Pam’s Pictorama Post: Halloween is on the horizon and I have been saving this scary pumpkin creature guy for quite awhile – so long in fact that I don’t actually remember when or from who I acquired it. Pumpkin people do frighten me a bit and this fellow no exception.
Oddly, he seems to sport a small Santa hat atop his head. I guess once you hit Halloween, Christmas isn’t far off? The sparkles make him a bit more cheerful and I very much like the black cat head above the Happy Halloween. His sideways glance does not contribute to a friendly look. Can’t exactly figure out why he’s on a tree swing. A owl perches in the tree and a bat flies among a scattering of gold stars. A black cat peers around a tree.
Bonus New Jersey Halloween decoration photo tourfrom my run today, as promised yesterday.
This card was used although there is no postage on the back so maybe it was popped into an envelope. It is addressed to Miss Lillian Garrett, Bedford Sty, Trimbule, CO Route 2 however so it is odd that it has an address but no stamp. Also, reading the message is entirely beyond me. I usually have trouble but unlock it after a few tries, however this one continues to frustrate me. I have photographed it and perhaps a reader can make it past the first sentence.
Back of card.
The card is undated and at first I thought there was no reference to Halloween, however I managed to decode part of the message where she says, am…downtown and just got these cards to your you all. Want to get…a false face to wear to the party. Write soon. Can’t read the signature either!
Although I will be back in the city on Tuesday, I will leave treats for the kids here in New Jersey to be appropriately distributed. I have a pair of cat ears to sport however and will give at least a passing nod to the day in New York this week as well.
Pam’s Pictorama Post:Boo! October has zipped right on by us this year here at Pictorama and before I know it I find Halloween is upon us. I am heading down to NJ this morning as the cat caretaker has a brief trip out of town and I will play cat mom to those kitties this weekend.
I haven’t had much chance to enjoy October in Jersey (I did post about one weekend out there recently and that can be found here), but I will soak up the last of it over the next few days. I especially look forward to a run where I can tour the Halloween decorations, soon to morph into Thanksgiving. These are the very best months out there, before the cold makes it less hospitable.
Doorstep in NJ, proud with pumpkins!
You might think I would go in heavily for my own Halloween decorations for the house, but no. My nascent collection of decorations run to the delicate and vintage, like this one above. I really shouldn’t purchase such fragile things as Deitch Studio can be a rough and tumble place sometimes. Both of today’s items were found on Instagram and were deals I decided I couldn’t ignore.
From a 2015 post. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
The paper globe (held by a helpful Kim above) has wonderful black cats on both sides and I imagine parties where a dozen of these hung somewhere, or perhaps were gracing a table laden with Halloween treats and fare – to be enjoyed between rounds of bobbing for apples? I have devoted a few posts to collected Halloween Dennison paper decoration books – how-to manuals of parties from the teens in a different era of DIY. (One of those posts can be found here.) I lack the not inconsiderable skill for the elaborate costumes and decorations of those days although I would say the bar was pretty high.
Although I don’t purchase cardboard Halloween decorations deeply (having said that another recent purchase post can be found here), I can’t resist a well designed kitty and this one was offered to me a few months ago. Only about 10 inches high he isn’t large and if I was inclined he would indeed make a tasteful apartment door decoration.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
I like all his pointiness! He is a cat poised for action and maybe a bit of trouble, as much trick as treat. Claw paws and a mischievous grin. The back of this cardboard figure shows that it was much taped up over time, but otherwise he survives in very good shape. Other than a bit of a folding on the ears, he is in amazingly pristine condition.
I pledge another Halloween treat for tomorrow so stay tuned!
Pam’s Pictorama Post: Among the casualties of recent months, while I was spending more time in New Jersey with my mom, has been neglecting my collecting passion. While I did continue to buy this and that (mostly on the occasional scroll through my IG feed), the items then often wandered into Deitch Studio only to be unpacked and put away with less than the usual consideration.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Therefore, these days now one occasionally rises to the surface, like this noisemaker, with no real memory of where it hails from. I believe it was a part of a small group buy of Halloween items or one I just added onto a buy. I am very entertained by it, but doesn’t seem like an item I would have bought on its own. Nonetheless, I am pleased to find it this morning, tucked on a shelf, patiently waiting its turn to bask in the light of a Pictorama post.
Turn up the sound for Kim playing
The sound of this noisemaker made both of the cats here a bit crazy this morning when I gave it a spin. Kim and I were discussing how, regardless of its actual age, the design seems like it could go back to 1900 or earlier. However, I found a website (Lisa Morton) however which says that although noise makers of this type, called rachet style noisemakers, were found in Germany earlier they became popular in this country in the 1920’s. She says wood ones like this were produced until the 1950’s when they shifted to tin. (To this day one can find a tin and plastic variation sold on the street for New Year’s Eve here in Manhattan, along with old fashion tin horns!)
