Saturday Snapshots – special Halloween edition! {October 31, 2009}

Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen, voices whisper in the trees, “Tonight is Halloween!” ~ Dexter Kozen

{A festively clad group of adult party-goers celebrate the night away, decked out in a varied assortment of great costumes – everything from a criminal to Robin Hood, a Spanish senorita to a street performer. They really look like a fun bunch, don’t you think?} {Yikes! Are they robots? Aliens? A hybrid of both? Whatever these 1950s Halloween celebrators were, they sure looked like they were having a blast in their homemade cardboard box costumes!} {A young lad beams with pride as he kneels down behind a grinning jack-o-lantern, which the viewer can’t help but think he must have carved himself, in this great shot from 1948.} {Two adorable youngsters don Dutch folk costumes as their Halloween attire in this lovely colour photo from 1952 (note the sleek black Hudson car behind them).} {A group of kids sport a diverse assortment of costumes ranging from Donald Duck to Superman in this festively joyful colour photograph from 1958.} {A pair of young ladies takes a break – perhaps from a party or school dance – to rest on the grass in their respective clown/pierrot and gypsy costumes, sometime during the late 40s or early 50s.} {There is something veering on the eerie side about this photo of a lone little girl, her face masked, clutching a grimacing jack-o-lantern as she sits atop a large pile of harvest pumpkins, that makes it the perfect kind of vintage shot for All Hallows Eve!} {One look at this prettily posed image from 1937 and it’s hard not to fall in love with it – and all of the college gals’ terrific Halloween costumes.} {A duo of masked characters, emulating popular 1950s childhood heroes like Zorro and the Lone Ranger, beam bright smiles at the camera as they clutch their loot bags full of candy.} {Four attractive young ladies gather in their festive finest for a newspaper photo that covered the story behind the “Halloween Slick Chick Beauty Contest”, which was being held, circa 1947, in Anaheim, California. I think I like the witch, complete with her pointy hat and straw broom the best, which one is of these lovely gals is your favourite?} {All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on it to be taken to its respective Flickr page.} In general I like to keep the nature of this post entirely random - or, in other words, I try to feature photos that do not share a specific theme among them. However, it is a rare occurrence to have Halloween fall on a Saturday and as such thought it would be wonderfully fun to fill this week’s Snapshot post with a trove of vintage images showing everyday folks, just like you and I, celebrating the once-a-year magic that is Halloween! Joyful, spooky, fantastic wishes to you each for a truly marvelous Halloween, my friends!