In the early 1980's Winooski was THE place to be on Halloween night.

Big Halloween parties were annually held at Julie and Phil Melanson's Mill Restaurant (now the Peking Duck), at the internationally popular Le Club Disco (currently the site of Higher Ground), and at the Black Rose Cafe on East Allen Street. The grandest party was held in the Woolen Mill complex where Ira Ono, the Woolen Mill's paid artist-in-residence, was given a large budget to put on an annual Halloween extravaganza. Across the river at the Chase Mill a fifth annual party was underway. 

Literally hundreds of people flocked to Winooski in those years decked out in Halloween costumes. Many large cash prizes were offered for best costumes and people wandered the streets in a Mardi Gras fiesta type atmosphere. It was in that context that in 1980 I put a flashing sign outside my studio on West Center Street (named the Photo Lounge after the neon "Lounge" sign I had obtained when Tom's Lounge ceased doing business) and invited people into my studio to have photo postcards made in the tradition of turn-of-the-century photography studios. I decided to continue the project throughout the eighties, hoping that a visual record of costumed fantasies over a ten year period might serve as an indicator of cultural shifts over the decade.

Halloween photo sessions became an annual tradition, ultimately outlasting any of the famous Halloween party sites which had all disappeared by the end of the decade.  Finally, on Halloween night 1989, with catering help from Sneakers Restaurant, we celebrated the finish of the ten year project during which had manifested some of the evilest, craziest, scariest, sexiest, most elegant, sininster, pathetic, horrifyiing and imaginative characters to appear before a camera.