{"id":504427,"date":"2026-10-22T17:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T17:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/504427\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T17:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T17:18:12","slug":"the-ghosts-of-castro-halloweens-past-and-present-at-cliff-s-variety-san-francisco-bay-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/504427\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ghosts of Castro Halloweens Past and Present at Cliff \u2019s Variety – San Francisco Bay Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Photos by Terry Asten Bennett<\/p>\n

If Halloween has a home, it must be Cliff\u2019s Variety in the Castro\u2014at least since 1946, when Ernie DeBaca organized a neighborhood children\u2019s costume contest outside his family\u2019s Castro Street shop to bring local families together and boost foot traffic. That small community gathering sparked the origin of what would eventually expand into the world-famous Castro Halloween Street Fair.<\/p>\n

Founded ten years earlier in 1936 by Ernie\u2019s father, Hilario DeBaca, Cliff\u2019s Variety originally opened at 545 Castro Street before eventually settling at 479 Castro Street, establishing itself as both a functional neighborhood staple and the foundational pillar of the district\u2019s annual holiday tradition. Co-Owner and General Manager Terry Asten Bennett represents the family\u2019s fifth generation of leadership, and both she and her mother, Co-Owner and CFO Martha Asten, carry on the Halloween spirit at Cliff\u2019s. (Martha\u2019s late husband Ernie Asten was Ernie DeBaca\u2019s grandson.)<\/p>\n

The official city-sanctioned street party was discontinued in 2007, making way for today\u2019s Castro Night Market celebrations. Now, every autumn, Cliff\u2019s Variety undergoes an operational shift, converting large portions of its standard inventory into a massive supply hub for costuming gear, theatrical makeup, wigs, and yards of raw fabric. Local drag performers, costume designers, and neighborhood residents rely on the shop to source specialty materials and structural hardware to construct custom outfits on site. Cliff\u2019s Variety remains a continuous physical\u2014and maybe metaphysical!\u2014link to the Castro\u2019s mid-century origins, helping keep the neighborhood\u2019s creative legacy alive. https:\/\/www.cliffsvariety.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Halloween in the Castro 2026
Published on October 22, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photos by Terry Asten Bennett If Halloween has a home, it must be Cliff\u2019s Variety in the Castro\u2014at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-504427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}