(lively music) (projector reeling) - [Announcer] WYES presents New Orleans Parades From the Pas - I'm Peggy Scott Laborde.

New Orleans carnival krewes have staged parades for more than 150 And while our Mardi Gras memorie are vivid, sometimes their just that memories.

Fortunately we do have some home movies and film footage to help us remember New Orleans Parades from the Pas Over the next hour, we'll revisit some of thebest known krewes.

along with expert comentary Providing that commentary are two carnival historians, Errol Laborde, author of four books on Mardi Gras and executive editor of New Orleans magazine.

And hello, E. - Hey.

- [Peggy] And we have Arthur Har since 1977 the publisher of Arthur Hardy's Mardi Gras Guide, and author of Mardi Gras New Orl An Illustrated History.

Hello, Arthur.

- Happy to be here with you, Peg - Same here, and we're in the Kornman Studios of WYES, and we're going to look at some very very rare footage.

And first up Rex, 1923, let's take a look.

(projector reeling) And here we have these wonderful The theme was fantasy of the sea and these are Ford educational f The Ford Motor Company was trying to encourage people to go around, of course, the country using their motor ca And the theme, as we said, is fantasy of the sea.

And you'll notice, look at the band Papa Jack Lane, who was a pioneer of jazz.

He was the one who used to assem many of these groups together.

- [Arthur] Don't you wish we had I would love to know what they'r And notice too, we don't have float tractor signs, but we have individuals, marchers, carrying the signs with each float title, which is kinda neat.

- [Peggy] And this is Lee Circle we should point that out too.

- I guess the reason that Ford was encouragingpeople to be mechanized is that you don't have to use mules anymore.

That the, the mules in there, but you also noticed in the background in several of these, streetcars.

This is a surprise because there's big crowds over there, and today for Mardi Gras, even for a small parade, you don't see streetcars running And I realized one reason is, is that a lot of those people, the only way they got to the parade was by streetcar because they didn't have automob and so they were really playing a functional role.

- That's a very good point.

And next up though, we're going to move to Rex 1926, right on St. Charles Avenue.

Can you believe that?

And look at that, the police there, the police, and this is from the view of the Downman hou the Kock house, which was a famous stopping point at 2525 St. Charles Avenue.

Sadly, the house burned a few ye But look at it coming down the s the music of the bells was the t And some people are already boogieing (laughs).

- [Arthur] An early second line.

- [Peggy] Absolutely.

- [Errol] And this was one of the places until, until the fire, there was always on the Rex route, and Rex, in the recent years, had to actually cross over St. C to get to the house and then cross back over.

And it went back to Mr. Downman, who was a past Rex, and so for a long time that was part of the ceremony of, of Rex.

- [Peggy] And Rex was Joseph Hen who also was a relative of what, Peggy Wilson?

- [Errol] He was the grandfather if y'all remember of former council member Peggy Wilson, who still has her grandfather's boots when he was Rex and wears them sometimes during the winter.

So, what a cool thing to have.

- [Peggy] Yes, and we also had a page on that Rex float, who was Dr. Homer Dupuy riding.

- [Errol] Yeah, this is one of the really great stories, Homer Dupuy wasn't a doctor yet, he was a little kid, and he had a longtime ambition to be a page in the Rex ball, or the Rex parade, and so much so that even went to church and he made a novena praying that he could be a page.

Well, it didn't work out.

And so the announcement came out a guy named Hugh McCloskey,which was a friend, was one of the pages, but Homer Dupuy couldn't be, for some reason.

That morning, he gets a call tha who was going to be a page was sick and they ask Homer if he could do it.

So, quickly, they sent a limousi and all the appropriate vehicles and they put him in costume and he was a page that day.

So he got to be a page, which was just a big dream for him.

- [Peggy] Some carnival and divine intervention.

- [Errol] And of course he did t Well, he became a real Rex loyal and many years later was actuall And even in the rest of the years that he was, he was very much a part of Rex, the spokesman for Rex, but that was a big, a big day.

- [Peggy] Yeah, and they're thro Aren't they throwing?

- Yeah, notice how many people are throwing in these parades.

Omry Shenwood tells us 1921 is the first year that Rex kind of institutionalized the custom of every member throwing, and you can really see that.

Here we see some predecessors of the organized truck parades.

ELK started out in 1933, but in this parade now with St. Mass, because you saw some float riders just who kind of jumped in behind Rex I mean, I'm sure they didn't hav but who cared, right?

- That's right.

And moving on though, to 1939, R and that is, of course, right there by Gallier Hall.

Belligen Fairytales, a rather unusual theme there.

And this was the, from the historic New Orleans collection.

And we thanks our friends there, but this is during the depressio So this is pretty fancy parade for the depression.

- [Arthur] It really is.

And notice too, we're all familiar with Canal Street having the electrical light poles decorated, but St. Charles Avenue did that which I didn't realize back in the thirties, we had gone tha in kind of decorating the thorou - [Errol] Well, rather ominous n this would have been in February Look at all the fun that people are having not knowing, or maybe some were kind of asses that in September of 1939, essentially World War II would s That's when Germany invaded Poland, then the following year Belgium was invaded in May of 19 And so Belgian, which is being saluted in this parade, was about to go into hard times which it would do for a long tim The fairytales, and by the way, fairytales are very popular in the Nordic countries like Belgium and Denmark.

It was a form of storytelling though, that was very popular.

And so it is consistent with, with Belgian, as it is with Denmark, peoplelike Hans Christian Anderson for example, you know, from Denm - [Peggy] Yeah, and look at that The alligator and early alligato - [Arthur] And look at the crowd on what would be the Lafayette Square shot of Gallier Hall.

It was quite large.

- [Peggy] And what, what are they throwing?

Are they throwing beads from Czechoslovakia?

- [Arthur] Not, not that early, just, just bobbles, just little toys and trinkets an but I'm just amazed at how much they were throwing.

And you don't see too many of th really tied down, do you?

