116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Time Machine: Halloween Mardi Gras
Event started in Cedar Rapids in 1948 to entertain kids, cut down on vandalism
The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
Halloween pranks were becoming too scary even for Halloween in 1947.
“Halloween came and went Friday, leaving a trail of overturned garbage cans, soaped windows, a terrified Coe student and a cigar store Indian who nearly figured in a shooting tragedy,” The Gazette reported.
I.J. Shepard reported his bronze cigar store Indian had been stolen from in front of his house on First Avenue NE. He assumed it was Halloween pranksters and took off after the culprits with a shotgun.
He encountered 24-year-old Coe student Henry Hamblin in the alley behind his house and held him at gunpoint until police came and ordered Shepard to put the gun down. When Shepard threw the gun to the ground, it fired, missing Hamblin by about 3 feet.
In another incident, a group of six teens, not wanting to get into trouble, arrived at the police station and asked to stay there for the evening. Capt. Howard Walsh was amenable, and the teens sat out Halloween in the safety of the station’s lobby.
What to do?
In May 1948, local authorities and organizations put their heads together to figure out how to stop the window soapings, property damage and unruly behavior.
The Cedar Rapids Moose Lodge presented information to school, civic and church leaders about a successful program begun in 1946 in Davenport by Scott County Sheriff Walter Beuse
The program, promoted as Youth Honor Day, asked children and teens to sign a pledge agreeing to celebrate the holiday peacefully, rejecting vandalism and crime.
Beuse, known as an advocate for children, explained the advent of his program: “I quit criticizing and began doing something.”
Asked why he was so committed to children’s projects, Beuse replied, “Hell, I’m just a big kid myself.”
Beuse’s idea immediately captured national attention. The program also became known as Halloween Mardi Gras, borrowing the term from the traditional Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, celebration held the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of the season of Lent.
The Iowa Moose backed Beuse’s plan for a National Youth Day program during the fraternal organization’s 1947 convention in Cedar Rapids. It also was adopted at an Illinois Moore state convention and by the national Moose council in Chicago, The Gazette reported.
Three parts
The Halloween Mardi Gras program in Cedar Rapids had three parts: a costume parade, a show featuring paid acts to entertain the younger kids and a dance for older students.
Cedar Rapids Public Safety Commissioner Gordon Hughes and Police Chief Tom Condon were named co-chairmen for the first Halloween Mardi Gras to be staged in 1948.
Tickets for the show and dance were distributed to the schools. Kids could get them for free by signing a pledge card promising to commit no acts of vandalism on Halloween.
In 1956, the annual event was no longer called Halloween Mardi Gras. Instead, its name became “Youth Honor Day,” the title its originator had originally used.
That year’s program had the usual parade through the downtown and a stage show and dance at the Memorial Coliseum. The parade had five floats, a marching group and the Wilson High School motorcycle club. The stage show included a magician, a ventriloquist and a singer. Music for the dance was provided by Local 127 American Federation of Musicians.
In 1957, the parade was dropped. Younger children were treated to a cartoon show, while teens still could attend a dance in the evening. That year, Iowa Gov. Herschel Loveless issued a proclamation declaring Oct. 31 as Youth Honor Day in honor of Walter Beuse, the Scott County sheriff who’d started the program and who died of a heart attack Aug. 26, 1957.
Moving on
The only Youth Honor Day program held in Cedar Rapids on Oct. 31, 1958, was a teen dance at the Moose Lodge, That was the last remnant of the Halloween Mardi Gras in Linn County.
Other Halloween events in Eastern Iowa included Marion’s Halloween Frolic for school kids that ran from 1951 to 1958. The event featured a kids’ costume parade and a pet dog parade.
Halloween Mardi Gras was still going strong in Davenport in 1959, sponsored by Youth Honor Day Inc. The celebration kicked off with a window painting competition Oct. 28. On Halloween morning, there were free shows at two theaters. The night parade was followed by the Pumpkin Ball.
The 59th Iowa General Assembly on March 14, 1961, designated Oct. 31 as Youth Honor Day.
Davenport’s Halloween Mardi Gras/Youth Honor Day continued yearly until 1974 when it had become increasingly harder to finance and no organization was willing to organize the event.
“Really, I suppose nothing can go on forever,” said the event’s general chairman Bill Wundram, a columnist for the Quad-City Times.
Youth Honor Day, though, still is on the books in Iowa, found in Section 1C.7 of the Iowa Code.
Walter Beuse (center), the mayor of Davenport and former Scott County sheriff, stands with Cedar Rapids Mayor Jim Meaghan (left) and Davenport Alderman Theodore Lorenzen during a Sept. 7, 1956, workshop on municipal problems held Sept. 7, 1956 n Cedar Rapids at the Roosevelt Hotel. Beuse is the one who came up with the idea of a National Honor Day — or Halloween Mardi Gras — to offer entertainment to youth and cut down on Halloween vandalism. (Gazette archives)
A giant caterpillar wiggles through Cedar Rapids on Oct. 31, 1950, during the annual Halloween Mardi Gras parade. The caterpillar, accompanied by its enthusiastic creators from Polk Elementary, had nine sets of legs and was awarded first prize as "best Halloween group." (Gazette archives)
Comments: D.fannonlangton@gmail.com
Daily Newsletters