Oodles writes: "The Dennison Manufacturing Co. made many wonderful products, but none of them could top its series of Bogie Books. They were produced yearly from 1909 through 1934, and they are chock-a-block full of great, great Halloween stuff. Need some ideas for your party this weekend? Take a look at the Bogie Book from 1926."

Check out her site for more images from the books.

]]> http://b-moviestar.com/the-dramas-of-a-b-movie-star/day-13-old-fashion-halloween-party.html/feed 2 http://b-moviestar.com/the-dramas-of-a-b-movie-star/halloween-mixtape.html http://b-moviestar.com/the-dramas-of-a-b-movie-star/halloween-mixtape.html#comments Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:00:59 +0000 B-Movie Star http://b-moviestar.com/?p=719 Well, here it is finally!

And for the occasion, I made you a mixed tape to listen to while you get your costume on and prepare your horrible treats for the trick or treaters!

Here's hoping you have a wonderful and bewitching time!

They come from Cooking by the seat of my pants. He has lots of great recipes - including some batty chili that would be good on a chilly October night!

I've also found some goblins in jars! All of these wonderful pieces of art are from the Zombie Jar Swap 08. Go there and be inspired to catch a delightful little creature of your own!

For more inspiration, Uncle Beefy has some wonderful images of an eerie Halloween party in the woods . . .

Lastly, there are some more wonderful old labels for your last minute Halloween decorating at Love Manor's Flickr photostream. You could create a spooky old apothocary shelf for your home to frighten all your visitors.

Aw, not really. Usually my handbag doesn't match my shoes nearly that well!

This photo actually came from a fantastic group of vintage Halloween images from The Chicago Tribune archives. Some are really endearing - and others may conjure up some spooky memories!

I couldn't resist this! It's a set of plastic figures called "Horrified B Movie Victims Actor Action Figures" And yes, you can buy your very own!  It's comes with:

• Nine 2-1/2” (6.4 cm) to 3” (7.6 cm) tall, hard vinyl victims
• An array of horrified poses are included: Shock, Awe, Fear and of course the female slipping in high heels.

Priceless! At first I thought it weird that they were running away from a giant green teddy bear, but then again, is that really any stranger than a giant preying mantis?

I also found another fantastic jackolantern gallery. There are some really twisted and talented people out there carving pumpkins!

Lastly if you love Halloween you should check out Spookshows. They have some fantastic t-shirts for sale with vintage artwork - LOVE them!

There's also vintage Halloween items for sale, Halloween articles, Halloween albums . . . but wait, there's MORE!

Free vintage poison labels for your Halloween decorating fun! Scare your neighbors, terrify your kid's teachers, suprise those nosy snooping Halloween guests! There's a million uses for these! Go there!

Well, I also found an awesome site called "Mostly Ghostly Music Sharing Blaaahhhhggg" where you can listen to the whole album (*warning - "Chinese Water Torture", not P.C. to say the least - also there's an annoying music clip playing when you go to this page, scroll down to the bottom to turn it off if you want to).  The scary sounds are still fun though and I love all the other albums he has to offer on his site, including Boris Karloff and Alfred Hitchcock Albums! Sweet!

Remember this album from the the Comic Book Ads? I was so thrilled to see it - it just satisfies my curiosity after all these years! Click on them for larger views. You can also download this album from the Mostly Ghostly site.

And one more thing I found on this site - a copy of this record that came on the back of Honeycomb cereal. It was so crazy finding it because I haven't thought about this in YEARS.  Once I saw it though it brought back a flood of memories of my best friend and I putting together a skit of this story and playing the record while we acted the story out - Already a B-moviestar at such a young age!

Okay, just go visit this site and I'll quit talking about it like I'm getting paid to promote it or something! It's just a treasure trove of great Halloween Records - you gotta see it for yourself!

It all started with this one really. I just love this guy - even if he is wearing a top hat.  On him it's charming.

Here he is in all his glowing glory - awwwww.

Then there's this guy - c'mon, what's not to love?

I also love the paper decorations, especially the Beistle / Luhrs designs

Here is a reproduction of one of my favorite designs - again with the top hat! I can't escape them.

Here's a great moveable cat (any cat with lips like that would scare the crap out of me).

Sorry - the photos not so good, but hopefully you can see how adorable these owl witches are.

Here's another old owl - I don't know much about him.

These two little cats were bought with a bunch of stuff at an antique store. They are really small - about 4" across and there were about 20 in the bunch. Most of them are in terrible shape, but I just love them anyway - they're so cute - like little kittens trying to be all bad ass.