- [Peggy] No, you don't.

- [Arthur] They're kind of just standing there.

- [Peggy] Gee whiz.

- [Errol] And there's only a few riders for floats.

- [Arthur] Oh, sure.

- [Errol] I mean, the economics was, was totally different.

The floats were smaller and in the years to come the captains would figuringhow to expand all this.

- [Peggy] Here's one of thosekrewes we were talking about in a flat bed truck.

- [Arthur] And notice, no walls on the trucks, you couldn't get away with that at this time.

- [Peggy] One of those krewes was the Bourbon Street Bounders, and then later the Royal Street Rounders (laughs).

And we're about to actuallymove over to Zulu 1939.

Look at this, though.

Look at those.

Yeah, the early trucks here.

Love that.

Oh, that's a sorority.

Oh, well, how wonderful.

And here we are at Zulu.

And Zulu, of course, ==ir own royal barge.

It was actually a tugboat that was borrowed from Jahnke and Company on the New Basin Canal, right there at Derbigny and New right there at Clayborne.

But look at Zulu.

King Zulu was Allen James, and the queen was Odette Delil.

- [Errol] If you're wondering where the New Basin Canal was, look at the Pontchartrain Expres because Pontchartrain Expressway on the route of the New Basin, and the arrival point was what would be Derbigny and C And so, yeah, Zulu would arrive on the barge there and then go into town.

- [Peggy] These are home movies, by the way, from Charles Louis Woundy, which at the Historic New Orleans Collections, now the caretaker of these great, great movies.

- [Arthur] Peg, I think it's the earliest Zulu footage I've ever seen, certainly, but I'm not seeing any coconuts.

- [Peggy] Very good point.

- [Arthur] Not to say they weren't throwing them or tossing them, but we don't se in this film at least, but really historic footage.

- [Peggy] Also not too many people dressed.

Oh look, there's, that iswhat, the Choctaw Club?

- [Arthur] Choctaw Club, yep.

- The Choctaw Club was, that was back in the daysof political machines and the democratic, those organi the Orleans Parish Democratic As and this club was, they call it the Choctaw Club, kind of in line of Tammany Hall in New York City.

See, a lot of people that had th that were associated with a democratic political orga And for some reason, a lot of them had Indian themes - Yeah, it was at St. Charles an and of course the building is lo - [Arthur] And then the Choctaw Parading Organization really came out of that club.

- [Peggy] Oh, really?

I did not know that.

- [Arthur] Yes.

- [Peggy] Oh, gee.

- [Errol] That was an organization on the West bank.

- [Arthur] Right.

- [Errol] And yeah, they come out on the Saturday morning.

It was pretty much a boat parade - [Peggy] Yes, and now we're moving into color.

1941 by Gallier Hall here.

And look at this Rex 1941 was Charles Fenner.

And the theme was Gems from the Arabian Nights.

And of course the Fenner family has long been involved and continue to be involved with And he actually found Fenner and Beane, the brokerage firm, which became Merrill Lynch Pierce, Fenner, and Smith.

- [Errol] You're gonna have more about the Fenner family, which is very important in the, in the future to follow.

But yeah, you're seeing a little bit more costuming by t - [Peggy] And, you know, we should point out that after this, this was thelast parade before the war.

And, and so yeah, from 42 to 45, absolutely no parades.

- [Arthur] Of course no one knew when they were seeing this parad - [Peggy] They didn't know that, that's right.

- [Arthur] It would be gone for a few years.

So, Lafayette Hotel in the backg - [Peggy] Yes, perfect vantage point here too.

I love seeing this in color, just so dramatic.

Once again, love to know,I guess, as you said, throwing a little baubles.

- [Arthur] Yep.

Yeah, I think this was the earliest color footage we have.

- [Peggy] Yeah.

And now we're going to move over to another Rex in just a moment, Rex 1952.

And look at that here we are, an - [Arthur] And notice the float, the pages on either side of the Later on, they're actually able to walk across because they're on the same plat - [Peggy] And this is William.

That's a very good point.

And this is William Wyler Young, and somewhere in that crowd would be Chuck Morrison, of course, bei toasting.

And Panorama through the Magic Sugar Egg was the theme.

What a theme.

- [Arthur] And this Rex, his son was king in 1987, William Wyler Young, Jr. - [Peggy] And one of the pages was young Herbert Jahnke, Jr. who, of course, eventually would one of the premier float builders, we should point out, and no more mules at this point, They'd ended what in 49, is that - [Arthur] Well, actually 50 and 51, they transitioned.

The last one was in 51.

I miss the mules, but there were a lot of problems .

- [Peggy] I am sure there were.

- [Errol] You know, you mentioned Herbert Jahnke, who started a float building company called Royal Orders.

And last year, Royal Orders got the Rex contract to start building the Rex Parade after having been by Blaine Kern for many years.

- [Peggy] And there's Jill Jackson, the WWL announcer, and she became nationally known as an entertainment reporter and she's interviewing one of the Rex lieutenants there.

And remember she used to write for Writer's Digest.

- [Arthur] Yes, and she was synd - [Peggy] Which was a wonderful that you'd get on the buses.

- [Arthur] She had kind of like a Hollywood gossip column which was syndicated nationwide.

- [Errol] One of the missing, when we saw the Rex king's float that was the beginning of thenew look for the Kings float with that big crown on top, and that's become a fixture.

The float's been modifiedthrough the years, but that crown is still a part of the Rex King float.

- [Peggy] And look at Gallier Ha That just amazing.

The throngs, not a whole lot of people in costume, though, that you can see on the street.

Not everybody was in costume.

- [Arthur] Quite a few military bands in this parade.

And you notice, too, the people at Gallier Hall are dressed up, unlike today, sa When I see people in blue jeans and cutoffs at Gallier Hall, ought to be a dress code, my opi - [Peggy] I love that arch, that - [Arthur] Isn't that cool?

And at night it's even neater.

- [Peggy] That's so wonderful.

