If you grew up in the 1990's, you may remember cardstock illustrations of spooky and witchy Halloween ephemera adorning your classroom bulletin board, your neighbor's windows or maybe, even somewhere inside your very own home. These decorations are the topic of our episode: the iconic Halloween decorations of the Beistle Company. Tonight we look back at their origin story and remember the decorations that made Halloween Night, 1994 so very special.
When black cats howl and monsters roar, it’s Halloween Night 1994.
Pumpkins. Spider webs. Garlands of fall leaves. A doormat that says, "witch please?" How about a front yard full of styrofoam tombstones, expertly painted and weathered to look like aged stone covered in moss? Or a porch adorned with jack o lanterns, illuminating perfectly in time to spooky music?
For some, the imagination knows no bounds when it comes to Halloween decorations. And I love to see it. But I also love the more simple decorations too, the kind I grew up with, that I saw on Halloween Night 1994. Or actually, the kind I saw at any point in the month of October during the ‘90s. And as I mentioned at the start of this episode, there was a specific type of Halloween decorations that seemed to be everywhere in the 1990’s. Or everywhere a child in the 1990’s would be hanging out. And those are decorations from the Beistle Company.
The Beistle Company has been around for over a hundred years, and has been making Halloween decorations for just about that long. The specific decorations I recall were a set of illustrated Halloween figures in a color palette of orange and black and yellow, and a hint of green. I first saw them in my own house, part of my family’s Halloween decorations. And these figures were a Jack O'Lantern, a Witch, an Owl and a Cat. Classic Halloween, right?
Though these illustrated decorations were a far cry from the gory or deeply frightening decorations that Halloween continues inspires into today, looking at them now they actually feel a bit more eerie than I had remembered.
First, the Witch. She's drawn in profile so you can see her large chin and large nose, complete with a wart of course. She has a classic, black conical witch's hat over her stringy hair. And she's framed by a yellow moon halo. But what strikes me most about her is her expression. She's looking upwards with this large grin on her face. She's not really scary, but she's not exactly friendly looking either.
The Jack O'Lantern looks like one you'd find sitting atop a scarecrow. He's wearing a yellow straw hat and a patterned scarf. His eyes and nose are carved in the triangular shapes you'd expect, but his mouth, a smile with two upper teeth, is unique–the two sides and bottom come to points, like the fin of a retro car from the ‘50s. His whole head is cocked a bit to the side, making me wonder what he’s hiding? In his mouth, a casual piece of wheat. I can almost hear him whistling across a dry, empty field.
The Cat is not your typical Halloween depiction of one raising its hackles. He's not screaming or bearing claws. Instead he's dressed in a top hat with a big, polka dot bowtie. And he's got a monocle! This is some fancy cat, and it really makes me wonder how did he get these things? He's just a cat. He also has a big grin on his face like his Witch and Jack O'Lantern friends. I mean, what's going on here?
But most unsettling of all, probably the figure I looked at the least growing up, is the Owl. He’s sitting on a branch, wings tucked into his sides, peering out with huge eyes and an almost devilish furrowed brow. Like the Witch, he's also framed by a large full moon behind him. I think I ignored this one because he looks the most menacing, like he's looking down on us all from his perch, high in a Halloween tree
If you are just dying to see what these look like in more detail I've posted photos on the Halloween Night 1994 Instagram account.
You know, growing up I thought these were just some random decorations my Mom bought at Drug Barn, the local drugstore. What I didn't realize is that they were actually part of a rich tapestry of Halloween History in the US: the story of the Beistle Company.
If you listened in to the last episode of Halloween Night 1994 all about Trick or Treating, you’ll recall how early Halloween in America really centered around the Halloween Party. And we can thank the Beistle Company for playing a part in the popularization of the Halloween party. Beistle is an American company, founded in 1900 when, as the story goes, calendar salesman Martin Luther Beistle was chatting with some clients at a hotel. The conversation led to the plants in the hotel lobby, and the fact that they needed water. Beistle had recently been on a trip to Germany, where he was inspired by the honeycomb technique of paper crafting. And something clicked! What if plants could be crafted out of honeycombed paper, plants that wouldn't require watering? And so the Beistle Company was born.
