Something new for the Mummers Parade

While most of us are busy buying gifts for loved ones in the holiday season, several thousand of our neighbors are preparing a gift for Greater Philadelphia — the 120th Mummers Parade.

There are about 10,000 people in the parade: Musicians, dancers, merry-makers, marshalls, directors, you name it. Organizing it is a gargantuan task, one that falls to long-time parade director Leo Dignam, Mr. Unflappable. 

When the decision was made a few years ago to reverse the flow of the parade from South Philly to City Hall, and make it go from City Hall south to Washington Avenue, that was like designing D-Day. The logistics of organizing the people, props, floats and buses was an enormous undertaking.

Wednesday night representatives of all the Mummers divisions — Comics, Wenches, Fancies, Fancy Brigades and String Bands — met in the basement of the Mummers Museum for what is called the Roundup. 

That’s where Dignam, like a coach, lays out the game plan for New Year’s Day and hands out maps showing where and when all groups must assemble, and then perform.

The 2020 game plan is largely the same as Jan. 1, 2019, which was a pleasantly warm day.

One thing that will be different will be the absence of the Peter A. Broomall String Band, organized in 1930, which marched for the last time in 2019. After three generations of operation by the Broomall family, it disbanded.

From left: Jersey String Band members Robert Erikson, Connie Erikson, Captain Pat Walton. (Photo: Stu Bykofsky)

But — “We were ‘t ready to retire,” says Pat Walton, who has led many former Broomall musicians into the Jersey String Band, which will march for the first time on New Year’s Day, some 40 strong. Following tradition, it will lead the parade, getting the #1 spot as the brand new band. (The first slot may sound good, but it is a curse, as #1 never finishes first on the judges’ scorecards.)

Walton is president of the club and its captain, a role he filled twice for Broomall. The club is now based in West Deptford, renting space in the Green-Fields Volunteer fire house. He attended the Roundup with Jersey members Connie and Robert Erikson.

As to first position, Walton says only, “Our goal is to entertain.”

Which might be the motto for all the clubs.