I'm Peggy Scott Laborde in New Orleans at Carnival.

It seems the parades never end.

And fortunately, neither do our memories of some of them from years gone by.

We are back now with a sequel to our Emmy nominated 2021 wire special.

New Orleans Parades from the past.

And over the next hour, we will look at even more rare home movies and film footage of two dozen parades from the past.

WYES presents More New Orleans Parades from the Past.

With me to provide expert commentary are Errol Laborde, carnival historian, columnist and author of The books Mardi Gras Chronicles of the New Orleans Carnival.

And When Rex met Zulu, Chronicles of the New Orleans Experience, and, of course, Arthur Hardy, carnival historian, author and founder of Arthur Hardy's Mardi Gras guide.

Hello, sir.

Happy to be with you.

Great to see you once again.

Congratulations on the guide.

Thank you.

This will be fun again.

Absolutely.

And once again, we are here in the Charlie and Jeannette Korman Performance Studios of WYES.

And let's kick it off with some very rare footage.

1937 Rex on Saint Charles Avenue.

All right, so here we are.

And Rex was Albert Patterson.

He was the president of Nazi.

And then the queen of Carnival that year was Jesse Chamoy, a daughter of Judge George John V and Judge George IV had lots of connections to Carnival.

He was a very important person in Carnival.

He was a captain of one of the one of the airline crews, but was very active in that whole scene and a long lasting captain.

So he was very important.

Yeah.

And look at the music, pulling the floats.

The men are wearing hats and some of the, floats.

The theme floats included, the airplane birds and flying fish paper made by the wasp, the parachute, dandelion chutes, the lasso, the chameleon's tongue.

And it was similar to a 1954 Rex theme.

Nature creates.

Man invents.

Yeah.

We do try to do was to show things that were influenced by the nature that like flowers, influence airplanes and that sort of thing.

Yeah, and, And Arthur, what are they throwing at that point?

I'm not sure, really, but probably beads and trinkets and things.

A couple of interesting things about this parade.

I since this film may have been colorized, I'm not sure.

It's really neat to see the float titles being carried by people on the street.

But traditionally, Rex has Purple Goal and Green Lieutenant so outfitted in those colors in front of the parade.

In this film, we see one lieutenant in front of each float, and it looks like he's in white.

I don't know if that was in the colorization process or if that was how it was done then, but never seen that before.

This is early to see color for Rex, and thanks to the historic New Orleans collection for that really rare gem.

And we proceed with 1941 Rex Parade with the footage starting with Canal Street Lamp Post, designed by city decorator Betty Finn.

And yes, there was an official city decorator from the 1930s through the 60s.

And she was it.

And this would be the last Rex parade before Pearl Harbor, of course, the Pearl Harbor attack and World War two.

And the theme was gems from the Arabian Nights, including bird, damsels, Kingdom and People of the sea, The Wondrous Gifts of Solomon.

But Rex that year was Charles E Fenner, prominent New Orleans broker and civic leader.

There he is who founded Fenner and being a brokerage firm which later became part of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith and his son Darwin.

As Fenner became Rex captain in the 1950s and 60s, and the Queen of Carnival was Delphine Clark.

And talk about important people and Mardi Gras history is Darwin Center, who became captain of Rex, who was a major captain and who was a very transitional captain who did a lot of upgrading and changes in Carnival.

And so between the two floats we've seen was on the air in one and in the infinity.

We have the other now.

And let me emphasize the word transition, because with him, the doubloon, of course, with Mr. Alvin Sharpe, he said just as the balloon and a lot of innovations in the balloon, His Majesty's, bandwagon, some people say, and nobody can contradict this, that he really put the poor.

The February seems to love back in action to become forgotten about that and blinker on which you talk in this sort of thing that you and the book.

Right.

1959.

Oh good.

The return and papier maché.

So we owe a lot to that Kenner family.

I want to mention those decorations very thin and here, the city of the decorating that only you should decorate for morning was decorated for Christmas because of, like, with the sugar bowl coming.

And so that style of decoration which went all the way down the lamppost, was seen like between Christmas Eve, the Mardi Gras.

It was really a lot of effort was put in decorating downtown New Orleans.

Amazing.

All right.

And on to more.

Rex 1948.

In this footage begins with massacres on Canal Street and oh my goodness.

Including you'll see in just a moment a carnival angel.

But loving this is homespun costumes.

Lots of clowns, cowboys and some drag.

Some people in drag to, look at this and Rex, 1948 would have been doctor, Alton Ochsner, the founder of the Ochsner Clinic and Hospital in his son John would be Rex in 1990.

But look at there's the carnival angel, Longboat and Ochsner, who was a major national figure at that time because he was getting a lot of prominence about the exploration he'd done on cancer and other things.

But his son, John Augustine became.

Rex told me that he was not at the time they became Rex, a member of the Rex organization.

He could have been an honorary thing, but he was one in the family.

Didn't know that he was going to be Rex until Maury Gras morning, when all of a sudden all the dignitaries started to arrive.

And so he was a total surprise to the family, maybe to him also.

And you also saw the theme flow dances through the ages and, and all the different hoopla, including the, maypole dance.

