Having portrayed the World's Tallest Leprechaun at the World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade since 2003, Dick Antoine has decided to pass the shillelagh to fellow radio personality Roger Scott for the 17th annual parade.
Antoine, who retired from the broadcast industry earlier this year, said it has been an "absolutely great" 17 years participating as a leprechaun in the parade and watching the event grow from 5,000 attendees in 2003.
"All the smiles and kids having a good time and adults having a good time," he said. "The parade is the dumbest thing in the world. I think it was the first year, there was a lady in a mink coat standing and watching. She said 'This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen,' and I said 'Yeah, isn't that great? That's what this is all about; to have fun, not to be stuck up and put your nose in the air.'"
Antoine said his favorite part of participating in the parade was "all of it."
"You got to meet all the celebrities, which was fine, but just watching the kids' faces, watching the people's faces and just going 'Oh, my goodness, they're just having a good time,'" he said.
Scott, a Hot Springs native, is one of the hosts of the "Show With No Name" on 103.7 The Buzz in Little Rock.
"I began my entertainment career as the Trojan Chicken mascot at Hot Springs High School in the early '80s," Scott said in a Visit Hot Springs news release.
He said he has always wanted to be a part of the parade but has never had the opportunity to attend one.
"It's one of those things where something has always come up, I've always had an event or a gig that I've needed to work that day, so when that came up I said 'I'm in!'" Scott said in an interview on Monday.
He said he is mostly looking forward to seeing a lot of his friends and family.
"I was born and raised in Hot Springs, so I still have some family in Hot Springs, but a great many of my friends still live there from my youth," Scott said. "So I look forward to participating with them and visiting with them."
He noted he hopes his role as the leprechaun becomes an annual occurrence.
"It's one of those things where I just think it's a great event," Scott said. "To go from Steve Arrison's brainchild to where it is right now and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I'm just proud of what Hot Springs and the community has done with that event and to make it as big as it is."
Scott noted in the release that Bridge Street, where the parade takes place, "is the very corner I stood as a kid every year to watch the Hot Springs Christmas parade go up and down Central Avenue."
"Dick Antoine has been a tireless advocate for Hot Springs for a generation," Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison said in the release. "He has been involved with the St. Patrick's Day Parade from the inception, and he and Monte Everhart, The World's Biggest Leprechaun, have entertained hundreds of thousands of parade-goers over the years. No one can replace Dick, but Roger will prove to be just as entertaining for the crowds."
Antoine said he wanted to thank Arrison for allowing him to participate as the world's tallest leprechaun in the parade.
"It was just a blast," he said, "but after 17 years it's time to let someone else do it."
Local on 12/31/2019