Ben Cooper Magic-Glo "U.S. Astronaut" Halloween costume

In business from 1937 until 1992, Ben Cooper, Inc. was the most prominent manufacturer of children’s Halloween costumes in the United States in the early 1960s. Due to ongoing interest in the U.S. space program, particularly among young boys of the era, the company produced a number of different "U.S. Astronaut" costumes over the years. For popular costumes, it was not uncommon for subtle changes or updates to be made every few years, perhaps in the hopes that parents would purchase a new version for their children rather than re-use an older costume.  

Variations on the "U.S. Astronaut" costume included a white jumpsuit rather than blue as well as a white and blue jumpsuit with a large American flag and red NASA emblem. A 1969 or later version featured a white jumpsuit with a large emblem covering the entire torso that read "Man on the Moon" and included art of Apollo 11 on the moon's surface. The plastic mask also changed several times over the years, with the most common version being a traditional Halloween mask with the face of a white male astronaut wearing a NASA helmet with standard holes cut in the mask for the wearer's eyes and nostrils. Variations on the traditional mask included an astronaut with a cartoonish, frightened expression and even a monster version where the human face was replaced by a green Frankenstein-like character, with "NASA Astro Spook" instead of "NASA Astronaut" printed on the helmet. By the early 1970s, a mask was available featuring a blonde female astronaut. The Museum's version, which has clear plastic in place of a traditional painted face, appears to be less common. In the mid-1960s, Ben Cooper also made a Lost in Space version to tie in with the science fiction television series. That costume included the same clear plastic helmet seen in the Museum's collection along with a white jumpsuit that featured the show's logo and spaceship, the Jupiter 2, as well as an image of a ray gun. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator