Halloween Identity
Instead of the handmade masks and makeshift clothing that has yielded some truly unintentionally scary Halloween pictures, manufacturers saw a chance to make a few dollars from children, who were whole-heartedly embracing this shift to Halloween trick-or-treating. Costumes evolved from terrifying mutations of demons and spirits and more about stepping into another life. People fascinated with the swashbuckling pirate lifestyle could become a pirate for a night. A kid watching Boris Karloff play Frankenstein (1931) on screen could become the monster for a night. As science fiction grew in popularity, so did alien and spaceman costumes. People with wanderlust might dress as a train-hopping hobo for an evening, A child might become a princess, a cowboy, a police office, a fairy, a king, an elephant, even a raincloud if they wanted. If they could read about it in books or see it on a movie screen, they could become it.