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the players
the bridge
“Luna(cy)”
UF’s first president, A. A. Murphree, warned the inaugural class of 1912 not to give in to “LOW AND INSIDIOUS TEMPTATION.”
Sixty years later, Murphree, a “proud” Southern Baptist preacher, couldn’t have imagined HOW IRRESISTIBLE THE HALLOWEEN BALL WOULD BE.
Tom Petty (Homecoming 1981)*
& The Heartbreakers
((( Howling )))
alligator
[FROM THE TOP]
HALLOWEEN HIGH — Is this man dreaming, or is he really toking a yard-long reefer offered by a generous monster? (stan badz)
WAITING ON THE MOON — Knowing when the Lunar eclipse would be visible in Gainesville, Alligator photographer John Moran composed his picture of the Moon Over Century Tower* ahead of time. Placing a camera on a tripod, and setting the shutter for a time-lapsed exposure, he waited patiently to document the celestial moment. (john moran)
Welcome to the Halloween Ball (er-uh) the Halloween Festival.
by Jayne Thompson and David Futch
Alligator Staff Writers
They came from outer space and were ready to guard everybody’s pot. Some stood in moot silence. Other pogos pogoed their phallic facsimiles and zapped each other with plastic pistols. One was even framed.
But underneath it all, they were mostly UF students and a few local folks braced for a bewitching night of perverted craziness and high times in the 11th annual Halloween Festival, Ball, or whatever.
The threat of rain didn’t dampen the spirits of the creepy crawlers and super gallactic oddities roaming the Flavet Bandshell near Fraternity Row, where New Wave rockers and the Firesign Theatre comedy team of Proctor and Bergman entertained a revved up crowd.
Propped up by a cooler of beer, Mr. Dick, a 9-foot phallic at full erection and about 5-foot when sitting and relaxed, described himself as something like Mr. Bill, but with a little more to it.
I’m having a wonderful time drinking beer from a straw,” Mr. Dick said.
On the fringes of the bandshell, the Cosmic Sinse Patrol pledged to protect the world’s pot, and watched Mr. Dick as he made a full erection to his feet and said. “The only thing he could fuck is a whale.”
Then the Sinse Patrol, wearing five suits and silver buttons, cocked their plastic pistols and snuffed the Horny Alien, a tin-foil space invader type character.
“Mine’s inter-galactic. It shoots lasers,” the Horny Alien shouted wiggling his tin foil penis. “Tssss! Tssss!”
Asked how he was enjoying the Halloween Festival, Mr. Frame said, “I’ve been framed.” The identity of the frame up was a Shands administrator who wished to remain anonymous.
Pogoing to the beat of “I’ve Got to Get Organized,” Shithead, wrapped in a brown paper bags and toilet paper said he had only two words for the ball, “It’s Great.”
Mark Nichols, a.k.a. H.G. Wells, a grotesque space creature, pointed to an empty bottle of Black Velvet whiskey on the ground and blamed it on his gruesome transformation from humanoid to monster.
The end of The Ball was near. UF’s always Christian administration was never in favor of the event being associated with the university, and for it, tolerance was the best it could do. In 1982, the academic Christian patience was wearing thin. When the Plasmatics’ Wendy O. Williams stripped nearly naked, chainsawed her guitar, and blew up a Buick, the Holy Rollers in Tigert Hall were out of forgiveness. THE BALL TO END ALL BALLS.*
“Temptation Eyes“
The Grass Roots
1970 — Under a near full moon, Tom Petty [Mudcrutch] plays a midnight to sunrise show to close the Second Annual Halloween Masquerade, and set the high standard all future Balls hoped to meet.
((( >>> )))
alligator
[FROM THE TOP]
HAND-PAINTED MASQUERADE — For many UF students, Halloween costumes weren’t made to “hide” one’s identity, but maybe “reveal” it. (barbara hansen)
People Went Nuts at The Ball and crowd by barbara hansen
LOW AND INSIDIOUS TEMPTATION — By 1980, The Ball had gone far beyond what UF’s first president, ALBERT A MURPHREE, had warned the inaugural class of 1912. By 1980, Halloween costumes weren’t made to “hide” identity, but more to “reveal” it. (barbara hansen)
PEOPLE WENT NUTS AT THE BALL — Halloween Ball crowds were always large, loud, and proud. (barbara hansen)
Other Balls*
LUNA(CY)
A NIGHT OF INSIDIOUS TEMPTATION
— BALLS OF OLD
YEAR BY YEAR HISTORY OF THE BALL
— SAINTS & SINNERS
HAVE A BALL (EDITORIAL)
— FRANK ZAPPA ’79
A DIFFERENT STATE OF HALLOWEEN MIND
— QUEEN OF THE BALL ’81
THE BALL TO END ALL BALLS
GATOR FROM ANOTHER PLANET
“Dead Man’s Party”
Oingo Boingo
((( +++ )))
alligator
Driving Down To Georgia
Tom Petty
1981 — @ The O’Connell Center
((( Homecoming )))
“Remote Control”
Phil Manzanera
1977 — Virtuosic New Wave
((( Roxy Music )))
alligator
“Remote Control”
Phil Manzanera
1977 — Virtuosic New Wave
((( Roxy Music )))
“Temptation Eyes“
1970 — The Grass Roots
((( Miss Halloween )))
“American Girl”
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
1976 — Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
((( miss florida )))
“Out Come The Freaks”
Was (Not Was)
1981 — American Pop
((( Zappa )))
“The Freaks Come Out At Night”
Whodini
1984 — Pat Benatar meets Rick James
((( miss florida )))
“The ‘A’ Bomb Woke Me Up”
The Swimming Pool Q’s
1979 — Gator From Another Planet (Georgia)
((( >>> )))
The Swimming Pool Q’s
Gator from Another Planet
UF graduate Jim Calder (1974) fronted The Swimming Pool Qs, a “Nu Wave” band out of Atlanta, Georgia. The Q’s opened for Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics at what might have been the most notorious of all legendary Halloween Balls (1981).
Read Calder’s entertaining recollection of the evening (STORY).