But, yeah, this is very pivotal.

This is after the war.

This is an definitely a very important, parade.

Now we're moving on to 1948.

The crew of nor a children's parade, the theme was Songs on Parade.

And set this up for us a little bit.

The importance of Nora.

Well, Nora stood for New Orleans romance, and, it was actually every public school in the city entered a float.

And the floats until this year were pulled by children.

This year they use jeeps.

And this was actually their second to last parade.

And I did a little research and found out there was a king of each float, king and queen from the elementary schools.

But there was one overall king and queen of all of nor.

And the king that year was William Knowles and Queen John Flinders.

And, I'm sure it was a really big deal to them and to all the kids that participated.

And this was shortly after World War two.

So they found lots of jeeps and lots of soldiers around that time, that sort of thing.

They had as many as 100 floats.

I mean, wow, yeah.

Wow.

That's a whole lot.

I love that it was sponsored by the Association of Commerce, which I guess it was like the chamber, Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of Commerce now not shown in that footage, but in 1948, this parade was viewed by First Lady Bess Truman and her daughter Margaret reviewed the parade from Gallagher Hall.

They also attended the Hermes Parade and the ball of the Mystic Club and the crew of Moslem, a fraternal organization that was part of the Shriners at the auditorium.

But very special.

And of course, Carnival and children.

We still have the children's carnival ball.

Yes we do, you know, celebrating the 100th anniversary.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

And the Truman family was probably collecting it after the war.

Glory.

Because the war began, the war ended.

Now they can relax Civil War time and they can go around and talk about what we know what happened.

So absolutely.

And for many years, the Little Rascals parade, too.

So you had some sweet moments there?

A lot of a lot, a lot of candy.

Okay.

And now we move on to the 1940 a parade.

And this is footage, man, is this rare of the first tooth parade.

Their theme was mythological.

The divinities and demigods.

And, the king was, Gilmore, do friend.

And the queen was Gertrude a bear and man, this is just really something.

Of course.

This is on Magazine Street initially right at Napoleon Avenue, where the police station is, and they ended the Henry Clay.

Now they start there.

That started well, years ago, the children's hospital.

Look at the murals.

That's fabulous.

You know, and the parade began by the building known as the Rink on that magazine.

Oh, the Birmingham, the Birmingham Magazine and Britannia.

And then went all the way down to, And I'm sorry, actually, it it began and ended there, but it did the loop as Henry Clay as it did for decades later.

So and one really interesting thing about this, I've copied every other historian who wrote that first 405 floats film showed us there ten floats.

So we've been wrong all these years.

Ten floats to the first took forever.

You always have to say about tilt is that they pioneered the idea of passing by uptown institutions, health institutions.

And so they're right when you see it.

Right.

It's always kind of serpentine going all around.

And they still do that.

They still try to have that, that, that type of the term shot, but that from day one, that was their mission.

And to be commended for that.

Yeah.

Very sweet.

The mules very quickly.

The mules aren't those originally with the sanitation department.

Yes.

They world Bank did garbage trucks during the day and floats at night, you know, wonderful.

That ended in 1951.

Wow.

So we're seeing almost towards the end there.

All right.

Moving on to 1954, the Venus Parade.

And the theme that year was Magic Moments of Music.

The Queen was and this is Belmont, Jay Sanchez.

There she is.

And footage is, of course, this is rolling near your hall.

You can see the queen being toasted by then Mayor Morrison.

That's beautiful footage, really.

With the little pages you can see this is more like a bald ish man right in the center.

And he loved Carnival.

And so you see him in a lot of footage of that era.

He was very definitely into the Mardi Gras scene.

There were 16 floats, including Scheherazade, Madame Butterfly, Babes and Toyland.

Carnival, Venice, Somewhere Over the Rainbow and Venus, we should point out, was founded in 1941 and parade it until 1992.

On the Sunday afternoon before Mardi Gras.

And they used floats from Babylon.

And, you'll notice the Choctaw Club is prominently seen in these films, which was like catty corner with a little.

Yeah.

Wow.

That's terrific.

And that's your shahrazad.

And, you know, all female.

This is an early all female crew, and you can see some Czechoslovakian beads there they're throwing.

Oh yes.

Look at that.

Yeah.

You can really tell.

Yeah.

I'm glad you mentioned Choctaw Club because back then it was common in cities to have these political organizations.

In New York you had Tammany Hall, which was named after an Indian of the Choctaw Club.

And so somebody like Morrison was looking across the street at the Choctaw Club, which sometimes was the opposition.

Hey, at Mardi Gras, everything goes away right?

Exactly.

Exactly like a Venus.

Oh, and once and once again, I love talking about those primarily today.

We're so used to so many different kinds of throws, but it was mainly beads.

Yeah.

Oh, mainly beads.

Venus was really the guy in the earring women's parade.

I mean, they may have been small, I don't know, this was like the first major women's parade.

And then coming down a few years later would be ours right there.

You know, it was Venus and Iris who were the, you know who the two top parades who were both founded by them and I'm guessing.

Yeah.

And of course Annette's Mason was also in yes.

Involved a little feud just a few years later.

