On this All Hallow’s Eve I give you a page I did over the summer during my Mission Rally in Southern California.The subject is an old house in the quiet South Pasadena neighborhood.Ever since my baby sitter allowed me to say up late and watch the movie “Halloween” in the early 1980’s, I have wanted to visit this house. “Halloween” was the highest grossing independent film ever made and it became a mainstay on network television during October, (think: “Viewer Discretion is Advised”, my babysitter lacked this discretion).I love this truly frightening film ,which spawned many rip-offs, because it tied into so many urban myths such as the local haunted house. My friend points to the ugly grey house on the corner and begins, “It was ten years ago in this very house. . . ” Every child had one of these houses in their neighborhood and in “Halloween”, this house was the Myers’ House in Haddonfield, Illinois. In reality it was a house in South Pasadena built in 1888.

1000 Mission Street in South Pasadena, Ca is the current location of one of cinema’s most famous houses. This Victorian, built in 1888, featured prominently in John Carpenter’s classic Halloween (1978). The house was dilapidated and vacant at the time of filming and Carpenter used the exterior and interior. Almost ten years later, in 1987, the house was slated to be bulldozed to make room for new construction. A man was saw that it was going to be destroyed, offered the owner a silver dollar to buy the house. The new owner had to move the house from it’s current location at 709 Meridan to it’s current location on Mission Street. This new location was railway property and the city of S.Pasadena recognized the house’s significance and allowed it to stay. It is known as the Century House, but to film fans it will always be Michael Myer’s house.

An illustration from the sketcher’s early masterpiece, Death Crash (1982).

I wrote and illustrated this book in fourth grade and it was heavily influenced by my viewing of “Halloween”. Something that would have never happened without the help of my baby sitter, who clearly did not use discretion. As a fourth grade teacher, I wonder what I would think if a piece of writing like this came across my desk.

Happy Halloween!