The black cat version – although this is a silent fellow. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection from a 2021 post.
Noisemakers were designed to chase ghosts and the bogeyman away, an essential to staying safe on Halloween when you were a child. They were an inexpensive accessory addition to the Halloween celebration. I will say that my quiet loving parents never introduced me and my siblings to the simple pleasures of noisemakers. We can draw our own conclusions about that.
Mine here has an odd looking pumpkin head which seems to sport a sort of spotted mushroom cap. (Were he larger I think he’d be a bit frightening or at least creepy in his own right.) He still bears his crisp black paper ruff. The handle is worn very smooth from many years of hands handling.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection also from a 2021 post.
My foray onto the web researching a bit about Halloween turned up this sort of fascinating reference for the origin of jack-o-lanterns (wowza!) came from as below:
The legend of the most familiar Hallowe’en symbol–a lighted pumpkin–comes from a tale of an old Irish miser named Jack. Jack made several pacts with the devil. He also tricked the devil. When he died, he could not get into Heaven for his sins and because he had tricked the devil, he could not get into Hell. The Devil gave him a coal and Jack placed it in a hollowed out turnip, which lit his way as he wandered the earth until Judgment Day.
(More from this vintage Halloween collecting site can be found here.)
Being a black cat collector I am very Halloween adjacent without really being a Halloween collector. (Some of my other Halloween posts can be found here, here and here.) Halloween collecting is glorious and in another life I would collect everything from the early costumes (still holding out for a great black cat or Felix costume however) to paper decorations. For now though, Pictorama will mostly stay in its black cat lane with only occasional forays into the broader world of Halloween treats and tricks.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: This is one of two very special cardboard kitties I have to offer at the moment, purchased in recent months but who have not yet had their premiere here at Pictorama. First I focus on this nifty fellow.
I have seen him offered once or twice before and chased him around the internet some, but never acquiring him. Then he fell in my lap at a most unexpected moment, late one hectic night a few weeks ago when I was having a quick look at my phone and found him being offered to my by my Mid-west maven, Miss Molly (@missmollysantiques) via Instagram. I scooped up some other fine Halloween decorations (one from a few weeks ago can be found here), however this one interests me in part because he’s almost not quite a Halloween fellow, although I assume that is his origin. A black cat for all seasons in my book.
Kitty expanded for posing here on Kim’s desk. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.
He offers only that he was Made in the USA by way of markings and is small, only about 12 inches. His monochromatic black and white works for me for being bold with his big what bow which makes me think of a tuxedo kitty. He bares his fangs though and looks reasonably fierce for a guy in a bow and his tail curls up behind him in a question mark. Despite his snarl he has a certain come hither charm.
The back side of Kitty flat. A bit of crayon here from an errant child! Not visible when displayed however. Pams-Pictorama.com.
It is the design of Mr. Kitty that makes him special. For storage he lies flat, but at the bottom we are encouraged to Push in and fold back to form easel. This takes a few minutes to exactly figure out, but then you do and an accordion middle made of a honeycomb of tissue paper allows him to expand into an almost 3-D feline, using his tail for extra ballast.
What exact role he was intended to play I am unsure, as his size makes him a bit small as Halloween decor goes. However with his neat design and snappy appearance he rates a place at my table any day of the year.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: I purchased this nice bit of Halloween in a group buy several weeks ago which I am just starting to sort out. (Purchased from @missmollystlantiques on Instagram – they flashed by me while I was doing a bunch of stuff and I just grabbed them and was pleased when they showed up in the mail later.) I am just starting to sort these out – Pictorama readers will be treated to more of them in future posts.
Despite what might seem obvious, I don’t collect Halloween items deeply. The paper items make up a small percentage of my black cat collection as storage (I am a poor caretaker for paper in general) and display are issues, but a number of things have come over the transom and this little trove appealed.
In cardboard decorations, I like a nice heavy cardboard like this and of course even better when it is embossed and textured in this way. (The heaviest of these tend to be German, but this has an almost illegible made in the USA on the front.) I would be tempted to actually hang ones like this for Halloween if I had the right opportunity. After all, no reason not to use them, albeit gently. Small pin holes from years of hanging exist and no need for new ones. I would avoid tape. However, somehow sadly apartment life has not lent itself to this.
As Halloween decorations go this one seems somewhat odd. I bought it for the two nice black cats, but as I sit here looking at it I am wondering about the design: stop, go, and detour. Against an orange moon, Halloween lanterns light the way and these two kits are trying to decide which way to go. I guess from scary movies we know that taking the detour is probably going to lead toward all kinds of trouble.
