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: The other evening I wandered in on the late side after a pop into Dizzy’s to get some folks settled before a sold out show for the Christian Sands Trio. Although someone would have found me a seat and fed me, my day had started early so I headed back uptown where I could curl up with Kim and the kitties for a bit. I found Kim on the couch having just finished his dinner. I raided the fridge for something fast and while a thick slice of rye bread was toasting wandered over to my desk and found this splendid card and nice note which Kim had left where he knew I would find it.
This Halloween gem found its way to Deitch studio via a Facebook friend, Rick Barrett who hails from Houston, Texas. His note identified him as a comics/underground collector. After a look at his FB page it is clear that he and his wife are fellow travelers in the world of collecting and gathering of stuff and we are so pleased he thought of us.
Another kinda scary pumpkin head – this is a candy container I wrote about after purchasing back in the summer. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.
For my money, Halloween starts to get scary when the pumpkins start to walk around and have bodies. It wasn’t until I started to look at early Halloween ephemera that I started to see these; I feel lucky to have been spared them as a kid. Man, they would have given me nightmares! This scary fellow is no exception, despite the sparkles and that funny little cap. Something about that sideways look, and that mere suggestion of fingers and toes that is just a tad terrifying. And there is also his leering, toothy not quite grin, with a sparkle filled mouth. What could he be looking at? His pupils and the sparkles tell two different stories.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection
A nice black cat is below the image and another peering out from behind the tree the swing is hung on. There is an owl in the tree and a bat flying. Mr. Pumpkin seems to be in a somewhat mysterious mount landscape, despite the single tree from which he swings. I especially like the gold stars that dot the sky. For my money, along with the pattern around the border it has a slightly Deitchian look, yes?
Back of card.
The card is addressed on the back to a Miss Lillian Garrett, Bedford St, Trimble, Colorado, Route 2. The note is hard to read and seems to convey that the person writing (Florence?) got home safely, is tired, baked bread – she wants to get a false face to wear to the party – which in my mind is a sort of odd way of saying she is buying a mask. It is a bit mysterious that the card is addressed, but there is no postage or postmark. Perhaps after preparing it she decided that this handsome card deserved to go in an envelope after all, helping to preserve it for us all these years later.
So a Deitch Studio thank you to Rick for thinking of us and please know that this card is now happily ensconced in the Pictorama library.
Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Tomorrow we will have our annual Deitch Studio Valentine reveal (one of the highlights of the Pictorama and Deitch Studio year – if you are new to Pictorama or just need to see a Kim Deitch Valentine right now, last year’s can be found here), but today we are back to a Felix photos. This 8″x10″ came to me via @missmollysantiques on Instagram (a fascinating source for things Halloween and exotica from our nation’s great Midwest), and although it was a rollicking good Halloween photo, I didn’t see the Felix at first.
This interior from the early decades of the 20th century is homey and nice. The window dressings form their own patterns in the background, and the piano on one side and mantel on the other frame the group nicely. There is no carpet on the floor, it is shining wood beneath the bent knees of one of the young Indians, but perhaps it has been rolled up and put aside for this shindig. It is hard to imagine that this well-appointed room didn’t have a carpet most days.
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection
These folks have embraced the costume spirit with a fair amount of enthusiasm. If I was the judge for Best Costume I would likely hover around the gypsy fortune teller (second row, second from the left, holding a tambourine, sassy sash at her hips), or perhaps the clown in the back corner behind the piano – but I am a sucker for a period clown costume and her pointed hat has a nice Halloween pumpkin and black cat. (You can find an earlier rather splendid similar Halloween clown in the snow photo post here. It heralds from the same Midwestern source. Those folks really knew how to celebrate Halloween.)
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection
The men have largely, although not entirely uniformly, embraced cross dressing as their fancy dress and I count four of those here. Others seem to have adopted funny suit clothes without a self-evident definition – comical hats and ties largely. One fellow got into the spirit fully and is in a sort of jester costume, although he looks a tad unhappy, sad jester – he holds something in his hands I can’t make out. Maybe being next to the flashy gypsy à la flapper has him put out.
If you look closely at the back row you spot several men and one elderly woman who are not in costume, tucked in among the more colorful celebrants. Dad and Mom as I think of them, are wedged between a straw hatted and bespectacled (not to mention jaunty) fellow striking a pose on the end and a well-dressed younger woman who may or may not be in costume. Dad is clad in vest and tie, mom with her hair up, eyes downcast, but wearing some lovely long beads, dressed up if not in costume.
Two other younger men who don’t appear to be in fancy dress are to the back. One with a loosened tie behind Dad and the other in a plaid flannel shirt is on the other end. Flannel shirt guy is taller than everyone else and good looking. Perhaps he is in costume but my guess is no. Meanwhile, he looks a bit grim at the prospect of this photo.
