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Showing posts from September 21, 2010

CANDY, COSTUMES AND CAVITIES

    From pumpkin farmers to confectioners to costume shops and beyond, Halloween is big business in the U.S.--generating nearly $6 billion annually in retail sector alone.  We dig into the numbers to show where the big money is spent, on everything from national charities to neighborhood dentists. 36 million -Number of trick-or-treat aged kids 5 to 13 in the U.S. 93% -Percentage of children who get to dress up and go door to door. $5.77 billion -Total spent in 2008 on Halloween, including candy, parties and witches' brew. $140 million -Money Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF has raised since 1950. 51.8 million-Number of adults who don their sexy nurse, pimp or pirate outfits on Halloween. 73.4% -Percentage of households that say they will dish out treats on Halloween (26.6%: Number of households just asking for a nasty trick) 28% -Number of children, aged 2 to 5, who will get cavities. 1.1 billion -Pounds of pumpkins decorated, turned into pie and smashed in the U.S. each

A WALK DOWN HORROR LANE

Jaws is still the Number 1 horror movie ever, with a worldwide gross of $470 million. 37 Stephen King scary stories have been made into feature films. Jamie Lee Curtis starred in 6 horror movies between 1978 and 1981, earning the nickname "THE SCREAM QUEEN." 189 horror movies were released in 1972, the most prolific year in Hollywood for the genre. The nightly wage for a zombie in 1978 was $1 ($3.55 adjusted for inflation), according to an extra who played one in that years Dawn of the Dead . 4267 Roxbury St., the house in Simi Valley, Ca., where POLTERGEIST was filmed, was last sold in 1979, for $143,500 ($431,247 in todays money).  Zillow estimates the home's current value at $573,500. The real-life Wisconsin grave robber and killer Ed Gein, who disembodied and skinned his victims in the 1950s, inspired three villians: Psycho's Norman Bates, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre's Leatherface, and The Silence of the Lamb's Buffalo Bill.  One 1 h