She certainly was part of the history of that.

And we're going to move on now still with Venus.

But many years later in 1968, the Venus parade.

And this is really rare because this is when the parades went through the water.

Yes.

Right there at the 500 block of Royal at the corner of Toulouse.

The theme was the sounds of music floats such as the Arab spread culture, Greek mythology, its impact on music, opera, music of the American circus.

The Queen's name was kept secret starting that year and continuing to the end of the crew.

Actually, the King was Harry Rosenthal, who was the king of many parades in the 1960s, including Endymion.

Right?

Yep.

17 crews.

He was, king of either a ball crew and or a parade parading crew.

And for several, he was their first king, as it was for Endymion.

Quite a character.

He was such a special experience to see a parade in the quarter.

I mean, things were close together.

The music really echoed easily.

Well, Arthur, having been a band director for many years and in a prior life.

Right.

Let me be sure you march through that.

What could this sound must have really reverberated.

It was just wonderful when you turned that corner off of Canal Street onto Royal Matter, how tired you want.

Everybody just kept up.

And again, the sound, the lights.

If it was the night parade, the crowds were so intimate.

It was just a special, special experience.

And that end of 1972, when the police department decided the size of the floats, the size of the crowds, were just so huge that if they ever had a fire, the whole water would burn down.

So they banned parades in the fall.

Also, didn't you also have the beginning of some of the super parades like Bacchus, which have some much larger scale floats?

From what I think it going to do, they say we can't let this continue to happen.

Yeah.

So moving on to 1956, the Carrollton parade.

The theme was that of the story The Bluebird.

Here we go.

Look at the property track.

Unfortunately, it looked like it was rainy that day.

And the, King was Frank Zappa.

Rita the Queen was Barbara Mae.

Bro, look at the use of convertible.

That was something really popular, with a few parades.

But especially, the Carrollton.

Sorry, it was a rainy, but, and this is when Carrollton paraded in Carrollton.

Yes, it did in parts of Mid-City.

Okay.

Out on the Canal Street, the turn of the canal.

That was a main part.

Pro.

Yeah, but the, to a lot of people, Mardi Gras begin with the Carrollton parade.

Yes.

That's right.

They may be the few miscellaneous parades, but the Carrollton Sunday was really the big thing.

And those huge crowds.

And of course, it was the first thing in that part of town as opposed to the Uptown.

They start out on Oak Street where the den was, and they went down Carrollton to Tulane Avenue and would shop at Charity hospital and had toys for the kids, which is wonderful, wonderful tradition.

And you would see those same floats that on what is now Endymion Saturday in the Adonis parade.

Oh.

Oh, right.

And wasn't Mr. Ackerman an early?

Mr. Ackerman was the first captain after the war that really revitalized the crew of Carrollton.

And he was also king and guest of the model captain.

Yes.

I recall he had a refrigeration company in Carrollton, right on Oak Street and Oak Street.

Yeah.

Where the den still exists.

Oh, okay.

And moving on to 1956, the Hermes parade.

The theme was the snow Queen.

Look at the Flambeau was here.

Yeah, actually, the case where they started with hundreds of flares.

Then they had Flambeau, which I believe they got from the Knights of MoMA's.

Wow.

And this is Saint Charles, and you can see the Lafayette Hotel sign a little bit in the background.

Kind of a junior, obviously.

Gary, you look at the neon, you just saw a little bit of neon, you know, invented that, brought that to parades.

The first parade in 1937.

Yeah.

I would say this is an appropriate shot for Hermes because Hermes, when I think about the first thing, I think about lighting all the work you did with the lighting.

And so you kind of get an idea of, of, of what exists at the time.

And it still does good things with lighting in the stills are really pretty boring.

All right.

And moving on.

And this is really something the 1958 Rex Parade passing by the then new City Hall right there at Duncan Plaza.

I love those walking figures, and I'm so glad that Rex has brought back that tradition, done by Mr. Bernard Kelly these days.

Yeah.

And, this is in front of City Hall today.

City hall?

They instead of Geiger Hall, they moved over, but just for a few years and, and and here's, here's a Rex who was Joseph Merrick Jones and the queen was a Augusta Dinwiddie.

The theme was Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales.

Look at those in the parade.

Right?

Yes.

Was altered, but then only lasted to, what, 64 years, I think.

And people were tired of it.

Yeah, these are props, said Blaine Kern, imported from Viareggio and a lot of animation.

But let me tell you something.

These parades still passed down your hall, even though there was.

They did so good to know.

We can technically say from 1857 to forever, every major downtown, uptown parade.

Pascal.

Your hall.

Yes.

And I know you wanted to mention a little bit more about once.

You just say that.

Yeah.

The official activity was shifted to City Hall.

That's where all the favorite guests were invited, where the mayor toasted.

And so was supposed to be a big deal.

The past a new city hall.

But people didn't like it, you know, out the way.

You didn't have that same neighborhood feeling that you had.

People have never liked the new city hall.

Even today, people don't like that building.

Okay?

It's always been one type of building.

And so after a few years they moved it and it also made the parade longer.

It delayed it.

And so everybody wanted back on Saint Charles where it belongs.

