12"x12" PHILADELPHIA MUMMERS PARADE 1941, Sam Parris, with The Lobster Club - “Give us whisky, give us gin. Open the door and let us in!” (Copy)

By exclusive arrangement with The Grand Review.

We are now offering several of our prints that started out as 24 x 24 inches square in three sizes. 24 x 24, 18 x 18 and 12 x 12. THIS print is 18" x 18".  That said, don't fear the other sizes. They all have considerable visual 'pop' I'll have to frame up a 24x24 here and shoot it, just for the WOW factor.

Yes, folks, The Mummers Parade is Philadelphia's amazing and often bizarre century old New Years Day parade.  There are various divisions and brigades, as well as small groupings of performers and individuals as well.  As the most famous Mummers poem suggests, the ritual on New Years Day going all the way back to the late 1700s went a little like this...

Here we stand before your door, 
As we stood the year before.
Give us whisky, give us gin,
Open the door and let us in.

Women were not allowed to march in the parade until the 70s, and female impersonators and gangs of 'wenches' have always been a big part of the wild stew that rolls up Broad Street every January 1st to this day.  Working men from the Italian, Polish, German and Irish neighborhoods would practice all year to present the most delightful and at times seemingly insane yet well coordinated dances and routines, with banjos strumming and all sorts of brass instruments blasting.

Folks, the Mummers Parade is a folk parade, as big and grand and crazy as it may seem, and there are folk art elements specific to the mummers that you can spot on outfits and props.  All part of the fun.

We do not know the history of Mr. Parris, other than his name and his club affiliation.  That said, the 110 year old Lobster Club still exists and still performs in the parade, with less emphasis on drag and much more on incredible lobster outfits.  I mean to gift them a copy of this print, and a copy of that forever romantic favorite of mine from our catalog, LOBSTER BOY AND L'ESCARGOT GIRL

Enjoy!
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SHIPPING
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Every print we deem exciting enough to present to the public via our Etsy store or available here at our studio has gone through a number of steps.  The first of those is always discovering and falling in love with an obscure image, always an original that we can hold in our hands.  That image is speaking to us, sometime screaming “Don’t leave me here.  See what I am, what I was, what I can be, what I SHOULD be!”

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