Underneath strings of multicolored lights, they prepared cakes, baskets of nuts, buckets of ice cream and cases packed with soft drinks for hungry parishioners.
"There were solid blocks of candy from which chunks had to be chipped according to the customer's order," reported the Aug. 15 Plain Dealer. As churchgoers left the sanctuary, musicians stationed on a bandstand outside erupted to greet them.
At 7:30 a.m., the procession began. The likeness of the Blessed Virgin — pinned with offerings aplenty for her assumption into heaven — made its way through Little Italy's streets, leading two bands from the all-boys Cathedral Latin School and the Parmadale Catholic orphanage.
This year's Feast of the Assumption won't wake nearly as many neighbors from their morning slumber. The festival, which draws an estimated 100,000 annually to Little Italy, runs Aug. 13-16 with the first of two processions beginning at 11:15 a.m. Aug. 15. The second, at 9:30 p.m. the next day, is capped off just as it was in 1935 — with 10 p.m. fireworks.
