Police seek to curb Halloween pranks
Oct. 29, 1926: Los Angeles Police Chief James E. Davis said that about 500 more officers than usual would be on duty for Halloween. They would be out on the streets, The Times said, “to make more certain that no soap will be rubbed on plate-glass windows or automobiles, nor air let out of tires, nor cows and horses placed on top of the City Hall.”
The city’s recreation department said it would hold programs at playgrounds around the city to “arouse interest and exhaust youthful energies” of “many thousands of boys and girls.” Among the lures: “festivals, pageants, campfires, dances, athletics and storytelling,” the newspaper said.
“And now Halloween is to be made sane and safe for American boyhood like the Fourth of July,” The Times reported under the headline “Naughty Boys Must be Nice on Halloween.”
“The time of rowdy activities to the discomfiture of property owners is passing.”
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