{"id":1249,"date":"2013-11-01T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=1249"},"modified":"2014-12-23T18:37:21","modified_gmt":"2014-12-23T18:37:21","slug":"halloweens-of-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/11\/01\/halloweens-of-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Halloweens of the past"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Halloween <\/a>
Halloween Parade, 1985, photo by Henry Coughanour, Post-Gazette <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ghostbusters <\/a>
Ghostbusters save a haunted house, 1985, photo by Harry Coughanour, Post-Gazette <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Halloween <\/a>
Halloween parade, 1986, photo by Bill Levis, Post-Gazette <\/div> <\/div>
\"Barbara <\/a>
Barbara Plotz said they got carried away preparing for Halloween, 1985, photo by Bill Levis, Post-Gazette. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Zombies, the Rubber Duck and Miley Cyrus may have dominated costume choices in Pittsburgh this year. But those might not have been the spookiest costumes in the city\u2019s history. Well, the duck was cute and brought lots of smiles to Pittsburgh in October. And Miley Cyrus\u2026 well, OK. That one IS<\/em> creepy.<\/p>\n

The Post-Gazette photographic archive reveals not only pop culture trends Halloween costumes embodied but the past spirit of the holiday that tested the limits of people\u2019s fears. There were lots of Ghostbusters in 1985. There were Madonnas and Jesse Jacksons, Big Bird, Kermit the Frog \u2026 and lots of photos of Pittsburghers getting carried away with their yard decorations.<\/p>\n

In mid 1980s zombies became a Halloween classic in Pittsburgh. That\u2019s when the first George Romero fest took place. An article in the 1986 Post-Gazette reported, \u201cNot every city can boast its own world-class monster maker. Not outside Transylvania anyway.\u201d But Pittsburgh had Romero, who graduated from Carnegie Mellon University and started his career in Pittsburgh. He earned his fame for gruesome and satirical horror films about a zombie apocalypse, starting with \u201cNight of the Living Dead.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zombies, the Rubber Duck and Miley Cyrus may have dominated costume choices in Pittsburgh this year. But what about the past?<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesHalloweens of the past<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[948],"tags":[964,1200,982,996,1057,1033],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/tumblr_mvk07kWtpp1rr5swxo5_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C777&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2066,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/02\/11\/steelers-fans-high-on-their-football-team\/","url_meta":{"origin":1249,"position":0},"title":"Steelers fans high on their football team","date":"February 11, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Steelers fans always have been a colorful bunch.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/tumblr_mi18pbiHaX1rr5swxo3_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C902&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":74,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/11\/12\/the-fulton-theaters-evolution\/","url_meta":{"origin":1249,"position":1},"title":"The Fulton Theater\u2019s evolution","date":"November 12, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Actors play many parts and sometimes, theaters have many lives.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/tumblr_nevvu929cl1rr5swxo7_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C804&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2666,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/08\/07\/oct-31-1980-ronald-reagan-visits-pittsburgh\/","url_meta":{"origin":1249,"position":2},"title":"Reagan campaigns in Pittsburgh in 1980","date":"August 7, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"On that Halloween in 1980 Reagan spoke at a Station Square rally on the South Side, accompanied by Sens. John Heinz and Richard Schweiker.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/tumblr_m8e8b7Bv3e1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1080%2C807&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4944,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2015\/02\/04\/the-construction-of-pittsburghs-downtown-subway\/","url_meta":{"origin":1249,"position":3},"title":"The construction of Pittsburgh’s Downtown subway","date":"February 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The T was 75 years in the making, and while it still doesn't go as far as many Pittsburghers would like, it did help improve the city's 20th century Downtown traffic headaches.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Pittsburgh-subway-construction-013.jpg?fit=814%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1356,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/09\/27\/the-strip-districts-character-remains\/","url_meta":{"origin":1249,"position":4},"title":"The Strip District\u2019s character remains","date":"September 27, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"One place that remains virtually unchanged in Pittsburgh is the Strip District.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/tumblr_mtrcf9qTFj1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C714&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":397,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/08\/01\/wild-sisters-coffeehouse-pittsburghs-first-feminist-bar-bistro-and-cabaret\/","url_meta":{"origin":1249,"position":5},"title":"Wild Sisters Coffeehouse, Pittsburgh\u2019s first feminist bar, bistro and cabaret","date":"August 1, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Mary Pat Donegan, a psychotherapist, was president.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/tumblr_n9laljEGpW1rr5swxo5_r1_1280.jpg?fit=1080%2C743&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1249"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4208,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249\/revisions\/4208"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}