Ben Cooper Costumes

Many children of the 1960s will remember those plastic Halloween costumes with the flimsy plastic masks and plastic screen-printed suits that crinkled when you walked.  You will be surprised to know that those costumes that cost $1.25 can now be worth $50 to $150, depending on the character!  In an older October issue of Country Living magazine, someone had made a nice wall display with vintage Halloween masks.  You can also find amazing displays on Pinterest.

Ben Cooper was born in New York’s Lower East Side in 1906 and designed costumes for the Ziegfeld Follies and Cotton Club.  Cooper’s defining moment was when he secured the license to use Walt Disney Characters to manufacture children’s Halloween costumes.  He started producing those costumes in the late 1930s.  Celebration of Halloween became widely popular in the 1920’s and continued to grow quickly.

Ben Cooper’s company had become one of the largest Halloween costume producers by the late 40’s.  Most of the characters of the time were witches, devils or skeletons.  With television becoming mainstream in the 1950s, characters such as Superman and Davy Crockett became popular.  There was even a Kennedy mask that was being produced but had to be destroyed after the assassination.  If any of those survived I would think they would be quite valuable today.

By the 1960s, there were three top Halloween costume producers, including Collegeville, which remains in business to this day. Ben Cooper obtained another top character that was mostly unknown in 1963: Spider-Man!

The company began to experience problems in 1979 when it produced a character from an R-rated film that upset many parents: the monster from Alien.  Also, there was a scandal involving cyanide-laced Tylenol, which caused many parents to keep their children home from trick or treating.  Ben Cooper filed for bankruptcy in the 1980s and then emerged to move the company to North Carolina, only to go bankrupt again, and another costume company bought out the company.

I remember wanting one of those “store-bought” costumes instead of having to make a homemade one.  I quickly realized that the two eye holes and slit for mouth masks were very hot and uncomfortable.  I enjoyed looking at the different masks online, which brought back lots of fun memories.  You can easily figure out which decade most of the masks are from by identifying the characters: Magilla Gorilla, the Beatles, Star Wars and even The Fonz, Flipper or a Rubik’s Cube and Nixon.

Some characters are pretty obscure.  Rarity and condition are the top factors when selling a vintage costume.  If it is still in the original box the value can go up as much as 40 percent!  Keep your eye out for estate and yard sales for some vintage costumes that may earn you a pretty penny on eBay!  Happy Collecting!

Jillinda Falen has been buying and selling antiques for over 40  years and is a licensed REALTOR and estate liquidation specialist.  You can contact her through the Houston Home Journal or via email at jcfalen@gmail.com