This week in North Philly Notes, in advance of the New Year’s Day parade, we offer an excerpt from The Big Story, by David Grzybowski, showcasing the Mummers, with quotes and observations from Steve Highsmith, the longest-tenured host of the Mummers Parade.
The Mummers Parade is held on New Year’s Day in Philadelphia. With well over ten thousand marchers and participants kicking off the start of each new year, the Mummers Parade is the oldest continuous folk parade in the United States. The parade is made up of five unique divisions: the Fancies, Comics, Fancy Brigade, Wench Brigade, and String Band. These divisions offer diverse floats, props, costumes, dancing (or strutting, as the Mummers call it), and musicianship. The tradition of the Philadelphia Mummers Parade started in the late seventeenth century, as a way to usher in the New Year.
In 1941, Philco Television (then Channel 3) hosted the first newscasts from the Mummers Parade. In 1949, WFIL/WPVI broadcast the parade and continued to do so until 1980. WFIL’s on-air talent included Phil Sheridan, John Corcoran, Harry K. Smith, Mary Durante, Charles King, Mary Dorr, Jean Sargent, Bill Webber, Roy Nassau, Anita Klever, and Connie Klever. WPVI talent included Dave Roberts, Hank Sperka, and Mummers expert Frank Conforti. In July 1980, WCAU filed a lawsuit in a Common Pleas Court, asking the court to declare illegal a provision in the recently expired contract between WPVI and the Mummers. The provision gave Channel 6 the right to broadcast the 1981 parade if it offered the Mummers a contract matching or exceeding another station’s offer. The Mummers Association also filed a lawsuit against Channel 6, seeking additional payments on the basis that the station had misrepresented its profits from previous parade broadcasts. The Mummers Association voted to switch to Channel 10 because WCAU offered to pay the association $100,000 for the 1981 broadcasting rights; Channel 6 had paid the Mummers $15,000 for broadcasting rights to the 1980 parade. WPVI filed a countersuit, and as a result, a Common Pleas judge ruled that WPVI had lost its right of first refusal when it failed to match within two months WCAU’s offer to the Mummers. The Common Pleas judge ruled that the Mummers could break their relationship with WPVI and granted the rights for the parade to be broadcast on WCAU.
From 1981 to 1986, WCAU broadcast the parade and featured talent Larry Kane, Bill Baldini, Deborah Knapp, John Facenda, Diane Allen, Alan Frio, and James Donio. In 1987, KYW took over the parade broadcast rights, which it held until 1991. KYW talent included Steve Bell, Pat Ciarrocchi, Jack Jones, Ray Murray, Jerry Penacoli, Dick Sheeran, and Beverly Williams. KYW’s coverage included a “Pride of Philadelphia” special, Mummers Eve, hosted by Murray and Ciarrocchi.
After contract complications with KYW for the upcoming 1992 parade, the Mummers had no broadcast agreement just weeks before New Year’s Day. Two cable operators—the Lenfest Group and Comcast—agreed to underwrite the broadcast of the parade. As part of the agreement, WHYY (Channel 12) carried the broadcast and helped produce the program live, and KYW provided the on-air personalities. The 1992 parade broadcast aired from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., with an average Nielsen rating of 11.5 and a 21 percent share of the viewing audience, beating college football bowl games and other out-of-town parades. The Mummers parade returned to KYW for two more years in 1993 and 1994.
In 1995, WPHL took over the parade broadcasts. In the station’s first year, a multitude of on-air talent was featured on the broadcast, including Pat Ciarrocchi, Gene Crane, Mike Strug of WCAU, Ed Cunningham of WHYY, and Steve Highsmith and Larry Cosgrove of Channel 17’s Inquirer News Tonight. Former Mummer and judge Jake Hart offered commentary on the WPHL parade broadcast for twenty years. Highsmith is the longest-tenured host of the Mummers Parade, with twenty-eight years; he started in 1992. Highsmith and Hart retired from the booth after the 2020 parade. As of 2023, the Mummers Parade is now televised on WFMZ-TV and WDPN-TV with Larry Mendte and Dawn Stensland-Mendte.
Steve Highsmith, Anchor and Reporter, WPHL and WCAU:
There are Mummers in other parts of the world, but each of the cities that have Mummers has its own little take on it. Philadelphia’s take on it is unique. It was joyful, and we continued with that. I got to know a lot of the people behind the makeup, masks, and the sequins. I realized these people were amateurs, and they were not professionals doing this. These are people who are working really hard during the day at some other job, and they were carrying on tradition that they may have begun with high school classmates who carried on from their parents or great-grandparents. The tradition is basically to go out and have a good time on New Year’s Day. I think that the vast majority of Mummers who do it simply do that. They want to celebrate on New Year’s Day and be a part of a tradition of celebration of fancy display that entertains people. That is the mindset of the vast majority of Mummers that go out there.
What I also learned about [the Mummers] throughout the years was that so many of them are very giving people and charitable people in their churches and community and in the wider community. They have been goodwill ambassadors. Mayors have often called them up and said that there are dignitaries coming in from the airport, “Can you go to the airport and give them a Philadelphia welcome?” and they did that. There are a lot of ways the Mummers can be appreciated. We all learn about histories and things over time. We need to face those things and have an awareness of how we got to where we are. I think the city has an opportunity if it chooses to seize it, to not put aside but to embrace all of its major festivals, celebrations, parades, and really emphasize the position aspects of each. Share them and educate them and, as I said, make aware and incentivize inclusion and inspire inclusion. That’s what celebration and the mosaic of America should be all about. I think that the majority of people in the city want peace, but it begins with humility. Everyone who is a Mummer and everyone who is not a Mummer. I’m not preaching here, but let’s start with humanity, and let’s talk about self-awareness and about fairness, and just appreciate the celebrations and good dialogues and actions that will come out of it. That’s kind of the take on it.
The personal memories of it are the people. The late Bob Shannon Jr. and Judge Hart and all of the other people I worked with. The soup contest at the Mummers Museum. The serenades along 2nd Street, for example. Going into the warehouses ahead of time, many of them cold at the time, or the clubhouses and all of the sneak peeks you get. The sewing that is going on. The gluing that is still going on. The people that get to hang out together. People were always trying to feed me. The best soup, meatball, and gravy that anybody could ever have was because I got an opportunity to emphasize the positive aspect of Mummery.
Filed under: american studies, History, Mass Media and Communications, Philadelphia, sociology, Urban Studies | Tagged: David Grzybowski, history, mummers, news, philadelphia, Steve Highsmith, television, Travel, TV, WPHL | Leave a comment »