And just seeing the color and so many of the bands, which adds so much to the parade, right Arthur?

I know that's been very much a part of your life.

- [Arthur] Yeah, there are some high school bands in this too, I wish we could identify them.

- [Errol] And back then, as is n which is true of all the good pa very faithful to the rules.

Everybody's wearing a mask.

You see classical float riders' You see some of the classic top in crowns that they're wearing.

And of course they're sticking t Floats are a lot smaller, but that is the look that you see in the parade today, only today it's expanded.

- [Peggy] Absolutely.

And we're next going to come up to Zulu, the same year.

So we're so fortunate, here we a - [Arthur] Look at the cars.

- [Peggy] The beginning of the Zulu parade.

- [Arthur] How neat.

- [Peggy] And I believe this is along Rampart Street.

This would be along South Rampar King Zulu 1952 was William Boyki - [Arthur] Yeah, who was King twice again, Peggy.

And that's not unusual, cause they've had a couple of Kings who've.

- [Peggy] And the queen, Bernice, Bernice Taylor.

There she is being interviewed.

And that's Okey-Dokey, who was the WBOK radio announcer.

And the legend has it that one of Okey-Dokey's catchph was Lawdy, Miss Clawdy, heard by a young man named Lloyd who worked at the radio station and turned it into a hit song.

- [Errol] Lloyd Price lived in K Okey-Dokey was like the big name in black radio at that time.

That wasn't his birth name, of c Okay, but he went by Okey-Dokey, and he was really he was really a very, very popul - And you know, some of these, the Zulu parades would have a very circuitous route and they could last like from seven hours because they'd go pretty much into neighborhoods.

Also, just the look at the size, I guess, sort of the size of maybe a Krewe du Vieux float these days, made up with aluminum foil.

- And they had a published route It was in the newspaper.

They didn't always follow it, but at that time they weren't going on Canal Street.

It was in the African-American neighborhoods.

But tremendous crowds, and oddly, predominantly white c Everybody wanted to see Zulu.

- [Peggy] Absolutely.

And moving on to 1953 with Mardi and Rex Charles Crawford was Rex, look, look at that.

How many people are out?

And the queen was Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin.

And there, there is Rex Charles Crawford toasting his queen at the Boston club.

And of course, Mrs. Benjamin is has been a long time philanthropist, a very dear lady And she is still active and with The theme was origins of the names of States.

There you go.

- [Errol] She was the one that saved the symphony at one t - [Peggy] Absolutely.

- [Errol] When it was on the verge of bankruptcy.

- [Peggy] And a lot of these floats are connected of course, to States.

And, but there is somethingrather interesting about this particular parade because some of the floats were for a little later in the year, right Arthur?

- [Arthur] Yes, they were.

The Sesquicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase celebrated at Jackson Square in President Eisenhower came to tow and they re-ran some of this par No throwing was allowed and they actually had Rex and Comus on a float.

However, it wasn't the real Rex it was stand-ins.

But they rode together for the first time in history and for newspaper reports, it was kind of a doll parade.

It was out of season, but they wanted to make Mardi Gr a part of the celebration.

Cecil B. DeMille was here, 22 ambassadors from around the w It was a really big deal.

And it all ended in front of the St. Louis Cathedral.

- [Peggy] Yeah.

- [Errol] Well, on the film we saw the footage of Eisenhower after World War II ended, when Stalin had the big parade i It lasted for four hours and Eisenhower was invited and he's yawning and trying to hide the yawn.

So he, so he had lots of experience at being bored at - [Peggy] And next up, we're going to look at like, oh, look at that.

- [Arthur] The crowds are amazin - Gee whiz.

Okay, I can't get over that on the neutral ground.

Next up, we're so excited because this is actually footage of a national, an NBC broadcast that was filmed from the balcony at 520 Royal WD and Mel Levitt, who was of course, a longtime star of channel 6 WDSU and some national commentators.

Cleveland Amory was also part of and Merrill Mueller, and they are going to tell us about the Comus parade.

Let's take a listen - [Merrill Mueller] Join the rev from the balcony of station WDSU and Mel Leavitt.

- Thank you very much, Merrill M hello everyone across the nation This is the final glittering pag that winds up Mardi Gras for 195 Before you, you see a sightthat you'd see nowhere, I don't believe in the United States or the world.

These are what are known as the flambeaux carriers, a flaming torch lit parade at ni deep in the heart of the Vieux C We're standing on the balcony of the Brulatour Courtyard Nagin which houses WDSU in New Orleans To our backs is the Mississippi Not far from here, the Natchez and Robert E. Lee staged their famous race.

Now, to the right of course, the St. Louis Cathedral, historic landmark.

Just around the corner, Antoine's famous restaurants.

- [Merrill] Right there on your this is Comus, and his name is s That's the way they have their fun down here.

They won't tell anybody who Comu Alone, about a hundred businessman really know, and won't let us tell you.

Comus, great ruler of night carn Comus, equal to Rex in splendor and grandeur as he comes down behind that For on Royal Street in the Vieux Car The title float of Comus.

And tonight, Comus has decided t in the streets of New Orleanswith a garland of flowers.

The Garland of Comus.

All these colors, I wish you could see them.

They're just fantastic.

All these colors are gold, purple and green.

The official colors of the Rex c and the official colors of carnival here in Mardi Gras.

They are also the official colors of the Krewe of Rex.

An air force band comes down the and an air force drill unit.

There they are, right at the bottom of your screen.

- [Man] This is float number three, The Peach Blossoms.

In a pot where the peach blossom by Lang is the quotation.

That was a very beautiful float.

Now we're coming up to float num Float number four is Magnolia.

The White Magnolia Blossoms, Star of the Twilight.

That is from WIDIA.

There goes Magnolia float out, and now we're coming up to float number five, The Zinnias.

In Zealand, where the zinnias dw That quotation's anonymous.

Anonymous is my favorite author.

There you go.

