Vintage Chicago Tribune: 5 ways to celebrate Halloween and spooky season with treats from the archives

Kori Rumore, Marianne Mather, Chicago Tribune
·4 min read
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The leaves are starting to change color, the temperature outside has cooled and the clouds appear ominous. It feels like spooky season has arrived.

Decades ago, Halloween in Chicago meant not only treats but also trash — as in trashing an unsuspecting resident’s possessions. Mayor Anton Cermak warned local children in 1931 against letting their fun reach the stage of property destruction.

“The consequence of vandalism shall not be tempted by the occasion, and I call upon the principals and teachers of our schools to warn every boy and girl that law and order must by strictly obeyed this Halloween,” Cermak told city council.

The fear 50 years later, however, was focused on candy distributed to children on October 31. The 1982 Tylenol Murders left seven local people dead after they ingested Tylenol capsules laced with potassium cyanide. Widely regarded as an act of domestic terrorism — a term not in the country’s vernacular at the time — the murders led to tamper-evident packaging, copycat killings and myths about tainted Halloween candy. Bensenville and about 40 other cities around the United States banned trick-or-treating that year.

Mayor Jane Byrne refused to curtail the tradition.

“When I was a consumer services commissioner, I was depicted in a newspaper cartoon as a grinch for banning unsafe toys from the shelves at Christmas time,” she said in a City Hall news conference on Oct. 5, 1982. “I am not a grinch.”

It’s hard to believe too much mischief could be made now on All Hollows’ Eve. Many suburbs have specific hours — which end not long after sunset — when children can go door-to-door seeking candy. Others allow the activity only during daylight hours the weekend before Halloween.

Trick-or-treating is not the only way to mark the occasion. What follows are a few retro-inspired options to celebrate spooky season — and get a history lesson at the same time.

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Go for a walk — in a local cemetery

Dead men — and women — do tell tales, Chicago. And really, the deceased aren’t that different from the living. In order to learn the tales of the dead, however, takes time, patience and a bit of luck.

Thanks to the tireless and sometimes tedious work by a community of volunteers and dedicated researchers, we can find and visit the graves of Chicago’s iconic leaders then share their stories — business people, athletes and performers. A vice president, an architect, a pilot, a critic. Founders of major chains and those who ran machine politics, blazed civil rights trails, designed skyscrapers and sang the blues.

Make Halloween treats using Mary Meade’s recipes

A variety of delicious — or frightening — decades-old recipes can be found in the Tribune’s archives. Part of the fun is coming up with creative ways to display the finished product — just as the Tribune’s phantom food editor Mary Meade did. (Mary Meade was the pen name used by five food editors of the newspaper from 1930 to 1974.)

Award-winning Tribune photographer E. Jason Wambsgans looked to the ground for inspiration for this Halloween recipe photo session.

“We’re gonna need a bucket of dirt,” he said.

And, how did each item taste? Devilishly good.

Watch a scary movie that’s supposedly set in Illinois

Tribune’s famed movie critic Gene Siskel loved the original “Halloween.” He called it “one of the scariest films I have ever seen” and ranked it 8th on his list of favorite motion pictures for 1978. The Library of Congress inducted “Halloween” into the National Film Registry in 2006, for its technical innovations including the extensive use of Panaglide from the almost silent, staring, slow-moving killer’s — originally known as “The Shape” — perspective.

The independently released slasher flick was supposedly set in Illinois, too — the fictional Haddonfield, which derived its name from co-writer and producer Debra Hill’s hometown in New Jersey.

With last year’s release of “Halloween Ends,” there are now an unlucky 13 films in the “Halloween” franchise. Not all of them are worth your time.

Read up on Illinois’ fantastic beasts

For as long as it has been a state, Illinois has been abundant in cryptozoological species — that is, mysterious, elusive monsters that have more basis in folklore and imagination than reality. This field guide to the state’s most intriguing crypto-creatures has reports of fantastical beats from throughout the state.

Dress up in a Chicago-themed costume

If the perfect Halloween costume idea is evading you, never fear: Chicago is here to inspire.

Just reach back into the city’s recent and retro history and you’ll find endless options that also pay tribute to Chicago culture, heroes, animals and icons.

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Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Ron Grossman and Marianne Mather at rgrossman@chicagotribune.com and mmather@chicagotribune.com.