staff

Every Halloween there was a costume party, usually a contest at the Biograph. In that time such elaborate merriment was much in fashion in the Fan District. Several of the popular bars held contests, too.

However, the first time the theater's staff was asked to put together costumes for a midnight monster show, maybe three or four months into the first year's (1972) operation, no one really did all that much. We held back. Then cashier Susan Kuney, on the right, showed up last with a great make-up job and wild get-up as a skeleton. It put the rest of us to shame and set a standard.

After that night the die was cast. With one provocation or another the Biograph regularly had parties/promotions that included costumes several times a year. And, the staff generally set a pretty good example.

(Photo Credit: F. T. Rea)

Here's a shot in the lobby (left) depicting members of the Biograph's crackerjack staff at 814 West Grace Street hard at work at one of the usually planned, but sometimes spontaneous, costume promotions.

As the six are in-character, so to speak, let's play along and not identify them at this time. Rather, we'll see how long it takes readers to guess their names and leave comments accordingly. The photograph -- sorry, it's a little beat up -- was probably taken in early 1974. (The photographer is unknown.)


And, here's one more shot of the theater's willing staff (right) and a few somewhat jolly friends in the lobby before the candy counter from Halloween 1979. (Again, the photographer is unknown.) Who knows what nonsense might have been going on down in the two auditoriums?