Savannah High Cinderella Princess 1969

Submitted by Alison (Holt) Meyers

My name is Alison (Holt) Meyers. I was chosen as the Cinderella Princess from Savanna High School in 1969 to ride in the Anaheim Halloween Parade on Savanna’s float. Wonderful memories of being in the parade I had watched for years before!

A local photographer asked if he could take the black and white photos to hang in his studio. I do not have record of his name!

Thank you for this opportunity to share my memory!

Alison (Holt) Meyers

 Anaheim Halloween Memories

Submitted by Janet Brown

As a Mid-West transplant to Anaheim in 1969, witnessing the Halloween parade as a 10-year-old was a special treat. 

I vividly remember painting the windows of downtown businesses with pumpkins, ghosts and witches. Another special treat was watching horror movies at the Fox Theater. It cost a dime to watch the black and white versions of Frankenstein and Dracula. 

Of course, the pancake breakfast was another not-to-miss event that I attended with school friends.

Marching in the Kiddie Parade was another magical moment. I was a banner carrier for Horace Mann Elementary and also marched with Fremont Junior High. 

In high school, my girlfriends and I tagged along at the end of the parade dressed as ghouls riding a tandem bike with a passenger on the handlebars, a real Halloween trick! 

The best part of the parade for me is the lifelong memories I've made with friends I still celebrate the parade with each year. We still dress up, hold lawn parties and sometimes ride in the parade as part of a float or a passenger in a classic car. Thank you to all the volunteers who helped create these magical memories! 

 

Memories of Anaheim Halloweens

Submitted by Charlene Schultz Baker

Halloween in Anaheim in the 1940s & '50s was an exciting and magical time. I remember the calliope music ( a steam- whistle organ) awaking us on Halloween morning as it was pulled on a trailer through town, calling everyone to come to the Pancake Breakfast in City Park (put on by the Lions Club I believe).

 

Warren & Elizabeth Schutz family going to the Halloween Breakfast, about 1950

 

Mid-morning we kids, all dressed in our costumes, lined up with our schools and marched up Center Street in the Kiddie Parade. There was no school on Halloween!

Alberta St Kids, Horace Mann School 1950 (l to r): Jeri Raber, Yvonne Osborn, Janice Raber,   ? Raber, Loren Schutz, Charlene Schutz 

Evening brought the wonderful Halloween Parade, down Center Street, Palm (Anaheim Blvd), ending as it marched by the grandstands in La Palma Park. There were floats, marching bands, horse groups, etc. with crowds lining the streets from communities all across Southern California.

Loren & Charlene Schutz as Alice in Wonderland and the Caterpillar, around 1953.

 

What wonderful memories of happy family celebrations in a simpler time.

 Year 2000 Anaheim Halloween Parade 

By Annie Kupfrian 

In the year 2000, the Anaheim Halloween parade was a daytime event.  I helped my daughter, Anneliese, enter the children's costume contest that year. Seeing all the Capri Sun drinks in my refrigerator, I imagined and created a large Capri Sun wearable costume. She and I worked together on her costume.  I had the use of an enlarging machine and a laminator. I took a standard empty Capri Sun drink pouch and enlarged the label quite a bit, maybe about 400 to 500%. Then my daughter colored the entire label with bright-colored markers. We pasted the large label onto numerous sheets of foil and then I ran it through a laminator. I taped the front and back together and cut holes for the hands and head. I created a straw from Goldenrod colored paper and inserted it into a piece of clear laminate. Much to our surprise, Anneliese won first prize in her age category. She was so excited, received a big beautiful blue ribbon and a $50 bill. At age 10, she had never seen a $50 bill before and her eyes just lit up. I told her she could spend it anyway she wanted. I think she bought a game of some sort with the money. All the costume winners were invited to ride in the parade on a “hay ride” that afternoon on a flatbed pickup. Anneliese needed to be accompanied by an adult, so her dad, Tom, joined her for this fun honor. A local TV station recorded the parade. Needless to say, I have fond memories of working on a one-of-a-kind costume together with Anneliese and sharing in the excitement when she won first prize.  

  My Anaheim Halloween Parade Journey

Submitted by Lea Browning

After retiring from building haunts in Arizona and starting a semi-retirement job at Disneyland in 2014, I was lucky enough to stumble across an absolutely great group of Haunters at the Anaheim Halloween Parade.

