Ever spent an afternoon scrolling through microfilm? It’s a trip. You see the world exactly as it was on a specific morning, frozen in ink and newsprint. But there is something uniquely eerie about digging up a Friday the 13th newspaper from decades ago. People actually used to look for these dates with a mix of genuine dread and a wink to the camera. It wasn't just about the slasher movies, though Sean S. Cunningham’s 1980 film definitely hijacked the brand. Before Jason Voorhees ever put on a hockey mask—actually, before he even used a burlap sack—the "unlucky" Friday was a staple of local journalism. Reporters loved it. They’d run stories about black cats at the local shelter or interview tall-tale spinners at the neighborhood pub just to fill space. It’s a weirdly specific slice of cultural history.
The Day the News Got Weird
Search for a Friday the 13th newspaper from the early 20th century and you’ll find a different vibe than today’s cynical internet memes. Back then, the superstition was treated with a strange, playful gravity. On Friday, June 13, 1913, newspapers across the United States were obsessed with the "triple thirteen" aspect of the year. The New York Times and various local rags frequently ran "friggatriskaidekaphobia" stories—the official, mouthful of a term for the fear of this specific day.
It wasn't just fluff.
In some cases, the news was legitimately grim. Take Friday, January 13, 1939. That day saw the start of the "Black Friday" bushfires in Australia, which devastated millions of acres. When you look at those front pages, the date isn't a gimmick; it’s a dark marker of a national tragedy. Then you have the oddities. In 1930, a Friday the 13th newspaper might have reported on the "Thirteen Club," a group of high-society rebels in New York who deliberately met on these dates to walk under ladders and spill salt just to prove nothing would happen. They were the original trolls.
Why We Keep Looking Back
Why do collectors hunt for these specific issues? It’s nostalgia, mostly. But it’s also about the physical evidence of a shared superstition. In the 1970s, before digital archives, a Friday the 13th edition of the Evening Standard or the Chicago Tribune might have featured a tongue-in-cheek horoscope warning readers to stay in bed.
Honestly, the 1980s changed everything. Once the movie franchise launched, the Friday the 13th newspaper ads became the main attraction. You’d see these massive, blood-splattered display ads for the latest sequel. "See it on the day it happens!" the copy would scream. It turned a folk superstition into a marketing juggernaut. If you find a paper from Friday, February 13, 1981—the lead-up to Part 2—you’re looking at a piece of horror movie history. Those ads are often more valuable to collectors than the actual news stories on the front page.
🔗 Read more: A Simple Favor Blake Lively: Why Emily Nelson Is Still the Ultimate Screen Mystery
The Psychology of the Print Ritual
Psychologists like Stuart Vyse, author of Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition, have often noted that humans use these dates to impose order on a chaotic world. Newspapers tapped into that. By labeling a day as "unlucky," they gave people a reason for their bad luck. If you lost your wallet on a Tuesday, it was your fault. If you lost it on Friday the 13th, it was the calendar’s fault.
The media leaned into this hard.
- They would track accident rates.
- They interviewed pilots who refused to fly.
- They photographed "brave" people doing mundane things.
It’s a cycle. The newspaper reports the fear, which validates the fear, which sells more papers.
The 13th Guest and Other Headlines
One of the most famous recurring themes in a vintage Friday the 13th newspaper was the "thirteen at a table" story. There was a legitimate fear in the 1800s and early 1900s that if thirteen people sat down to dinner, one would die within the year. Newspapers would actually report on dinner parties where a fourteenth guest—sometimes a hired hand or a mannequin—was brought in to break the curse. It sounds ridiculous now, but it was front-page stuff.
Finding Value in the Archives
If you’re looking to find or collect a Friday the 13th newspaper, you have to know what makes one valuable. A generic paper from a random Friday in 1954 isn't worth much. But certain dates carry weight.
💡 You might also like: The A Wrinkle in Time Cast: Why This Massive Star Power Didn't Save the Movie
- October 13, 1307: You won’t find a newspaper from this date (obviously), but many modern retrospective articles claim this is when King Philip IV of France arrested the Knights Templar. Any paper featuring a deep dive into this anniversary is a keeper for history buffs.
- September 13, 1940: This was the day Buckingham Palace was bombed during the Blitz. The headlines from that Friday are legendary and harrowing.
- July 13, 1923: The Hollywood Sign (then "Hollywoodland") was officially dedicated.
You’ve gotta look for the intersection of the date and a massive event. That’s where the money—and the interest—is. Most people just want the "scary" ones, but the historical ones are usually more fascinating.
The Digital Shift and the End of the Gimmick
Nowadays, the Friday the 13th newspaper tradition is mostly dead. Print is struggling. Most news outlets just post a "13 things you didn't know about Friday the 13th" listicle on their website and call it a day. The tactile experience of holding a broadsheet with a giant, ominous "13" on the masthead is a relic.
But digital archives like those at the Library of Congress (Chronicling America) or Newspapers.com have made it easier to go back. You can see how the tone shifted from Victorian-era dread to mid-century skepticism to the 80s slasher-flick obsession. It’s like a timeline of how we handle being scared.
Practical Steps for Archive Hunting
If you want to track down a specific Friday the 13th newspaper for a gift or a collection, don't just search eBay for "scary newspaper." You’ll get a lot of junk. Instead, follow a more methodical path.
First, identify a "Golden Era" date. If you want the horror movie vibe, look for papers from May 13, 1980 (the release of the first film). If you want historical significance, look for Friday, December 13, 2002, when the Euro was officially established as the sole currency in many EU countries—a "lucky" or "unlucky" change depending on who you asked at the time.
📖 Related: Cuba Gooding Jr OJ: Why the Performance Everyone Hated Was Actually Genius
Check local library sales. They often offload old bound volumes of local papers. You might find a small-town Friday the 13th newspaper that hasn't been digitized yet. These are goldmines for weird, local superstitions that never made it to the national wires.
Verifying Authenticity
Be careful with "reprints." A lot of what you see online are souvenir copies. Real newsprint from the 1940s or 50s should feel brittle and have a specific smell—acidic, like old wood. If the paper is bright white and feels like modern office paper, it's a fake.
Check the "gutter"—the middle fold. Real vintage papers will show wear and tear there. Also, look at the advertisements. A real Friday the 13th newspaper from 1963 will have ads for local groceries or car dealerships with prices that look like typos today. If the ads look too generic, stay away.
A Final Thought on the "Unlucky" Print
The fascination with the Friday the 13th newspaper isn't going away because we love a reason to be a little bit creeped out. It breaks the monotony of the week. Whether it’s a report on a bizarre coincidence or just a movie ad, these papers represent the moments we collectively decided to believe in something slightly impossible.
To start your own search or verify a find, begin by cross-referencing your date with a perpetual calendar to ensure it actually fell on a Friday. Many "error" papers exist where the date was misprinted, and while those are rare, they aren't always Friday the 13ths. Once confirmed, use a high-resolution scanner to preserve the front page; newsprint degrades rapidly when exposed to UV light. Keep the physical copy in an acid-free archival sleeve, stored flat in a cool, dark place to prevent the ink from lifting or the paper from turning into yellow dust. This ensures the "unlucky" history remains readable for another century.