Dennison’s Bogie Book
Since it is difficult to squeeze everything found in the THR archive’s library into the final version of a small softcover digest, it is advantageous having this additional blog space to reveal items considered and/or discussed in the pages of The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 1 (now available btw from the Publications portion of the website). And the article of interest here is “Normal Halloween” that references the following advertisement for Dennison’s annually released Bogie Book.
Get the classroom ready for Hallowe’en, The Bogie Book (page 14) in the October 1926 edition of Normal Instructor and Primary Plans. Image from the shelves of the THR library.
This ad, as do many of the items shown in the article, points out very clearly that Halloween (and a range of Dennison’s manufactured products found within the book) are of interest in 1926 across age groups, not solely adults as conjectured by some modern perspectives. While the article “Normal Halloween” discusses the great array of holiday novelties available to youth across the United States by way of school suppliers, this single advertisement expresses the fact that Halloween in 1926 is “a great day in the children’s calendar” and that Dennison’s publication is not simply for the parties of those adults shopping at stationers, department stores, and druggists.
Dennison’s The Bogie Book, 1926. (Note how the cover art mimics the silhouettes in the classroom window of the advertisement). Image from the shelves of the THR library.
More about Normal
There is more to read about such things in The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 1. The content of “Normal Halloween: Holiday Novelties & Early Twentieth Century Youth” examines vintage Halloween products available to students, mainly through the lens of two classroom supply companies from Ohio: March Brothers Publishing Company and Paine Publishing Company. The article contains 7 illustrations, as well as source references, and includes an 11″x17″ fold-out poster featuring a full-page ad by March Brothers Publishing Company as seen in Normal Instructor and Primary Plans (October, 1926).
Here is a link to more info here about The Halloween Retrospect, Volume 1 and here is the link to purchase a copy via Etsy checkout.
Other normal snippets
Of course, that copy of Normal Instructor and Primary Plans has even more to entertain as well as inform, but there is just not enough time to include all the articles, verse, incidental photos, or dingbat flourishes… but following are just a couple of items from that edition:
Above: Jack O’Lantern Goblins (page 26). Below: the mechanics for a home-made Pumpkin Jack O’Lantern (page 53) all found in the October 1926 edition of Normal Instructor and Primary Plans. Images from the shelves of the THR library.
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