Halloween postcard mailed to the Bronx in 1909

At some point I should make a directory of all the vintage Halloween postcards I've featured on Papergreat over the years. It's a pretty groovy list. For now you could plug Halloween postcard into the search bar and get most of them (plus some other stuff, too).

This is one of the oldest ones, I suspect. It was printed in Germany. What I presume to be the publisher's logo, with the words "TRADE MARK," is not one that I recognize. The card was postmarked on the morning of November 1, 1909, in New York City and delivered to an address on Westchester Avenue in the Bronx.

The card's text states "With Best Wishes for Hallowe'en" and the illustration is curious. It looks like something out of Versailles-era France, with a couple of lavishly dressed rich people wearing white wigs. She's sitting on an ornate couch, wearing a bluish dress that's twice her body length. He's standing on the other side of the couch, dangling something in front of her. My best guess was that it's supposed to be an apple or an orange. But, looking at it more, I wonder if it's some sort of medallion and he's trying to hypnotize her as part of a parlor game. Also, her head and neck are turned at a bizarre and unnatural angle. Any thoughts?

At the bottom are some green pumpkins and a clock set to midnight. 

For a fun read about vintage Halloween postcards, check out this article by Anthony Cavo on Kovels Antique Trader. 

Vintage postcards of the Winchester Mystery House

Caption: "SARAH WINCHESTER'S unique architectural talent is reflected in this strange 'lucky' 7/11 staircase, as well as her numerous carved doors and walls, and convertible sky light balconies." (card B5053)

Caption: "COSTING IN EXCESS OF $9,000 in the early 1900's this spectacular Grand Ballroom's art glass windows contained unexplained Shakespearian quotations 'Wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts' and 'These same thoughts people this little world'. 9 ceiling panels each contain 13 subpanels, and the German silver chandelier contained 13 crystal shades." (card B5052)

Caption: "MYSTIFYING AND INTRIGUING adventure awaits house guests — Goofy staircase, doors opening to walls, stairs leading to ceilings, rooms with 13 windows and walls and light fixtures with 7, 11, and 13 sections. Why?" (card B5058)

* * *

The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose is one of the top locations still on my bucket list, alongside the House on the Rock in Wisconsin. But if I never get there, that's fine. As I noted in 2021, I've been fortunate enough to see Lucy the Elephant, Wall Drug, the World Trade Center, the Haines Shoe House, the Gaffney Peach and the Jolly Green Giant in Blue Earth, Minnesota. And right here in Phoenix we have the Mystery Castle, but it's been closed for renovations for awhile and is unlikely to reopen anytime soon. Bummer. 

I don't remember when I first read about the Winchester Mystery House, but it could have been as early as the late 1970s in that creepy book-filled Clayton attic or perhaps in the early 1980s. Certainly no later. It was just a chapter in a paperback about haunted houses and paranormal phenomena. I remember it focused heavily on Sarah Winchester's paranoia about ghosts (since debunked), the oddball architecture of the house and the devastating 1906 earthquake that came in the middle of the house's construction and forever changed it. It might have been Susy Smith's Prominent American Ghosts, but I'm not sure.

I think these postcards were both photographed and published by Mike Roberts, though perhaps someone can shed more light on that. I suspect they date to the 1970s. The back of one of the postcards is shown below and features a nifty logo incorporating a house and a skull.

According to the official website, the 24,000-square-foot house features 10,000 windows, 2,000 doors, 160 rooms, 52 skylights, 47 stairways and fireplaces, 17 chimneys, 13 bathrooms and six kitchens — if you can find them all without getting hopelessly lost. Or bumping into a ghost.

There are gaggles of websites, social media posts and good old-fashioned books about the Winchester Mystery House, if this is somehow the first you're hearing about it. Happy sleuthing! And please share your favorite facts, stories or personal experiences in the comments section. If you share something especially cool, I might mail you a Winchester Mystery House postcard.

Book cover: "Blackbeard's Ghost"

This novel is, very loosely, the inspiration for the 1968 Walt Disney movie of the same name. I never saw the movie as a kid (though surely it was on The Wonderful World of Disney at some point), but our family watched and enjoyed it in the summer of 2021 via Disney+.

• Title: Blackbeard's Ghost
• Author and illustrator: Ben Stahl (1910-1987), who is more notable for his work as an artist and illustrator but also wrote two novels: Blackbeard's Ghost and its sequel The Secret of Red Skull.
• Cover design: No one credited. The front and back covers feature stills from the Disney movie version with Peter Ustinov.
• Publisher: Scholastic Book Services, Starline edition (TK 1115)
• Year: Second printing, March 1968. The novel was originally published in 1965.
• Dedication: "For my wife, Ella"
• Pages: 144
• Format: Paperback
• Price: 60 cents
• First sentence: "Jonas Pepper clamped his lopsided tricorn hat firmly down upon his gray head."
• Random excerpt from middle #1: "Night and the arching branches of the trees had transformed Elm Street into a quiet, deserted green tunnel, lined with houses and gleaming windows that revealed people moving aimlessly about, watching TV, or reading newspapers."
• Random excerpt from middle #2: "Brandishing his cutlass, he strode out from between a Dairy Queen truck going north and a ratty station wagon going in the opposite direction."
• Rating on Goodreads: 3.27 stars (out of 5)
• Goodreads review excerpt #1: In 2024, C.G. Koens wrote: "I don't even know what to think of this book. I got it because I grew up watching the 1960s Disney movie by the same name, after I saw it was based off of this book by Ben Stahl. It's not the book's fault that it is NOTHING like the movie, but it tainted my enjoyment of the book for its own merit."
• Goodreads review excerpt #2: In 2021, Deborah wrote: "The book is well written and entertaining. The artwork is beautiful. Most likely middle-grade readers would enjoy this the most. It might be a little scary for younger readers."
• Rating on Amazon: 4.7 stars (out of 5), which is quite the difference from Goodreads. That might be due to some folks mistakenly rating the movie instead of the book, though.
• Amazon review excerpt: In 2011, octobercountry wrote: "This is a pleasant little diversion, a fun light ghost story. While Blackbeard the pirate was a rather terrible person in life, readers cannot help but feel sympathetic towards — or even fond of — his ghost. And I greatly appreciated the subtext of historical architectural preservation."

Spooky Sunday

Feeling a bit low energy today (or perhaps all my energy is going toward the cats), so here is some interesting ephemera to keep the fun frights rolling this month...

For more great stuff each day, check out the right-side rail of "Crypt Keepers" (Halloween bloggers) at Countdown to Halloween 2025.