Episode 38 - Halloween Hijinks

Tricks & Treats on the American WWII Homefront

Oct 31, 2024

Sharing a donut with a scarecrow. lol *Woman’s Home Companion*, October 1941. Kodachrome photograph by Victor Keppler

THANK YOU

I have to give a BIG thank you to Newspapers.com for the access to so many incredible newspaper articles that I used for this and many of my other episodes. They’ve kindly gifted me with a yearly membership as a researcher. Running my podcast isn’t free, so their generosity has been a huge blessing in order to keep doing my research. This isn’t sponsored or anything, but I just wanted to give them a shout-out for their amazing work in digitizing our country’s historical newspapers!

Welcome to this supplemental post about Episode 38 about Halloween during WWII!

There were many different directions I could have gone on this topic: decorations, traditions, attitudes, costumes… but for my episode I decided to mostly stick with the two most distinctive: tricks and treats with parties thrown into the mix.

Halloween in the 1940s looked a bit different than it does now. The tricks kids played back then…. Wow.

There aren’t many public domain Halloween photos from this time, especially in government sources. So, here are a few selections from my collection starting with this amazing article from November 3, 1943 Life magazine! (I think it’s funny that the article features Zionsville, Indiana - a town I know well! Looks like those kids got up to some fantastic shenanigans… lol)

Tricks

Caption: “Favorite target by most Halloween pranksters is the local church bell. Custodians always chase the bellringers, but they always escape.”

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I had to include this hilarious Windex ad from an October 1942 magazine. I believe it’s from the Ladies Home Companion.

Here are a few festive wartime magazine covers:

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Decorating Tips:

October 1941 *American Cookery* magazine

*How to Run a Successful Party* (date unknown - mid to late 1940s)

Party Ideas:

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Woman’s Home Companion - Oct 1941. This is the article I mention in the episode. Here they’re playing “Pin the pipe on the scarecrow.” I love the crow cutouts!

Treats:

Believe me when I tell you that this is just the tiniest fraction of what I found!

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The Taylorville Daily Breeze Courier (Illinois) Oct 21, 1942

In the episode, I talked a bit about the fascinating Goblin Cakes and Pumpkin Ice Cream I saw in the newspapers. Here are a few ads:

Medford Mail Tribune (Oregon) Oct 27, 1944

Medford Mail Tribune (Oregon) Oct 29, 1943

Plus the candy! Check out that price though — 23 cents per pound? That’s $4.43 per pound in today’s money. Yikes!

This ad features all the Halloween essentials! Including matches…? Must be for all those bonfires! Haha!

The Capital Journal (Oregon) Oct 22, 1945

There were so many great ads I wish I could share them all! And apparently Oregon had a lot of great grocery store ads.

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National Donut Week: October 26 - 31

I mentioned in the episode about National Donut Week. Check out these cool images!

Bremerton Daily News Searchlight (Washington) Oct 29, 1942

Morning Pioneer (North Dakota) Oct 29, 1942

Halloween Costumes:

I was sad to not have time to chat about costumes, so here are the two articles I found that have lots of great details.

The Akron Beacon Journal (Ohio) Oct 30, 1945

And the National Halloween Committee’s 1943 “Hallowe’en Party Girl”!

Cookbook Feature

For this episode, instead of focusing on a wartime cookbook, I chose three (cursed I might add) recipes from different wartime newspapers. These were narrowed down from a much longer list with the help of my subscribers here on Substack. Thank you for your help!

Recipe #1: Jack O’ Lantern Brew

This recipe was quite delicious! I don’t drink coffee, so as a substitute I used Postum. I would recommend using cocoa powder mixed in with some sugar and mixing that into the coffee instead of melting baking chocolate which did not work at all. Adding a splash of vanilla wouldn’t hurt either! With the lightly sweetened whipped cream on top, this stuff really hit the spot. It’s a very cozy, cold-weather drink!

Recipe #2: Ginger Cats

I struggled with the original recipe I found for Ginger Cats, so I ended up hunting down a different newspaper recipe for Ginger Cookies which turned much better. I’m including the good recipe only. All you need is a fun cat cookie cutter, and you’re good to go! If you want the ginger to be more pronounced like I do, double the ginger called for. The molasses tends to cover up a lot of the spice flavors.

I never saw an actual recipe for Ginger Cats, but I saw them often in ads like this one:

What the… are those even cats?? Haha! Oregon Daily Journal - Oct 22, 1945

The Atlanta Constitution (GA) Oct 15, 1945

Recipe #3: Apple Donuts with Caramel Frosting

This recipe was the most cursed of all. I had to do some MAJOR tweaking just to get it to work right. In the end, they were good, but I think adding cinnamon to the dough would have improved things. The caramel frosting also needed tweaking and in the end the taste was too strong for the donuts. Maybe adding a touch of salt would have been good? In the end, we just coated the donuts in cinnamon powdered sugar or chocolate frosting with sprinkles and moved on with our lives. Haha!