In My Footsteps: A Gen-X Nostalgia Podcast

Episode 166: Infamous New England Asylums, 1977 Halloween Safety Film, Horror Movies Made Into Video Games, Winnie the Pooh(10-16-2024)

• Christopher Setterlund • Season 1 • Episode 166

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What were some of the most infamous New England mental asylums? What was Halloween safety like in 1977? What about horror movies made into video games?
Scares come in all shapes and sizes on Episode 166 of the podcast.
Spooky Season doesn't get more terrifying than the reality of mental hospitals in the 19th and 20th centuries. We look at a handful of the most notorious asylums from New England. Some of these are long gone, some have decaying remains you can visit.
Trick or Treating in the 2020s is far different than it was in the 1970s. This becomes apparent as we go way Back In the Day and review a Halloween safety short film from 1977. What surprised you most about this film?
Just because a horror movie is a classic does not necessarily mean it will translate well to the video game realm. This new Top 5 looks at some scary bad, and a few scary good, video games developed from classic horror movies.
The new This Week In History and Time Capsule are far less spooky as we look back at the publication of the children's book classic Winnie the Pooh.
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Speaker 00:

Hello world, and welcome to the In My Footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund, coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and this is episode 166. We're knee-deep in spooky season, about halfway through when the podcast goes live. We're going to continue a look into the more creepy side of the podcast. We're going to kick it off by looking at some notorious New England mental asylums, institutions, whatever you want to call them. They are very much the definition of creepy. We're going to go way, way back in the day and get a little more lighthearted as we look back at a 1977 Halloween safety short film. There's going to be a brand new top five. These will be the top five horror movies that were made into video games. Some were good, some were bad, some were really terrible. And there'll be a brand new This Week in History and Time Capsule centered around the debut of Winnie the Pooh. I guess he's not that creepy unless you want to count the horror movie that came out a couple years ago, but we'll dive into that as well. All of that is coming up right now on episode 166 of the In My Footsteps podcast. So what sort of creepy shenanigans are we going to get into this week? I got a lot. It's kind of a mix here. There's some legit creepy. There's some that's more nostalgic, warm, and fuzzy creepy. And then there's stuff where I'm going to have to twist myself in a pretzel to make it creepy. So thank you all so much for tuning in. I really appreciate it. I hope wherever you are, the weather's at least good. I mean, we're getting the fall foliage starting here in New England, along with a fair share of people that have decorated their houses, their yards for Halloween. Do any of you out there do that? Do you decorate your houses, your yards? My sister Ashley does a great job of decorating for Halloween, even sometimes to a fault where it actually scares children that show up. So she's had to tone it down a little bit in the last few years. There's actually one house that's probably a five-minute drive from me that their whole front yard is a decoration of a couple dozen skeletons. Which doesn't sound that odd until I tell you that they've had these skeletons up year round and they're always in different positions. In summer, they'll be mowing the lawn while a couple are watching from a hammock. It's just so much fun. We can't start this podcast without thanking my Patreon subscribers, Laurie, Mary Lou, Ashley, Kevin, Marguerite, Leo, and my newest subscriber, Neglectoid. Welcome aboard. I hope that you go and check all of my archives of the bonus podcasts. $5 a month gets you access to all of that bonus content. I'm getting close to being able to field a full baseball team of Patreon subscribers, so go and join and make that a reality. I'm not saying we're going to go tour and play games, but at least I'll be able to say we could play another content creator's Patreon team. It's not lost on me that I am starting to approach that crossover point with my content in general, podcasts, YouTube videos. Just in the last few weeks, I've been able to start adding advertisements to the podcast. You probably heard the one at the beginning. I'm getting closer to being able to monetize my YouTube channel, so go subscribe because if I can monetize it, maybe I'll start doing live streams. That will really show you the magic of editing when I don't have that ability on the live stream. September was my best month ever for the podcast, including the best day ever, best week ever. And October is already on pace to break that. And it doesn't happen without you who listen, you who share, you who support me. And I'll do my very best to do the very best I can with my content. But I won't spend the whole podcast kissing up to you all. That can be at the end as well. Let's get into the actual meat of this spooky sandwich and look at some notorious New England mental institutions coming up right now on episode 166 of the In My Footsteps podcast. New England is filled with rich history and cultural heritage. I grew up here, specifically Cape Cod. I have visited most of the six states that make up New England. I haven't been to every city, town, every nook and cranny, but I've been to a lot of it. With all of the historical and natural beauty of New England, it's also got its darker side. It's home to some of the most infamous mental hospitals in the history of the United States. Some have since been torn down. Some are left standing, deteriorating, becoming a popular destination for urban explorers. What I'm going to do here is go through some of the most infamous, give you a little bit about them, reasons why they closed. And I will say before we start, any of these ones that are still standing that you decide to go to, please travel at your own risk. Urban exploration, visiting abandoned buildings is fun and exciting, and I do enjoy doing it sometimes, but it can also be dangerous and in some places breaking the law. But enough of the warnings. Let's get into some of these notorious mental institutions. Perhaps the most infamous or at least the most well-known, and this will all depend on your knowledge of them, your experience with them. your