Halloween in Greenwich Village – A Salute to Ralph Lee
Last fall, Ralph presented a slideshow and lecture for GVSHP about those early years of the parade. You can see video of the program here. It was great fun to hear the stories Ralph told and to see his own personal slide images. One year, the police forgot to show up, and Ralph had to call the precinct from a pay phone!
In April, Ralph joined us at Symphony Space on the Upper West Side for their series Selected Shorts. When emcee B.D. Wong introduced Ralph as the founder of the Village Halloween Parade, the audience erupted in a thunderous applause. Ralph read to the audience from our newly-released book, Greenwich Village Stories. His contribution to the book is a wonderful passage that recalls the early days of the parade, as only someone with his unique perspective could share. You can learn more about the book, and purchase a copy here. All proceeds benefit GVSHP, and it’s a great gift for yourself or anyone who knows and loves the Village. Greenwich Village – known for years as a place of diversity, tolerance, inclusion, creativity and festivity – where else could the biggest Halloween parade in the world be?
So if you’ll be at the parade this Friday night, have fun, and say thank you to Ralph Lee for inspiring 40 years of creative puppets and masks you won’t find in any other neighborhood in the world!
And here are some images from last year’s parade:
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