It seems oddly philosophical for a Halloween decoration and yet somewhat appropriate for someone who just inherited a house and five cats in another state and is suddenly facing a detour trying to figure that thing out.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: For someone who collects black cats a surprisingly small part of my collection is devoted to Halloween material, although certainly some has found its way in. (Former posts have shared Halloween items here, here and here for starters.)
I do love a good paper mache pumpkin or black cat lantern, and I can see a few more finding their way into the house. I remember the first time I saw the pumpkins was at a store in Cold Spring, New York and they had a load of them. The vintage decorations were amazing, but were way more than I could afford at the time and I was just agog. I don’t think I bought my first lantern until a few years ago, on Instagram, this nice cat one below.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
I don’t even remember where I purchased this little guy I am sharing today who is one of the few persistent Halloween decorations up in the house. I don’t think it was eBay, although I could be wrong. I think he may have come into my possession before eBay and probably at a flea market.
His tail, now gone, seems to have been a victim of persistent pulling over the years, and his back is marked with the residue of scotch taping. He has a bit of ancient string on his head where he hung from. I think the very first year I moved into this apartment I may have put him on the door, but now he resides comfortably on a shelf, tucked near yesterday’s feature coincidentally, my Oswald Rabbit. There are a few others scattered around him, a good cardboard black cat head or two.
A robustly decorated home near my Mom, taken on a recent run in NJ.
Jumping Kitty is a typical thin cardboard and I would say he might date back to the ’40’s or 50’s, at least in terms of design which may have continued to be produced over time. I have always liked his toothy smile and the slightly evil twinkle in his eyes. He shows us his claw paws and there is even an indication of fluffy fur. There is no factory mark on him, but I would guess he is a domestic product. For me he has a look of just the right period for Halloween decorations.
My childhood ran mostly to a slapdash sort of holiday decorating. We might carve the occasional pumpkin, there was a Christmas tree (artificial – Mom was against the killing of live trees), and there might have been this or that handed down in the family that came out at the holidays, but really Mom had three kids and a husband who traveled constantly for work, and she wasn’t devoting a lot of time or energy to it. We routinely carved pumpkins, dyed Easter eggs and made gingerbread cookies, more as activities to occupy us than any actual interest in the holidays.
Play the short video clip for this enormous moving black cat a block away from Mom in NJ.
I have a bit of an itch to decorate, but NY studio apartment living doesn’t afford many opportunities. I have let go of even putting up a small Christmas tree (mostly for the cats who like to claim it in a variety of ways, sitting under or climbing, eating things off of it, etc.) years ago as just too hard to negotiate in our space. Like my mom I guess I too don’t really have the time or patience.
Another spooky home in Fair Haven.
I thought I would be at my Mom’s house for Halloween this year and was looking forward to it until my schedule morphed. She lives in the sort of ideal suburban neighborhood, within walking distance of three schools, made up of medium-sized, well tended homes. A picture perfect for kids to trick or treat in. I would like to see what the costumes look like these days and would have enjoyed handing out treats.
This house, also on her block, was just the perfectly decorated autumn cottage I thought.
For those of you who follow my running journal on Instagram you know that it is full of cul de sacs and dead end streets where kids play unimpeded. The yards are a treat with seasonal decorations changing on cue. Those will morph briefly to Thanksgiving and of course large displays for Christmas. Maybe this will be the year to put up a tree again here in the apartment. I will let you Pictorama readers know.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: We’re speeding down October’s path on a less than 24 hour countdown to another Halloween. It is a truly dark and stormy morning as I write this and I do hope it clears sufficiently for the activities of tomorrow for the local little ones – the holiday seems challenged enough in its Covid incarnation this year. Here at Pictorama I am sharing a few additional howlin’ Halloween bits I collected over the last few months in my search for all things early 20th century black cat related. Today’s items are from my go-to girl for Halloween items (and some other interesting bits) who hails from the Midwest, @missmollystlantiques, aka Molly Simms.
I have written recently about how Miss Molly has helped me achieve some of my early Halloween collecting goals. (One of those posts can be found here.) These little items today are some icing on the collecting cake and a reminder that one of the nice things about holiday decorations is that they were used and often lovingly stored each year, making for a great survival rate.
Dennison’s Bogie Book from the teens. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.
I can only say I wish the Dennison’s Black Cat streamer was sufficiently sturdy to put up in the apartment. They are very jolly and I can imagine them decorating the space above our bookcases nicely. (Perhaps I could press them in plexi? I wonder if they would survive the light? It is so fragile!)