And that made Saint Charles once and for all, the ceremonial capital of New Orleans.

Before that, it was where the government was.

Now, this is where you have your ceremonies.

Exactly.

And at this point, as we said, the the float from, you know, Viareggio, that float was in so many parade.

This is the early days, of course, of Blaine Kern.

What a you tell that story.

Well, the story is, is that, when Darwin Fenner, who was the captain when he hired Blaine Kern, he said that supposedly paid himself.

He said Blaine coming to Viareggio, which had a very active carnival scene, and he studied that float making.

And so when you see those figures with the eyes blinking and the hands spread out, that's the Viareggio figure.

But anyway, he brought that technology back to New Orleans, and it was a big influence, the Viareggio.

There's still a big parade in Viareggio today.

It's a big thing.

Okay.

And, and so there was a real Viareggio influence on New Orleans.

I think ultimately there was a New Orleans influence on Viareggio, too, because I think that they saw the way we did it.

And so I think, I think they adopted some of our things as well.

But, they became good partners.

But yeah, there was.

But you don't see the Viareggio look anymore.

No, you don't, you really do.

All right, moving on, though, to 1958 Zulu parade.

And the king that year was Alonzo Butler.

And the Queen, was Wilhemina Garrett.

And, this was, of course, a much smaller scale.

I love some of the songs.

The songs are so much fun.

I mean, they're obviously having fun.

The, part, they're a walking continues, here.

And yes, in 59 we have also 59.

Look at this.

Hail, Hail the King.

And once again, those wonderful, wonderful signs.

But, some of their members are walking.

These floats were fairly tiny.

And look at this.

The rain, 45th rains or, you know, rains.

Notice the tin foil on the floats, too.

And, I think it may have been the first male club to actually have the queen bride in the parade.

And, and you know, you never knew where Zulu was going to go.

Oh here we go.

The King Crow entertains Arthur.

Tell us about that.

Bloody well a fellow named Nat King who was king and 1954 was a pitchman PR guy for the Old Crow liquor.

And I think that had something to do with that.

He also was a historian.

It had a publication called, Tan Mardi Gras that covered African American Carnival.

The first 1 in 1949, did this all the way up, off and on to 1973.

And it's just a goldmine of, a picture of businesses and crews in that era, which didn't get much publicity in the mainline press.

And then 59, the, royalty was the king, Zulu was Melvin Green, and the Queen was, Doris Madison, who was Zulu.

There was also the funeral home because would get as well as funeral, which was real gathering point for the Zulu organization.

Absolutely.

And I love seeing the witchdoctor in the big Shot, which continues today.

That's really fun.

Some things continuing.

And once again, at that point, you never knew about the route that we live, that change or where they're going to be.

Yeah.

So now now, you know, as they learned to be on the standardized route, I mean, the same Saint Charles route, I mean, they couldn't be going, you know, from place to place.

And so that changed it all.

Absolutely.

Moving on to MoMA's 1960, oh my goodness.

And the theme that year was Birthstones, The Pageant of Birds.

And you, you'll see Flambeau here is the MoMA's captain.

And MoMA's being one of the gods of mirth.

And, and revelry and and, of course, MoMA's, the king is never revealed.

He's always masked at the moment is all that he had to he had to move.

It was, a mask a little bit to the don't.

Wedding moments is one of the old classic traditional parades.

So if you want to see what really parades look like, you know, look at this woman's parade.

MoMA started in 1872, the same year that the only difference is a story at the other end of 1872, around around New Year.

But it lasted for a long time and then it's, it's stopped parading, for various reasons.

It was kind of reincarnated with the crew of chaos, which does parades like Mormons used to do in those satire, like Mormons used to do.

And you'll notice the Flambeau or the fourth Flambeau, variety Comus used the two torch variety and Momus and Proteus had for.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

Oh, that's a great piece of, carnival trivia.

I love that.

Now, you know, now I know he didn't know about that, that's for sure.

Look at that.

now.

Oh, my goodness.

We get to see an early Endymion parade.

The 1968 Endymion parade.

The theme was highlights of the silver screen.

It was the second year of Endymion and the, the queen and her court or gal.

Your hall.

The queen was.

And here we go.

We've got Saint Aloysius band.

Yeah.

Saint Aloysius and people, even those that in the early years of Endymion, it wasn't the big Endymion that we come to know.

And Corey Aizu here, too.

Yeah.

It was mainly a Gentilly based parade.

If you see the chorus.

Who, band.

It was after a few years that once Barker squared, Roland became sort of like the model for others.

And then they became like a Bacchus type parade.

And we should point out the correlation with Saint Aloysius, you know, eventually merge in 1969.

And here is our cat and head music scene in a chariot.

Yeah, a chariot, not a float.

And you'll notice leading him were cheerleaders that spelled out Endymion.

And for their 50th anniversary, as a surprise to the moon, as they did the same thing, they had a group of young women with the, spelling out of Endymion.

And the key here is Henri Love and, the great Train Robbery.

These are highlights of the silver screen.

It's a little hard to see, but the Bible.

Irma, La Duce, North to Alaska, Goldfinger, the buccaneer.

How the West was won.