Right behind the float, as you see there in your picture are a number of the flambeaux, as they call them down here in New Orleans, the French word for torch.

These are kerosene lanterns carr by about 400 different people in the parade.

And they're lit at the beginning of the parade, and then you'll see the little tank at the top which keeps them burning.

See that fellow on the right hand side of that tractor?

He's got a flambeaux there, it's got four or five lights on but just above it is a littletank that keeps it going.

This is Daisies.

Myriads of daisies have shown forth in flower by Wordsworth.

This is one of the most beautifu in the entire Comus parade.

This is Roses.

Each morn, a thousand roses by Omar Khayyam.

This float is in third dimension, and you can feel it on your screen there as it passes in review.

And now, coming into view, float number seven, Roses.

Comus here is vying, I believe, with Omar Khayyam and carrying through his theme of coupling poetry with visual presentation tonight.

The quote from Omar Khayyam, I sometimes think that never blo the Rose as where some buried Caesar died and bled.

Now, Dogwood has just passed in front of your screen.

That was float number eight, another favorite of the Southlan And following it, The Sunflower, float number nine.

That's The Sunflower, in the middle of your picture.

Here the picture is governed by another quotation out of Moore, as the sunflower turns toward God when he sets.

And here you have the sunflower turning its face up towards the sun.

No need to remind you folks in K that it is the state flower, state flower of Kansas, and a very beautiful display here, all in gold and white.

Parade is pause momentarily.

Of course, this is nothing, this to the pauses and delays in past days when there was no mechanized equipment.

On the contrary, mules drew the and mules, of course, beingsomewhat bulky animals would decide suddenly to stage a sit down strike.

When they did, the parade was at And quite often it took 30, 45 m to get the critter started again Well, we've become mechanizedand that of course helps out quite a bit because the ball, the Comus Ball, depended on just how quickly they could get the parade down to the auditorium.

- And now we're going to show yo the most incredibly rare footage We actually have color footage o a part of what you've just seen, and Errol, of course, we should that Comus is how it all began in the 1850s.

- [Errol] 1857.

Comus began the style of parade that we have today.

It began the continuing carnival and it created the word krewe.

And I mean, Comus is really the of all of the carnival as it evo And that's the classic Comus costume with that with that, with, with that mask and the costume.

- [Arthur] We're seeing the same folks that we saw in the French Quarter at Gallier Now there's nothing like parading in the French Quarter, the charm of it all.

I don't know if you noticed, but all of the Flambeaux, were the four burner kinds, which they no longer have.

And I remember marching in parades in high school, in the fifties.

And this was film that was shot that had to be developed and then shown the 10 o'clockafter the 10 o'clock news.

So we would get on a bus, go home to see ourselves on TV t It was quite a tradition.

That went on until the seventies that channel six broadcast from their balcony at 10:30.

- [Peggy] I remember it well at - [Arthur] Yeah, that's right.

- [Peggy] And Arthur, having mar you marched through the quarter.

What was the reverberation like on Royal Street?

- [Arthur] It was charming.

It was just so wonderful, so int You were so close to everybody, and the crowds were friendly and it was just a special time and we thought it would last for but 1972 was the last time the parades went through the qua - [Peggy] And of course, sadly, Comus no longer parades.

- [Errol] Well, what happened, you were getting the super krewe like, like people started worrying what if markers would break down in the quarter?

And so, finally the city said no more parades in the quarter.

That was a big loss.

But what happened though is they go up World Street to Orleans.

Orleans, they take a left and you go straight down the Orleans that takes it to the back of the auditorium.

And all of these we have balls after the parade at the auditorium.

And so it was really a, a convenient design except for the people waiting in the auditorium, waiting for the parade to arrive But it was really just a nice da It was a beautiful, beautiful sight to see the parade with the shadows and the vibrati just really nice.

- [Peggy] And we should point ou sadly, Comus no longer parades, having stopped parading in the early 1990s.

- Right, the ball still exists.

And a couple of the floats still They're not in very good shape.

I think that King's float is one but no, but the ball does.

And to a certain extent, I think the the spirit of it sti but it was a loss.

I wanted to mention the announce that only about 150 businessmen know who Comus is.

I don't think that's correct.

I think like maybe two businessmen knew who he is.

Usually it's the captain who selects Comus, and so he'd know, and Comus woul And they also said nobody knows what Comus' name is.

Comus' name is Comus.

- [Peggy] And he's a god.

He's not a king.

We always have to point that out Definitely.

And now though, we're moving ove We're still in 1954 but we're going to show you a li of Proteus that year.

And this is the vantage point is from Canal Street.

The wonderful, excuse me, this is Gallier hall and look at And of course the god of, one of the gods of the sea.

- [Errol] Yeah, let me just say that's one of the classic King's I love that float on sitting on and still today you see a Proteu and it's the replica that, I mea I would really rank this as maybe like one of the top two King's floats.

It's just beautiful.

- [Arthur] I agree.

And you notice before him was th on a white costume on a horseand that continues today.

- [Peggy] Yeah.

And the theme I'll translate.

It was Proteus many years.

And so some wonderful floats hearkening previous parades like Charmaine from the 1883 par and the wild swans from an 1887 but it was certainly for the history books here.

Omar Khayyam.

- [Errol] There was a captainfor a long time in Proteus.

He had a real passion for the history of New Orleans, and he did a lot of paradeswith historical theme.

And he did a, one time he did a on the John Chase book about Frenchmen desire, good children.

It was a great parade, but but he really loved New Orleans - [Peggy] And those, as they still do today, they wiggle, they shimmy, don't they, those floats?

- [Errol] And next year, when we return back to normal.

- [Peggy] Yes, hopefully.

- [Errol] Go and see Proteus.

Proteus is always on that Monday night before carnival.

And I've always thought that Proteus, which is an old krewe, and Orpheus, which is relatively new krewe, are two of the most beautiful parades of carnival back to back.

