New Orleans Carnival Krewes: The History, Spirit & Secrets of Mardi Gras

by Rosary O'Neill, Kim Marie Vaz (Foreword by)

Overview

Let the good times roll down in New Orleans! Read the secrets and origins of the beloved Mardi Gras.

New Orleans practically owns Mardi Gras, and you would be hard-pressed to find someone who would deny it. The wild celebration brings thousands of tourists to Louisiana each year, but none of it would be possible without the carnival krewes. The backbone of this Big Easy tradition, different krewes put on extravagant paries and celebrations to commemorate the beginning of the Lenten season. Historic krewes such as Comus, Rex, and Zulu date back generations and have become part of New Orleans' greater history, but today, what was once an exclusive position has widened their reach and new krewes are inaugurated regularly to enrich the flavor of Louisiana's cultural melting pot. Through careful and detailed research of over three hundred sources, author and New Orleans native Rosary O'Neill explores this storied institution, its antebellum roots, and its effects in the twenty-first century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781540208842
Publisher:	History Press Library Editions
Publication date:	02/11/2014
Pages:	242
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Rosary O'Neill is a native New Orleanian living in New York City. She is Professor Emeritus of Drama and Speech at Loyola University of New Orleans, a recipient of five Fulbright Senior Specialist Program Fellowship awards, Senior Fulbright Drama Specialist and author of twenty-two plays. Rosary is a member of the Playwright Directors Workshop, Actors Studio and founder of the Southern Repertory Theatre in New Orleans, the State of Louisiana's only actor's equity theatre. Kim Marie Vaz is professor of education and the associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Xavier University of Louisiana. She is the author of The "Baby Dolls": Breaking the Race and Gender Barriers of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Tradition. Her book served as the basis for a major installation on the Baby Doll tradition at the Presbytere unit of the Louisiana State Museum as part of the museum's permanent display on the history of Carnival in Louisiana.

Table of Contents

Foreword Kim Marie Vaz 9

Preface 13

Acknowledgements 17

1 Birth of the Carnival Krewes 19

2 Entries and Masques: Theater of Royal Power 33

3 Events Before and During a New Orleans Carnival Parade and Ball 52

4 Hierarchy Dramatized by the Old-Line Parade 59

5 Hierarchy Dramatized by the Old-Line Ball 66

6 Nature of Carnival Organizations 73

Oral History: Arthur Hardy 90

7 History of Carnival in New Orleans 95

8 Structure of a Carnival Organization 103

9 Carnival Organizations' Effect on the Social Structure of New Orleans 114

10 Secret Political Societies, 1857-1900 118

11 Old-Line Reformers versus the Ring Machine 122

12 Gentlemanly Indirect Power, 1900-70 129

13 Up the Downward Spiral 136

14 Profile of an Old-Line Carnival Organization Member 142

15 The Old-Line Carnival Mentality Today 147

Oral History: Debutante C and her Father 165

16 Metamorphosis: A Changing Carnival 167

17 African American Carnival Societies 180

Oral History: Kim Marie Vaz, Phd 194

18 New Orleans and Carnival Today 198

Appendix: Pseudonyms of Carnival Leaders 215

Bibliography 219

Index 235

About the Author 239