Vintage 70s Halloween Safety Video—With Tips From NJ Top Cop

As a kid in the 1970s, Halloween safety warnings were as much a part of the holiday as grabbing a pillowcase (not your mom's best one!) and heading out with friends to see if Mrs. Jones was giving out the full-size Hershey bars again.

The internet has unearthed a video from the 1970s filled with tips for a safe Halloween. It was produced by an educational filmmaker in Kansas, but this 1977 gem has ties to the Jersey Shore: the adviser for the video was Richard C. Clement.

Clement was the police chief of Toms River, and at that time was the past president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Clement passed away in 2012.

It's not clear where all of the video by Centron Corporation — you can watch it below — was filmed, but Jason Willis, a filmmaker in Arizona who obtained the 16mm film and converted it to share it on Vimeo, said it was primarily filmed in Lawrence, Kansas, where he grew up and where Centron was based.

"That's where the footage that I was a part of (mostly the party sequences, but also the application of makeup and so on) was shot," said Willis, who was 7 years old when it was shot. "I wasn't a part of the trick-or-treating footage, but the houses and scenery ARE consistent with Lawrence, KS (or at least the greater area -- sometimes Centron would shoot in Kansas City for example). The newspaper that you can see in a few scenes is also from Lawrence, the Lawrence Daily Journal World."

Willis said he didn't know if there were any sequences shot in Toms River but said it could have been possible.

"Theoretically it could be that Centron had some kind of agreement where they used footage shot elsewhere from a different production company out in Toms River," he said, "Total speculation on my part though."

The 11-minute video is a glimpse into the GenX past — the blow mold plastic mask costumes were as common as Smarties (and if you're like me your face is sweating right now at the memory of wearing one; mine was Cinderella) and pillowcases to hold your loot were the favorite.

Many of the safety tips shared are still emphasized today. Some others? Not so much.

Willis shared more about his experience in a blog post he wrote in 2007.

"It's pretty cool how this thing surfaces every year now," Willis said Thursday. "It took me forever to track the film reel down and have it transferred, but I love that the thing lives on."

Check it out: