The Addams family is one of the most unique, well known families in American pop culture. They’ve appeared in print cartoons, television shows, movies, animation, and video games. Having been around for eighty years, their quirky characteristics are so well engrained in our society that any bizarre-acting family is easily compared to the Addams’.

Cartoonist Charles Addams created the odd family in the early 1930s. A satire of the nuclear family, Addams combined values of love and devotion with the macabre and strange. He based some of the characters loosely on his own family and their home, by a cemetery and a swamp in a dark mansion, is reminiscent of Charles Addams’ home town Westfield, New Jersey.

Each member of the Addams family portrays supernatural, sometimes nonhuman traits. Aside from eating food that is often dangerous, enjoying a good walk through a minefield, and deriving pleasure from being stretched on a rack, they have odd abilities. The mother, Motricia, can light candles with her fingertips and emits smoke while relaxing. Gomez, the father, does complex calculations in his head, making a mechanical noise while doing so, and his cigar lights the moment he pulls it from his pocket and extinguishes automatically when replaced. 

The rest of the household is just as strange. Uncle Fester generates electricity and magnetism, while Grandmama makes potions and flies on a broom. Son, Pugsley can hang from tree branches by his teeth, though it’s never actually seen on the show, just mentioned. The younger Addam’s child, Wednesday is strong enough to take Gomez down with a judo hold. Housekeeper Lurch possesses superhuman strength, and Thing, who by nature alone is paranormal, can teleport from one box to another. 

Interestingly, the show never explicitly states that the Addams family has paranormal abilities. The things they do are considered everyday, unexciting traits. Charles Addams did a great job taking the oddities in every family and magnifying them into the supernatural, then pretending they are part of any family characteristics. 

Hake’s Americana & Collectibles has two Addam’s Family pieces in the January auction. They have a Morticia doll, standing 3 and 1 ½ feet tall and a Wednesday doll, standing 19 inches tall. They are F.A.O. Schwartz Exclusives in fine to very fine condition. Check out the Hake’s website to see other auction pieces.