New Orleans: I am back from Mardi Gras! OMG!!! Wait until you see the photos and video! Zulu's costumes were great! I am working on them now. I asked one of the Zulu paraders to stop so that I could photograph him. Got the photo and he gave me the most treasured item of Mardi Gras...the golden coconut!
I also got to see Pete Fountain and the cast of HBO's series Treme...Steve Zahn is as crazy as on the show. All the cast was on the float. I was so excited to see Pete Fountain. I grew up hearing his music. I did get a close-up view of the Comus Queen. I watched on TV the toast of Comus and Rex and their trains were so plain in comparison to Mobile's MG royalty. Mobile: I got lots of photos of Joe Cain's Merry Widows. There is a lot of history behind the story. The Widows were so thrilled that someone from Virginia came to photograph them. One of the widows, my favorite, was wearing a bustle dress. After the funeral, a man went down on one knee and she pulled up her skirt and he took off her garter. She also smoked a large cigar. What a ham! The Merry Widows wore large Edwardian, Merry Widows style. Their prize throw was a cup with their signature trinkets, emblem necklace, doubloons, and a garter. Guess who gave it to me...Mrs. Bustle. They also give out black silk roses...I got a rose from each widow and wove them into a wreath for my head.. The Widows were a true story! Nine widows showed up at the real Joe Cain funeral. The Widows always started the Joe Cain Mardi Gras parade in their special float. My sister noticed some ladies stationed in front of their float--all dressed in nice, some sexy red dresses. I flashed my press pass to investigate who they were and photograph them. Six years ago these ladies showed up at the parade all wearing red. They call themselves Joe Cain's Mistresses. They saw my black rose wreath and said, "You need some red in that!" They gave me some red roses for the wreath. I hand carried the wreath everywhere, even on the airplane. While in Mobile, I took more photos at the Mobile Carnival Museum. After a big search for the location of the local history archive library, we found it with two hours to spare. I am researching descriptions of the kings and queens costumes back to the 1920s. So much thought was put into each train to reflect their family history, personalities, hobbies, religions, etc. We did pull newspaper articles with the descriptions for two years. A BIG bonus was an article about a designer who created 25 robes/trains for 25 Kings & queens from 1909-1950s. She made all of the trains with a treadle sewing machine. I will be back in Mobile late May through mid-June for my son's wedding. I hope that I time to pull more research. I did find out that the museum's lower floor was flooded during Hurricane Katrina. They lost some of their 1960s kings & queens regalia. I pray that we can find our master copy of the video were shot in 1999 with these costumes. It has to be somewhere in our house. We have been tearing the house apart to find it. I did photograph a 1961 Queen train & crown this visit. Sadly, Biloxi's Mardi Gras Museum is still not open. They are working on the historic mansion that housed the collection. The museum was under 20 ft. of water during Hurricane Katrina. Their costumes were sent to Jackson, Mississippi to try to restore them. Penny Ladnier, owner The Costume Gallery Websites www.costumegallery.com 15 websites of fashion, costume, and textile history FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Costume-Gallery-Websites/107498415961579 _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
