HISTORY: HOW HALLOWEEN ALMOST GOT BANNED

What turned the most dangerous night of the year into the sweetest? Halloween in America, decade by decade, in real photographs: the two hundred boys who stopped a train in Newport, Kentucky, in 1879, the Minnesota town that bought its children off with a parade in 1920, the Black Halloween of 1933, Dorothea Lange's 1938 party in a migrant camp, the wartime ration book that took the sugar, and the poisoned-candy scare that never happened. Join host Hal Whitaker for a look back at how your parents and grandparents celebrated Halloween, and the bargain that still holds every October. CHAPTERS 0:00 Two hundred boys and a train 0:47 Gate Night (1870s to 1900s) 2:08 The Mirror and the Apple (1905 to 1915) 3:29 The Year It Was Cancelled (1918) 4:55 The Town That Bought Them Off (Anoka, 1920) 6:16 Black Halloween (1933) 8:13 A Party With Nothing (1934 to 1939) 10:20 The War Takes the Sugar (1942 to 1947) 12:00 The Suburbs and the Duck (1950 to 1966) 13:40 The Razor Blade That Wasn't (1959 to 1982) 16:03 The deal still holds 16:29 Porch lights Did you go trick-or-treating in those years, or did someone you love? Tell us your family's story in the comments. ABOUT THIS CHANNEL The History Broadcast shares true stories of life through real photographs and archival film. NOTE The photographs are real and dated on screen. Every fact in this episode was checked against the sources listed below. PHOTO & FILM CREDITS Halloween party at the Shafter migrant camp, California: Dorothea Lange, 1938 (Library of Congress, FSA/OWI) Winner of the masquerade, Osage Farms Halloween party, Missouri: Arthur Rothstein, 1939 (Library of Congress, FSA/OWI) War Ration Book One, 1942 (Office of Price Administration) The Newport Daily News, November 1879, and other period newspaper pages Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection National Archives and Records Administration Prelinger Archives / Internet Archive Stock footage and images: VidRush media library SOURCES Lisa Morton, Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween; Library of Congress catalog records; History.com; Public Domain Review; The Food Historian; Anoka County Historical Society and MNopedia; InForum (Fargo); University of Delaware (ration books); Heinz History Center; Presbyterian Historical Society (UNICEF); D23; CBC and ABC7 (Joel Best); National Retail Federation; Wikipedia. #Halloween #AmericanHistory #Nostalgia