If you want to forget about the beads and just if you want to really see someth nice visual parades, that would - [Peggy] Look at the lieutenant - [Arthur] That's the best double header at carnal.

I think a Proteus, Orpheus.

- [Peggy] It really is.

Look at that.

And you know, many of those were on what cotton wagons and Tex still use some of those but you can see the way they sort of shimmy.

- [Errol] Yeah, you can see the wobble effect.

- [Peggy] And this is oneof my favorite things.

So I have memories of this that many of the stores would have the initials of some of the organizations.

So you see KOP in this video, there's Krieger as an imperial.

- [Arthur] I know La Bijous did Maison Blanche did it and so did I was about to say, Dillards, fo - [Peggy] DH Homes, there it is.

Unfortunately it's kind of cut o It is KOP, remembering that very but that's wonderful color footage of this.

And we're going to be moving on though to Hermes 1955, one ye And this is from the Louisiana State Museum collection.

And this is Hermes from Gallier The vantage point, the theme here, this is so exciting, Arthur, Prince Valiant, of cours based on the wonderful comic str Tell us a little bit about that.

- [Arthur] Well, they had to get permission from the author of PrinceValiant, Hal Foster, to use these copyrighted images.

And I invited him down and he ac was presented with flowers at th took some pictures on the King's It was a really, really big deal And the queen that year was Dawn who was the daughter of congress who named Hermes back in 1939, ah 37, excuse me, and the King.

And I guess we can say it now, it was supposed to be secret, was Harry Batt from Ponchartrain Beach, yes.

- [Peggy] He was the father.

Yes, he helped start, of course, Pontchartrain Beach.

Wonderful man, the grandfather, I should say Brian Batt.

- [Arthur] And these floats by the Dutchman brothers had a very distinctive look to t and it's really a pretty parade.

- [Errol] Look at the sparkle.

You don't see that as much anymo - [Arthur] No, you're right.

And very true to the theme.

You know, every float illustrate a chapter in the history- - [Peggy] The pastel colors, huh - [Arthur] of Prince Valiant.

- And Hermes has always been one of the beautiful parades too It parades on the Friday before Mardi Gras.

Pioneer did a lot with lighting.

It was one of the early things with lighting and it has always been known to be a very efficient parade to - [Peggy] Absolutely.

And we're moving on to Venus 195 It'd be great to see Venus, sadly no longer exists, and right up here at toasting with the mayor horse-drawn, which is very interesting.

Here we go.

And it first paraded in 1941, it ended in 1992 and it was on the Sunday afternoon prior to Mardi Gras.

Look at that.

There's Jeff Morrison, huh?

- [Arthur] The queen is, actually would become, Ms. Erma Strode, who became the of Iris that year and was captain for about 40 years, was responsible, their first parade in 1959.

So there was a Venus connection.

Should mention too that Venus used to use the Babylon floats for a long time then in an arrangement with Okeanos.

But these floats are the same floats would have been in the Babylon parade.

- [Errol] We should mention, if nobody's caught it yet, it was an all women's parade.

- [Arthur] Oh, yes.

- [Peggy] Yes, thank you.

Very good point.

Okay, and Annette Mason was very for many years too.

- [Arthur] Right, Allen's mom.

- [Peggy] Allen Mason's mom.

- [Errol] Enormous route.

I don't know if she did it the w but at least in the last few yea she put a lot of work and a lot in that parade.

The day after the parade, Las Ve she had another cause back to the left of the area.

- [Peggy] And we have to mention, of course, Iris, which still exists and was created as a ball krewe in 1917, but didn't start parading until And when we now also have muses and many other krewes as well.

- [Arthur] Iris is now the largest female parade with over 3000 members.

So the women have taken over.

- [Peggy] Absolutely.

And next up, we're going to back up a little bit because we're going to start talking about Blaine Kern, who sadly was so much part of part of carnival, and we lost him we're recent past, but this is Alla.

This is the West Bank parade, 19 Stands for Algiers Louisiana.

Historian Al Robichaud has done a fabulous book on the history of this krewe and looked up some information a And one of the most interesting things to me was that it was 75 degrees that day, if you can believe that.

- [Peggy] Gee whiz.

And at first role the 1933 and the King this year was Dr. Henry Larocca.

- [Arthur] Right, who was very i in Blaine Kern's career, actually gave him a job painting a mural and was so impressed with his work- - [Peggy] He was the krewe's captain, Larocca.

- [Arthur] Krewe captain and a prominent physician.

And that's really how Blaine got his start.

His father had, was doing some sign painting, but Blaine little became the Mardi Gras force for, you know, how many years?

Several decades, and you're righ he certainly will be missed, but his legacy lives on.

- Eventually he became captain o - Yes, he did.

- He was captain for a long time - And we are going to fast forwa because we're going to Rex 1955.

And, this is one of those parade where Blaine Kern was certainly And the King that year, Rex of course, is Darwin Fenner, who was a major figure in the 20th century of Rex and carnival, right?

- [Errol] Talking earlierabout the importance of the Fenner family.

We saw his father earlier as Rex This is Darwin Fenner the year he was king.

- [Peggy] Harriet Smither was qu - He would also become captain o for many, many years.

And he is considered to this day like one of the really great and innovative captains.

And one thing he did is he hired Blaine Kern who I think was like 29 at the t and sent him to Italy, to viaReggio, sent him to Spain, also to study some of the float building techniques there.

And you can see some of the Via Reggio influences with some of the floats as those evolve with the moving parts and the moving heads, it had a big influence.

And he also had a lot of other innovations of floats like the, his Majesty's bandwago and other things, but he was,he was an important figure.

Absolutely.

And we're going to move on to 19 And once again you can clearly see the influence of Blaine Kern.

I love these walking figures.

I wish we still had those.

- [Arthur] Those came from Via R And this is where you really see I believe this is the second parade that was animated but the animation in thisparade is phenomenal.

