Halloweentown Store Window Displays

Halloween display windows from the great Halloweentown store, a year-round Halloween store in Burbank, CA.  LINK

Vintage Ceramic Ghost

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.

These Ghoulish Things

Last night was "Holiday in the Park" in Burbank, an annual "welcoming of the holiday season".  There was live music in the streets, many types of food, and most of the stores were open for business.  Although the Halloweentown store was not open, their windows were dressed perfectly for the upcoming holidays.

Halloweentown

Obtaining Scarecrow Parts

All of the branches for my scarecrows have come from Wildwood Canyon in Burbank.  A wildfire raged through the canyon in October 2005, leaving many trees dead and burned.  They are still there, the twisted burned branches make for excellent creepy scarecrows.

For the past couple of years Wildwood has been a strange place.  Just after the fire it was completely burned and dead.  Next, it started to look like a tiny of bit life among the dead, and now, 4 years later, it looks like a bit of the dead among the living.

 

The burned area of Wildwood Canyon has been a big inspiration for many of the props made for my Halloween yard haunts.  It's the "Sleepy Hollow" of Burbank!

Burbank's "Possibly" Haunted House

This is a nearby house that has a sordid history.  Mable Monohan was murdered by Barbara Graham here in 1953.  The story of the trial and execution of Barbara Graham for murder was portrayed by Susan Hayward in the 1958 film "I Want To Live".   Susan won an Academy Award for this role.

Odd trivia - Since I've lived in Burbank - 18 years - there has never been a holiday decoration of any type on this house, not Christmas, Halloween, or anything! 

When detectives searched Mrs. Monohan's house, they found a book she had been reading, "The Purple Pony Murdrers", open on a side table near the back door, face down.  Strangely, the author of this book, Sidney E. Porcelain, was a psychic who helped police solve murder cases.

Details of the Crime

Lisa Burks' Blog About Mable

Halloweentown Store

It's one of the reasons I love living in Burbank.  Not far from my home is Halloweentown - a store where it's Halloween 365 days a year.  Whenever I feel the need to immerse myself in the middle of Halloween, I visit Halloweentown.  The decor and merchandise in the store are top-notch.  The Halloween ambience in the store is magical and for me - comforting.

Halloweentown has an online presence, but it's nothing like a personal visit.  When in California, make sure you stop in!

Halloweentown

2009 Halloween Haunt

A few photos of this year's Halloween's yard haunt.  I've moved to a new house in Burbank, the new layout was challenging.  We are now in the foothills, the yard is on a slight hill, which made this year's scarecrow tower above the sidewalk.  Click on the images for a MUCH larger picture.

Scarecrow that I made - with a nod to Rot at Pumpkinrot.com

Vintage and Folk Art pieces placed on shelves that I built for the large front window.

Front porch - the Beistle Jack O'Lantern goblin is a wooden reproduction that I had made about 10 years ago.  It's much larger than the original cardboard decoration.