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20 strange, cheap Halloween costumes from the 1960s and 1970s
Thanks to budget boxed Halloween costumes, and kid could dress up as the Fonz, Chachi, Barbarino, Jaws and more
No sense triggers our memory quite like our sense of smell. One whiff of rubber cement and a first grade classroom rushes to the forefront of the mind. Likewise, the synthetic odor of Halloween masks conjures vibrant images of crisp October evenings, giggling parents and mounds of Mounds. As colorful as they may have seemed, those masks were hardly fun to wear, especially the stiff, low-price ones you would pick up in the drug store. The edges of the eye holes dug into your skin. The thin rubber band, held on by staples, would snap. A cold flop sweat would quickly develop over your face inside the thing. And yet, seeing these old boxed costumes makes us want to be 10 years old again.
For decades, three companies cornered the market on the budget Halloween costume — Ben Cooper, Collegeville and Halco. They all scrambled for licenses, which could send them to the top of the heap, as Ben Cooper found out with its lucrative Star Wars deal. The selection of pop culture properties was stunning. Seemingly every television show had a Halloween costume. Children could dress up as Father Murphy or Dr. Kildare if they so desired. The better costumes worked as a complete outfit with a cartoon face. Too often, however, kids got an eerie human(ish) face atop a poster printed on, what seemed like, a garbage bag.
We dug around to find twenty of the funniest, most unexpected boxed Halloween costumes. Today, these babies can fetch serious money on the collectors' market. Did you save yours?
1. Ringo Starr
2. The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
3. The Phantom
4. The Brady Bunch
5. Hippie
6. Rat Fink
7. Land of the Lost
8. Jaws
9. Flipper / Gonks
10. Welcome Back, Kotter
11. The Fonz
Photo: Flickr/rpchurch
12. Laverne & Shirley
13. The Gong Show
14. Donny Osmond
15. Morgan Freeman of The Electric Company
Before he played God, Morgan Freeman was a regular on The Electric Company, playing the hip disc jockey Easy Reader. The costume designer, however, seemed to have Fat Albert on the mind.
16. Alien
17. Farrah Fawcett
18. Chachi
19. The Village People
20. Asteroids
Looney Tunes - Holiday Bugs
$19.95
Svengoolie® T-Shirt
$19.95
I Love Lucy - Lucy Lines
$19.95
Svengoolie Face Ceramic Mug
$17.99
Women's Svengoolie® T-Shirt
$19.95
1 Comments
That's not technically Morgan Freeman, it's Easy Reader.
I loved these costumes - it's like the entire design budget went into the mask, and then for the costume they handed it to Kevin from accounting, who took an art class in college.
I loved these costumes - it's like the entire design budget went into the mask, and then for the costume they handed it to Kevin from accounting, who took an art class in college.