familiarity with them. First might be Danvers State Hospital in Danvers, Massachusetts. It was nicknamed the Castle on the Hill for its striking Gothic architecture. It opened in 1878 and was one of the largest psychiatric institutions of the time. Danvers Hospital followed the Kirkbride Plan, which emphasized moral treatment and was intended to offer patients a calm and restorative environment. I say that, but then we follow up with Danvers began with noble intentions, but by the mid 20th century, it had become a symbol of institutional failure plagued by overcrowding with the number of patients far exceeding its intended capacity. And this led to underfunding, neglect and widespread reports of abuse. Patients were subjected to questionable treatments such as electroshock therapy, lobotomies, and other experimental procedures. By the 1960s and 70s, the state of Massachusetts began to shift focus to community-based mental health facilities. In 1992, Danvers State Hospital was permanently closed. Its closure was part of a broader trend of deinstitutionalization in the United States, but the fate of many of those discharged patients who were left without sufficient community support remains a point of contention to this day. Danvers State Hospital was demolished in 2006, and you can visit the website danversstatehospital.org for more information, pictures, videos. Next, we move on to Fairfield Hills State Hospital, located in Newtown, Connecticut. Fairfield Hills opened in 1931 as a response to overcrowding at other state institutions. With its colonial-style architecture, the hospital sprawled across 100 acres and was intended, much like Danvers, to provide a peaceful setting for mental health treatment. Despite those picturesque surroundings, Fairfield Hills quickly became the site of controversy. Much like Danvers, Overcrowding was a persistent issue, and the hospital became notorious for the inhumane treatment administered to patients, including insulin shock therapy, prefrontal lobotomies. The increasing public awareness of these conditions in the 20th century, along with the national push towards deinstitutionalization, led to the closure of Fairfield Hills in 1995. Fairfield Hills, like many institutions of its kind, struggled to adapt to the modern standards of mental health care. Shifting away from large, isolated mental hospitals towards smaller community-based facilities played a significant role in its downfall. For years and decades, Fairfield Hills was abandoned, decaying. It was a popular spot for urban explorers. but the city began to renovate the grounds, and today it's the Newtown Municipal Center. So this is one that you can visit, but it's definitely not the same as when it was open. The third one we're going to look at is the Ladd School from Rhode Island. It was opened in Exeter in 1908 as an institution for individuals with intellectual disabilities and mental illness, primarily known as a school for the quote-unquote feeble-minded. Stop me if you've heard this one, but the Ladd School was infamous for overcrowding, poor living conditions, and severe neglect. Reports of physical abuse, unsanitary conditions, undernourishment of patients, this was all common. A really creepy part of this is that many of the residents there were subjected to involuntary sterilization under the state's eugenics laws. By the 1970s, there was a large public outcry in the state of Rhode Island over this treatment, and it led to calls for reform, with the institution repeatedly being investigated for human rights violations. The facility became another in a line of ones that were closed as things shifted towards more humane and community-based care for individuals with mental and intellectual disabilities. It closed in 1994. But the legacy of the Ladd School remains one of the most haunting chapters in the history of Rhode Island. The Ladd School was demolished completely in 2013. You can visit theladdschool.com to get more about the history, pictures. But we move back to my home state, Massachusetts, for another infamous hospital. That's Taunton State Hospital. They opened in 1854. They were the second state asylum in the state of Massachusetts, and they were opened to alleviate the overcrowding at the nearby Worcester State Hospital. Taunton became known for its grand architecture, sprawling grounds, and they were intended, again, to foster a tranquil environment for treatment. It's amazing how all of these hospitals started with intentions of tranquil, peaceful, and calm environments for these residents, and it quickly turns on its head. Taunton State Hospital's reputation began to deteriorate in the 20th century as reports of mistreatment and abusive conditions emerged. Again, overcrowding led to a lack of adequate care for patients, many of whom were subjected to cruel practices like restraint, electroshock therapy, invasive medical experiments. The hospital's aging infrastructure, as much as the outdated practices, became reasons for it to be shut down. Part of it was shut down in 1975, and by 1999, most of the original facility was closed. Parts of Taunton State Hospital still stand and have been remodeled and are actually still in use. If you go to mass.gov, not only are they listed as a historical site, but there's job openings specifically for the Taunton State Hospital Recovery from Addictions program. I mentioned just a minute ago that Taunton State Hospital was built to alleviate overcrowding at Worcester State Hospital. So we'll look at them. Worcester State Hospital, the oldest mental institution in Massachusetts, founded in 1833 as the first publicly funded psychiatric hospital in the United States. At the time, it represented a major milestone in the treatment of mental illness and, again, was originally intended to provide compassionate care in a controlled therapeutic environment. Did it live up to that? Of course not. Despite the groundbreaking origins, Worcester State Hospital eventually succumbed to the same problems that plagued other large mental institutions. Overcrowding, underfunding, mistreatment of patients. By the mid-20th century, the hospital had become infamous for its poor conditions and brutal treatments administered to patients, including hydrotherapy, insulin shock therapy, and lobotomies. Worcester State Hospital's patient population gradually declined as the state moved towards deinstitutionalization. Much of the facility was abandoned by the 1980s. Then in 1991, a fire destroyed large parts of the hospital. In 2012, it was officially closed. In 2012, the Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital was opened on the grounds of Worcester State Hospital, essentially replacing that hospital and Taunton, despite part of the Taunton Hospital still being open. So I know I've gone through five mental institutions, former ones in New England, and basically have given you none that you can explore. I promise I give you one, and I couldn't do this segment without talking about the one that Long-time listeners probably expected me to start with, and that's Medfield State Hospital. Back in episode 73, I did a full segment on Medfield State Hospital, and the corresponding YouTube video up on my channel was one of my most viewed videos. So you can check those out also. But to give you kind of an overview, if you're not familiar with Medfield State Hospital, it was located in Medfield, Massachusetts, and opened in 1896 as the state's first facility designed using the cottage plan. So unlike the imposing Gothic structures of many of the other mental institutions, it was more of a campus. It spanned 1,200 acres. At its peak, it housed over 2,300 patients. making it one of the largest psychiatric institutions in Massachusetts. And again, stop me if you heard this one, the early years, Medfield was seen as a moral treatment approach, encouraging patients to engage in manual labor, to promote physical and mental well-being. The facility had its own farm. By the mid-20th century, Medfield State Hospital had adopted some of those controversial treatment methods I've been speaking a lot of in this segment. Electroshock therapy, insulin shock therapy, lobotomies. Overcrowding helped to lead to the closure of Medfield State Hospital. As patient care worsened, there were reports of neglect, abuse, poor living conditions. And these cottages, the buildings, once seen as innovative, became overcrowded, understaffed. By the 1970s, Medfield State Hospital was emblematic of the outdated system of mental health care. The number of patients there steadily decreased through the 80s and 90s, with the Medfield State Hospital officially closing in 2003. This is one place you can visit, but I will tell you it's not as creepy now as it was the first time I visited in 2011. It is now more of a dog walk park than it is a creepy abandoned mental hospital. Don't get me wrong, the red brick buildings... in various states of decay. Definitely still are creepy, but it's different when you go there and there are a dozen, two dozen people, a lot of them walking dogs. It's harder to be scared when cute golden retrievers are walking by you. Just type in Servie Drive in Medfield, Massachusetts if you want to go there. Servie is S-E-R-V-I-E. To put a bow on this segment, The history of New England's mental hospitals, it's a stark reminder of the challenges and failures of early psychiatric care. These institutions I mentioned and many others, they were once seen as beacons of progress, and they devolved into places of neglect and abuse, leading to their eventual closure in the face of changing public attitudes and advancements in mental care. Luckily, in the late 20th and especially 21st century, views on and treatments of mental health issues are way more compassionate and understanding, ironically, what all of these institutions originally were meant to be. This week in history, we are going back 98 years ago to October 14th, 1926 and the publication of A.A. Milne's book, Winnie the Pooh. Alan Alexander Milne was born in London in 1882 and was already an established writer long before he introduced the world to Winnie the Pooh. He wrote plays, novels, essays. However, his writing had a satirical edge, and he often focused on adult themes of war politics and society. Winnie the Pooh, the book itself, was not initially intended to become a worldwide phenomenon. It was inspired by Milne's son, Christopher Robin Milne, and his stuffed animals. The real Christopher Robin had a teddy bear named Edward Bear, which became the basis for the character of Winnie the Pooh. The name Winnie came from a bear that young Christopher Robin frequently visited at the London Zoo, while Pooh was the name of a swan in one of Milne's poems. If you've ever read the book, you've seen the original Winnie the Pooh was illustrated by E.H. Shepard, whose simple yet expressive drawings are as beloved as the stories themselves. They're pencil drawings of Pooh and his friends Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Rabbit, as they embark on whimsical adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood. Each character had their own distinctive personality, often reflecting the innocence and curiosity of childhood. Milne's writing style in Winnie the Pooh, it's conversational, it's playful, blending humor with gentle wisdom. The publication of Winnie the Pooh in 1926 marked the beginning of an extraordinary journey for these characters. The book was an instant success, with Milne following up with a sequel, The House at Pooh Corner, in 1928. This was the one that introduced Tigger. And from there, the characters of The Hundred Acre Wood, they've transcended the pages of Milne's books to become cultural icons. The Disney Corporation acquired the rights to Winnie the Pooh in the 1960s, and the characters were reimagined for television, film, and merchandise. This is how I first became acquainted with Winnie the Pooh, with Sterling Holloway voicing Pooh Bear. In fact, I didn't really know about the A.A. Milne original book until I was probably in middle school. Before then, all the Winnie the Pooh and Pooh Corner and Hundred Acre Wood and all that stuff I knew of was from Disney. The original Winnie the Pooh book, though, has been translated into numerous languages. It's never been out of print. A.A. Milne's simple yet profound storytelling, it resonates across cultures and generations. It features universal themes, friendship, kindness, the innocence of childhood. In 2016, Winnie the Pooh was named one of the 100 best children's books of all time by Time Magazine. The original book and the whole series, Winnie the Pooh, the whole universe it created, it's far more than just a children's book. I mean, yes, it's a reflection on the bond between father and son. It's a tribute to the imagination of childhood. It's a work of literature that has influenced culture for nearly a century. But it also probably helped shape the childhoods of a lot of you listening, especially those of you in my generation, Gen X, that grew up in the 70s, 80s into the 90s. Winnie the Pooh, especially on Disney, was probably on heavy rotation in your life. And that original book, Winnie the Pooh, written by A.A. Milne, was first published 98 years ago this week in history. Oh boy. But here we go. Brand new time capsule. I was tempted to try to find a way to make the time capsule the same as the date Winnie the Pooh was published in 1926. That didn't happen. So we're going to go just as far back in time to the beginning of the century. This century. 