Halloween Masks Were Once Made in Findlay
Trick or Treat … Open the door Wednesday night and you will see animals with funny faces, creatures with beards, boys with long orange noses and witches with flowing black wigs.
From 1884 to 1969 the American Mask Manufacturing Company. Inc. created many of the masks which were worn in Halloween parades across the country.
The American Mask company was located in Findlay on W. Main Cross St. As you would enter the front door you would see large display cases of masks for sale.
There were full head masks, half masks, heads of hair beards…
The company published a 75-page catalog which they sent to buyers all over the world. [*refer to the Heyzine flip-book!]
Many of the masks completed the costumes of people who attended the Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana. Findlay Masks were also shipped for festivals in South America and Mexico.
Every year the company would have a display at the American Toy Manufacturing Association meeting in New York City.
Propped against one table would be a life-size Mummy or Skeleton.
Included in their line was a special kit called Make-a-Mask complete with two unpainted, masks and brushes and paint, which made it possible for people to design their own masks.
The first masks at the factory were made by by taking layers of moistened gauze, and molding it around plaster of Paris molds.
These masks were dried by steam heat and in later years by infrared heat.
Each blank face was painted with vegetable, pigment paint, and then sprayed with wax so that the color would not run.
In modernizing the factory, large machines spray painted the background colors of the masks the facial features were always painted by hand.
Would you like to see some of the original Molds and masks made by the American Mask Manufacturing company?
Visit the Hancock Historical Museum Sandusky St., Friday Saturday or Sunday 1:00 to 4:00 PM
As printed in the Findlay Republican Courier, October 25, 1974, page 24
https://heyzine.com/flip-book/8525286a95.html
American Mask Manufacturing Company. (1915). Illustrated catalogue of papier mache, linen, wax, wire, gauze, show and curtain masks, noses, wigs, beards, etc. [Findlay, Ohio: The Company.]
Halloween Masks Were Once Made in Findlay
Trick or Treat … Open the door Wednesday night and you will see animals with funny faces, creatures with beards, boys with long orange noses and witches with flowing black wigs.
From 1884 to 1969 the American Mask Manufacturing Company. Inc. created many of the masks which were worn in Halloween parades across the country.
The American Mask company was located in Findlay on W. Main Cross St. As you would enter the front door you would see large display cases of masks for sale.
There were full head masks, half masks, heads of hair beards…
The company published a 75-page catalog which they sent to buyers all over the world. [*refer to the Heyzine flip-book!]
Many of the masks completed the costumes of people who attended the Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana. Findlay Masks were also shipped for festivals in South America and Mexico.
Every year the company would have a display at the American Toy Manufacturing Association meeting in New York City.
Propped against one table would be a life-size Mummy or Skeleton.
Included in their line was a special kit called Make-a-Mask complete with two unpainted, masks and brushes and paint, which made it possible for people to design their own masks.
The first masks at the factory were made by by taking layers of moistened gauze, and molding it around plaster of Paris molds.
These masks were dried by steam heat and in later years by infrared heat.
Each blank face was painted with vegetable, pigment paint, and then sprayed with wax so that the color would not run.
In modernizing the factory, large machines spray painted the background colors of the masks the facial features were always painted by hand.
Would you like to see some of the original Molds and masks made by the American Mask Manufacturing company?
Visit the Hancock Historical Museum Sandusky St., Friday Saturday or Sunday 1:00 to 4:00 PM
As printed in the Findlay Republican Courier, October 25, 1974, page 24
https://heyzine.com/flip-book/8525286a95.html
American Mask Manufacturing Company. (1915). Illustrated catalogue of papier mache, linen, wax, wire, gauze, show and curtain masks, noses, wigs, beards, etc. [Findlay, Ohio: The Company.]
