Flashback with Leaf’s 1973 Halloween Candy Sales Brochure!

Today I’m pleased to share a wonderful piece of candy history that you won’t see anywhere else.  It’s a sales brochure from 1973 that was sent out to candy salesmen to help them sell Leaf brand product to their retail clients.  It’s a wonderful array of vintage candy goodness you won’t find anywhere else, so make the jump to check it out.

Back in the early 1970’s, before the widespread establishment of powerhouse retailers like Walmart and Target, candy salesmen (or jobbers, as they were often called) would work out of their cars and trucks and have established routes and territories.  Those routes would have them regularly visiting their customers which were mom and pop grocery or variety stores.  It was a time when confectionery sales was a beat-your-feet kind of job and success was typically distilled through hours or work put in on the route combined with the relationships a salesman had with the people on it.

With thousands of salesmen around the country and just as many many small routes and territories to cover, manufacturers were constantly coming up with ways to entice the retailers to buy and the salesmen to sell.  One of the ways they did that was by sending out colorful brochures and flyers, along with special promotions and deals where the retailers could save and the salesmen could make more for themselves.   Today’s 1973 Halloween sales brochure from Leaf is a great example of this.   Let’s get to it!

Leaf – 1973 Halloween Sales Brochure – Page 01 – cover

You’ll notice the illustration of a kid in a completely unlicensed Superman costume.  Something like that would never be allowed to happen today, but these were simpler times.  This brochure unfolds and opens up into a three page gatefold view of everything that Leaf was promoting for the 1973 Halloween season.

Leaf – 1973 Halloween Sales Brochure – Page 02-04 – Gatefold three pager

As the brochure proclaims, Leaf’s Halloween offerings included items that were available all-year-round as well as a selection that were only offered during the season.  You’ll note that none of these feature Halloween-specific packaging.  I’m not sure why that might have been, as seasonal-specific packaging design was a practice used at the time.  Perhaps they sought to avoid selling product to their retailers that would lose its appeal on November 1st.

Here’s a closer look at the three colorful pages of the brochure:

Leaf – 1973 Halloween Sales Brochure – Page 02

Leaf – 1973 Halloween Sales Brochure – Page 03

Note how the unlicensed Superman-costumed kid becomes some strange candy-filled headless horseman character for this final page of the brochure.  Spooky stuff!

Leaf – 1973 Halloween Sales Brochure – Page 04

This brochure has a number of products I’ve never come across anywhere else before, so I thought they deserved closer inspection:

Leaf – 1973 Halloween Sales Brochure close-up – 40 PAL Pops

Leaf – 1973 Halloween Sales Brochure close-up – 40 Sour Sweets

Leaf – 1973 Halloween Sales Brochure close-up – 80 Candy Apples

Leaf – 1973 Halloween Sales Brochure close-up – 80 Root Beer Barrels

Leaf – 1973 Halloween Sales Brochure close-up – Treats for Tots

And last but not least, my favorite of the bunch:

Leaf – 1973 Halloween Sales Brochure close-up – Beanos

I think this 1973 Leaf brochure is pretty remarkable material, especially when you realize that the images it contains might be the only evidence that these products ever existed.

The brochure also contains price lists, suggested orders, and features breakdown:

Leaf – 1973 Halloween Sales Brochure – Page 05 – Price List

Leaf – 1973 Halloween Sales Brochure – Page 06 – Suggested order

Leaf – 1973 Halloween Sales Brochure – Page 07- Features

And that’s everything I’ve got to share on this amazing Leaf 1973 Halloween brochure.  See you next time!

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Today’s post has been part of CollectingCandy.com’s 2015 Countdown to Halloween. To check out other sites celebrating Halloween all month long, visit the official CountdownToHalloween site.  For more of CollectingCandy.com’s CountdownToHalloween posts, just click here.