24 years ago to October 16th, 2000. Let's see what was going on in the world of pop culture back then. The number one song was Come On Over Baby by Christina Aguilera. How is this song 24 years old? This was off of Christina Aguilera's self-titled debut and was actually her third number one hit from that album. And that self-titled album of Christina Aguilera's has sold more than 17 million copies worldwide as of the recording of this podcast. The number one movie was Meet the Parents, and you could get into the theater with a ticket costing $5.39. Here's a classic comedy. The first time I remember Robert De Niro in a funny role, although he's still terrifying. It also stars Ben Stiller as Gaylord Fawker, who has to meet the parents of his soon-to-be wife. I highly recommend this movie for any of you that haven't seen it. It's 85% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and made over $330 million on a budget of $55 million. So it inspired a sequel, Meet the Fockers, and then the third movie, Little Fockers. The number one TV show was ER. I need to just record a soundbite of me talking about ER so I can just copy and paste it because so many of these time capsules I do from this mid-90s, early 2000s period, ER is the number one show. It would save me a little time on recording. The show was written by Michael Crichton. It was on TV from 1994 to 2009 and started the careers or helped the careers of a lot of actors and actresses like George Clooney, Anthony Edwards, Noah Wiley, Eric LaSalle, Julianna Marguliesse, It's a medical drama for those of you that have never heard of ER, which I'm sure is not many of you. And if you were around back then, maybe you needed to go to the theater to see Meet the Parents and you needed a ride. Hopefully you have a vehicle, but if not, you need to buy one. You can't do much better, a.k.a. worse, than the 2001 Pontiac Aztec. This hideous SUV... is considered one of the worst and definitely one of the ugliest vehicles ever created. When researching this, I guess the original idea for the Pontiac Aztec was something way more cool and technologically advanced until cost-cutting measures ruined it and made it this plastic-coated garbage SUV. And I'm not saying the Aztec destroyed the Pontiac Corporation... But this one here, the 2001, would set you back $21,445 or about $39,000 when adjusted for inflation to 2024. I'm not saying it destroyed Pontiac, but in 2010, Pontiac went under. So I don't think the Aztec helped. And that'll wrap up another time capsule, another This Week in History. We go from scary bad vehicles to scary bad and good horror movies made into video games on this new top five. The horror genre in video games is still really popular with the Resident Evil, Silent Hill, those franchises still being really popular to this day. Over time, there have been plenty of horror movies made into video games. Some have been successful. Some have just not translated well. And what we're going to do with this top five is look at horror movies made into video games. I'm basing it more on the popularity of the actual movies and also ones that did or didn't translate that well to the video game realm. For the sake of being transparent, I will say that I have not played any of these games, so my expertise is already called into question. But I have seen all the movies, so I hope that helps. I was going to put in two games that I had played. That was the Friday the 13th Nintendo game from the late 1980s, and also the Jaws Nintendo game from around the same time period. Back in episode 68 of the podcast, I did a full segment on the Friday the 13th Nintendo game, if you really want to know what it was all about with the purple and green Jason. As for the Jaws game, I haven't talked about that at all, so find out for yourself. So let's just dive into the honorable mentions, because we got a few of those. I will do my best to explain these quickly and pass by. So, honorable mentions for horror movies made into video games include Pumpkinhead's Revenge, also known as Blood Wings. This is a 1995 PC game made by Electronic Arts based on the horror movie Pumpkinhead, seen by some as a Doom ripoff, so if that intrigues you, check it out. If not, we'll move on. Another honorable mention is Fright Night. This is a 1988 PC game made by MicroDeal for the Amiga computer, so there's a very retro sentence for you. Another honorable mention is The Thing. This was a PlayStation 2 game based on the classic 1982 John Carpenter horror movie. And the final honorable mention is Evil Dead The Game. And this is the most recent game on the list. It's from 2022. It's a PS5 game. It includes Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams and a lot of the original cast from that Evil Dead movie returning to play themselves, at least in video game format. So those are the honorable mentions. Have you played any of those games or at least seen the movies? Well, let's get into the actual top five. Starting with number one, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Yes, that movie, Texas Chainsaw, was made into a video game for the Atari 2600 in 1983. This is one of the earliest attempts to adapt a horror movie into a video game. But the best part is you play as Leatherface. So basically, the gist of the game is you are out there killing everybody with a chainsaw. while you've got to avoid dangers like fences. This was released by Wizard Video, and you'd be shocked to hear that due to the game's violent premise, many retailers refused to even stock this game. So it made it hard to find, so it's rare, it's also very poor sales. I've never played this, but as I was researching, the thing I found funniest was... Basically, the way the game ends is only when your chainsaw runs out of gas. So there's no big boss to defeat. It's just you keep killing people until you run out of gas and then Leatherface goes home sad. Number two is Friday the 13th, but this is the PC game from 2017, not the Nintendo. This is a really fun game. I even enjoyed watching other people play it. which is something that I normally wouldn't do, although recently I did watch 20 minutes of untitled goose game video gameplay, but that's because my five-year-old niece wanted to watch. That's really why. This Friday the 13th game was