My journey started out as all do, with baby steps. 

I worked around the warehouse on Anaheim Blvd. before the big move cleaning up and doing odd jobs helping out, then came the big day.  The day of the parade, we were short pushers for the floats (this was before we acquired the awesome cart chassis that we have now) I volunteered to push one of the floats. 

The Haunted House, it looked different than it does today, it was much bigger, well bigger is not always better especially when you are pushing it down the parade route with wheels that are not wanting to all go the same direction.

 It was still a blast, I had helpers, but they were so excited they were waving at the crowd and forgot to push. We made it and had a great time, this is such an awesome event for the City of Anaheim.

Fast forward a few years, we have space in another warehouse and we have carts that we build the larger floats on.

We have created some new designs, the Haunted House got a make-over, it is a smaller version of the old mansion, and no one has to push it.

Bill, Ken, Melina and I created a “Ghost Dissipater” float, it is a “Steam Punk” inspired machine that vacuums up ghosts and sends them off to wherever ghosts go.

Our Ghost team has refined and tweaked and we have one of the coolest floats in the parade.  (Sorry I’m kinda partial to our “little” machine, and the best part is I get to drive it.)

Ken is the bellows for the vacuum and Melina is the ghost chaser. God bless her she walks in heels the whole parade route.  Bill, well he is the brains behind the curtain.

This is a wonderful group of ghouls that I am so happy to call my friends.  Here’s hoping that we can make it through this 2020 rough patch and get back to haunting soon.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

 Halloween Breakfast 1951

Submitted by Steve Faessel

The Annual Halloween Breakfast held at City Park (today’s Pearson Park) was a “must attend” Anaheim event.

Back in the 1940’s when agriculture was still the dominant Anaheim industry, Halloween mornings were usually cold, damp and very foggy. Even living across the street from the Park in the 1950’s, I recall it being lost in the damp mists of Fall.

At 6AM sharp, the Eltiste Calliope (Eltiste was a large local farm implement dealer) hooted and squeaked everyone to get up, dress in costume and head to the Park. 

While the Chamber of Commerce and all the Anaheim Service Clubs “officially” ran the Breakfast, it was no secret that this was Park Superintendent, Rudy Boysen’s event and everyone was going to enjoy themselves. Rudy would amble down the line of waiting residents (likely using his two canes for support) making sure everyone was comfortable. Hot coffee was brewed in 50 Gallon containers in the Park kitchen and everyone stood in line for their bacon and eggs.

A wooden stage was erected (courtesy of Ganahl Lumber) and the MC (usually one of our business leaders) led off a breakfast show of local talent, music and slapstick.

The photo below shows a 1951 Halloween Breakfast held about where the park’s swimming pool is located today, west of the tennis courts. Note all the costumes!

Since our house was right across from Today’s Pearson Park (old City Park), it was expected that mom and dad would dress up in costume for the Annual Halloween Breakfast held there.

 

Pictured from left to right, Alma Nickey (my aunt that lived across from La Palma Park), Patricia Loly (the daughter of Victor Loly our neighbor and owner of Orange County’s premier jewelry store) and my mom, Eleanor (Ellie) all wearing Anaheim High School Football uniforms!

The Return of the Flying Sasser (re-post from Kevin Kidney 2012)

  

• The Return of the Flying Sasser (re-post from Kevin Kidney 2012)

Sasser 'n Sass-tronauts! (2012)

by Kevin Kidney 

The Anaheim Hallowe'en Parade's theme in 1953 was "Out of This World" and featured, among many things, a witch riding a missile instead of a broom, a platoon of pretty young Martians wearing kitchen colanders on their heads, and, most memorable of all, a "Flying Sasser" built by neighborhood kids.

Thanks to the one-and-only known photograph taken of it, the "Sasser" managed to survive obscurity over the passing years. Four boys, wielding toy space pistols, pose in front of homes on a suburban street (presumably Broadway or Center Street). A TV antenna, borrowed temporarily from a rooftop, supplies a hint of a high-tech to the otherwise homemade-looking spacecraft. The scene is so charmingly Americana, it's no wonder the photo has been published in several books on Anaheim history. Even our local Ruby's Diner has a framed print on the wall over one of the tables.

On October 27, 2012, the Flying Sasser returned to the Anaheim Halloween Parade, 59 years after it first appeared, thanks to some creative people in the AHS-