On the floor we have our small fry representing a sort of jester, the aforementioned Indian (feathers in her headdress vaguely askew), and a third little girl whose costume, if she is wearing one, is indistinct. She may be sporting something on her head that I can’t quite make out. It’s easy to imagine them running around wildly before and after this shot. I can almost, but not quite, assign them as siblings or offspring of the older generations in the photo. (Does our Indian look a bit like Dad? Does the jester look a bit look a little like the heavy set man with the huge, flowing tie in the middle row?)
Pams-Pictorama.com Collection
Meanwhile, if you haven’t found him yet, Felix takes the form of a posable toy, likely of the Schoenhut variety held in the hand of the woman to the far right, perched on the piano. Although she is in party dress, she does not appear to be in costume either and perhaps grabbing Felix was her attempt to be more festive. Perhaps after this photo she sat down at that piano and started to bang out some tunes, apples were bobbed and the party got underway.
Pam’s Pictorama Post: Picking our very Halloween run of posts back up today, I share with you all a candy container which just turned up here at Pictorama. (May I just add that the very phrase vintage candy container thrills me?) He is an odd duck and a bit more fragile than I thought he would be. I have not yet found the best final spot for him in the new bookcase, among the black cat toys. I had planned for him to live with some of his Halloween brethren, but in addition to being fragile he rolls dangerously. Right now he is resting against one of my extremely off-model Felix toys, nestled safely into his side safely on a lower shelf.
Pams-Pictorama.com collection
Mr. Pumpkin has a few dents which can be forgiven considering his advanced age. He is marked simply on the bottom, German, and nothing else. (I don’t know how much they actually celebrate Halloween in Germany but there was a time when they were making some of the greatest Halloween items being sold in this country. Strange, right?)
Pumpkin Head appears to be paper mache, or a close relative, lined with cardboard. I can only imagine what a glorious thing it would be to show up for a Halloween party and find an army of these fellows, stuffed with candy on a decorated table! Or perhaps he was dropped into the candy packed pillowcase of some lucky child – who loved him so much he has survived the long march of time this far.
Side view, Pams-Pictorama.com collection
He is pretty friendly looking with just a touch of madness. I confess to a bit of intimidation by some pumpkin-headed figures. Even as an adult, I admit that they fill me with some unease – my idea of a horror film, being chased by mad pumpkin-headed figures, legs and arms seem to make all the difference to my psyche.
In addition to the well-documented ongoing black cat addiction, I went through a period of purchasing Halloween decorating books of the aughts and teens, originals and reproductions. As a result a brief examination of the Dennison’s decoration empire can be found in a 2015 post here. Founded as a maker of jewelry boxes in the 1840’s, Dennison’s was the first maker of crepe paper. They were the reigning king of holiday decorating for over 100 years, starting in 1897. Their Bogie Books fulfilled every curiosity I harbored about the details of early 20th century Halloween celebrations.
Original Bogie Book, Pams-Pictorama.com collection.
Even as a kid I was somewhat fascinated by Halloween of yore. I remember insisting on bobbing for apples at some Halloween party and I can only say it is perhaps a skill that one develops over time. (And clearly not one to revive in this Covid year of contagion.) Perhaps this was a regional thing and some of you readers were routinely bobbing away. My Halloweens were ones of unromantic plastic pumpkins and pillowcases for candy, uncomfortable masks of hard plastic that were purchases out of boxes and were hard to breathe in and even harder to see out of, especially in the dark – they always seemed to poke you in the eye a bit.
I am not sure if a renewed interest in Halloween items is speaking to me this year because of unexpected availability or perhaps fulfilling a different yen during this oddest of years. Maybe it is a desire to mark the changing season in a year of remarkably similar days. (My new mid-West supplier Miss Molly seems to be the reigning Queen of Halloween and has turned up a surfeit of items – she occasionally even sends me things to look at while she is in the parking lot of a flea market, somewhere in the environs of St. Louis. Seems like a glorious way to spend your weekends actually. I enjoy vicarious pleasure in her ventures.)
When I was a young adult I continued to carve pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns much as I had since I was a child, wielding the knife now however – and cleaning up the huge mess. The last time I did it was the first Halloween after Kim and I got together. What I remember best is that my cat Otto loved the smell of the pumpkin guts, rolled around in them and insisted on eating it. (Incidentally, canned pumpkin can help at cat clear hairballs out of their system. Just a kitty tip in passing.) Sadly, I did not have the foresight to document the Deitchien influenced creation.
Trick or treating in Manhattan is an odd ritual with the kids of our high rise building going door-to-door to apartments who have indicated that they are welcome. Local businesses also get into the spirit and hand out candy to the kiddies. This year, a sort of ham handed CDC recommended fashion, the building will forego and instead offer pre-filled bags to the offspring of the building. Regardless, we are on the countdown to Halloween ’20 however, and I have at least one more small Halloween treat up my sleeve to share next week.
Pam's Pictorama 