Halloween Newspaper Ads from the Sixties

For much of the 20th Century, several dime stores department stores, and discount stores could be found in towns across the United States. Some of these stores belonged to national chains, such as Woolworth or McCrory, while others belonged to smaller regional chains or were locally owned. One thing that they all had in common is that they often took ads in the local newspapers. This was particularly true when a holiday was approaching, such as Halloween. Below are a few Halloween ads for stores in Missouri from the Sixties.

This is an ad for Kresge's from the October 18 1961 issue of The Sedalia Democrat. I don't remember Kresge's, as we never had a store in our county, but they were a fairly well-known, large national chain of variety stores. It was in 1962 that the S.S. Kresge Company opened the first Kmart, one of the first discount stores. Over time, like other dime stores, the Kresge's stores disappeared from the landscape. As to the S.S. Kresge Company, it became K Mart Corporation in 1977.

This is an ad for TG&Y from the October 28 1962 issue of the Moberly Monitor-Index. TG&Y was a large chain of variety stores in the United States. At its height it had over 900 stores in 29 states.

An ad for Woolworth from the October 23 1966 issue of the  Jefferson City's Sunday News and Tribune. Woolworth is still fairly well known, even if the last Woolworth store in the Untied States closed years ago. This ad being from 1966, quite naturally the ad features Superman, Batman (whose hit TV show was in its second season), and The Green Hornet (then appearing in his own TV show).

This is an ad for Ben Franklin from the October 25 1967 issue of the Moberly Monitor-Index. Unlike some of the other stores mentioned in this post, Ben Franklin is still in operation, even if it is not as big as it once was. The Ben Franklin chain was founded in 1927 by the mail-order company Butler Brothers. At its peak in 1959, there were over 2500 stores across the United States. Over time Ben Franklin would evolve from the old variety stores into craft shops, some of which survive to this day.

This ad for the Gibson's Discount Centre is from the October 23 1968 issue of the Chillicothe, Constitution-Tribune. Gibson's Discount Center was a large chain of stores that originated in Abilene, Texas. By 1968 there were 438 stores located in several states (including Missouri). Over time the chain would decline, and it would be closed by 2002. Apparently there are still some old Gibson's stores, now independents, that still use the name.

This is an ad for Mattingly's from the October 22 1970 issue of the Mexico Ledger. Chances are good that if you are not from Missouri you might never have heard of Mattingly's--there seems to be next to nothing online about the chain of dime stores online--but at one time there were several Mattingly's stores across the state. The very first Mattingly's store opened in Odessa, Missouri in April 1914. By 1937 it had already grown into a small chain. By the early Seventies there were 56 Mattingly stores across Missouri. It was at this time that Mattingly Brothers Stores Company began opening family variety centers under the name Mactco. Unfortunately, over time Mattingly's would go into decline. It was in 1986 that the remaining Mattingly and Matco stores were acquited by PM Place Stores, a chain based out of Bethany, Missouri. PM Place Stores itself would be acquired by  ShopKo Stores Inc. in 2000.