We did not get many trick-or-treaters tonight but the ones that did show up were all wearing costumes and were all age-appropriate. When it comes to giving out candy, I follow the rules set out by Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Remember: no costumes = no candy!
1900
For your enjoyment, here’s some old Halloween cards from the start of the 1900s. Back then, as you can see in the cards, the holiday was as much about cats as it was candy!
1908
1909
1910
1910
1911
1913
Have a Merry Halloween!
Since the start of the pulp era, cults have been a popular subject. Usually dressed in red and concealing their faces behind hoods, cult members have menaced and frightened.
For this Halloween, here are some of the cults of the pulp era.
by Walter Baumhofer
by Arnold Kohn
by John Newton Howitt
by Rudolph Zirm
by Tom Lovell
by John Walter Scott
by George Hargis
by Harry Lemon Parkhurst
by Hugh Joseph Ward
by John Drew
by J. Allen St. John
To all of our readers
To all of our friends
To every ghoul and fiend out there,
HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM THE SHATTERED LENS!
May your Halloween bring you more candy than rocks and we hope you enjoy the last day of our annual horrorthon! Be safe, be sincere, and don’t forget the true meaning on Halloween!
“We came, we saw, we kicked its ass.”
— Ghostbusters
by Erin Nicole
Stay safe out there.
Kayla Anderson (Lindsey McKeon) wants to give her daughter, Kerry (Cathryn Dylan), a sweet 16 party that she’ll never forget. She hires a party planner but unfortunately, Lindy Shores (Katrina Begin) is a psycho party planner! Lindy only gets the job because she murdered the party planner that Kayla really wanted to hire and then she starts trying to corrupt Kerry. Lindy is who she says she is. This party is going to be murder!
You know what’s really psycho? Throwing a big 16th birthday party when you’ve still got an 18th birthday party, a high school graduation party, a college graduation party, an engagement party, a wedding reception, and a divorce party to plan for. Save your money! My 16th birthday, I got a cake with one candle and I had to beg my sisters to at least let me have the part with my name on it. And I was happy to have it! I didn’t a planner to know how to party.
I liked Psycho Party Planner because the daughter looked like she was 30 but she was still only celebrating her 16th birthday. It’s good to start denying your age early. Even though the Psycho Lindy turned out to have a lot of bad things up her sleeve, Kerry still got to have a party. It didn’t look like a great party to me but it was planned by a psycho party planner so I guess it was as good as it could be. The high school drill team performed and they were terrible. They’re not going to get to State with those moves. “If you can’t handle a birthday party, how are you going to handle the pressure of keeping everyone’s spirits up when our guys are losing to Lake Highlands?” as my old cheerleading coach used to say.
Psycho Party Planner was dumb but fun in a “What did I just watch?” way. Who would have guessed planning a party could be so dangerous? I’m going to plan all of my future parties myself so if they turn out to be psycho parties, I’ll know exactly who to blame!
I wanted to share one last picture from my mom’s doll collection before Halloween. I can’t remember when or where she got this Casper doll but I know that I always felt happy whenever I saw him.
It was always wondered who wrote “CASPER THE GOD” on him and also why they decided he was a god instead of a ghost. Maybe his original outfit got lost and they labeled him so they wouldn’t forget who he was. But how can you forget Casper?
Happy Halloween, Casper. I’m glad that we were able to give you a home.
Previous Moments:
Is it just me or was there a stunning lack of Halloween specials this year? This is the first time in 12 years that Toy Story of Terror wasn’t aired on television. And, of course, It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown has been an Apple TV exclusive for a while now.
It’s hard to explain why it bothers me so much. Maybe I just don’t like change. I know that all of the old Halloween specials that I enjoyed when I was younger can still be found streaming online. I can watch them anytime that I want. That’s not the point. When I was growing up, there was something really special about gathering in front of the television with my family to watch those specials, even though I had seen all of them before. They were an event. They were something to look forward to. The waiting and the knowing that everyone across the country would all be watching at the same time was part of what made them so special. Now that you can just watch them whenever you want, it doesn’t feel as special. There’s no anticipation. There’s no thrill of the moment when it finally starts. Worst of all, there’s no communal experience. I could watch It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown in November if I wanted to. I can watch A Charlie Brown Christmas Special in July.
I never thought I’d be sad over something like Toy Story of Terror not airing on television. (This year, we watched it on Disney+.) I am, though. The world has become a little less fun and we no longer have something that used to bring the people together as a community. I feel bad for a generation that’s never going to know the excitement of having to wait to see or get something instead of getting instant and empty gratification. I worry that people don’t care as much about holidays and traditions anymore. That’s a shame.
At least I’ll always have my holiday memories.
Skulls and bones were a mainstay on the covers of pulp and especially horror related magazines. For this Halloween, take a trip back into the bony past with a few skeletal covers from the pulp era!
by Rudolph Belarski
by Rafael De Soto
by Robert Stanley
by Robert Gibson Jones
Through the Shattered Lens 