The Halloween Celebration Committee was formed back in 1982, after the Tylenol scare, in an effort to reassure the public that Halloween was indeed a safe holiday. The committee was made up of a number of mask, costume, and Halloween manufacturers including Be Something Studios, Collegeville Costumes, Ben Cooper, Fun World, Imagineering, Don Post Studios, Topstone Industries, and others.
The book itself contains little about monster masks, but it is a fascinating bit of history from a committee that many mask manufacturers belonged to. In tomorrow's "Part 2 Post" check out the Halloween Celebration Resources beginning on page 28 for some interesting books and records...
A lot of people don't realize the extent of the Tylenol scare's effect on the Halloween industry. At MaskFest last year, I had a sit down meeting with Ed Edmunds after the show closed for the night and we were talking about the effect of the latex shortage in the mid '80s. He told me that was nothing compared to the Tylenol scare.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to hear the Tylenol scare put into perspective like that. The latex scare was rumored to have almost killed the industry in the 1980s. No wonder the manufacturers came together as a unified front to combat the scare.
ReplyDeleteNice post!
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