- [Peggy] And Rex is Richard Wes We should say the Freemans have long been involved of course, with Rex, the two fut He was the father of two future and also a future queen, Tina Freeman, in 1971.

- [Errol] And that's the classic Rex float, Kings float look right there with that crown.

And we still see that.

- [Peggy] And his queen is Flora Sanders Fenner, of course, French.

And who's once again, a family has been so involved with Mardi Gras, whereas with Darwin Fenner.

And look at the boeuf gras.

- [Errol] Boeuf gras, we've seen several Versions of them through the years, but it goes back to the very ear with the beouf gras represented the fatted calf, Mardi Gras the last day of feasting before fast returned.

- [Peggy] And this is thefirst year it returned.

- [Arthur] Yes, it was live up u They had a real and actually beo There's one in the 1867 Comus pa So, it's an ancient symbol of ca but Blaine brought it back.

- [Errol] This, to me, is classic Via Reggio right there.

That kind of figure, that kind o the way the head is moving aroun - [Peggy] And aren't they animated by little people inside - [Arthur] They probably were then, not anymore, by machinery.

- [Peggy] Look at that, look at So some of the props are from Vi and some then would be created in those sort of transitional ye - [Errol] Isn't that an incredible figure, though?

- [Arthur] It really is.

- [Peggy] And some of these floa actually were going to land for a parade in Havana in May, 1 - [Arthur] That happened several times in Rex's history, where parades were either rented or sold to other cities.

- [Errol] That's also the other classic look right there.

- [Peggy] Via Reggio, yeah.

- Yeah, I think that was probabl a triangular trade that developed and, and actually the Via Reggio parade is younger than the Rex Parade.

I think it started like a couple of years after Rex did.

For all we know it may have been influenced by Rex because it may have heard about what was going on.

This was at the time, you know when Rex started and all these other parades, you know what else was happening Railroads, that railroads were d all around the world especially United States and rai wanted to have things that would get people traveling.

And so you start seeing a lotmore carnivals being created around the same time thatthat Rex was created.

- [Arthur] have a 1873 railroad in my collection promoting carni - Wow, perfect.

And we're moving on to Rex 1960.

And that is another example of B being so involved.

I love the open to this.

And the queen was Stella Evans F and she's awaiting of course, th at the Boston Club, which, and look at, look at the Rex.

- [Arthur] And that's Blaine in the middle, throwing right now with the hat on, that's Blaine.

- [Peggy] Oh, really?

- [Arthur] Yes, it is.

I'm sure And if you look real carefully you'll see some doubloons coming off the floats.

- [Peggy] Oh, wow.

That's right, 1960.

- [Arthur] The first year that any doubloon was thrown, H. Alvin Sharp convinced the captain of Rex.

This was going to be a neat thro And man, he was right.

- [Peggy] And some more walking which would be my favorite.

Rex this year was Gerald Andrus.

And the theme was the Wonderful World of Let's Pretend.

Look, I wish these walking figures could be reinstated.

How clever.

- [Errol] Yeah, the story is tha some of the authorities at Galli - [Peggy] And the captain.

- [Errol] Some of the authorities at Gallier Hall, waiting for the Rex parade, guy calls for the police down the line saying the crowd was going crazy because people in the Rex parade with throwing money and the crowds were diving for t They didn't know that these were doubloons yet.

That was the first day of the do - [Peggy] You said, yeah, look a And there's that Boeuf Gras.

- [Arthur] In a different fashio - [Errol] We're gonna still see another version yet.

- [Peggy] Yeah.

- [Errol] One with a, there he i - [Peggy] And there there's that guy again, he was part of the title float, I guess, annually as well.

And look at that.

Look how animated that was too with the alligator.

Wonderful.

And look at the throws.

Oh, so these are beads.

No doubt, probably at that point then from Czechoslovakia.

- [Arthur] Absolutely, sure they - [Peggy] And maybe some from Ja but definitely Czechoslovakia.

I love that face too.

And we don't see, unfortunately we don't see a jester in this parade footage, but the is also one of those iconic floa - [Arthur] Yes, it is.

I know some nice people who run that float.

- [Peggy] You do?

Absolutely.

I love that.

And yeah, all that is being, oh look at this guy.

- [Arthur] It's magnificent, huh - [Peggy] Yeah, and all that movement is being done by somebody inside the float.

- [Arthur] And notice too, no ba - [Peggy] No barricades.

That's right, no barricades eith And I'm really excited because we're about to go to Rex 1968 and it actually has sound, so we might sort of, here we go, sort of hush in between here, but Rex was Ernest Villere, whose family of course has been in New Orleans since almost the very beginning.

And his queen was Delia Elaine H And this year, the beouf guy has a new look, look at that.

And the special guests of the Re were Herb Albert and the Tijuana The theme was New Orleans, we lo Love that everybody dressed as b And there's that little baker fi at the back of the float.

- [Errol] Yeah, and that's still of the Beouf Gras float.

What is different though,is that this beouf gras has different colors because brown and white.

- [Peggy] As Herb Albert, look at that in the parade itself.

Wow.

And the wonderful Rex lieutenants they're purple, gree and gold, Ursuline nuns, tribute New Orleans, we love you, to coincide with the 250th anniv of the founding of New Orleans i So there we go, that celebration there, the build-out.

- [Arthur] And the costumes really matched the floats.

In the earlier years people had just random costumes on, but not now.

- [Peggy] And of course, 1718 being the founding year.

And those that is actually the d of the Streetcar named Desire.

- [Arthur] And look who's playin - Sharkey Banano, all right.

- [Arthur] That's him, from Bourbon Street.

- [Peggy] Sharkey, great.

- [Arthur] Rex Transit Company.

- [Peggy] Oh, love that.

That was a great theme too, year And the freaky, look at that, the French opera and the freaky hybrid, the French opera.

- [Errol] And of course the French opera house was nearby and it burned down in 1919.

And that's where a lot of carnival balls were held.

- [Peggy] Look at the GrandDuke of Alexis here, E. - [Arthur] There he is, looks just like him.

