2021 – The 1984 Greenwich Village Halloween Parade
(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on October 20, 2021)
According to https://bobleafe.com/:
Someone else had a different take 10 years ago:
https://thetrad.blogspot.com/2011/10/twat-1984.html?m=1
I’m slightly biased towards Mr. Leafe’s opinion. Besides, it’s funnier. Plus, Mr. Trad appears to be biased against anyone who took a bridge or a tunnel to get there.
So anyway…………although I have 3 photos of this event on my site, I have another 30 or so sitting around that I’ve never done anything with. They’re not all my best work and if I was submitting them for publication, I’d edit some out, but there are a lot of people who were involved in this parade and maybe never saw a photo of themselves from that night.
Wouldn’t it be nice if a couple of those people happened to stumble across this blog and – 37 years later – see themselves in their glorious youth prancing through the Village in full costume?
I hope it happens and I hope someone lets me know about it, so I can strain my arm from patting myself on the back.
With a few exceptions that could not be helped – the lead photo, for instance – I’m posting these in the order I took them in case the sequence is helpful to anybody. I’m also making believe that anyone from that period would be able to recall a sequence like that after nearly 4 decades (the only reason I “remember” it is because Kodak thoughtfully printed little sequential numbers on each slide, giving me a fantastic “memory”).
So, you ready?
To get us in the spirit, I’m actually going to kick things off with a non-parade photo I took that afternoon in a publisher’s office. If I recall correctly, this lady in red was called “Luciferaso” and I know that she’ll be reading this soon after I publish it (she may even comment below………..and I may wind up being banned from hell as a result………….darn the luck!):
On to the parade!
Before I put this together, I Google-Imaged this parade to see what others may have captured that night. I expected to see a lot of the same things I shot, but only found a few.
The most common same-subject image had 2 or 3 variations of Leonardo painting Mona, captured from different angles, with some showing how really 3-dimensional Mona’s face actually was.
What I like about mine (he says modestly), is not only that Mona looks much more like a 2-dimensional painting, but it’s the only one I found that also included Richard Nixon (quel bonus!) and someone talking to him who I thought was Queen Elizabeth, but she’s wearing a “Miss Arizona” sash (maybe Kyrsten Sinema picking Tricky-Dicky’s “brain”?):
And what did https://bobleafe.com have to say about this image?
“Looks like Mona is also a big fan of ‘TWA Tea’.”
And, yes, this photo is out of sequence because it might make you think they’re ALL gonna be this good.
So let’s start the real sequence, where – at least in the beginning – I appear to be at the intersection of Bleeker and Charles:
An interesting quartet of individuals, including a brave, barefoot Cupid, followed by his foot servant, Raggedy Ann:
I have no interesting/clever captions for the rest, so I’ll just post what I have that will take us up to the finale:
The 2-shot finale begins with this very interesting-looking car. What a paint job!
I have no idea how I got this shot, but I think the car stopped, someone (not me) opened the right backseat door, the driver appears to still be waving to people (was the car still moving with an open door?) and I made the most of this ONE shot I got:
And look at the incredible detail! I can’t imagine how much work went into this.
I hope this is in a museum somewhere.
That’s it……….hope you enjoyed the trip back……….Happy Halloween!
And please note that everything in my blog – including this post – is copyrighted.
(I know…….not the most joyous note to end on, but I AM dressed up for Halloween – and every other day – as a professional photographer…………whatever that looks like……….so I have to say stuff like that.)
And – since you asked – here’s what that professional attire looked like in 2020:
https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=11433
But if you really want to see me in my favorite mid-80s mask (1986, actually) while in my professional photographer attire, at work, ON HALLOWEEN, go here:
https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=726
(I’m right after the lead story about a legendary friend of mine.)
And if you need to contact me for any reason, hit the red WHOWHATWHY link at the top of the page and find the email address.
In any event……………..
Hey Bob, that lady dressed up as “Elvira In Red” looks familiar to me!!!!
That car looks like it was painted by EV artist Kenny Scharf
I was there that night playing for a wedding at 14Christopher, on the corner of Christopher & Gay Streets (and then locked in and sleeping in the basement not long afterward). I was invited up above in two different apartments overlooking Christopher Street, and eventually hanging out with a glass of champagne on a balcony. It was the only parade i had a chance to witness, so your pics are very important to me. I have to ask, where are pics of the fellow doing Max Headroom? I also remember someone impersonating Marilyn Monroe and someone in a black costume entirely covered in white lights, and also someone as Darth Vader. so your photo journal here is incomplete. I’m in search of these pics since i’m hoping to share my story on Facebook. In the meantime, thank you for what you have!