween

Halloween Dancers A Go Go

2009-12-13T12:32:00.000-08:00

As often happens with vintage Halloween, the packaging is as much fun, and sometimes better than the decorations themselves. The Halloween A Go Go Beistle dancers above have "Swingin' Watusi Action"! Groovy!

Be Good For Goodness Sake

2009-12-13T10:21:00.000-08:00

Kids used to have an extra reason to be good for Christmas. Santa had an evil assistant; Krampus, who rode around with him handing out punishment instead of toys to bad girls and boys. You'd better watch out.

The story of Krampus

Fave Christmas Movie

2009-12-11T13:02:00.000-08:00

It's the perfect blend of Halloween and Christmas, you get four ghosts in one Christmas movie! And of course, they saved the best ghost until the end. It's the same ghost that made me hide behind a chair when I was 3 years old watching "Mr Magoo's Christmas Carol"!

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is my favorite ghost. It has no face and no voice. It's easy to transfer your wildest fears into that ghost.

Everyone has their favorite "A Christmas Carol" movie. I think mine is the 1984 George C Scott version. He portrayed Scrooge with convincing anger and bitterness that rivals Dick Cheney. In the near future, I will sit down with my 1984 version of the film on DVD and once again marvel at the lush sets and spooky ghosts. I can't wait. All I want for Christmas this year is Halloween.

The Spirit of Christmas Long Passed

2009-12-11T12:40:00.000-08:00

"Long Passed?" "No, YOUR past".

This is the Spirit of Long Passed nixed by Charles Dickens.

Ted Kennedy in a Pirate Costume - Halloween 1934

2009-12-11T00:06:00.000-08:00

http://www.jfklibrary.org/

Ghost World

2009-12-09T11:24:00.000-08:00

From the great flickr group Ghost World

The Beautiful Work of Lori Rudolph

2009-12-08T16:48:00.001-08:00

I wish I was this talented! I love the devil lantern, I love them all!

Lori's Blog

The Jack O'Lantern Tree

2009-12-08T16:43:00.001-08:00

The Return of Famous Monsters of Filmland

2009-12-07T16:35:00.000-08:00

Famous Monsters of Filmland is finally returning to printed issues!

More: Famous Monsters of Filmland News

The Witch's Christmas

2009-12-07T06:31:00.000-08:00

From The Witch's Christmas by Norman Bridwell

Scholastic Books, 1970

Entrance to Abbott's Magic

2009-12-05T09:23:00.000-08:00

Vintage Photo - Entrance to Abbott's Magic.

Abbott's Magic

House of Terror Spook Show Trailer

2009-12-05T09:15:00.001-08:00

Vintage Halloween Photo

2009-12-04T14:12:00.000-08:00

1964 Addams Family Gum and Trading Cards

2009-12-04T09:39:00.000-08:00

I always liked the gum from trading card sets, it had an odd flavor that was never present in other gums. The Addams family card set - complete - consisted of 66 cards. On the back of each card was part of a photo that when put together made a huge portrait of the family. I scanned mine as seen below.

I remember going into our local drugstore and asking for the empty display box. They looked at me like I was a very crazy kid, who would want the box? I liked it because it was in color and looked very cool with that purple background. The saleswoman gave it to me, but it was destroyed within a couple years, I wasn't very careful about saving things back then. The box sells for at least $500 now.

Wax Lips Vintage packaging

2009-12-03T09:56:00.000-08:00

I clearly remember the Clown Mouth wax chewing gum lips packaging. Classic!

Spooky Surprise Vintage Halloween Candy

2009-12-03T09:43:00.000-08:00

Fleer's Haunted House Candy Maze

2009-12-02T15:03:00.001-08:00

Image Source

The Laboratory of Satan

2009-12-02T14:47:00.000-08:00

1870's Stereoview - 1/2 of the image is above. If you have an old pair of the red/blue 3-D glasses lying around, check the version of this below. The 3-D effect and depth of the photo is AMAZING. Either image can be clicked to view a larger version.

Source of photos

The Magnificent Void

2009-12-02T13:51:00.000-08:00

I play a lot of different Halloween soundscapes each year, but the one I keep coming back to, and seem to like using for my yard haunt, is Steve Roach's The Magnificent Void. It's the perfect background music for Halloween.

Samples here:

The Magnificent Void

Halloween Pumpkins by Noma

2009-12-01T12:21:00.000-08:00

Box Cover Art for the 1950s hard plastic version of the Noma Pumpkin lights. These had a flying witch graphic on the back of each pumpkin. The original 1920s celluloid Noma pumpkins had similar faces, but were much nicer, very detailed, and extremely fragile.

Click any image for a larger view.

The two photos above are the hard plastic 1950s version of the lights. Below are the 1920s Celluloid lights, the first electrically lit Halloween decorations.

Punkin Chunkin

2009-12-01T10:42:00.000-08:00

Punkin Chunkin - an annual post-Halloween Pumpkin launching competition in Delaware. I watched this year's World Championship Punkin Chunkin on the Science Channel on Thanksgiving night. It was fantastic! November 2010 will be their 25th anniversary, get your plane tickets now!

World Championship Punkin Chunkin official website

Fall Arrives in Los Angeles!

2009-12-01T10:12:00.000-08:00

Took the subway to Sunset/Vermont yesterday and found this one little maple tree's leaves changing color in front of the Los Angeles Children's Hospital. Fall arrives in Hollywood! It was a warm day with Santa Ana winds. The fall colors and clear sky are a refreshing change of pace from the smoke and wildfires.

We went to a great gift shop across from the Vista Theatre called Uncle Jer's. I've always liked the mural on the side of Uncle Jer's. It's almost Halloween-ish.

A monkey is not complete until it dons a red fez.

Trivia: Director Ed Wood had an office on the second floor of the Vista Theatre building.

Uncle Jer's

Vista Theatre at Cinema Treasures

Nate Williams

2009-12-01T09:19:00.000-08:00

The fantastic work of Nate Williams as Alexander Blue. I love this guy's stuff!

Flickr Page

Nate Williams Illustration

Alexander Blue

Vintage Halloween Magic Show Poster

2009-11-30T12:19:00.000-08:00

Another poster from my Magic/Halloween/Spookshow collection.

Winged Beistle Ghost

2009-11-28T09:55:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite early diecuts by the Beistle Company. It has tissue "wings" that fold out. the example seen above is a scan of it's body, modified in Photoshop.

Happy Black Friday!

2009-11-27T05:49:00.000-08:00

Zombies Shopping - Zombiecon

Let Us Give Thanks

2009-11-25T22:58:00.000-08:00

That we aren't eating turkeys as big as this movie.

Icons of Horror Collection - Sam Katzman (The Giant Claw / Creature with the Atom Brain / Zombies of Mora Tau / The Werewolf)