The Village Halloween Parade
In 1973, Greenwich Village mask maker and puppeteer Ralph Lee staged a house-to-house puppet show to entertain his neighbors, children and friends. Thirty-three years later, Lee's show has evolved into the nation's largest public Halloween celebration.
This year more than two million people lined Sixth Avenue to watch the Village Halloween Parade while another four million watched a live broadcast on local TV station NY1. Many of the people standing behind the barriers watching were as elaborately costumed as those who were marching, dancing and riding up the street.
Hometown boys (well, at least they are former New Yorkers) Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons of the rock band Kiss served as the Grand Marshals of the four hour event which included elaborate floats, choreographed dancers, dozens of marching bands, hundreds of puppets and more than 50,000 costumed marchers.
The sheer numbers make the event sound overwhelming but (unlike many other Halloween celebrations) the Village Halloween Parade isn't raucous or rowdy; it remains a good-natured, friendly outdoor party for vampires, zombies, superheroes and kids of all ages. 
Strawberry & big brother 
Man carrying skeleton puppet 
Captain Morgan 
MTV VJ & "David Letterman" 
Naughty cop & naughty maid 
Reporter & "Paris Hilton" 
Desperate housewife 
Stay-Puft marshmallow man 
Man in a pink tuxedo 
Martini girl 
Catwoman and Psycho Santa 
"Paris Hilton" 
Spoon man 
Lobster boy 
Beheaded man 
Blue-haired lady 
Corpse bride 
Zombie barista 
Elf 
Cheerleader 
Raccoon 
The Riddler 
Religious guy 
Devil & Zombie 
Masked man 
Cow 
Spongebob Squarepants 
Bearded bumblebee 
Sock monkey 
Man with a headache 
Acrobats 
Viagra man 
Zombie 
Banana boy & friend 
Scooby Doo 
Easy chair 
Can-can girl 
First-class mail 
Hot dog girl 
Edward Scissorhands 
Orange feathers & red hair 
Woman with live parrots 
Puppeteers 
"Pamela Anderson" & "Kid Rock" 
Bagged spinach with E Coli 
Wolf & wizard 
Vampires 
Autumn leaf 
Little nurse 
"Borat" 
Little dinosaur in a stroller 
The Munsters 
Gilligan & palm tree 
Real cop & zombie cop 
Dia De Los Muertos 
Jack O'Lantern puppets 
Scary implants 
"Prince" & "Madonna" 
On the Mannheim Steamroller float 
Grand Marshals from Kiss 
Paul Stanley & Gene Simmons
posted by annulla @ 10/31/2006 11:55:00 PM
6 comments
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6 Comments:
my area hosts a gay pride parade, quite a few of those would actually fit in!
i think my favorite was the marshmallow man.
thanks for dropping by my blog earlier.
Great images!! Looks like a fun time to be had by all!
Those pictures are great. It looks like so much fun. We don't have that much fun in Omaha, NE. Go figure. But we had lots of cute trick-or-treaters.
There's nothing like New York. Very different from our little corner of the world. Thanks for coming by out here in the boonies, though!
I loved headless guy and easy chair. What creatives costumes...and of course, great pictures!
That was a blast! So many inventive costumes and a taste of the Village. Thanks for this post.
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