CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — If you’ve lived in Northeast Ohio long enough, you might remember when the line of cars to get into Mr. Fun’s Costumes and Magic Emporium at Halloween was so long, local police had to direct traffic.
That was, of course, pre-Internet — and pre-pandemic. Back then, Mr. Fun’s was located on Wyoga Lake Road in Cuyahoga Falls in a building it eventually outgrew.
In 2004, Mr. Fun’s proprietors, the Pocock family, moved the business across town to the former State 8 Rollerdrome building, where the costume shop had room to spread out and business could flourish.
Now, after the pandemic kept it closed all year, Mr. Fun’s has opened its doors again — safely, said owner Andy Pocock — to cater to what in normal times is one of its top holidays.
Mr. Fun’s is spacious enough for social distancing, and masks are required, Pocock said. Hand sanitizer is at every check out along with Plexiglas dividers. Dressing rooms are closed for safety’s sake, he said, and employees are surveyed before each shift for any sign of illness.
If you’ve never been there, Mr. Fun’s, a member of the National Costumers Association, is something to experience.
The warehouse-sized store is bursting with wigs, masks, robes, capes, crowns, scepters, swords, feathers and all things glowing or glittery.
And unlike pop-up costume shops that fill empty storefronts and disappear after the spooky season ends, Mr. Fun’s has a full makeup shop with consultants on hand, Pocock said.
Offering traditional monsters, like Frankenstein, Wolf Man and Dracula, Mr. Fun’s also stocks angels and devils, pirates and Vikings, super heroes and villains, and even Biblical characters. If you prefer something animal-like, you can choose from a spitting llama or a racy raccoon, a horse or cow, and even the abominable snowman.
“People come in with a costume idea, and it's not necessarily a packaged costume,” Pocock said. “We can help them get into that makeup. We can give them the wig. We can help them figure out how to make it.”
Mr. Fun’s offers wig styling, too, so fake hair and beards are “on fleek,” no matter how many kids yank on Santa’s facial hair.
“We also do Santa repairs because they can get a thousand kids sitting on their knee,” Pocock said. “Your suit gets a little worn out.”
Pocock and his wife, Meralie Pocock, took over the company years ago from Andy’s mom and dad, Carol and Al Pocock.
The elder Pococks got into the business in 1968 with a French waffle truck Al took to fairs and festivals for summer employment during college. The couple grew the waffle trailer into a concessions business, operating at Ohio fairs and festivals. The business took off from there.
When Al Pocock died in 2017, hundreds of area residents shared stories on Facebook of the joy Al, Mr. Fun’s himself, had brought them over the years.
Surviving the pandemic
Today, Meralie Pocock runs the store and Andy Pocock runs the fair and carnival business, which before the pandemic helped keep the family business viable all year.
But this year, most fairs and carnivals were shuttered, leaving the business to struggle like many small businesses, Andy Pocock said.
In addition to the costume shop, Mr. Fun’s provided costumes to schools, churches and other groups that throughout the year hosted pageants and plays — most of which were canceled this year.
The shop also supplied hundreds of Easter Bunny, Santa and Mrs. Claus costumes, along with elves, reindeer and snowmen — even New Year’s Cupids — for holiday events.
But last spring, just before Easter, Ohio began to shut down.
“Spring musicals were just starting to happen,” Pocock said. “It was our last shot at money for the store before the carnival picked up,” he said. “So, we had to close, and we had all the Easter bunnies canceled — 150 Easter Bunnies.”
Pocock and his family remain hopeful the pandemic will begin to ease up.
“We're hoping for a good Christmas,” he said. “Then, we'll have Santa Claus parades and those kinds of things happen. And then that kind of cycles back to the carnival business.”
Lasting magic
Marcus Harris and Gary DeRemer are long-time customers of Mr. Fun’s.
They are troubled the pandemic has hurt the business, they say, because Mr. Fun’s and the Pocock family have made a lasting impression on their lives.
Marcus Harris, an IT professional, started going to Mr. Fun’s as a child for the magic.
“I would go in there, and I’d pick up tricks and learn things,” he said.
Over time, Harris got to know Carol and Al Pocock. They hired him for his first part-time job, which allowed him to perform magic for customers.
As a youth, Harris, who is African American, says he struggled with racism living in Stow and Cuyahoga Falls, which in the 90s were predominantly white suburbs.
He recalls going to Mr. Fun’s to fill out a job application and seeing an anti-racism bumper sticker on Carol’s car.
“It’s stuck with me for so long,” he said. “But just to see that, it was like she was on the cutting edge of how life should be, you know, and that really stood with me over the years. One of the things that stays with you. Simple, but powerful.”
Harris went on to work full-time at Mr. Fun’s and served as the house magician for years.
Because of the positive atmosphere there, Harris said he encouraged his 17-year-old daughter, Haleigh, to apply at Mr. Fun’s for her first part-time job.
“What I really loved about [the Pocock family] is they welcomed everybody,” he said. "Especially in the difficult times we are having today.”
Harris still performs magic.
“I try to do magic at hospitals when I can, volunteer my time,” he said. “I'll do it at work as well. It's a good icebreaker at meetings and bringing in new groups and things of that nature. Everyone loves it.”
Personal feelings aside, Harris said he believes in supporting small, local businesses, especially when the service is exceptional.
“You’re not going to get the customer service or the satisfaction going to any big box store,” he said. “They genuinely care about the customers, the employees that work for them and the community. They welcome you with open arms and they want you to come back again.”
Creating Halloween
DeRemer, like Harris, says he vividly remembers the early days of Mr. Fun’s and the excitement of the crowds at Halloween.
In part, that’s because he’s something of a Halloween aficionado.
For the past 20 years or so, DeRemer has turned his Cuyahoga Falls home into a haunted house at Halloween, created from scary props he finds at Mr. Fun’s.
“I have people out in costume; we run the fog and the strobes,” he said. “And there’s real loud music in the back. You walk behind the house and there’s a graveyard and all that kind of stuff.”
Other families in his neighborhood participate, so kids can trick-or-treat on the actual Halloween night every year, instead of the city-mandated date, he said.
Growing up, many of DeRemer’s friends worked seasonally at Mr. Fun’s, he said, so it’s more than a costume shop to him.
“A lot of us have lived here all our lives, so this is kind of our thing,” he said.
Mr. Fun’s costumes are authentic, DeRemer said, pointing to the many theatrical productions the costume shop has serviced over the years.
“These guys work all year long and they prepare for it all year so if you want the experts, that’s them,” he said. “You go to any other place and you can’t get that knowledge.”
Like Harris, DeRemer says he believes supporting the local economy is important.
And, if you’re shopping for costumes, he said, the experience is an important part of it.
“It’s the Friday night go-get-something-to-eat-and-go-shopping thing,” he said. “It’s a big part of our culture.”