The Nankin Township Historical Society

Plymouth Mail , October 25, 1946 HALLOWE'EN Masquerade DANCE Masonic Temple Sat. Oct. 26 9:00 to 1:00 Sponsored by Plymouth Jaycee Auxiliary PRIZES FOR COSTUMES Mike Kleinschmidt's Orchestra ADMISSION, $1.50 COUPLE

To get any sort of information out of me you have to suffer the ignominy of ME. Which means you get the process with the product. I can't help it. This is why I can never get anything done! While I was on my Halloween kick (I'm not off it yet!) I requested a copy of this book The Sin-Eater's Hallowe'en by Francis Nielson from MELCat despite the bad reviews it received as a foolhardy polemic. Which was politics, at the time (1924), just as it is now and in time immemorial. Clee-shay (That's phonetics, not some haughty word to guess at)! So I requested it to scan for posterity's sake because I feel like that's my job since universities and institutions are corrupt and tyrannical. As soon as I received the book I noticed the two ex-libris bookplates and knew there was a reason for my request. Things will pursue you when you pursue them. Just don't do it with people. Run away as fast you can and you might be saved from them and yourself. But I digress. Be...

The Border City Star , November 2, 1928 It looks like I'm not quite ready to give up on Halloween yet. After finding a book today at the thrift store called Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween by David J. Skal it reinvigorated me to forsake seances for old Samhain (pronounced sow-win). Pranks are more of a tradition on Halloween than is trick-or-treat. Such was the case in 1928 when 9-year-old (according to the Freep) Tommy Evans, his father John of the Clover Leaf Milling Co., older brother James and some friends bounded through the Palmer Park neighborhood of Detroit in search of mischief.  Tommy knocked on the wrong door at 18264 Parkland. A woman answered and Tommy asked for some seasonal gifts. The woman told him to wait a minute and went to find the homeowner Murray Jackman, who along with his chauffeur, bounded around the back of the house and pounced upon the boy. Other boys at the scene alerted James and he attempted to defend his brother but was ...

Keeping with the Halloween theme here is the 1944 October cover of The Fluoroscope , the magazine for patients at the Maybury Sanatorium and the Herman Keifer Hospital. More local subjects which I have neglected because I'm not a very mindful robot. But it's in my collection of two bound volumes as well as some loose, incomplete issues. I'll never get to all of this stuff but I'll lie and swear that it's all coming VERY SOON.

I've crossed out the name of this 18-year-old kid because he had all sorts of problems going on. I'm assuming that Gundella crossed out the rest to use on one of the shows she regularly appeared on not to mention that most of it is negative. But that's mere speculation. Said kid had no job but he apparently had money to buy grimoires. He l aso had some good questions and information, not to mention grammatical and letter writing skills. Hartford Courant , November 1, 1995 If I knew the answer to such questions as "why the Witches insist on keeping 'The Goddess's' name secret?" I'd have written a book on the good witch herself. The subject of witchcraft itself seems like a several decade study to even attain a novice working understanding of it. The Billings Gazette , October 30, 1972 Anyway, Bill Kennedy is a familiar name so I'll skip to Dr. Martello's "Witch-In" on Halloween afternoon in NYC's Central Park. 25 years lat...

Halloween in Detroit is synonymous with Harry Houdini and the séance due to his death in an area hospital in 1926. I'm guessing that most people know that Houdini died from appendicitis after taking a flurry of punches from a student and failing to get immediate treatment. His wife and he had a death pact whereby he would contact her from beyond the grave. She attempted to each Halloween for a decade after his death with varying results according to which source one consults.

Here's a Haunted Houses of Metro Detroit advertisement from the WRIF's Inside Out magazine Halloween edition in 1990. I picked this up somewhere for a buck since that's what written at the first page. The listed attractions were as follows: WRIF Haunted House (Farmington Jaycees), Brighton Haunted Barn, Barnstormer Dungeon of Doom (Whitmore Lake), Bloomer Haunted Forest Walk (West Bloomfield), Haunted Museum (Toledo), Haunted House (Hazel Park), House of Nightmares (Warren), Haunted Barn (Wayne), Mutillation Mansion, Warren Goodfellows Haunted House, Vampire Vault (Taylor), Spooktacular (Utica?). More highlights to come from the magazine.

Detroit Free Press , November 3, 1890 Halloween in the latter quarter of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century was more of a mischief-making opportunity than a candy-gathering holiday. Boys and young men were prone to various forms of vandalism and pranks. A favorite past time in college towns was painting the facade of homes and businesses, re-working the painted signage, dislocating fence gates from their post and hanging them elsewhere, upsetting horseblocks and the classic hanging of cab bage heads. A practice which I may revitalize this year with the full knowledge that I'd likely be charge with a hate crime of some sort. Eh, stuff it, cabbage heads! In 1890 Ypsilanti had its share of autumnal revelry. Dr. F. K. Rexford had the front signage of his practiced changed to "Waiting and James" (whatever that means!). While Dr. James Houston (or Heaston?) had "New York" painted on his home front. Others suffering paint jobs were the Lad...

Detroit Free Press , November 4, 1903 The bucolic setting of the Eloise Asylum farm did not spare it the brunt tactics of Halloween hijinks. Hersdman M. Andrus found this out the hard way by riding his bicycle into the entrance at dawn only to be throttled by a piece of timber which had been lain across the gateway. As would be expected he suffered severe bruising about his shoulders and noggin.

Detroit Free Press , November 2, 1931 What is a worse fate than being an invalid at old Eloise? Being an invalid at Eloise and losing your family to a car accident on Halloween night. Clarence Gavitt received just that news the day after Halloween in 1931. Having been an invalid at the hospital for the previous two years his life had obviously sustained considerable tragedy. A year previous his then 9-year-old daughter Vera Helen Gavitt had been struck by an automobile at McClellan and Harper Avenues and lost he r right arm.  The fatal Halloween accident occurred at the same intersection when Vera and her mother, Amy Gavitt, stepped in front of a cab. The horror of the tragedy was amplified by the fact that the mask wearing child was likely in the midst of trick-or-treating. Upon receiving news of the accident from his brother Burton, Clarence Gavitt collapsed and was reported to be near death. A friend of Vera, Marie Talley, sustained a broken leg but survived the accident.

I'm not sure where I found this Toarmina's Pizza Halloween Fright Fest pamphlet but I'm assuming that it was either inside a large thrift store book or came with a box of papers from an estate sale. In fact, I forgot that I even had this until searching through my stack of "Detroit Times" newspapers. Either way it's from the Wayne-Westland YMCA and looks about as un-scary as every other advert that I've seen for their haunted houses. More scary is the fact that 1998 is now considered VINTAGE. Fright Fest '98 was held at the YMCA Barn at 827 S. Wayne Rd. Tickets were $5 or free with a purchase of a Toarmina's Pizza, the sponsor for the event. Coupons included are for Westland Bowl (5940 N. Wayne Rd.), Glass Unlimited (1335 S. Wayne Rd.), Men on the Move, Keyes Refrigeration, Universal Video (6519 N. Wayne Rd.), My Lady's Florist (930 S. Wayne Rd.), Precision Tune (35404 Ford Road), Rick Allan Music (224 N. Wayne Rd.) and, of course, Toarmina...