Halloween throughout the 70s seemed like a special time for the holiday. Granted, I was only a twinkle in my father’s eye during the 70s (born in 1982 here), but with plenty of family, friends, and the good ol’ internet handy, to tell the story of a magnificent decade that really began the mainstream commercialized hype of Samhain, Halloween in the 70s looked to have kicked all kinds of ass. While Halloween’s traditions were well established in the U.S. decades earlier, it became a national, mainstream celebration for both adults and children in the 1970s, driven by the rise of horror films, increasing commercialization, and the growth of adult parties.
And to be quite frank, those parties looked like PARTAYS.
The Decorations
The 70s is when that vintage decor Halloween junkies search for, everyone has at least one Holy Grail vintage item, went from mostly handmade, to commercialized die-cuts that were mass-produced and placed on store shelves. Stores also began decorating more for Halloween themselves with this decor to showcase and a buying incentive. Of course, the infamous Beistle and Dennison had been doing this since the early 1900s and only grew stronger with the rise of the Halloween culture in the 70s, but a slew of production companies and new KINDS of decor had entered the market like Empire Plastics Inc., Bernard Edward Co. (later called Beco), Poloron Products, Dapo, General Foam, and many others, that became a mainstay in Halloween traditions ever since: the Blow Mold. And in the 70s, the Blow Mold was as hot as ever since making its initial appearance a few years earlier during the 60s. After some decline after the 90s began, Halloween blow molds became almost extinct and has only in recent years made a comeback to Halloween. Nostalgia is a powerful tool, folks!
The Costumes
Picture it: The night before Halloween, mom takes you into K-mart, where you look through the picked-over plastic masks with matching costumes. You clutch that $5.99 Wonder Woman or Spiderman mask and matching costume to your chest on the way home as you slide around on the bench seat without a seatbelt in the back of your parents’ wood-paneled station wagon, while your mom smokes in the front seat. You immediately run up stairs to your room and place your beloved lucky find on All Hallows Eve on your bedroom wicker chair for the next day’s exciting events while you can smell the frozen Salisbury steak TV dinner cooking in the oven (and this time, mom remembers to pull back one corner of the aluminum foil on top, so the sauce isn’t frozen popsicle gravy). All is right in the world.
While homemade costumes from sheets and everyday items were common, the 1970s also saw a surge in store-bought, plastic costumes, often featuring popular TV and movie characters like the Universal Monsters, Star Wars, and even Alien! Largely thanks to the now infamous Ben Cooper company for providing kids with a smack of pop culture and barely breathable masks for trick-or-treating.
The Candy
Halloween candy culture in the 70s saw the beginnings of a widespread fear surrounding Halloween candy, stemming from an op-ed in The New York Times in 1970 and escalating with the Ronald Clark O’Bryan case in 1974, where a man intentionally poisoned his son with cyanide-laced Pixy Stix. Though these were isolated, publicized incidents, they fueled the “Halloween candy scare” and a lasting urban legend of random tamperings, which studies later found to be unsubstantiated. But that didn’t stop people from making those homemade popcorn balls or candied apples to give to kids coming to their door on Halloween night, Whether mom allowed you to keep it was entirely on her and trying to hide those in your pumpkin pail or pillow sack didn’t seem to work much. Also, she inspects every one of your pieces of candy for pinholes before allowing you to keep it. This was the beginning, folks. A few years later, HALLOWEEN II features that parental fear into a side scene in the film that was actually, one of the terrifying moments of the movie itself.
The Horror Movie Influence
The rise of commercially successful shock horror and slasher films like THE EXORCIST, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, and, of course, the one and only, HALLOWEEN gave some much-needed holiday OOMPH for the adults and their enjoyment of Samhain. And any kids that happened to sneak into the movie theater to watch any of these, added an either amazing or traumatized element of horror to the holiday for them; one that is highly played on now rather than just plastic skeletons and sheet ghosts.
Halloween Television Specials
Before the 70s, Halloween television specials were nonexistent except for “IT’S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN”. But with the rise in television programs and public interest, cozying in that crocheted blanket on your parents’ couch in the days leading up to Halloween and tuning into Casper’s Halloween, Witch’s Night Out, or my personal favorite, The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t, while perusing the Kmart or Woolworth ads in the local newspaper searching for your perfect costume sounds like heaven on Earth to me. I mean, I pretty much did this in the 80s too, so I can imagine it wasn’t all that different. But credit to the 70s and for starting a Halloween Special revolution.
Also, shout out To Paul Lynde and his Halloween special that pretty much rules to this very day.
Neighborhood Haunted Houses
As previously mentioned, the emergence of horror films spurred a significant transformation in Halloween culture, leading to the rise of neighborhood haunted houses, catering to both trick-or-treaters and emerging horror enthusiasts. These homemade, community-driven affairs, in contrast to today’s high-tech, professional productions, the ones I grew up with as well in the mid to late 80s, were full of passion and a promise to scare the piss out of you because these adults did not give one fuck about traumatizing you. In fact, they made it their business to do so. Kids today are too damn soft and will never have their balls molded of steel like the generation of the 70s and 80s.
Although because of the popular interest and success in these little haunts, full-on production haunted houses began in the late 70s and man, they looked richly aesthetically gothic.
Again, being only a nut in my dad’s sack at the time, I can only believe Halloween in the 70s was nothing short of a religious experience. And given what knowledge I do have and the faithful internet archives, it’s safe to say I’m probably right about that.
If you liked this piece, check out my Halloween in the 80s, and Halloween in the 90s articles. Happy Halloween Season!
