Rex, King of Carnival, arrives in New Orleans from the misty and mythical reaches of Mount Olympus in style. For several decades in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Rex arrived, as seen here on Feb. 11, 1907, the Monday before Mardi Gras, on his royal yacht to be greeted by his royal carriage and entourage. The following day, the Daily Picayune, today’s Times-Picayune, described events in the most effusive and colorfully entertaining style of the time.
“It was a glorious day, when Rex came to his city on his annual visit of 1907,” the story began. “Sunlight chased the shadows of the early morning along the great river and when the royal fleet went out to meet the King’s yacht [Stranger], it shone brilliantly on river and shore and among the green fields below the city, so familiar to the King and his party. Never was there a better day, and the royal party was met by a fleet of boats and a multitude of sightseers such as had never before gone out to welcome the sovereign to his own.”
“Gaily over the swift running waters of the greater Mississippi,” continued the paper, “streamed the notes of the royal air played by the King’s own band and a dazzling array of gay flags and bunting, King’s colors and sunshine mingled with laughter and shouting, and when the signal gun announced the transfer complete and the Royal array ready to start to the city, the multitudinous and many-toned whistle mingled together and made that music which the King and his people love so well on the great day, even if at other times it might be considered a little too much.”
As the Stranger proceeded along the river, it fired its guns in reply “to the salutes from the royal gunboat Wisdom and the Mayflower, and boats and tugs and ships all along the river sounded the most delightfully excruciating noises.”
After His Majesty’s ship docked at the Canal Street ferry landing, aides quickly escorted Rex to “the great royal float” while the “royal police and royal Dock Board men” controlled onlooking crowds. At that point, continued the Daily Picayune, “six great gray horses pranced and pawed, and when the equerries were mounted and the King’s jolly attendants were in their places beside him, and the parade started, the crowds rushed together and tumbled about and scattered and ran and melted in all directions, hurrying to get to another vantage point, and the King of the Carnival was among the masses of his subjects, the fun had begun and everybody was looking to see what the next thing would be.”
From the ferry landing, Rex proceeded up Canal Street and St. Chares Avenue to City Hall where the mayor presented the reigning Monarch keys to the city. According to Rex historian Stephen W. Hales in his 2010 book Rex: An Illustrated History of the School of Design, Rex’s arrival by boat on Monday ended in 1917 but was revived for one year in 1971 to celebrate Rex’s hundredth anniversary. New Orleans loves its traditions, however. So, beginning in 1987, thanks to a group of civic and Carnival leaders led by Mardi Gras historian Errol Laborde, the Rex organization revived “Lundi Gras” with the arrival of Rex by boat on the Monday prior to Shrove Tuesday.