Monkey-Shines & Rubber Masks

Starting around 1948, Rubber-For-Molds Inc. decided to start advertising in various comics of different genres like westerns and funny animals to promote their hideous line of masks. Ranging from $3-5 each, these giant rubber head-socks were what Scooby-Doo villains would implement for their capers, even though they are not all of monsters as some of these were of licensed characters like Mickey Mouse and a yellow Donald Duck. Aside from cartoons, the ads would also feature a diverse selection of faces to choose from like clown, old man, old lady, monkey, idiot, and Satan himself, although the one of Santa Claus they bill is never shown in any of them. Some of these choices are purely racist such as their minstrel mask that looks like every blackface gag which wasn't as frowned upon back then as it should have been. Another example was the advertisement's rotating paint jobs they gave for each mask including a causasian Satan and clown. The monkey mask is also suspect as one looks like a standard cartoon monkey, the line for which was pretty blurry back then as to whether or not it was intended to be a genuine toonish animal or a racial stereotype, and there was a second monkey mask that appeared more like someone shaved most of the hair off a monkey's face. These mold-art masks seem like they might be hard to see out of despite the ad's promise you can look out of the eyeholes, plus their boasting that the masks would fit both children and adults seems really suspicious, not to mention it seems extremely creepy picturing a white child sporting a racist minstrel mask who had no clue of the context behind it back in the 40s. The ad's image of a poor lady being horrified by some random partyer sporting a grotesque idiot mask while everyone else at the masquerade is just wearing their old fashion domino masks makes the whole thing look like a scene out of a slasher movie, but maybe people weren't as afraid of homicidal maniacs in William Shatner masks like they would later on in the 70s.