In the 1920's, Beistle partnered with the Paper Novelty Company to create Halloween-themed paper products and later, Christmas, Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day themed products too. But they were perhaps best known for those Halloween sets. The inexpensiveness and ease of purchasing these paper decorations helped to popularize Halloween decorations throughout the US.
What kind of decorations are we talking about? Well throughout the years Beistle has created many types of paper goods: place cards, invitations, garland banners, honeycomb centerpieces, fortune tellers, hats, lanterns with crepe paper lining. If you can't quite bring to mind the honeycomb paper technique, well, I'm here to help. I remember seeing a lot of Thanksgiving turkeys in this style, where the body of the turkey was made of the honeycombed tissue paper in a half sphere shape and the tail feathers, and the neck and head were all like thicker cardstock. Or maybe you remember honeycomb tissue paper bells? Does that ring a bell? Anyway, don’t worry, there’s a photo on the Instagram account.
Most of the Beistle Halloween decorations throughout their history were created in the classic orange and black Halloween color scheme, but maybe a hint warmer than you'd initially think, like a fall veil over these two colors. And this made me wonder, why are orange and black the colors most often associated with Halloween? Turns out that orange and black, in Halloween lore, can be seen as opposites: orange represents the harvest season (think pumpkins, fall leaves, warmth, essentially, the vibrance and life of the season). Black, on the other hand, is the color of nighttime, the absence of light, and the color most associated with death.
As the colors of the holiday suggest, Halloween and the fall season are kind of synonymous. Especially where I grew up, in the Northern Hemisphere. Well, in theory Halloween and fall are synonymous where I grew up in Northern California. Because there are really only 2 seasons: Summer and Winter. Winter growing up was overcast, cool and often rainy. Summer was warm and sunny. In between those seasons you could say were Spring and Fall, but not like the Spring or Fall that I had seen in movies. And I longed for "movie" Fall: red and orange leaves rustling and eventually falling to the ground, wooly scarves in the crisp air, the glow of a crackling fireplace as the sun set earlier and earlier each night. But the lack of a real Fall meant that the decorations I saw popping up, like Beistle decorations, were my first sign that Halloween was approaching. My cue that we were shifting from the sunny stage of Summer to those darker days of Winter.
But there was another shift that a ‘90s Halloween ushered in, even if only for one night: the temporary passage from childhood to adulthood. I mean, I was confronted with scary decorations, reminders of death were everywhere. I was even allowed to wear lipstick with my witch costume. Halloween was this time to dress like an adult and contemplate scary things, in a safe way. Kind of like how those four Beistle illustrations were caught in the space between fun and a little frightening. Today though, Halloween is all fun for me, except for a few horror movies here and there. I suppose this is because as an adult the real scary things happen all the time, everyday. Halloween is now my opportunity to remember what it's like to be a kid, even if only for one night.
And one last thing. While researching for this episode I came across a book, an entire catalog really, dedicated to the Halloween decorated collectibles of the Beistle Company. Now I would be remiss if I didn't address something that I came across while flipping through: it was a set of cats depicted in a racist stereotype, dated to the year 1941.
America's history is filled with examples of injustice, racism and a lot of culturally insensitive ideas, and sadly the American Halloween holiday is no stranger to these examples either.
Seeing that on the page, amidst the bats and pumpkins, reminded me that this Holiday, filled with nostalgic and feel-good memories for me, can be a real reminder of discomfort and pain, or even be a downright dangerous situation, for others. It felt wrong for me to not mention what I saw, in favor of a rosier outlook of Halloween.
As we’ve talked about on the show, Halloween is constantly changing and evolving with the culture around it. Let's do our part to keep moving it in the right direction, away from anything that’s insensitive, appropriative or harmful.
And as always, thank you for listening! If you’ve enjoyed this episode please rate the podcast and write me a review. Tell me about the best Halloween Decorations you’ve seen. Or share this podcast with a friend! Follow Halloween Night 1994 on instagram @HalloweenNight1994 and on Twitter @HNight1994. You’ll find photos of the Beistle Halloween decorations on both platforms.