OFFBEAT: Final round of Brookfield Zoo 2011 Halloween costumes yields old and new

I enjoyed my second weekend as a celebrity judge at Brookfield Zoo's annual Halloween costume parade held Saturday and Sunday.

Just like last year, among this year's judges was Linda Rucins, who helped head the public relations department at Brookfield Zoo from 1986 to 2000.

While sitting next to my fellow judge Rucins, who is now a zoo volunteer, she told me during her decades of helping with the costume contest as a coordinator as well as judging, some of the most popular "costume constants" have now faded, especially one of the annual usuals, which would be children dressed as the cast of "The Sound of Music."

We had 295 contestants Saturday and 198 for Sunday's competitions, which are part of Brookfield Zoo's spook-tacular Boo! at the Zoo activities for the whole family. Fisher-Price once again provided the prizes.

As for the winners (and their parents), participants once again displayed plenty of creativity and holiday spirit with their entries. I judged "Most Original" category on Saturday and "Best Group Theme" on Sunday.

This weekend's winners included: a peacock, robot, a "gruesome family dinner," a recreation of the song "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed," a zombie, a "Peter Pan Family," a scarecrow, mummy, scary clown, a tarantula and a butterfly and caterpiller.

There were also some fun "retro entries," like a "tiny Mr. T," a bag of cotton candy, Shirley Temple and Pippi Longstocking.

Special credit goes to zoo special events guru Ken Grzeslo, who helped coordinate the costume contests. Grzeslo once again added some great sound features to the competition. He controlled the sound system and an expansive library of music and sound effects.

The most common costumes I saw this weekend were lots of Indiana Jones and Disney princesses, as well as many Johnny Depp Mad Hatters and Jack Sparrow pirates. 

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at philip.potempa@nwi.com or (219) 852-4327.