crowdfunded, and it's got excellent graphics, excellent kills, where Jason basically will snap people in half or axe them in the head. You can play as Jason. And there's a whole bunch of the different skins, I guess, of Jason from all the different movies, Baghead Jason, all the way up to, I think they have the Nintendo version, Purple and Green Jason. Check out F13Game.com. You'll see some of the gameplay there. I think this game is still going. For a while, it was kind of paused. because there was a lawsuit between Sean Cunningham and Victor Miller over the rights to the Friday the 13th franchise. So maybe you can play it again now, but I don't know. Number three is Halloween. Yes, they made that classic Halloween Michael Myers movie into a video game, also for Atari 2600, coming out around Halloween 1983. This was basically the follow-up by Wizard Video to the Texas Chainsaw game. And shockingly, the reputation of Texas Chainsaw affected Halloween. The graphics are not great. I mean, most Atari games' graphics are not great. But you are a babysitter trying to avoid the killer, who I guess is supposed to be Michael Myers. What this game is most well-known for, I guess, the violent content, yes, but it's If Michael Myers gets the babysitter, he basically cuts her head off and it's replaced with a spout of red pixels. What's fascinating, a little side note, is this wizard video company that did Texas Chainsaw and Halloween and both were so violent and poorly received and had limited sales that it essentially drove the company out of business. So I think at some point in the future on the podcast, I'm going to do a segment about them because I'm interested to learn more about them. Number four is A Nightmare on Elm Street. This game was from the Nintendo Entertainment System from 1990. You're a group of ordinary teens that has to collect the bones of Freddy Krueger and deposit them in the furnace of the school. But you also have a sleep meter that So if the sleep meter gets to zero, then you fall asleep and Freddy comes after you. I guess originally, the plan was for this game to be you controlling Freddy Krueger and killing all the teens, like Leatherface in Texas Chainsaw. And although it lined up more with the film's narrative of the teens going after Freddy, it didn't translate well to people buying the game. It was seen as kind of mediocre. And finally, number five on horror movies made into video games. Ooh, it's trick or treat time. I've pulled a swerve on you. We are going to talk about Jaws for the Nintendo Entertainment System from 1987. Sorry that it's not a better trick. This is like the religious pamphlet of trick or treating. Ooh, we get to talk about Jaws. Yay. This game came out not long after that awful Jaws the Revenge movie, so I think that's part of the reason why this game is not seen too favorably. It's not bad. It's actually seen as being very easy to beat, with some people online saying that if you've got any shred of video game playing skill, you could beat this game in possibly as little as an hour. Which I guess is not good if your parents bought you this game and spent whatever it would be, $30, $40 for this game for you and you beat it in an hour and then it just collects dust. You play as a boat captain who then also becomes a scuba diver and you've got to fight off hostile sea creatures, stingrays, fish, littler sharks. Every now and then Jaws comes around. And you've got to use that sonar thing from Jaws 4 to make him jump out of the water. So it was a forgettable title. And thus the reason why I never dedicated a podcast segment to talking about it. But that wraps up the top five horror movies made into video games. How many of these did you play? I would hope that you had seen at least a couple of the movies. Even if you're not horror movie fans, I would think you would know Jaws, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween. But we're going to go from scary bad, or I guess at some point scary good, horror movie video games into more warm, heartfelt, scary as we look at a Halloween safety film from 1977. Trick-or-treating long ago was a lot different than it is now in the 2020s. I can remember in the 1980s into the early 90s going out trick-or-treating with groups of friends, just leaving the house and my mother saying, you know, come back by 10 o'clock or something like that. We were safe, but safety wasn't always on our minds. We weren't thinking of razor blades in candy or being kidnapped or beat up. Safety on Halloween goes hand in hand with the candy. And what better way to get reminded of how to be safe on Halloween than to go back to Halloween 1977, a few days before I was born. I was doing research trying to find some sort of Halloween themed short film, educational short film to review here on the podcast. And this one popped up right away. Part of it because it's the year I was born. But it's also an interesting time in the world anyway. My youth, we were the last group really to be the ones to be outside the stay out until the streetlights come on people. This video I found on Periscope Films on YouTube. They've got hundreds and hundreds of cool old educational short films, newsreels, collections of old commercials. If you like nostalgia like me, I highly recommend subscribing to them and just kind of deep diving into their stuff. The specifics of this video, it's 11 and a half minutes, so it's not that long. And it was directed by a man named Herc Harvey, who is known for the film Carnival of Souls, which was a psychological horror film from 1962. So knowing that that's the mind behind this short film, let's see how psychologically terrifying Halloween Safety, presented by Centron Educational Films, let's see how scary it is. Well, it already starts off with... creepy music and a creepy looking jack-o'-lantern sitting in a darkened yard. We find out that Richard Clement, the chief of police of Tom's River, New Jersey, was the advisor for this film. And interestingly, as soon as I saw Tom's River, New Jersey, I had wondered if this was filmed close to the original Friday the 13th movies locations in New Jersey. Because that's where my mind goes. But no, Tom's River is more than three hours away from the Nobby Bosco camp, which is still open in New Jersey. We've got lots of nice ambient B-roll footage of kids trick-or-treating while the female narrator starts talking about what Halloween is. We then meet the main character of this short film. She's referred to as the scariest creature of all on Halloween. And it's a little girl who's probably six years old, and she's dressed as a witch.

