Deluxe masks from 1977 Johnson Smith catalog

The blog, Jart in My Head, has scans of "deluxe masks" from the 1977 Johnson Smith catalog, along with funny commentary.

Onward and upward to the Deluxe Demon mask! I'm thinking that if your friend said, "Hey, I've got a deluxe demon mask" you'd be expecting something horrific-ly terrifying! Your knees would knock just thinking about the super scary mask that would be foisted upon your eyes Halloween night. Then he'd show up with this thing on his noggin and you'd immediately have to beat the bejeezus out of him and steal his candy.

Calling this mask a Demon is completely misleading. Let's be perfectly honest here. Demon's are scary. This mask is not. Therefore, this mask is not a demon. It would be far more accurate to call this mask the Deluxe Green Haired, Limited Intellect Ape with Candy Dispensing Nostrils.

Link

[#1 posted by Marilyn Terrell , October 11, 2007 5:37 PM]

These masks with "heavy simulated hair" made me think of this photo of a mummy with a weave; it's real human hair, pretty scary looking, found in an Egyptian tomb from about 3600 B.C., and without the candy-dispensing nostrils:
http://ngm.typepad.com/pop_omnivore/2007/10/mummy-with-a-we.html

[#2 posted by Kirsten , October 11, 2007 8:50 PM]

"Limited Intellect Ape with Candy Dispensing Nostrils" - that is so going to be my costume this year! Mmmmmm....candy dispensing nostrils....

[#3 posted by Stefan Jones , October 11, 2007 10:56 PM]

I have an actual late-40s Johnson-Smith catalog stashed somewhere. My brother plucked it from a trash heap. It has many of the items from the reprinted 1928 J-S catalog, plus many that I recall from an early-70s catalog.

Now I'm keen on digging it up and looking up what it offers in the way of masks.

[#4 posted by Mark Frauenfelder , October 11, 2007 11:19 PM]

Please oh please scan it Stefan and I'll post it on Boing Boing.

[#5 posted by Chinese Jet Pilot , October 12, 2007 12:53 PM]

As a kid, I literally went ape over Johnson Smith's mask selection -- the gorilla was my favorite, but I was also walked around as a caveman and werewolf.

For more mask goodness, here's a full-page scan of the masks offered in the 1979 Johnson Smith's catalog.