Ben Cooper costumes: the plastic masks every 80s kid wore on Halloween
The Brooklyn company owned trick-or-treat for decades with vinyl smocks and masks that fogged up in five minutes.
You remember the box. A cellophane window, a plastic face staring back at you, and a smock that crinkled like a grocery bag. For decades, Halloween in America looked like a Ben Cooper catalog.
Where they came from
Ben Cooper started a theatrical costume business in New York in 1927. In 1937 his firm took over a company that held a license for Disney characters, and Ben Cooper, Inc. was formally incorporated in Brooklyn in 1942. The idea was simple: cheap, licensed costumes sold at chain stores like J.C. Penney, Sears and Woolworth's, for under three bucks.
Every character you wanted
Ben Cooper licensed Spider-Man in 1963, the first company to put kids in Marvel superhero costumes, and Batman in 1964. Over the years the racks filled up with Superman, Zorro, Davy Crockett, Frankenstein, the Fonz and Welcome Back, Kotter. Star Wars turned into the company's most lucrative license, and in 1979 it made the first costume based on an R-rated movie, the creature from Alien, which went over with parents about how you'd expect.
By 1979 Ben Cooper was the biggest Halloween costume company in the country, and in 1991 it claimed 70 to 80 percent of the licensed character costume business, with more than 4 million costumes made the year before.
How it ended
The company filed for Chapter 11 in 1988, came back after paying its creditors in full, then filed again in 1991 after moving to North Carolina. Rubie's Costume Co. bought it in 1992, and the name faded out.
What yours might be worth
Boxed costumes in good shape are real collectibles now, especially Star Wars and superheroes. As always, check sold listings rather than asking prices, and condition and a complete box matter most.
The Radazoid take
These costumes were terrible, and we loved them. The mask's eye holes never lined up with your actual eyes, the elastic snapped by the third house, and your mom made you wear a winter coat over the whole thing so nobody could tell you were Darth Vader. Kids today get full padded cosplay outfits. We got plastic and character, and we turned out fine.
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This story was compiled from the reporting below, then checked against it.
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