Speaker 01:

This little witch doesn't know it, but she's taking some frightening chances of being hurt. Maybe badly hurt. Her costume is very, very dangerous.

Speaker 00:

The narrator then goes into detail as to why this little girl and her costume is the scariest thing in this film. Starting with the plastic witch's mask where you can't see through the eye holes and they show you through the little girl's vision like a POV of what she would see walking around in the dusk and darkness on Halloween. That's where the POV, the... person wearing the mask is walking towards the street and they look to the left and here comes a car flying at them but even worse is that if you don't look down you don't see the curb and they show the poor little girl tripping over the curb falling into the street with her candy the narrator says it's even worse though because if a car is coming because the witch the little girl is dressed all in black it's hard to see her so then they show it from the car's perspective of what they would see When they show from the car's perspective, it looks like the car doesn't even have their headlights on. So the narrator's saying, can you see her? It's like, well, if it's dark and your lights are off, naturally you won't see her. And the poor kid crosses the street to the other side and trips over the curb again. Now she's mad, throwing her hat and kicking her broom. But we go back to before she went out trick-or-treating, what she could do to change her costume to be safer. And we go into a very stereotypically 70s house with way more happy music. And there's the mother with bell-bottom jeans. So now we really know what time period this is from. They show the mother shortening the witch's dress so she won't trip. But then they talk about her broom that she's carrying and it cuts to the mother kneeling on this broom and sawing it down. So she's just in the living room with a saw cutting this broom in half. But then they say it's better to have a cardboard one. So they're slowly ruining this little girl's costume. They continue to just ruin her witch's costume by saying that dressing in black on Halloween, which it's true, it's not safe. But then they change it to all white. They get rid of her mask. At first, the mother is cutting the eye holes to make it wider for her to see. The mother ends up going with no mask. But I will say, the little girl, when they show her in the mirror looking at herself now as a fairy and not a witch, she seems very excited to be dressed like that. So that's really cute. Then the mother puts some reflective tape on the little girl's white dress. Interestingly, they show... Afterwards, the little girl, how she would look to passing cars in their headlights with the reflective tape on. And she's walking on the side of the road by herself. And like I said, I think she's probably six years old. I don't know what the youngest age was that I went trick-or-treating by myself or with my friends. Maybe ten? I sure didn't leave the house at age six dressed up to go meet friends to trick-or-treat without some parent with me. They have the little girl putting her name and address on her trick or treat bag.