Yes.

The floats were rented from the crew of Carrollton.

And the 1968 theme was the saga of the Mississippi.

So they really had to kind of modify, didn't they?

The ball was at the Junk Hotel.

Oh, wow.

And there was rain earlier in the week, which forced the cancellation of both Momus and Hermes parades.

But, so this is extra special, that, you know, and people in terms of Endymion, it's interesting because it is you can share with us.

It wasn't named after Endymion.

The Greek god wasn't supposed his name.

That's a racehorse.

Yeah, a winning racehorse, you know, because moon again is vintage until he got, I guess, who's walking by the by the fairgrounds one day.

Heard about the horse named Endymion.

Kind of took a liking to the name, and that's what he called it.

But but but it did also fit in with the old Greek god sort of thing.

But Arthur membership was 225.

They have more members on the crew.

Pontchartrain float that nine floats together than they did that first.

So how many members these days?

I think it's 3300, you know, is it the biggest?

No, Iris is the biggest.

Yeah.

The women women have taken over.

And give me Endymion, the second biggest male.

Wow, wow.

All right, moving on.

1969 Proteus parade.

And of course, this is the Monday.

This is Lindy Gras, Monday before Carnival.

The world of Hans Christian Andersen.

The queen was Mary Maria Lujan Baldwin and Proteus.

Identity is, of course, secret.

One of my favorite things, though, is the Proteus, the King's float, which we'll see.

Beautiful.

Which is, you know, of course, Proteus being a god of the sea.

That wonderful, shell, float, too.

If you try to trace New Orleans society somewhere along the line, it all starts with a Baldwin.

That the ball.

The ball.

Yeah.

Really, really prominent name.

And so I'm sure they were Baldwin's.

No, no, Ella, this crew was the people who were related to the pros has always been I love this parade because it's a good old fashioned parade.

And so again, you can see, like look at that moment, it you can see what it used to be like.

I see those classic float riders hats with the up with the flat top to them and a lot of jazz bands, little walking jazz combos, usually in Proteus.

And still such a beautiful parade.

Okay, moving on to 1969.

Also that year, Makana, the Makana parade.

The theme was Realm of Man in Power.

The Saint og band.

We'll see, in just a moment.

And this was initially formed in 1949 as a ball only crew.

The all male crew began parading, as we said in 69.

Oh, yeah, this is actually footage of the first parade we should be to rolling on the first Saturday afternoon of the parade season from 69 to 75, and, first of a stage balls.

And it was very much connected with the Shriners.

And there was a another crew called the Crew of Moslem, and they actually Moslem and Makana did a couple of combined balls.

I still have some programs on them.

Really big deal.

Nice it.

As you mentioned, Saint OG, and that was a big thing in 1969 for them to be in a major parade like this.

And, what a what a lovely parade.

I'm not positive, but I think the Cantrell family, did these floats, and they were prominent and still exists today doing parades.

Just a really historic I mean, to have the film of the first full kind of parade.

Who knew?

You know, I'm just so glad to see this.

And the curious about the name McCann.

It seemed to me like some kind of a Choctaw name or something.

But you look at that, and it's an indigenous tribe in Colombia.

And so what attracted to that?

I don't know, but I maybe the Moslem combination name and I'm not sure where the controversy is.

Somebody will tell us we need to research the two figures.

We mentioned a pattern of an organization starting with a ball first and then go to a parade.

Others would do it.

The most notable, though, would be, 12th Night revelers.

Okay, so we had a parade for a few years.

That's a good.

Well, can it when the parade when there was also an earlier, motion had stage their boss at the Jerusalem Temple once again, the connection with the Shriners.

And then later, of course, Municipal Auditorium and costumes were designed by Sir Nicholas very famous costume designer for many, many years and also designed what for Endymion.

And I think these two he was it should mention the Booker T Washington band was also, in that parade.

All right.

And this is a personal note in 1969.

And the lady and one of the lady in waiting in the court, was Joanne Deacon, a family member?

Yep.

There we go.

Now it's time to go to the West Bank to, in 1971, the talk parade there.

First, the new world's most talked of club organized by the Jug Social Club, which was organized in 1951, primarily African American, has paraded in Algiers since 1970 on the Saturday before Mardi Gras, you can see the Blaine Kern Artist sign building in the background because there we go.

Look at that, that talk.

That's really something.

And the theme that year was Cavalcade of Music.

And, there's a saying on band.

Yeah, I'm they call themselves the pride of the West Bank.

It's a New Orleans parade because they're in Algiers, which, as we all know, was born in New Orleans.

But crowds are enormous for this parade.

And they're on this.

They parade at the same time as tux and Iris on the east bank, then Endymion.

So that's like the biggest day of parades in terms of sheer numbers and all of Carnival the Saturday before Fat Tuesday.

And we should point out that the King that year was Edward P Julian and the Queen John, Yolanda, Connor, and yes, to see the Saint OG band.

And then also we'll move on.

We're still on the West Bank.

In 1962, the gorilla parade standing Fort Gretna, Louisiana.

Yes, 1972, I should point out.

And, the, Gorilla Parade staged their first ever carnival parade in Jefferson Parish in 1948.

