Zeus calls its doubloons "drachmas" and
always employs a Greek motify for its parades and Masqued balls.
the Krewe of Zeus History
The Krewe of Zeus Founded in 1958 and named for the loftiest deity on Mount Olympus and the Ruler of All Gods in Ancient Greece, the Krewe of Zeus presented the first night time parade ever held in a suburb of New Orleans. Zeus is known to be the Krewe that began the grand Metairie Parade tradition. It was also the first to provide reviewing stands for special children.
The Krewe of Zeus is the oldest parading organization in Metairie, having been founded in 1957 making their 2013 parade their 57th Mardi Gras Production. The beginnings of this all male club is interesting, to say the least. A group of six businessmen, while partying at Gennaro’s bar on Metairie Road, decided that it was time for Metairie to have its own carnival parade.
KREWE OF ZEUS ROUTE
KREWE OF ZEUS ROUTE
The discussion then centered around who would be Captain, King and other Officers of the Club. Unable to reach a decision voluntarily, they rolled dice to choose their first leaders. Businessman, Bill Dwyer, won the roll of the dice and reigned as the first King. And so, with rented costumes and rented floats and led by search lights in the sky, Zeus staged its first parade in 1957. The parade was some five and one-half hours in duration because they felt it their duty to stop and toast at every drinking establishment along Metairie Road. But with the years, Zeus has changed and has become the leading carnival parade in Jefferson Parish that lives up to its motto “Second to None”
About the Book Never before has the history of the Mardi Gras celebration been looked at this way. Errol Laborde focuses on the first 60 years of the organized celebration in New Orleans, a period that bridges the premiere parade of the Mistick Krewe of Comus and the founding of the Zulu organization. Along the way he discovers fascinating characters; including a poetic journalist who survived a bloody attack, an archduke looking for fun and a would-be king finding religion. Laborde also links an African War with Custer¹s Last Stand and disproves some of the conventional wisdom about Carnival¹s early history. This is the most important contemporary book on early Carnival history. And it fun to read too.
about Errol Laborde Errol Laborde is the Editor-in-Chief of Renaissance Publishing Company. In that capacity he serves as Editor/Associate Publisher of New Orleans Magazine and Editor/ Publisher of Louisiana Life Magazine.He also oversees several other company publications, including St. Charles Avenue and New Orleans Homes & Lifestyles.
Laborde is producer and a regular panelist on Informed Sources, a weekly news discussion program broadcast on public television station WYES-TV, Channel 12.
Laborde's
most recent books are Krewe: The Early Carnival from Comus to Zulu and Marched the Day God. a history of the Rex organization. He also wrote the text for a pictorial book, Mardi Gras- A Celebration and has published two compilations of his Streetcar local color columns, The Buzzard Wore A Tutu and I Never Danced With An Eggplant. BUY THE BOOK
