Houseful of Halloween - Page 4

Haunting mid-century traditions continue to inspire—and spook—new generations
By Adriene Biondo
Houseful of Halloween
Only the incredible brush of El Gato Gomez could summon these fictitious 'Polynesian gods of horror.'

Albertini has found that kids love fun-filled projected images, and pumpkins and ghosts that talk and sing. "They tell stories, they sing, they tell jokes," she says. "It's great, the community loves it, and the little kids love it too."

"I do not have a haunted house or anything like that. It just looks like Halloween vomited on my front yard," she adds, laughing. "But everybody loves it."

Of the large Bates Motel sign (remember Psycho?) she has proudly displayed outside her Eichler for the past two decades, Albertini says, "It's my absolute landmark, I love Hitchcock movies!" The sign goes up first, and it's the last thing to come down. Even in the summertime, kids on bicycles have been known to pass by and ask, "Where's the Bates Motel sign?"

Houseful of Halloween
Left: The Addams Family (1964-'65) in its heyday. Right: Is Vincent Price repelled by someone's bad breath in The Fly (1958)—or more?

For Boney Island's Rick Polizzi, Halloween has always been magical. With his Halloween displays, seeing kids get that special feeling—'I'm one of the cool kids finding this' and 'hey, come see what I found'—has been its greatest draw.

All of these cues, El Gato Gomez emphasized in a 2020 interview, are part of what makes up the aesthetic of a mid-century Halloween.

"These subtle symbols that we all subconsciously recognize—the potato chip chair you sat in in kindergarten, the cat-eye glasses your grandma wore, the 'it's alive!' moment in Frankenstein—these are things that we all share and understand, and that bring comfort and a sense of camaraderie. Because pop culture really is our culture. It is our language."

  Houseful of Halloween
El Gato Gomez brings together Count Dracula and mid-century modern architecture as if they were made for each other.
  

So whatever you do this Halloween—whether it's setting up a pumpkin-carving contest or hosting a mid-century haunted house—remember that Halloween today, just like in the mid-century, can be a season for celebration, a time to bond with neighbors and make new memories and traditions.

And it's something we can look forward to all year long.

  Houseful of Halloween
A trick-or-treat moment at the Eichler front door of Jacki (dressed as a Conehead) and Terry Jones in Thousand Oaks.
  

 

Photography: Dave Weinstein, Dante Pascual, Joe Moshier, Robyn Moshier, Denise Albertini, Frank Grace, Oliver Evergloff, Gavin and Jason Fox; and courtesy Rico Tee Archive

Spooky illustrations: El Gato Gomez

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