Seafood processors, trappers marched, and a Morgan City tradition was born

In 1936, our country was in the depths of a deep economic depression, and workers were fighting for labor rights. Even here in Morgan City, seafood producers and trappers were parading in the streets on Labor Day carrying signs and placards. That demonstration culminated with a party at Egle Hall.
Yes, what is now the Louisiana Shrimp &Petroleum Festival began as a local union demonstration. It was not until 1937 that the first boat parade occurred. Staged by P.A. LeBlanc, the father of the festival, it was based on one he had seen in Bayou LaFourche, and the Rev. Andrew Souby blessed 143 boats from a dockside barge.
The following year, 1938, over 300 vessels participated, and thousands of people lined the shoreline from Klingsville Point to the Railroad Bridge. Of equal interest to Morgan City residents was the naming and christening of a new Greyhound Bus, The City of Morgan City.
1939 was the first year a priest blessed the fleet from a boat, and it was the only time the boat was piloted by a woman, 16-year-old Marjorie Russell.
Also in 1939, the Coca Cola company sent photographers to make moving pictures in Morgan City for use in their newsreels, “Coca Cola Was There!”, shown in movie theaters!
In conjunction with the blessing that year, a diver named James Palermo leaped 155 feet from the top of the recently completed La. 182 bridge. He had successfully jumped from the bridge three times before the main event, but on that day, he did not fare as well.
Injuries occurred.
By 1940, Morgan City had been named the Home of Seafoods and Shrimp Capital of the World! Hence, reporters from Life Magazine and Fox Movietone News were in town to publicize the remarkable Shrimp Festival.
It was not until 1942 that a queen was named, and the first ball was held at the Hub Club. In honor of our young men fighting overseas, the ladies attending the ball wore corsages made of war stamps and miniature bombs!
Morgan City residents were not only fighting overseas, but the local shrimp fleet was also rescuing survivors from vessels bombed by German submarines in the Gulf of Mexico! Many of our older residents told stories about submarines that came up the Atchafalaya to beg for bread and other items from homes along the banks. At least one home in town is painted submarine green because the homeowner traded food for the paint needed to improve his home.
During the war years, the first king was chosen, and because many of the adult men were in service to the country, the king chosen was a 12-year-old.
Less than three weeks after D-Day, a re-enactment of the D-Day invasion took place here on the Atchafalaya! Two hundred reservists from Mississippi invaded traveling across the river in 11 Higgins boats with jeeps aboard. Smoke screens, flares and a Navy blimp flying overhead made the event seem real!
1944 was also the year the queen got to choose her own king, and a Fat Man Contest and Skinny Man Contest were held.
Just 11 days after World War II ended, the festival honored servicemen, and the courts consisted of shrimp captains and their wives.
1946’s king chose to wear a costume with pantaloons and hose and a blonde wig.
1947 brought circus acts to town!
In the late 1940s, bags of shrimp were thrown to the crowds attending the festival. In 1948, with 30,000 people attending, 4,500 bags of shrimp were thrown to the crowd.
In 1949, for the first time, a queens’ pageant was held, with the lucky winner being a young woman who the New Orleans Times-Picayune dubbed a plucky paralysis survivor! This was also the first year that a professional street fair was booked. Fireworks were held each of the three nights of the festival.
At the 1950 festival, 53 girls competed, and the young woman who was crowned queen was visiting with her aunt and uncle in Morgan City while her father was serving in Tokyo on Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s staff.
That same year, Dr. C.R. Brownell constructed an 8-foot long shrimp sculpture that winked at visitors as they entered town. If only it still existed, or if someone had taken a photograph!
1951 was Morgan City’s 75th birthday, and the first Spirit of Morgan City, a wooden shrimp boat, had been dragged on land and placed in the median of on Highway 90. There was a newspaper contest to name the boat.
Labor Day became the festival’s permanent weekend in 1952, and 42 contestants vied for the queen’s title.
1953 brought comedian Justin Wilson as emcee of the queens’ pageant, and 1954 was the year standards were set for the young woman to be chosen to reign. This happened because 1953's queen publicly announced her dislike of seafood!
Professional water skiers were the highlight of 1955’s festival, and over 5,000 people voted with newspaper ballots to choose the 1956 queen, who got married before her reign was complete. But not before she was presented to Vice President Richard Nixon at the Washington Mardi Gras ball.
Morgan City’s Black community joined in the festivities in 1957 with a queen and street parade. That tradition continued in 1959 with a Negro Shrimp Festival Queen in addition to an Oil Queen and a Shrimp Queen.
Finally, 1960 was Morgan City’s Centennial Celebration. Along with Shrimp Festival, this combination event was 10 days long. Citizens were encouraged to dress in clothing circa 1860.
The costumed women in town belonged to the Centennial Belles, and there were Colored Centennial Belles. Morgan City’s men grew facial hair and wore string ties and vests and called themselves the Brothers of the Brush and Colored Brothers of the Brush.
Following years brought womanless fashion shows, sailboat regattas, celebrities, square dancing, and the addition of petroleum to the festival celebrations.
The evolving story of the Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival is on display in the concourse of the Municipal Auditorium.
Kings and queens through the years join parades, blessings, street fairs, and craft shows under the bridge, music and other events in Lawrence Park combine to make our hometown the site of the oldest chartered harvest festival in Louisiana!