Halloweens Past in Beacon

Murphy family kids in Halloween costumes, 1957

Frances Schipbanker, the art teacher at Beacon High School, had a brilliant inspiration for a lesson plan when she volunteered to head the first-ever Halloween-theme window-painting contest in Beacon that October of 1951. Miss Schipbanker's plan would involve her junior high students, as well as those from South Avenue and Spring Street Schools, to practice their art and witch-crafts skills outside of the classroom by composing works of art on city merchants' windows up and down Main Street. The Lions Club were the sponsors of this Halloween event--they got the art supplies, found the willing merchants, and made the arrangements for the prizes for the contest. The adults of our town may have had a selfish motive in backing this idea. Some offered the opinion that this might cut back on the vandalism of the typical Halloween nights ... their  thinking was this: if the children themselves decorate the windows, they will be less likely to use soap and eggs and do other mischiefs around town. The window painting was a success. The winning window was a collaborative effort... Phillip Baxter,12, and William Clark, 14, won first prize with a "huge, hideous witch riding a broomstick silhouetted against a large harvest moon" painted on Shield's Bakery window at 317 Main Street. Second place went to John Roberts for his "genie emerging from a bottle" painted at Dee-Dee Toyland's window. Dozens of merchants participated, all allowing their window to be painted with a removable craft paint.

Another fond remembrance of Halloweens Past in Beacon was the "Masquerade March," a parade down Main Street on Halloween night in which upwards of 1500 costumed marchers often participated. The first Halloween parade was held in 1935, with a $5 prize awarded that year for the best costume. This Halloween tradition carried on right into the 1960s, and the highlight of the parade would always be a float of the "Tin Can Symphony"--tin can men clinking and clanking along, seemingly marching, with arms and legs swinging in unison. The tin men were the whimsical creations of Dave Mohurter who made them out of empty Gulf Oil cans. Mohurter's parade robots (in all, he created about 130 tin men, women and animals) entertained generations of Beacon parade-goers--from the 1940s through the 1960s. Halloweens were special then.

Dave Mohurter and his Tin Man creation

Mohurter's Tin Men float in Halloween parade on Main Street in the 1950s