Speaker 01:

And it's a good idea to write your name, address and phone number on the sack just in case there is an accident.

Speaker 00:

And it's here that we learn her name is Ann Smith and she's from Dola, Ohio. Yes, I tried to look. I don't think that's who it really is. I don't think they would do that to her because they put her actual address. I think it's 25 Maple Street. They get into all the different things you can do with face paint for costumes rather than wearing masks. But I do find it interesting that this little girl was originally dressed as a witch in black with a real broom. And then suddenly she's in a white dress with no mask. And I'm just thinking, did the mother buy all that stuff only to see her dressed in it and just throw it all away? There's then a montage of videos of kids getting dressed up with different kinds of face paint, a hobo, Raggedy Ann, some sort of zombie vampire Frankenstein combo, and a skull. Kind of the same stuff that you can do these days with face paint and different accessories for your face besides a mask. It then splices into... what looks like a Halloween party, but it's all kids, like close to 20 kids all dressed up. They look to be anywhere from six to maybe 11 years old. I kept waiting for the disco music to start since it's 1977, but no such luck. It's like trumpets and flutes.

Speaker 01:

Whether you buy a costume or design your own, Be sure that it's made of flame-retardant material. That means material that won't catch on fire easily.

Speaker 00:

The narrator gives you some basic tips, like making sure that your costume is made of stuff that won't catch fire. She also says to eat a big dinner before going out. They show the family eating pizza. She says that it's not safe to sample your candy while you're out trick-or-treating. I don't think I ever... ate Halloween candy while I was out trick-or-treating. I think I was always more focused on how many houses I could go to. But I don't know. Did any of you out there ever eat your candy while you were trick-or-treating? I thought it was more fun to get home with a giant pillowcase full of candy and dump it on the living room floor. There's other basic tip like trick-or-treating earlier so that there's more people out. Drivers will be more cautious. The police are out to kind of make sure you're chaperoned. The lady says to take a flashlight. And even though the main character, the six-year-old who's now the little princess, Even though she goes to meet up with friends to trick or treat, she still leaves the house in the dark on her own. Her mother gives her a hug and then waves and says goodbye as this six-year-old child just walks away into the darkness. And when the little girl meets up with her group to trick or treat, the music takes a turn from the flutes and trumpets to this weird cheesy synthesizer.

Speaker 01:

You're told to...

Speaker 00:

not go too far from where you live, to go to houses of people you know, not crossing in the middle of the road or stopping in the middle of the road, which I don't know why you would do that. When you trick-or-treated, how far did you go from your house? I can still remember the furthest I went from my house to trick-or-treat, and I just went on Google Maps to measure out how far my walk would have been. This was probably 1991. By my kind of guesstimation of what my route would have been that night 33 years ago, I'm thinking I walked probably two to two and a quarter miles, not just away, but out and back from my house as a 13, 14 year old. It's a pretty good distance. Now we get a little more creepy near the end talking about if you trick or treat at houses where you don't know the people don't go inside, which is kind of common sense. But then they start talking about people that want to hurt kids on Halloween. These people are handing out apples in a basket. So you know where this goes. When the kids get home, the parents have to cut up the apples to make sure there's not razors or nails or something in there. They show the kids throwing out anything from their trick-or-treat bag that they're not sure is safe. I'm sure for many of you, if you got fruit, or religious pamphlets. Those were things that were probably quickly thrown away. It ends off showing the little girl with her friends trick-or-treating, and it gets very cheesy 70s at the end with the music, but then it's also showing little kids telling jokes to the people they're trick-or-treating, like these gems.

