The Sound of Halloween

Submitted by Douglas Wood October 31st, 2010
Certifikitsch Winner

These are the Halloween arm of my vintage noisemaker collection, along with a few other Halloween items (the face on the left has a little basket behind it to hold candy; the cat’s eyes move when you move his tail up and down; the piece in the front is cardboard from god-knows-what.) My favorite is the noisemaker in the back which features a beautiful witch at the top. Hard to see, but the graphics are sort of Art Nouveau and feature a pretty witch.

7 Responses to “The Sound of Halloween”

  1. Allee Willis

    Orange is my favorite color, though I didn’t appreciate it until about a decade ago. But now I go completely wild at Halloween because orange is everywhere.

    Is there any date on any of the noisemakers? I’m pretty wild about that round pumpkin one between the dancing cat and the tambourine. Excellent tambourine too.

    What’s the little pumpkin thing that has a purse handle on it that’s next to the Art Nouveau noisemaker?

    I think I have to start collecting vintage Hallowen decorations. They always look so fabulous grouped together.

  2. Planet Joan

    I’m loving the Owl images on these noise makers. I also love that a couple of the Jack o Lanterns are winking. Nice collection. I’ve tried to add a Halloween tamberine to my collection for years- always out of my price range.

  3. Mark Milligan

    Does that owl thing holding the jack o’lantern in the middle have a yellow handle on the back that one can hold when spinning it to make noise?
    It’s very cool that you have an orchestra of instruments by which the spirits can signal their pleasure!

  4. Douglas Wood

    The dates range from the 20’s to the 60’s. If I remember my research correctly the winking pumpkin one that you like, Allee, is from the 40’s. The one with the handle has a tiny little celluloid “basket” in the back for candy– gumdrops size. I think maybe it’s a little place setting or party favor for a Halloween festivity.

    Planet Joan– I think I only paid about $5.00 for the tambourine at a garage sale. But noisemakers in shops or at flea markets can be pretty expensive. Every so often I’ll splurge, but for the most part, most of these I got pretty cheaply at yard sales.

    Mark– yes, exactly. It has one of those handles that makes that annoying grinding/clicking noise.

    I have a whole bunch of other vintage (non-Halloween noisemakers.) A few are in my office, but I should drag the rest out of storage and take some photos for AWMoK.

  5. Douglas Wood

    Okay, you’ve motivated me to drag out my collection in the next few days. Your New Years Eve noisemaker is a real gem for all the reasons you describe. It took me a while to spot the weird little guy you referred to– what the hell is going on with him? At first I thought maybe he was supposed to be an illustration on the drum, but I don’t think that’s the case. Very bizarre. There are so many ordinary noisemakers out there, so you really have to search hard to find the distinctive ones like this.