By Kyle Nash
While the Halloween Parade waits for Mayor de Blasio to approve its permit for a 2021 Parade (they had a virtual parade last year) parade organizers have made two announcements.
First: the Grand Marshall for the Parade will be Randy Rainbow, one of the funniest comics in the US, whose “Seasons of Trump” video has garnered over 2 million views. Go to youtube.com/watch?v=UzXBVkWASI4.
The Second announcement: The parade named a Deputy Grand Marshall. Who? None other than the Village’s own, and WestView’s own, Arthur Schwartz.
Arthur Schwartz you ask, why him? Is he a performer on the side?
Turns out that in 2019, the last year the parade was held, the Village Halloween Parade, Inc. was sued by someone who called himself “SuperFrank” (seriously, that was how he described himself in court papers) who claimed to be a member of the Parade Board and alleged that the organizers had squandered lots of money. Unfortunately, the baseless lawsuit was reported in the NY Post on Page Six and all of the parade sponsors put their donation pens on hold. The Parade Executive Committee asked around for a lawyer who could get them out of hot water fast; if donations didn’t begin to flow by May, the parade would be cooked. They were sent to Arthur Schwartz, who agreed to take on the case pro bono. He gathered what he needed, drafted papers, and filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit and countersued. It took a while, but in early April Judge Franc Perry held a hearing, and the next day issued a decision dismissing the case. In order to resolve everything, the countersuit was dropped and an appeal was waived. May arrived and the donors started writing checks!
Can you imagine the Village without a Halloween Parade? Unfortunately, due to the Pandemic, that did happen last year, and the Parade went virtual. But this year Hope Springs Eternal. The Parade is pushing, Arthur is pushing, and hopefully Mayor de Blasio will end his last Halloween as Mayor with a Parade.
The theme this year? LET’S PLAY!!! Honoring the Children of NYC and the Child in all of us who yearns to take to the streets and play again!
Get your vaccine, so we can do Halloween! (And so Randy and Arthur can lead it!)
“Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality.”
