Our Daily Show! 100 Year Ago With Lacy: Halloween Parade!
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ALTON - “The witches, the spooks, the jesters, the clowns and their like will be in their glory tonight,” proclaimed the Alton Evening Telegraph on Oct. 31, 1924. The East End Improvement Association hosted the parade and a grand masquerade dance at Turner Hall, as they had done every year since 1916. The first Alton Halloween parade and dance in 1916 was held to celebrate the completion of the long-drawn-out East Broadway street paving project, which went from Henry to Cherry streets and was open for the first time on Oct. 31, 1916.
The 1924 parade and dance were the biggest and best yet. The parade began at Front and Market Streets, went up Market to Broadway, and wound down Broadway to Turner Hall. The White Hussar band performed in costume and there were over 30 floats. An out-of-town woman who spent her first Halloween in Alton was overheard saying that she “had never had seen such a celebration.” Alton has always thrown a good party on Halloween, and a front-page article in the Alton Evening Telegraph on Nov. 1 described the 1924 festivities in great detail. “One coming through the downtown district would have thought that all the clowns in all the circuses of the world had broken loose for one wild night and had brought over with them a number of their friends from whatever country they happened to be in.”
But what about the tricks? The Alton Police issued several warnings in the newspaper, but luckily, the 1924 Halloween was “practically mischiefless.” Apparently, in previous years on the day after Halloween, merchants in Alton and Upper Alton had to hire workers to carry away iron and rubbish that had been piled up against the doors of their shops, and once, a buggy was placed on top of one of the Upper Alton stores.
The same newspaper article that mentioned the clowns also described the mischief that did take place (and the precautions set in place): “Here and there in the drive one might see a police officer placed on special duty to keep the revelers from doing damage to property. Here and there the B-r-rr of a tick-tack the squeak of a bar of soap on a window pane might have been heard. However, no yard swings or gates were seen hanging on telephone poles, or were any cows or horses seen perched up on top of barns in the manner in which they are distributed in the comic cartoons. The East End Improvement Association had apparently done the town a good turn by attracting all the merry-makers toward their celebration and keeping them so busy in the down-town district that they had no chance to do any damage except the occasional soaping of a window on an automobile windshield.”
It is now Halloween 2024. The 107th Alton Halloween Parade will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in downtown Alton. The parade route isn’t identical to the one from 100 years ago, but still goes down Broadway. It is still sponsored by the East End Improvement Association and still features marching bands, costumes, and giddy children. It is still a source of awe to visitors like the woman in 1924 who “had never had seen such a celebration.” How lucky we are to have such a fun and storied Halloween tradition!
Sources
“Alton Halloween Parade 2024.” Great Rivers and Routes. https://www.riversandroutes.com/events/alton-halloween-parade-2024/
“Broadway to be Opened Tomorrow.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), October 30, 1916.
“Goblins Roam Alton Streets in Celebration.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), November 1, 1924.
“Halloween.” 1917. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-79501 https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002707190/
“Hallowe’en Carnival.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), October 31, 1924.
“Hallowe’en to be Celebrated by the East End.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), October 31, 1924.
“Meeting of the E.E.I.A.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), October 7, 1916.
“Notice to Hallowe’en Celebrants.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), October 30, 1924.
“Parade Route is Announced for Hallowe’en.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), October 30, 1924.
“Redlights, Confetti, Tin Horns.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), October 11, 1916.
Sinks, Sydney. “What Happens Behind the Scenes of the Alton Halloween Parade.” Riverbender.com. October 17, 2024. https://www.riverbender.com/news/details/what-happens-behind-the-scenes-of-the-alton-halloween-parade-76567.cfm
“Upper Alton: A Mischieflless Hallowe’en in Upper Alton.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), November 1, 1924.
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