MARDI GRAS GALVESTON

The unathorized but true history

Galveston's first recorded Mardi Gras celebration, in 1867, included a masked ball at Turner Hall (Sealy at 21st St.) and a theatrical performance from Shakespeare's "King Henry IV" featuring Alvan Reed (a justice of the peace weighing in at 350 pounds!) as Falstaff. The party moved to the private home of Jackson Wheeler, a whiskey merchant on Mechanic Street later that evening, where it soon turned into a free-for-all orgy with men and women running around naked in full view of shocked passers-by. A constable later wrote that he was powerless to do anything, because many of the prominent men of the city were involved. Henri LaBonafide, a Frenchman who allegedly operated a bordello on 3rd street at the time, furnished a bevy of females to the partygoers. By the following afternoon, the party was in full swing, with about 150 citizens on the premises, most of them intoxicated. One of the most influential men in town at the time was Matthew B. Chance III, owner of a shipping line. His wife discovered that he was cavorting at the house on Mechanic St., and saddled the horse.
When she arrived, she found her drunk husband in a "compromising" situation with one of the 3rd street girls, and clubbed him over the head with a flatiron.
Chance was gravely wounded, and nearly died of the injury. He managed to survive, but suffered from severe headaches for many years afterwards. After three days the party broke up - but the damage had been done. The following year another wild party was held, although not as ribald as the original by any means. These parties continued sporadically, in the private domain, for many years. In 1985, Mardi Gras Galveston went public.
The Houston Chronicle said this about Mardi Gras in Galveston: "It's not the real thing, but it's still a good party". Ahem…. I guess we could say the same about some of the things that go on in H-Town, but why bother? After all, they're right, it IS a good party.
Mardi Gras was allegedly invented by a drunk French cross-dresser in Paris back in 1695 as an excuse to dress up as a female. The custom of throwing beads was started by American settlers who tossed beads from covered wagons to distract warring indian tribes while they made their getaway. The custom of showing breasts in exchange for beads was started by indian squaws at Manhattan Island, New York in the late 1600's.
Reportedly, a British trading company exchanged $24 worth of beads and viewed over 6,000 native American breasts, receiving the island as a door prize.