Happy Halloween

How the Upper East Side of Manhattan Celebrates

Happy Halloween! To mark the occasion I’m posting a special Halloween edition of  What Looks Good. 

The Upper East Side has long embraced Halloween with extravagant decorations adorning prime residential real estate. In my old blog, Prima Darling, I chronicled this for several years. The extravagance and creepy factor reached its zenith in 2016. That was also an election year in which Trump was running against a woman and consequently won. Could there be a connection?

The polls are too close to predict who will win this time, so for fun lets contrast the 2016 Upper East Side decorations with 2024. The Halloween theme in 2016 was noted for its all out gore. In contrast, 2024 is downright tasteful, heavy on pumpkins and autumnal bounty with more congenial ghouls lending humor to the vignettes. Could this be an unofficial indicator of the general mood of the country? Is the devil taking a breather until the next election cycle?  We’ll soon find out!  

First, the Prima Darling story, originally posted October 28th 2016

Children have to develop a thick skin early.

A strange occurrence happens each October on the upper east side of Manhattan. Some of the most valuable real estate in New York becomes the setting for elaborately staged tableaux of horror. With each passing year the stakes are raised. This year there are animated monsters, complete with soundtracks, smoke machines and stage lighting. Some say there’s a friendly competition among a group of hedge fund managers for the scariest brownstone. Others believe that a deal was struck with the devil, the standard: success for your soul, with a clause for a killer tribute each Halloween. Who knew the devil had a sense of humor!

He’s larger than life with lots of attitude.

Chilling with the dogs.

An impromptu grave yard complete with the undead.

No detail is overlooked.

Always look up.

The watch dog.

These creepy siamese twins come back each year always in a new outfit.

The upside-down scary baby is a nice touch.

The decor spills out onto the sidewalk and even the street.

A zombie gang.

All in the family.

These guys are animated, they chew and snarl while a misty fog rolls in.

Most disturbing of all, a vintage hearse is parked in the street, complete with skeleton driver. At intervals this duo rises up through the sunroof, the boy struggling while the grim reaper restrains him. Very creepy.

This year, Halloween on the Upper East Side leans heavily into large scale floral arrangements with copious amounts of pumpkins and autumn leaves. There was not a murderous zombie in sight. Demons have been replaced by fun-loving skeletons; violence replaced with humor. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but the levity of Halloween this year gives me hope! See for yourself below.

Climbing skeletons were everywhere.

These guys just want to have fun!

Downright tasteful.

Not a pumpkin out of place.

More climbers.

There’s one prime townhouse that still goes for creepy, albeit with clowns now. I believe this was where the hearse was parked in years past.

They took the clown theme and ran with it.

My personal favorite, the zombie doorman. When I first saw this he was standing outside and totally fooled me. I went back to get a picture days later. Disappointed when I saw he wasn’t there, I went inside the building, a very fancy fifth avenue co-op, and there he was. The real doorman told me he had to bring him inside, it was too windy and he kept blowing over!

All photos by me!