- [Peggy] Our royal visitor for the first parade, 1972.

He looks just like him, right?

He looks like another Via Reggio character.

- [Arthur] Could be, look of the size of that prop too.

- Yeah.

All right, very good.

And now we're going to move over to once again the 1968, but it's Let's take a look at this and we have the incredible photographer Jules Cahn on the Historic New Orleans Coll now has the Cahn's holdings, but this wonderful footage of Jules, of course, chronicle not only Mardi Gras but the jazz scene in New Orlean for so many years and the jazz culture, of course with jazz funeral, second lines and lots of music.

And look at, of course, Zulu William Woikins was King.

Again, he was also King in 1952 And Bertha LaRue was the queen, but once again still kind of a neighborhood par and on a very circuitous route and very beloved by both the black and white comm - [Arthur] No doubt about that.

- [Peggy] In terms of the audience, very interesting, they in the neighborhood - [Errol] But in it's early days it pretty much stayed in those neighborhoods.

And then they'll wanna just foll just start following the traditional route where it actua more people can see it once it was doing St. Charles th You can just tell how much like neighborhood spirit was, and also the Mardi Gras Indians.

- [Peggy] And one of the dignita - [Errol] Yeah, the Mardi Gras Indians were doing pretty much the same thing in the same So the combination of the two was just really overwhelming.

- [Arthur] And then they appeared on Canal Sreet earlier but it wasn't till 1969 they actually had a permit to parade on Canal.

- [Peggy] Really?

- I'm so glad now we knowwhere they're gonna be, so everybody can enjoy it.

- Yes, absolutely.

And we're moving on to 1969 Rex with sound, and you can actually heara little bit of Everest and the toast, which we will hush up so we can all hear.

(applause) - Rex 1969.

- And our queen that year was Henrietta Creeve Clay at the Boston Clubs with Miss Cl You can hear fan for our system.

And the theme was Genesis throug Remember the Gemini space progra So that's why these guys are dre as early astronauts.

- [Arthur] Clever theme, huh?

- [Peggy] And St.Augustine High School band is actually marching in this par - [Arthur] That was their third It was history was made in 67 when the Rex organization invite the first African-American high school band in new Orleans to parade with them.

And then with them ever since no every year's, they did alternate with Zulu, but a welcome component of the R - And once again, some animation the evolution of man.

That's not exactly the bracciosaurus, though, is it?

Look at that, once again, the li Here comes Saint Aug. Let's take a listen.

- [Arthur] I think the two biggest crowd pleasers are the Saint Aug band and the L - [Errol] Oh, you're right.

- [Peggy] A little bit of a Sain - [Errol] We don't get LSU too o - [Arthur] By the way, 60 minutes is in town doing a feature on the Saint Aug band this year.

- [Peggy] The glory that was Gre Here we go.

And there is, there's another shot of Sharkey.

Look at Sharkey.

That's a really good close-up sh - [Arthur] What an entertainer h - [Peggy] Oh, absolutely.

Look at that streetcar, Streetcar named Desire, a real tradition that continues to the present.

Another one of those wonderful h And this is a dough boy.

Another signature Kern was sort of the rolling wheel at the back of the float.

You'd see that many times too.

What a beautiful day it was too.

And gauchos would always have th Love that, love that.

Got some ire in the background t - [Arthur] Ain't that no more, h - [Peggy] That's Genesis to Gemi It's quite a mix.

Yeah, that man in the moon, it's a man in the moon figure.

And this was by the way, this year was the first appearance of the boy Calliope which was a brand new signature which eventually would become a new feature which eventually would become a signature flight.

There you go, His Majesty.

- [Arthur] That's changed a bit since then, but that's its starting.

- [Arthur] The Royal Calliope, r - Absolutely.

And now we're moving on.

Speaking of 1969, Bacchus, the first year of Bacchus.

And Bacchus had its rendezvous, this is what they call their bal and supper dance in the river ga E, explain what the river gate w - [Errol] The river gate was the first attempt of the major convention center.

It was existed where the casino with Harris whatever the names will be chang Anyway, it took up the entire block at the time.

It was seen as being a very modern building but when they built it, when they'll make the plans then they made sure that they had entrance doors like freight entrance doorsthat were large enough for big floats to go through.

So people were thinking about adding something new to the Mardi Gras for that time.

And in fact, it was people within the tourism industry especially the Brennan family th pioneered developing Bacchus as as really kind of a, a tourist a for that Sunday night before Mar But the plan was instead of gett from the society ball andhaving this huge party in a building that had never been done before.

So the river gate became first eventually the river gate was re by the convention center and the in InDemand uses the Superdome, but that was the beginning of it - [Peggy] And the theme was the best things in life.

If it seems a little eclectic th And, and of course the other thing is there's no King there is a Bacchus who we'll see The celebrity was Danny Kay.

- [Arthur] Indeed.

And I believe the Harry James of provided the music and saw Blaine Kern used to tell the story that he brought out Muna as the captain of Endymion to see this.

And Ed said, you know what?

This is a future Mardi Gras in 1 and Damien went to the Rivergate So, anyway, here's Danny Kay, what a great one.

- [Errol] One of his famous movi was Hans Christian Anderson going back to our Nordic fairyta - [Peggy] Exactly, and look at t wonderful vaulted ceiling that was Curtis and Davis design.

- [Errol] Well, you know, there's a story about him that h he was very willing and very fri We got on the flood was very, very cold at night.

And so he complained.

Can you give me anything to get instantly rigged up a little electric heater.

This one is still in the den.

So he's sitting down, he's all tucked in with the heater.

The flood goes out.

It turns out into the street.

He sees the crowd.

He stands up starts waving to the crowd,never sits down again the entire night it's the little heater was just aimed at an empty throne and he was just waving all night.

- And now we're moving on to 196 We're going to back up a little bit because this is really rare.

