Ad from New York Daily News, 10/18/79

More KISS items for Halloween, a costume and a pricey makeup kit.

Boy, remember the days when a kid could get a good hobo cigar for 38 cents?
I was the Collegeville Frankenstein in second grade (seen here just above the microcephalic Gene Simmons). Of course, at the time I was simply Frankenstein, plus I had always assumed it was a Ben Cooper Frankenstein. Since I discovered this ad, however, I realize it may very well have been the Collegeville Frankenstein, so I'm going with that, just because I enjoy calling it the Collegeville Frankenstein. I'm a man of simple(-minded) pleasures.

Halloween 2023 UPDATE!
I have come from the future to make the photo better, since before it was just half the ad, blurry, and un-blow-upable. I fixed that.
Also, I re-scanned a picture of me as the Collegeville Frankenstein (which can be found elsewhere on this blog with even more allegedly amusing commentary) and another of me as a hobo.

I am absolutely certain I had the cigar--I remember the flaking crumbs of red glitter on the tip, surely the beginning of a lifelong hatred of the fucking stuff--but sadly it didn't make it into the photo. Mom sewed the whimsical patches onto my good jeans (or "dungarees" as she liked to say). When I saw her handiwork, I was momentarily horrified, until she explained that she could easily remove them afterward, and did.

The latter pic says 1976 on the back (and, helpfully, "Paul" and "Halloween," well done ma) so I guess the CF was '75, first grade. In 1977, if I remember correctly, I was Darth Vader, and Chewbacca the year after that. And when I say "if I remember correctly," please mentally fill in at least eight white-guy-shrugging emojis after it.