A little retro Halloween fun, circa 1958: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow



A little tribute to "Halloween," the way I like to remember it:  


Halloween:  Hot cider.  Homemade costumes.  Little old ladies offering fresh, juicy Vermont caramel apples and homemade popcorn balls at the front door.



Just some retro, random kids I might have grown up with.


Days when all things "scary" were limited to ghosts and goblins, and not bloody, plastic props that look like they fell out of the evening news.


This is saying a lot, actually, since I grew up in the Vietnam War era.  Every night the evening news brought to our living rooms relentlessly graphic footage of the war as well the violent protests against it going on here at home.  


"Halloween," had not figured out how to market our fears back as well as they do today.  


I suppose for some reason they felt it would be in bad taste to show bloody body parts in our front yards with a war going on.  Imagine that?  


In any case, thank God that "back in the olden days" Halloween was still just a sweet holiday which remained  kid-friendly since there were no Target Stores and Big Lots to capitalize on all that plastic crap.


(However, if you want to see perhaps one of the sickest, most tasteless examples of capitalizing on horror to the point of insanity, then click here to  see a very unusual Thai Bakery:  *If you dare.  Note: NOT kid friendly!)


Anyhow -- Here's back to a retro Halloween video, where the scariest thing about it is Bing Crosby's voice.


The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1958)



And, "Ichabod Crane" 
~ May be one of the most overtly dumb Disney songs, ever.






Comments

Peter Varvel said…
I think it's ironic, and funny - almost - about the churches that scare the crap out of kids on these "hay rides" or "walk through hell" haunted houses so that they can manipulate them into 'Coming to Jesus' at the end of it.
Yeah, that's what Halloween is all about.
louise larsen said…
Yep. There's something very odd about this holiday.

And, I find that at it's roots, it's a day we seem to need, in celebration and memory of those not with us, now.

The Day of the Dead (El Día de los Muertos) or All Souls' Day

This is what the root of this holiday should be about, but, as can be expected it's now going into two very opposite directions: To hollywood hell and to the crazy christians: Both are wrong.

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