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
This black cat banner immediately stirs an image of a much earlier Halloween party, say 1916, dripping with such decorations – table groaning with paper mache jack-o-lanterns and nut cups. I was collecting the Dennison books years ago, as below (that early 2015 post can be found here). Some wonderful copies were being put out for awhile – for you fellow collectors who may have missed them, poke around. The image that they present of the well appointed Halloween party from the teens has stayed with me – one chock-a-block and dripping with crepe paper creations. Those folks at Dennison’s knew how to sell crepe paper! I cannot help but feel there is a better steward of this particular fragile paper bit of history. Nevertheless, I will do my best until the next person comes along.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Less fragile and easier to revel in, is this cardboard Halloween Quiz overseen by a grinning bow-tied black cat and this serious owl. There is a 1940 copyright to H. E. Luhrs and a quick internet search shows that the Luhrs name was a significant one in ’40’s and ’50’s Halloween decorations and die-cuts. They were the maker of what I think of as the classic skeleton decoration (the one I would want if I wanted a skeleton) and evidently the “spinning” (it doesn’t really spin and I somehow doubt it ever did) fortune teller which they employed with several designs. While I could not find a proper history of the company, at a glance I would say they were the poor man’s version of Beistle, a somewhat more substantial maker of Halloween ephemera.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
Questions run down one side of my version of the Quiz with answers on the right. Two spins would give you both a question and an answer – the answer might require that you perform the required stunt to achieve it. Questions range from Am I studious? to Do I like old people? and answers are along the lines of If you can twirl a pencil like a baton without dropping it the answer is no.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
I end with this small black cat jack-o-lantern style container which probably held treats on a very well appointed Halloween table. It survives in virtually pristine condition. No tricks, only treats here at Pictorama today. Have a Happy Black Cat Halloween!
Pam’s Pictorama Post: The Halloween season is upon us and brief morning trips to run in the park have revealed some serious dedication to decorating for the holiday. I used to enjoy seeing the townhouses near the Met decorated for the season – some would really pull out all the stops and put on a show. I am less often over there now, but one townhouse near Carl Schurz Park is really throwing down the holiday gauntlet with this tableau of a chain of skeletons climbing down the front of the house from the attic!
Decorated townhouse near East End Avenue, taken this week.
The Mansion Diner, on the corner of 86th Street and York Avenue, has long dedicated themselves to decorating their entire building for the holiday. They were a little late getting them up this year and I wondered if, short handed, they would skip it, but the decorations appeared earlier this week.
It’s interesting that I only rarely had reason to frequent The Mansion pre-pandemic, but now it is a regular stop for breakfast sandwiches post run and frequent meetings with a Board member from work who lives around the corner. I spent the summer eating ice cream outside while talking with him about work, Frank Sinatra being piped out loudly for our listening pleasure.
The Mansion Diner on the corner of 86th and York, also earlier this week.
But if part of your collecting gig is black cats this is a great time of year. I think I have mentioned that my collecting has blossomed thanks in part to an online dealer from the Midwest, Miss Molly (@missmollysantiques). My friendship (consumership?) started with purchasing a black cat jack-o-lantern head. (You can see that post here and the kitty below.) Overtime I have also purchased photos from her (the most recent of those can be found here). And she nicely gives me a heads up on cat items before posting them, but once in awhile it is the stuff around what she is posting that catches my eye and she sold me the wonderful Krak-R-Jak Biscuit box that sits on my desk. (That is a sort of oddly outrageously popular post that can be found here.) I have a rather spectacular Nestle chocolate tin box to share in a future post as well, but today we are talking Halloween.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
The fact is my yen for these early paper mache cat JOL’s goes way back. I remember visiting a store in Cold Spring, New York that had a huge collection, but very expensive and utterly out of my reach. (Fall is a beautiful time to visit that area, an hour and a half or so up the Hudson, right on the water. It is a picture perfect little river town and Kim and I spent one night there for our “honeymoon” there, 21 years ago this past week.) I had resigned myself to never owning one, but the internet has become a great equalizer and prices are lower – and I spend more money!
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
All this to say, recently she came up with this cat jack-o-lantern and it entered my collection as my second such item. Like the first one I purchased, the paper inserts remain intact. It is hard for me to imagine safely putting a candle in these, but I guess that was the idea. There is no evidence of this on the inside, but there is a wire on the top for hanging it and that would have been jolly indeed.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.
He shows some signs of wear, especially the tips of the ears, which I guess if you were hitting the hundred year mark you would too. It is a common design and I assume it is a black cat sitting on a fence post, green eyes and red mouth glowing. His fur and whiskers are embossed. (The molds that these were made around must have been great – would love to see one of those.) He would be just the right combination of scary and wonderful. I get the vague idea that these are German in origin, although upon reflection, do the Germans even celebrate Halloween? It would seem that it is a recent development (according to Google), so perhaps these were German American companies? Anyone who knows how all that works give a shout and let me know.
Meanwhile, Halloween is the seasonal gateway to fall and then winter. I have already started eyeing warmer running togs and dreading those very cold mornings to come. Nonetheless, I think I probably have a few more Halloween collectible posts in me this season. More from Pictorama to come.
Pam's Pictorama 