Sears-Roebuck Hallowe'en costumes of yore

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Anonymous

lol “The Kind Regular Cowboys Wear” As opposed to those irregular cowboys…
corestrength

A brief sojourn on Google did not reveal what a “yama yama suit” was. Anybody know?
- PaulR
  
  Clue here:
  http://www.netlexfrance.info/2006/07/05/the-yama-yama-man/
  - freshacconci
    
    So it’s for boys that are fans of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers?
    - PaulR
      
      Oops, copy’n'pasted the wrong link:
      
      https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/26757?show=full
      Read the lyrics in the JPGs.
      
      Dixie Dominus – Yama Yama Man – Sacramento Jazz Festival:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2hmJxzsYPY
      (Er, sung by a kid with a “tan face”.)
      
      Wow, Dixie Dominus seems to be a happenin’ place!
- freshacconci
  
  No idea but it does double as an “everyday play suit” which I’m sure would go over real well on the playground.
El Stinko

That’s it! I finally know what I am going to go as for Halloween. I am going as an IndianClownPirateCowboy.
MarkM

But these costumes make no sense!
In order for it to be a proper Halloween
costume, both the character’s name and face (or full body)
must be redundantly placed on the torso area of the costume.
Otherwise, how could anyone possibly know what the trick-or-treater
is trying to be? You know: a Spiderman costume would have the name
“SPIDERMAN” along with a depiction of Spiderman in action right
on the shirt– just like the real Spiderman does in the movies…
cscox

Seems to cater to boys only? Can’t girls trick or treat?
emilydickinsonridesabmx

Luckily the Yama Yama suit is available for boys up to age 16, and can be worn for an “everyday play suit”. I have this mental image of some poor teenager being made to wear this post Halloween.
Hagrid

I found reference to a bunch of “Yama Yama” girls at the University of Texas in the 1920s. There is a photo of the girls, all wearing the same kind of two-colour costumes the kid in the catalog illustration: http://tinyurl.com/24nqjm5

From what I can gather, the Yama Yama seems to be a character, kind of like the Boogeyman, that was familiar to Vaudeville audiences?