Granville Then & Now – October 28, 2021

Halloween parade was busy event

By Erik Pekar, Town Historian

The crisp, cool air in the mornings is a sure sign of fall settling in. Pumpkins have taken their yearly posts on porches, steps, and driveway entrances. The leaves are coming down, and some trees are starting to look bare. The first cold frost of the season occurred last Sunday morning.

+ + +

Halloween is around the corner. This annual event of candy, costumes, and trick-or-treating has been a fun time for decades. Sometimes, unfortunately, it can also be a night of mischief, the antics of which gave rise to the other nickname, “cabbage night.”

At one time, Granville held a Halloween parade. The idea of the parade originated in 1934 with Mrs. Lee Phelps. At the time, Halloween in Granville was more of the “cabbage night” than the costume night. In October 1934, she visited communities in the area that had already started parades. When she presented the ideas to the Granville Rotary Club, of which her husband was a member, the idea was met with great enthusiasm. A committee was set up consisting of Rev. D.J. Livingstone, chairman; R. Newton Williams, Paul Manchester, Max Trop, Ray Brown, Sam Eppolito, David McHenry, William Norton, Edwin Vanderminden, Pat Tierney and Lee Phelps.

The first parade was held on Halloween day, 1935. Prior to the parade, the Granville Rotary Club held a dinner in the Rotary meeting rooms, with everyone in costume. The dinner was made by women from the Granville Methodist Church, who also were in costume.

The paraders assembled at 7 p.m. in the parking lot of Granville High School. The parade commenced at 7:30, going west on Potter Avenue to Quaker Street, then up Quaker and West Main Streets, continuing on Main Street, and then down Church Street to the school athletic field. The parade took about 15 minutes. There were no formal divisions to the parade; it was led by Lee F. Phelps, grand marshal, then the American Legion Drum Corps, school children, floats, the Italian band, and other costumed people. The judges’ stand was near the athletic field, and prizes were subsequently awarded.

The parade was followed by events at the grounds of the football field. The Lochlea Players, under the direction of Ray Brown, acted in a play called “Flattering Words.” This was followed by a comedy football game under the direction of Sam Eppolito. The crowd for this was said to be “greater than [the crowd] for the usual Whitehall-Granville football classic.” The game was played under flood lights.

After the events at the football field, a dinner for the adults was held, with a dance, accompanied by music from Reggie Sweet’s orchestra.

The first Halloween parade was a success, and according to the Sentinel writer in the Nov. 7, 1935 issue, “did away with the raids on fences, gates, lawn furniture, soaping of windows and cars and other destructive practices of other years.”

The Halloween parades continued to be held into the late 1930s. They were not held during World War II. The parade returned for 1947, this time sponsored by Falvey-Fringi Post 1653 of the VFW, with Michael T. Minogue as chairman of the program.

The 1954 parade, held on Oct. 30 since Halloween fell on a Sunday, was the first to be sponsored by the Granville Fire Department; the three volunteer fire companies being the Henry Hose Co., Granville Hook and Ladder Company and the Norton Hose Company. This time the parade took a different route, proceeding up Quaker, West Main and Main Streets as before, but looping around by way of Slocum Avenue, Broadview Terrace, and North Street, to return to the the high school the same way the parade came up to Main Street. More than 200 children were rode on the fire trucks. The parade sponsorship came of short notice, being given to them on Oct. 28, but fire chief Joseph Williams and assistant chief “Curley” Williams wasted no time in making the parade a gala Halloween event.

The last Halloween parade was held on Oct. 31, 1970. As before, the parade was sponsored by the firemen, and the children rode in the fire trucks.

In October 1971, Fire Chief “Curley” Williams announced there would be no Halloween parade that year. The parade had in recent years had declining attendance; according to “Curley” William’s writeup “the only ones in the parade have been the very young. Everyone disappears after the prizes are given out.” Another factor was the slow resurgence of “cabbage night” antics each year on Halloween during the sixties.

Talks of holding Halloween parades came up over the next few years, but the firemen were tired of “cabbage night” and egg-throwing, and no one else came forward wanting to sponsor the event in their place. With the declining of a parade in 1971, the 1970 parade is to date the last Halloween parade held in Granville.