It's the first in Dimmi and para So at this point, though, Arthur and the parade is more just a sort of, sort of moderately, you know medium sized parade in Gentilly.

- [Arthur] Yes, and I actually saw that boy that said, Munis captain the longest running captain ever, and still is with us and still capping them a Damien.

And it was a, it was a fun parad They rented count and floats at of another 40 members.

He very wisely had all the sportscasters in town.

It was a sports theme, a ride in the parade.

So I got extra publicity.

That's Harry Rosenthal who was t who was King of 17 parades and balls in his life.

His wife was a queen.

The parade was very average.

And I saw it on do, saying Trivago to follow the near the fairgrounds where it st It was in Gentilly for several years, but no one knew what that ed didn't know what this was going to become but it became one of the most successful organizations in history.

- [Errol] Well, parade was too small for Ed Munis, his ambition.

And once he saw a Bach, cause he said, this is the way to go.

In the end.

He created actually something bigger than Bacchus.

I mean if it became the biggest parade in terms of ridership - [Peggy] And look at that, I mean, it really is rare.

It is so rare, but we're so lucky that to have it as well.

And the theme that year was actually take me out to the ball game.

That's why we saw the Astrodome - [Arthur] In the final floats a little bit, the new Orleans saints which hadn't even played a game We had the franchise, but this was February of football and started in preseason in August.

- [Errol] And he got the name in Damian because the the parade being engine Tilly, the fairgrounds was nearby and he saw a horse that ran there whose name was in Endymion and he kind of liked that name.

So, so demean was named after a horse that ran at the fa - [Peggy] And we're actually goi up a bit because we've got some very, very rare footage.

I mean, this is, this is quite a of rare footage too, but we've g We're going to show you Zulu balloon of 1954.

And this is on Rampart street.

This is on South Rampart street.

And, you know, once again pointing out these wonderful aluminum, smaller floats this is way back when, kind of t of maybe a crew to VU float thes but look at the native tinfoil.

And you know, sometimes those parades lasted for six or seven hours.

So some of that was a little on the precarious side.

And, and actually when, when Louis Armstrong was King of the Zulus in 49, everybody wanted a piece of his float.

So he eventually fell apart.

So he had to, they had to take him off the float.

But look at this, this American drugstore that is at Rampart and canal street, I b - [Arthur] And I believe Nat King was the King that year.

- [Peggy] Well, here we go.

This is Nat King, I believe was And he was the ambassador for hi This is wonderful for the, Oh, what the old Crow liquor of course, whiskey and who suppo They helped out with Zulu from time to time as well.

And look at this Mardi Gras, Ind - [Arthur] Fabulous, and this is probably an original, not original but a good example of the second line.

Okay.

- [Peggy] The Southern railway station, of course, sadly which is where Simon Boulevard P But I just love this, these homes, fun costumes, a bride.

And you flip some of these Oh ye All kinds of homemade.

The Moss man, the Moss man.

- [Errol] Well, Tony was a recur He came several years.

There was a Moss man out there.

Yeah.

- [Peggy] Yeah, look at the Southern railway.

I cannot believe that that station is not still up or at least a facade.

And there was chorus cries and Betty fittin was the Royal not the, I shouldn't say Royal, the official decorator for the city of new Orleansand notice those poles.

That was her signature those polls over the years to look at the crowds corrals - [Errol] Before suburban parade And also the city was more compa at the time in terms of housing - [Peggy] And next up, we're going to show you a little bit of Mid-City I'm canal street, of which used to wind its way through the mid city, the neighb and at first rolled in 1934, but this is fabulous.

And this is the first we see the 1956 parade.

And then we see later the 1962, but this, this is magic.

- [Arthur] I do this day was jus and it still does in two ways one of the use of foil it's always been just a great pa We would really call it, foil - [Peggy] It, go to the beach, was the theme looking for it.

Okay.

- [Errol] And the other is the use of automation in this.

It's always had moving forwards And this was the pioneer of using boy Scouts in terms of boy Scouts, power inside, inside.

But that's classic.

You can see obvious floral right and then you see them moving.

- [Arthur] Then you don't see the boy Scouts underneath the float.

Some of them on bicycles turning the wheel.

Isn't that neat?

- [Peggy] It's so clever and all foil and didn't I believe it was at Betty Kern b Betty Petty Ray had a lot to do with that in later years but it was always a fun parade.

Of course they did the greatest bands in Dixie's for a long time a very profitable band contest, but a great - And moving on to toe and toes, this is from the 1950s, this is on magazine street, which you know, to the present except for this year, of course, but toast on magazine.

And then later on to St. Charles.

- [Errol] So it was always famous for secure this route because it liked to pass by various institutions uptown nursing, home nursing homes, that sort of thing until he hit a rock, kind of like none other and there was allowed the gullet places where others phrase couldn't go like, like he didn't sleep for days on magazine street and and still to this day that the Elma that until was right.

That's really, it's stuck in there and it's grown.

I mean, it's really a big parade - Parades and corner was kind of the last neighborhood parade missed the mid city and Mid-City and Carolyn and Carolyn and all Allah shot acrossthe river, but great great parade.

And they do a lot of philanthrop things as many crews do.

Now - This has been so much fun.

Just taking a look at howit evolves so much fun.

Yes.

The Pegasus mapper packets.

This is also in Mid-City too.

Yeah.

- Yes, indeed.

Yeah.

We've lost some big ones but I bet there's more footage o that people have said.

I wonder if they'd like this.

Yes - Yes.

The answer is yes.

And once again, special, thanks to the historic new Orleans coll Cause a lot of the footage I came from there.

Thank you all.

And we certainly hope that you have enjoyed, of course looking back at some new Orleans and it's great to see the parades of the past and may Carnival's future be just as colorful and creative.

We leave you now with one more parade from the past.

- I, I just heard that Babylon is that Jackson Avenue.

So if you just wait a little bit longer becoming - This is the 1954 Rex parade with the theme nature, create ma Thank you so much for watching and happy Mardi Gras.