And I love this guys face - he's so wacky and happy . . . I can so relate to that!

These guys stay up all year because they're some of the first ones I got - they really remind me of my childhood halloweens when I see them, I just feel happier inside.

This creepy pinata witch is hanging above my desk right now. I'm not even sure where she came from. I think maybe my mom got her for me somewhere . . . but maybe she just flew in and knew I would give her a good home. Unfortunately, she didn't bring candy with her. What a witch!

'Till next time!

Yes, I love Halloween. I started young. One of my earliest memories includes Halloween. I must have been 3 or 4 and I remember having a costume that was King Kong. It could have been just an ape, but I remember it as King Kong. The thing I really remember was trick or treating at the house of a dear friend of the family's.  His name was Carl and he was a man's man, a cowboy, salt of the earth, yes ma'am and no ma'am kinda of guy. He opened the door to find me on the doorstep prompted to yell, “Trick or Treat!” I'll never forget him jumping back in mock horror at the sight of me! I was utterly delighted. I wasn’t my little four year old self, I was KING KONG and I wanted CANDY!

That little moment in time sealed in me the love of Halloween and all things theatrical - hey, somebody's got to star in this b-movie right?

If I sit and think about it I could probably tell you every costume I've ever worn for Halloween - in chronological order. That’s how much each and every one has meant to me. The early costumes were all Ben Cooper and Collegeville costumes; if you're old enough you'll remember them. The masks always smelled like plastic and you would sort of steam up the inside of them because it was hard to breathe out of the little nose holes they gave you. You also couldn't always see so well - and the mouth had a tiny little opening for you to shout a muffled, "TRICK OR TREAT!" through. It was hard to understand, but they got the gist of it. I always tried to stick my tongue through the opening. I can still taste that smooth hard plastic.

Then there was the little elastic band on the back of the mask that got tangled in your hair if you weren't careful - and the thin one-piece costume that slid on over your clothes and tied at the nape of your neck.  Once you were dressed and ready to go out, your mom would force you to put a coat on. It would just drive me to tears - how in the world would people get the full effect of my magnificent costume with some stupid COAT over it? What was my mom thinking?!

Nowadays kids, especially little ones, have to trick or treat before it gets dark. Not back in the day - and this was in the suburbs of Denver.  Our parents would check our apples for razor blades and we were instructed to not go into people houses and stick together in groups, but for the most part it was a crazy night of running through darkened streets like mad little goblins, begging strangers for candy - WHICH THEY GAVE US! It was a different time, and it's too bad the world has had to go and get more dangerous for kids. We had a blast - even if we did have to wear our coats.

Oh, and there were the Halloween parties! The bobbing for apples, the scary stories, the haunted mazes, the monsters jumping out to make you scream! One year we had a Halloween party at the church that was at the end of the block. My grandma helped me put together a gypsy costume with her skirts and scarves and clip-on earrings. Lastly, she took her eyebrow pencil and drew on heavy arched brows - so mysterious and glamorous! (And she drew on a beauty mark for good measure) All the other girls at the party were impressed with my makeup job and I felt like the belle of the ball - it was so much fun and again, so theatrical, becoming someone else for a brief period of time.

Everyone dressed up as somebody else - whatever your imagination could dream up! You could be your favorite superhero, somebody you wanted to be when you grew up, a monster that scared the crap out of you, or even some random everyday object.  It would start at the beginning of October, the planning, the discussing with your friends, and the begging of your parents to buy you or help you make the perfect Halloween costume!

There was usually a school party - with orange frosted cupcakes and Halloween themed word finds. We would parade around the school in our costumes, maybe to a nearby rest home so the older people could admire how awesome we looked. Then we would rush home, drive our parents crazy through dinner asking over and over, "when can we go? when can we go?"

Lastly, it was fun coming home at night and dumping your haul onto the floor, sifting through the chocolate bars, gum, wax teeth and pixie stix. Making a pile of the candy you didn't like so you could trade with your brothers and sisters, or give the “bad” stuff to your parents to eat.  It was like the most magical day of the year had ended - but there was always the promise of next year and having an even better costume and raking in an even bigger haul of candy!

So, here we are, at the beginning of the Halloween season! Time to bust out the rubber bats and the paper skeletons, I’m all grown up, but the magic of Halloween is still with me and I’m still so-o-o excited! Welcome to my 31 days of HALLOWEEN!