1972 steam celebrated the cruise 25th anniversary, and in 83 they switched from a Saturday parade to Mardi Gras.

Then they disbanded in 2003.

Gorillas seem to be like a a West thing thing because you'd also see the crew of al.

Yeah, it was new to Algiers, Louisiana, and we also had in 1949 the crew of of, Jeff Lula just for Jefferson, Louisiana.

So something about initials on on the West Bank.

I want to point out grow up and barrel.

I think you've shared the story before.

In 1998, actor Milton Berle was their guest celebrity, and somebody had told him he was going to be king of Mardi Gras.

And when he wound up on you, be wrong.

I don't know if it was mildly disappointing.

Yeah, I know that both.

Well, all three of us certainly wax nostalgic for the parades there were in the middle of neighborhoods.

And this is a great example, isn't it?

Yeah.

Isn't it classy to see the houses?

Imagine people living on the porch year rather than their porch into the.

And so you see in the West, like we just saw on the East bank too, like for rent, I mean, for rent and to a certain extent Carrollton or some of those parades that what they really tried to do.

And that was the one good thing about the year of Covid, when people did the the house decorating and you can walk in neighborhoods and see something that looked like floats and parades.

It really was a good feeling to have Carnival back in the neighborhoods.

And we're still in the 70s.

1973 Babylon and the title float is Aida, of course, from the opera.

And look at that.

There's the Babylon logo, the, jester and and the king is known of as King Sargon Ellis.

You know, starlets still like, you know, and the next year became, you know, the Knights of Babylon.

Here we are.

And, then Warren Easton is right behind us, and they have their own little street car float.

Loving that.

The tractors are very unusual tractors.

They were called river rats because they were used on the wharves of the river.

Here's my album out of Warren Easton.

Arthur Knight was the band director, then Warren Easton Eagles, and they, started something in the early 50s of spelling out the name of the school with their cheerleaders, and that was a real popular addition to the castle.

And this is, of course, the view from Gary.

You're across from Galeries Lafayette.

It is always struck the imagination of carnival planners.

I mean, here's this parade, you know, I read it and then, of course, in the carnival, both are given the ropes.

Ball.

One of the great moments is the grand March.

Yep.

From either.

It's a beautiful piece of music.

And so it's a good story that kind of fits into the Mardi Gras legend.

Absolutely.

King Sargon, King Sargon, loving that name.

And of course, the Knights of Babylon continue to this day.

You know, we saw Hermes earlier.

It's interesting.

Hermes and Babylon.

Babylon started as the Knights of Babylon, and Hermes is the crew of Babylon.

And after a year or two they switch to the nice.

And that's another great tidbit out there.

They both do.

A lot of the same thing was that it was sort of like we're in the 1930s or.

Yeah, yeah, that was when you kind of having this revival going on without going the commercial cruise.

They weren't commercial in terms of that were like business oriented cruise business.

When you get into the into the parade scene, like, like and they're done in the style of the old, of the old style Cornwall, you know, it's so hard to film night parades.

It really is.

This is extraordinary quality for a night parade since, you know, decades ago.

Yes, absolutely.

And moving back over to the Proteus parade, 1974, this time the theme was Living Jewels.

And the queen was Catherine, black rain and long time captain here, that of the crew of Proteus we know is that we can't tell on a white horse, white on white.

And this is what I was talking about early show.

Oh, yeah.

In all of Carnival.

That is my favorite Kings film.

Yeah, I think it is a great Kings float.

It's a beautiful one on.

You see the the parade this year where it's a little bit bigger, float and wouldn't be riding.

It's really just a great, great float.

And right on.

Yes.

And we said living jewels.

Look at that float.

Very, very traditional de gras.

Monday night before carnival.

And this is looks like it's this is on Canal Street.

This is a great vantage point.

And you're right about the lighting.

And look at the lower the how they have lighting from below.

Yeah, that's very rare too.

Not too many parades have that.

And, all their glory.

The Flambeau.

Wow.

Wow, what a great moment.

There.

Yeah.

Look at the lower lighting.

Don't see that.

You just don't see that.

Love this.

The snails.

The snails.

And now, though, very exciting.

Rare footage of 1975 Bacchus Parade.

We will listen as early New Orleans TV commentator Mel Levitt narrates podcast seven Jackie Gleason toasting Mayor Moon Landrieu at you're All.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment that a lot of folks have been waiting for.

Now we must have a half million of them jammed into the central business district.

And the mayor at the microphone ready to greet him, yelling, how sweet it is!

Hey, can I get a trademark of Marcus of in that area, as it always looks on Mother's Day?

The banner calls himself bicycle the Great One.

One of the imperial figures of show business, and we can think of a better person to represent Bacchus.

In fact, he might well be.

If you believe in reincarnation.

Marcus reincarnated himself.

Mr. Jackie Gleason.

Your Majesty.

For the moon, Landrieu.

I'm sure you can see and sense the enormous enthusiasm with your subjects.

Meet you, 95 and get early and you have long hair just kind of coming out.

Raise their glasses and hail you as Bacchus.

Seven.

I.

Was exciting.