Speaker 02:

What you guys eat for breakfast?

Speaker 00:

What?

Speaker 02:

Those toasties. What's a wiener when you take out its insides? What? A Halloweener. Where does Dracula keep his money? Where? In a blood bank. Here, have some candy.

Speaker 00:

But of course they tell you not all jokes are fun, so don't go throwing eggs or toilet paper at houses. They don't give you ideas as far as bad pranks to do. They just say don't do anything, but my mind immediately went to eggs and toilet paper. But that's how it ends with the kids happy and trick-or-treating, and the narrator telling you just to be safe, and it ends on the scary jack-o'-lantern. And that is the heartfelt nostalgia of Halloween Safety 1977. I love this era of short film. It just reminds me of the short films that I would have seen in school way back when I was first in school, first, second, third grade. It was all these types of ones. And I'll keep on the lookout for more fun nostalgia through these educational short films. But until next week, that will wrap up episode 166 of the In My Footsteps podcast. Thank you all so much for tuning in. sharing, reviewing. Thank you all so much for checking out the YouTube channel. All of these podcasts are now up on YouTube. It replaced Google Podcasts, so you can check them out there. I put a lot of video segments from podcasts past, that's hard to say, up on the channel as well. This month, there's spooky season ones that I've been putting up there. The UFO abduction of Betty and Barney Hill. The Hoosack Tunnel. The Dumerson Vine Cemetery urban legend. So go and subscribe on YouTube. I'm close to being able to monetize my channel, which is a huge deal. To be able to actually make some money from my content that I create. I've been working a long time for this. The podcast goes back almost four years, but my YouTube channel goes back more than 15. New to the YouTube channel, I have a playlist now for the webcam weekly wrap-up video podcasts. I have been recording those video podcasts right after doing this audio podcast, so it's one big thing. I'm trying to continue to find the time to do all this content because as it grows, as I start to get more and more... downloads and views to where I can have advertisements and monetizing the channel, there's kind of an obligation to keep the content going. That sometimes is 15 or more hours a week that I spend doing content on top of my actual day job. I'm also in the process of building up The website. So I bought the domain name for inmyfootstepspodcast.com. God, this was the beginning of the year, maybe even the end of last year. Building an actual website, though, with all of the podcast episode archives, links to the video podcast, maybe some merch. I don't know. All that stuff takes time. Plus, I'm not super skilled at building websites. So it's been a slow process. I'm hoping maybe to have this website up and running by the end of this year. I don't know all of what it will entail, but we'll see. I won't put it up until I feel confident to put it out there for people to see. But a good website I have is my homepage, ChristopherCenterland.com. That's because it was created and it's maintained by my oldest friend, Barry. He's got actual skill. So if you're interested in any of my nine books, go to that website. And speaking of books, a week from today when the podcast goes live on the 23rd, I will be speaking at the Eldridge Library in Chatham at 2 p.m., speaking on my Searching for the Lady of the Dunes book. So come on out to that. Or if you're interested in the book in general, visit theladyofthedunes.com, the website I built. Get your copy there. A few days from when this podcast goes live, I'm going to be meeting and hiking on the outer beaches of Cape Cod with Frank Durant, producer of the Lady of the Dunes documentary. We'll be chatting about all the things he's been up to in film. Of course, we'll touch on the Lady of the Dunes. We may have some new news for 2025, but we'll wait and see. So I'll be interviewing him, and it'll be on the podcast, and it'll be on YouTube within a couple of weeks. Just pile it on my pile of content that I've got to make. Before I go, I wanted to wish a happy belated birthday to my niece, Emma. It was a few days ago from when this podcast goes live. I'm sure I'll know before this podcast goes live, but I'm hoping that you had a fun birthday filled with whatever wacky shenanigans you want to get into. Birthdays will be all over the place coming up soon. In a few weeks is my own birthday, followed shortly after by the birthday of this podcast, then my mom, then my sister Kate. It's no wonder why this time of year is my favorite. Like I've said, from Labor Day right through to New Year's. The weather's still nice right now, on Cape Cod at least. And even as the weather gets cooler, holidays pop up, birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas. So it's a fair trade-off. Wherever you are, thank you so much for making this show part of your day, part of your week. I've got a lot of listeners from New England, but I've also got a lot from New York, LA, the Midwest, Canada, Europe. It's amazing that all of you have found this. That's the power of SEO, finding the right keywords, I guess, for my show. And remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path and enjoy every moment you can on this journey we call life because you never know what tomorrow brings. This has been the In My Footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund, and I'll talk to you all again soon.

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Christopher Setterlund

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