Creator of New York City’s Iconic Halloween Parade Dies at 87

NEW YORK — The creator of New York City’s iconic annual Halloween parade, which draws millions of people each year, died Friday at his Manhattan home, his wife said.

Ralph Lee first organized the event in Greenwich Village in 1974, according to him New York Times, until it became the great celebration of today.

Lee told the Times in 1998 that the parade was not an instant success.

“There weren’t many people around besides us,” Lee told the newspaper in 1998.. “And here we were, all holding sparklers, looking at each other.”

Of course, the parade became the spectacle many know today. She stopped participating in the parade in the 1980s.

In addition to time spent acting, writing, producing, and directing, Lee was also a puppeteer and puppet designer, with many of his creations appearing in productions of his own Puppet Company. Mettawee River Theater.

He brought his Broadway talents to the New York Shakespeare Festival, and even to “Saturday Night Live“, where he created the famous costume of “Land Shark” who became a recurring fixture on the show during its early seasons. The character, a parody that arose as a result of the frenzy of “Jaws” at which point, he would try to lure the women out of his apartments and eat them.

Ralph Lee was 87 years old.