167941231
It’s rare to be so riled up about the Mummers in the summer August heat. It’s no secret that the Mummers themselves start planning their next parade routine on Jan. 2, but with a proposed route change that will move the parade north and shorten it, South Philly is abuzz with talk of tradition and changing demographics.
The various Mummer brigade presidents have been meeting with one another and City Hall to nail down details of how 2015’s 115th manifestation will look for spectators. The tentative plan will reverse the direction of the parade, with folks kicking off their mornings on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway before moving through City Hall for judging, and then marching down South Broad Street and ending at Washington Avenue.
“This parade has taken many different routes,” explains Tom Loomis, the president of the Philadelphia String Band Association, noting that it has been on Chestnut and Market streets in the past and, in certain years, wasn’t sponsored by the City at all. “We as Mummers, we’re beholden to protect the tradition. Not the route in which we parade but the tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation. It does not say protect the march from Oregon [Avenue] to City Hall — we have to protect the art of Mummery. Mummery has got to live on in Philadelphia.”
Loomis is just hopeful that his grandchildren will be marching and not longingly looking at photos and recordings and saying “This is what poppy used to do.”
The concern is real. While Mummer presidents were clear that South Broad turnout near Oregon Avenue (and Shunk and Porter streets) tends to be strong, they also assert that the parade has seen many healthier moments. However, if attendance along South Broad between Washington and Snyder avenues is a barometer for the parade’s health, Mummery is in trouble.
Rusty Martz, the president of the Mummers Museum, 1100 S. Second St., remembers marching down Broad in the 1960s and ’70s to much fuller and enthusiastic crowds.
“I marched myself with the Golden Sunrises. I’ve seen years when we’d walk past South Philadelphia High School and the sidewalks were packed,” Martz recalled. ‘Now, no one’s there.”
Whether or not the parade could use a little refashioning doesn’t seem to be what South Philadelphians are concerned about. They’re worried that South Philly, where Mummery was born, is being taken out of the parade. Phone calls have been made. Comments have been left. Facebook groups have been started.
“People in general don’t like change,” Martz noted, “and that’s what you’re hearing.”
A few published reports have yielded hundreds of commenters offering their two cents. “Why not have the parade in the place it belongs, ONLY in South Philly?” one protestor asked. “Start it on Oregon and end it at Washington [Avenue]. Give it a place where it belongs just like our other parades. You can’t stop honoring a neighborhood’s history just because some new people have moved in,” they argue.
The changing dynamic of South Philadelphia, especially between Washington and Snyder avenues, is certainly a factor in the parade’s attendance numbers.
Richie Porko, the president of the Comic Division, has been in the parade for 55 years. And he’s seen the shift happen firsthand.
“What we’re trying to do is get people to come back to the parade. And contrary to misbelief, the demographic of South Broad Street east and west of South Broad, has changed considerably,” Porko said. “The neighborhoods that are there now really don’t care about the Mummer tradition and don’t understand what we represent. I can’t blame them.”
One of the issues that’s plagued the parade’s success is the herky-jerky nature of the spread out performances, causing stressed-out Mummers anticipating their final judgment in Center City. The new plans seeks to get judging done early (both inside and out of the Convention Center) and, for the first time in years, encourage fancies, comics and wenches to fill gaps between string band performances, creating a fuller flowing parade.
“All we want to do is make the parade better,” Jim Julia, president of the Philadelphia Mummers Fancy Brigade Association, said. “We want it around for another 114 years, and you won’t do that by just doing the same thing and expecting things to change. The worst thing that you can do is get so steeped in tradition that you don’t see it’s failing.”
That may be exactly the problem with loads of South Philadelphians crying foul that the parade won’t start or end at Marconi Plaza, 2700 S. Broad St. However, the revelry will certainly continue on Second Street after the parade, and there’s nothing stopping brigades from heading east after they’ve reached Washington Avenue.
The “Keep the Mummers Struttin’ in South Philly” Facebook community page has residents claiming the northbound parade shift is like taking Mardi Gras off Bourbon Street or that local businesses will suffer greatly.
Porko was interviewed by Channel 6 last week and at the end of the interview, he said “All I ask is ‘Give it a try.’ What could it hurt? If it doesn’t work then we have to go back to the drawing board. We’re in hospice now.”
The new plan may also call for jumbotron TV monitors to simulcast the parade at at least two locations, but details won’t be firmed up until September. The Mummers themselves, it’s worth noting, pour thousands of their own dollars into sets, costumes, makeup and props, but the parade is still greatly funded by the City (including staffing police up and down the route).
Porko also puts things in perspective, noting that if so many people care so deeply about the parade being in South Philly, where have they been for the past 10 years?
“We call it The Valley of Loneliness,” he joked, characterizing the emptiness in some sections where “all you see along the route are cops.”
Loomis hopes that, if the parade is a success this coming New Year’s Day, that the Mummers will have no choice but to extend the route into South Philly.
“It’s emotional. Show us that there’s that many people who want to see us,” he said. “Pack the streets so much that next year we have to stretch it down to Sndyer Avenue.”
Staff Writer Bill Chenevert at bchenevert@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
167863541
167863541
167863221
