First Mardi Gras celebrated in Mobile,
adding another night of annual festivity to the calendar. (There were mystic parades in Mobile on both New Year’s Even and Mardi Gras through the end of the century.)
First parade of the Order of Myths
First parade of the Lost Cause Minstrels
Joe Cain’s attendance is uncertain
In the second half of the nineteenth century,
new venues for social engagements
took center stage, particularly during the newly celebrated Mardi Gras season. The most popular venues in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century included the : Manassas Club on the corner of St. Francis and Royal Streets, the
Athelstan Club
at 107 St. Francis St., the Battle House Hotel, Temperance Hall, the Princess Theater, the German Relief Hall and Gilmer Hall.
1869
H.S.S. Organized, parading for four years
1872
Mobile Carnival Association organized by T.C. DeLeon to capitalize on Mardi Gras. The goal was to increase tourism by making Mardi Gras a more public, commercialized event. The term Carnival was now used more often to refer to the celebration in Mobile and elsewhere, demoting an event that lasted beyond Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, alone. Other activities were organized as a part of the city’s new “Carnival” experience including beauty contests, costume contests, concerts and a royal court and a series of formal ceremonies over which the mock king and queen of the carnival would preside.
First year Joe Cain appeared as “Slacabamarinico ,”
satirizing Eastern monarchs with false pretenses, a popular theme at the time, while he subtly mocked the same within his own community.
Mardi Gras in New Orleans is cancelled bringing many New Orleanians to Mobile