Thursday, October 30, 2014

Special Guest Halloween, 1965 - Part 3

Here is the final installment of vintage Halloween photos graciously shared with us by Ken Martinez. These are from 1965, and Ken has written some nice captions to go with each picture (highlighted in orange). This is sort of a "part two" to the previous post, which is why we start with...

Image 6 - GROUP COSTUME POSE - Here's the whole gang of kids lined up for a group pose, minus my father, mother, and teenage sister.


Image 7 - HENRY (FATHER) - Here's my dad dressed up in the Hyde/Phantom inspired costume.

It's the hat that completes the outfit! And the yellow carnation.


Image 8 - K. MARTINEZ (KENNY) - This is me in my store bought Grandpa Munster Halloween costume. I was crazy about the Munsters television show during its original run back in the day.

I know I had a few different store-bought costumes, including a devil, and Snoopy (with a battery-powered lightbulb nose).


Image 9 - A. MARTINEZ - I  think my sister was going for the beatnik look. Not 100% sure though. Sometimes she goes to Disneyland to celebrate her birthday because she was born the day Disneyland opened. When it's Disneyland's 60th, it will be her 60th.

I love this costume so much!


Image 10 - S. MARTINEZ - Here's my middle sister dressed in a store bought Cinderella costume. She obviously decided to do her own make up and not use the mask.

I don't blame her, those masks got all steamy from exhalation, and you could barely see through the eye holes.


Image 11 - J. MARTINEZ - And finally, my younger sister dressed as a bride. I don't remember if it was store bought or homemade, but there seemed to be a few of those back in the mid-60's. Hope you enjoyed the vintage suburban Halloween visit to 1965.

In spite of today's more enlightened times, you'll still see plenty of princesses and brides. Girls still want to be pretty!


A BIG thank you once again to Ken for sharing these nostalgic photos of a family Halloween celebration from nearly 50 years ago. 

8 comments:

Nanook said...

Ken-

Thanks for this final installment of some swell Halloween images that invoke a wonderful family sprit and jolly good fun. (Grandpa Munster, indeed-!) I love the first image of your older Sister where she looks more appropriately-dressed as the widow attending her (now) late husband's funeral, as opposed to reciting poetry and sipping espresso at a 'hip' coffee house-!

Thanks again for sharing these photos.

Melissa said...

Your Dad's makeup is absolutely gorgeous. Did he do theater on the side or something?

I agree with you on your sister's black costume; that is totally rad. I wonder if that's a wig/hairpiece, or if she teased her real hair up like that. Either way, great look. And I love that your parents took individual shots in front of the curtains like that!

My mother made me a beautiful bride costume for my Kindergarten Halloween parade at school. The memory's always marred by the fact that the kid next to me (I remember nothing about him except that he was dressed as Superman) stepped on my veil, puling it off my head, and then broke the plastic headband it was attached to by treading on it. I wasn't upset about the veil, really - the dress was convincing enough without it - but by the fact that he kept denying he did it even though I watched him with my own eyes. I knew it was an accident, and I wouldn't have been mad if he'd just said "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to step on it," or something. But he kept calling me a liar in front of the whole assembled school, and the teachers in charge all took his side. One of my only negative Halloween memories! I should have had a short veil, like your smart sister! (I had to wear my sneakers with my wedding dress, too - luckily mine were white!)

Chuck said...

My wife wore ballet slippers with her wedding dress, and since I was in uniform with one-inch heels, she looks even shorter than she really is in our wedding photos. And there's something to be said for short veils - when the last guy in the saber arch slapped her behind with his sword and said "welcome to the Air Force!" he almost skewered her veil.

Thanks again for sharing these awesome photos, Ken! I wish my parents had thought to take a third of the photos of our costumes your folks did.

K. Martinez said...

Nanook - Glad you liked these. I asked my sister what she was, and she said she'd forgotten, but thought she might have been a beatnik. She looks more like a black widow type character to me.

Melissa - Yes, my dad worked on several local theatrical productions for the church and school. He was highly creative and very good with putting together costumes and props. I wish I had photographs of all the stuff he worked on. As for my sister's hair, it's all hers, teased up. How sad that the kid denied it and didn't apologize. Some people just can't own it.

Chuck - Glad you enjoyed. Let us know how your son's Halloween party turns out. I’d love to hear about it.

Major - That Snoopy costume with lit nose sounds cool. The only other store bought costume I wore was Casper the Friendly Ghost when I was 4. Again, thanks for allowing me to share with your readers. Thank you all!

Sunday Night said...

Thanks for sharing Ken. I rarely watched the Munsters - but I did build a model of their car - the Munster Koach.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, I can't help wondering how much a "mint in box" Grandpa Munster costume would be worth today.

Melissa, I am guessing that the hair is real, just teased to the nth degree. Your memories of your costume misfortune so many years ago sounds almost as if it happened yesterday - still very vivid.

Chuck, I can't help thinking of all of the Halloweens in which my parents didn't take a single photo! What the hell. I guess at some point they figured "We have enough pictures!".

K. Martinez, thanks again for these great photos. I have a few vintage images to scan, but haven't had the time to deal with them. I have to admit the Snoopy costume was cute (folks who answered the door seemed to like it), but my mom once made a crazy gorilla costume for my older brother; it looked pretty odd, but I love it now because it was home-made.

Sunday Night, I guess you have to be of a certain age to have watched the Munsters. Unless you just didn't like them!

K. Martinez said...

Sunday Night - You're welcome! I remember that Munster Koach model. I had a huge monster model collection in the 1960's.

Major - That crazy gorilla costume your mother designed sounds awesome.

JG said...

Thank you, Ken, for sharing your pics. Im not sure I would have the courage, even if I had any pics to show.

JG