And I'd just like to say, sweetie.

Now an author.

We have heard stories about Mr. Gleason.

That night was two things.

First of all, the narrator was Mel Levitt, who was really Mr. Television in New Orleans.

He was really the first local TV personality back when there was one station, WDSU channel six.

And so he's just well known.

And for doing those kind of things and for doing the news and, and did Mardi Gras coverage.

But the other thing about Jackie Gleason is that through the years, markers, people who were there that night said that really probably Gleason, that he was very, very grumpy there.

You see him there?

He's very he's Jackie Gleason, you know, he's doing the the shoulders, shrugs and all that.

And he was good before the crowd, but that he was grumpy that night.

And some people say, well he wasn't feeling well, that he wasn't smoking withdrawal.

Who's having the medical problems.

But he was hard to deal with.

But once he got on the float, once he was riding, I guess the all star quality kicked in.

Yes.

And of course, the, the history, the tradition of bikers having celebrities.

Is there royalty?

You there were the first to do it on a continual basis.

Now, Zulu had Louis Armstrong in 1949, but that was a one off.

Baucus invented the modern concept, starting, with the first parade and in, 69.

And, Danny Kaye was the first king.

And there to just a list including Bob Hope and to this day, continue to have big time celebrities lead the parade.

And that year's focus theme was the circus parade.

And we should also point out that that was the year in 1975 that the baka saurus made its debut, during the parade.

So, lots of exciting.

Things for Barkers that particular year.

And now, though, we move to the 1970 5th August parade, of course, out in Metairie and, Argus theme and you'll see.

Look who's there.

Barbara Eden, she was the Empress.

And I'm sure we still have fans out there for My Dream of Jeannie and so many other things that she did.

And, How to Marry a millionaire, I think, too, but, Argus was the mythological giant with 100 eyes and marched near Fat City and is still out in Jefferson Parish.

And, other celebrity and empresses over the years included Loretta Swit, who you'll see shortly, too.

But there's Barbara Eden herself and, Phyllis Diller, Shirley Jones, Diane Ladd, Connie Stevens, the, the Rummel Raiders band, was featured.

And I have to once again as an a personal side, aiding, Miss Eden on the float, as her page was my own nephew, Ward Scott, who was engaged to the Queen.

Here's the.

Yes, here's Argus himself.

And then there was animation two, Peggy, which is the usual for murder mystery parade at that time.

Sure.

And absolutely.

And Argus was saluting Jefferson Parish.

There's Thomas Jefferson.

Yeah, a blank urn, floats depicting Jefferson on the feet.

Grand Isle bathing beauty, first rolled in 1974.

So we're actually seeing the second parade.

And as we said, the parade continues to roll, on Mardi Gras day and matter socio sociopolitical.

This was more than a parade, though, because a lot of people in New Orleans threatened by this, because this is the first time that Jefferson Parish has had a big time parade on Mardi Gras.

Right.

Okay.

At the same time that Rex was much of a southern Jefferson Parish, this was the same time that you see more and more people moved to the suburbs.

Morning call.

Had moved, it stayed at the Fat City Fest.

City was saying with the new French Quarter and that sort of thing, and sort of a little bit of, competition between the city in the suburbs and a lot of people really just kind of for the little threatened by what was going on in Jefferson Parish, I'm told by, an Argus official that Barbara Eden, you know, was gorgeous on television, but figured when we see her in real life, then she'll be okay.

So she was stunning.

She was better in real life and a wonderful personality.

And what a great story.

She really got into it.

And I have to say that some of us do remember some other parades in Jefferson Parish.

Hell, always.

Yep.

And zoos.

Zoos for many days.

And I mean, the list is longer than that, but those those are two.

Now we're we're coming back to Orleans Parish in 1977, the Mid-City parade.

And lots to say about Mid-City.

The theme was fairy tales from around the world.

It's always a husband and wife.

King and queen.

Mr. and Mrs. Raymond will offed JR.

The foil colored floats, the covered floats, and Arthur, the greatest bands in Dixie contest.

Please set that up for as well.

It was a really, really big deal.

Held at the corner of what was then Jeff Davis Parkway and, and Canal for Norman C and the bands from all around the south.

It's called The Greatest Bands.

And Dixie would actually stop and do a two minute routine.

And it was, just one of the highlights of Carnival.

Did you participate in that?

Never did as a, as a teacher or as a student, but, friends of mine did.

Holy cross was in it many, many times this particular year they placed fourth, but they actually won the parade in 1979, I think maybe the only New Orleans band to ever win it.

My good friends at Holy Cross band director was Mike orcas at that time, I believe.

Well, we get to listen to a performance of the Holy Cross Band, Saint Louis Blues.

♪ Marching Band Music ♪ All right.

And now we move to the next year, 1978, the Zulu parade.

And this time you will see Zulu members and the Olympia Brass Band marching.

Here we go there on the street, and, we'll get to see with the Olympia Brass band.

Just a few seconds of Allen Jaffe, the beloved Allen Jaffe on tuba.

There he is.

Look at that.

Wow.

Who, of course, was one of the, the stalwarts and pioneers of, what we now know of as Preservation Hall and their passing by Gertrude Geddes Willis Funeral Home on Jackson Avenue.

