October 1905
I was scavenging around looking at old Halloween issues of various magazines and something hit me - the Halloween mags from the 1950's and earlier are fabulous pieces of art, and the ones from the 60's to present basically suck.
I'm referring here to the mainstream magazines targeted to adults. The horror mags like EERIE, CREEPY, and House of Hammer were phenomenal in the 60's and 70's; however, the standard non-genre magazines were really lousy.
Take for example the 1905 Ladies Home Journal above: it's as beautiful as it is haunting - definitely frame worthy. Fast forward 70 years and Halloween is hardly mentioned in the October issues. When it does become the subject of a cover on LHJ, or Martha Stewart Living or Better Homes, it's a bland photograph of Halloween crafts, decor and recipes. Yawn inducing to say the least.
So, lets take a stroll through a few more Halloween issues of various magazines beginning at 1905 (above) and ending in 1981. The next post will deal with Halloween issues from children's magazines (which stayed good a couple decades longer than their adult counterparts). Enjoy!
October 1926
October 1930
October 1933 (Joan Crawford)
November 1938
October 1939
November 1939
November 1940
October 1949 (via sexywitch)
October 1953
October 1954 (via neato coolville)
November 1955
November 1959
Fall 1973
October 1980
October 1981
If you have scans or a link you can reference of Halloween magazine covers, drop me an email. If you like, I will certainly credit you in the post.