And that is long, as we said, been a spot for toasting Zulu royalty.

Continuing to this day.

The king was Willie Papen and Queen Lord is Marie Russell.

I bet may be related to Mr. Jim Russell, who is very much a part of a big wheel.

Indeed, it was thanks to the historic New Worlds collection for that footage.

Now I keep saying we've got rare footage.

This is really something too.

Okay, because we're into 1979 and during the police strike, of course, there was some police strike in New Orleans, which meant what happened to the parades?

There were none in New Orleans, but there was still the Jefferson Parish Mardi Gras, which included some New Orleans crews, which was wouldn't parade in Jefferson Parish, too.

And we're going to show you 1979, Pete Fung, who was such a stalwart of, you know, in the early morning, walking, the, Saint Charles Avenue and, you know, to downtown parade route, his half assed walk, walking club.

Actually, that year, walked in Argus rolling out in Metairie on, Mardi Gras day.

No parades in New Orleans, as we said, because of the strike.

So let's listen to though, Mel Levitt once again, this time from a WGN oh broadcast, followed by the 1979 Argus Parade and, his narration, including Mash actress Loretta Swit.

Empress.

In 1979.

Jefferson Parish is crying as best it can accommodate the overflow of Our Lady visitors and groups who otherwise might not be able to celebrate.

And that, of course, includes performances.

Have fast marching club, and there's a maestro himself.

Some people say it ought to be the half span.

Okay, it's Mardi Gras marching on to the banner of the Jack Daniels Country Club.

And that's speech, daddy, who is still marching.

I guess he's up from 80 years of age.

Well, he's not marching, and they're getting a little rest right now.

Yeah, it's Dewey, the all day senior.

Oh, here's the captain.

America's Argus is named after the 109 Greek guardian of law.

And I guess that's appropriate.

Since I wasn't the million, I only focused on him today, one shot or otherwise.

Ever since 1973, Argus is world famous.

Showbusiness celebrities has impressed hardly any star Shirley Jones and the day Loretta swim the legendary Hot Lips, who had a flashback.

Where's the crowd?

Oh My Man is named after his mom, Margot.

All right.

It's Arkansas's favorite comedians and first dance around the world is 80 day actuated by a giant balloon.

Right here.

Somewhere down there.

I guess it's Paris or New.

Paris to throw away something.

Oh, yeah.

Mardi Gras.

Carolyn.

Arthur, when I hear your voice brings back memories, I does it ever.

Because we all look forward to that week leading up to Mardi Gras at 1030, right after the 10:00 news.

They, of course, had their broadcast from 520 Royal on the balcony.

As the parades went through the court, there were films immediately developed and shown this wonderful couple of things about that August parade.

The captain was Bob Devaney, the original Bob Dylan.

It was the councilman in Jefferson Parish.

And I'm told by people who were there that Loretta Swit was petrified when she got on the float.

She said, you're gonna have to take me off.

I can't do this, I'm afraid.

And it's a just give it about two blocks she got into.

Oh, this is what Mardi Gras was all about.

But it was a great experience for her and a wonderful parade.

And of course, August still is the main attraction on Fat Tuesday in camp, we say Fat City in memory.

Absolutely zero.

Some final thoughts.

Well, just to remind people with therapy, Mardi Gras is that there have been times in the city's history when something happened that happened in the city, that the Howard Johnson sniper in seeing Katrina, the terrorists in New Orleans and and people will just doubted how can we survive as a city.

And New Orleans proved that we could and more that it brought people out into the streets.

And I think New Orleans morning people realize is a lot better city, not just going to parades, but just because of Carnival allowing the city to prove itself.

Yeah, Arthur.

Well, seeing these films just brings back so many memories.

But, you know, we still have most of that.

We've lost some things.

It breaks my heart to see parades at Garrison Hall and see city dignitaries and general public in Blue jeans.

When you look and you see they used to be in tuxedos, but that's okay.

It evolves, but it's just still so special.

And I think what makes living here just so remarkable is we do things differently.

We're New Orleans and we'll keep doing it forever.

I hope we could be here forever.

Talking about favorite moments of Carnival, but a really great example of past meeting present would be Monday, Lundi Gras, where you get to see Proteus.

Yeah.

Okay.

You know, from the 1800s going back to the 1800s.

And then Orpheus very much inspired by, of course, these the old line cruise and and Proteus itself.

But that past and present.

But we're focusing on the past and, this has been a wonderful visit looking back and oh my goodness, to see people's home movies and and many of the crews, you know, did have the wherewithal to also document, but also seeing people on the streets and those homespun costumes, as we say, I, you know, lots of clowns and cowboys with the families on Canal Street.

There used to even be competitions for costume competitions as well.

And we still have the Bourbon Street contest.

Oh yes we do.

That's a competition of a different story.

But anyway, Aaron Arthur, thank you so much.

Thank you.

And we've hope that you've enjoyed this.

Look back at more New Orleans parades from the past.

Here's hoping that this carnival is just as memorable.

Thank you for joining us.

And Happy Mardi Gras.

♪ Closing Music♪=