Arthur Hardy makes his retirement official
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For the past half-century, Arthur Hardy has narrated New Orleans' Carnival, season in and season out.
Why it matters: That changes on Ash Wednesday, when Hardy officially retires.
What he's saying: "At some point, you have to know when to leave the room before they ask you to," he tells Axios New Orleans.
The big picture: It's not like anyone was asking, but Hardy, whose eponymous "Mardi Gras Guide" has been in production since 1977, insists he's ready for the change.
- The publication has been a one-stop-shop for route maps, trivia, history and stories illustrating the city's most colorful and often mysterious celebration.
- Hardy's guide has even outlived some krewes and the rise and fall of various traditions.
The intrigue: Hardy's success is especially noteworthy in an age when print publication has all but gone by the wayside.
- This year's edition, for example, will be the largest and priciest ($10) it's ever been with a circulation of about 80,000, he says.
- That's a step down from the 135,000 he printed back in 2001, but still a hefty number for a struggling news industry.
- Investors had come and gone over the years, Hardy says, looking for a bite of the action, but none ever seemed like the right fit until Times-Picayune owner Georges Media stepped up in 2023.
- "If you don't know how print works, you just don't have a chance," Hardy says. Georges represented the "right buyer at the right time [but] not necessarily the price I wanted." Still, he says, "they've been very fair," and given him "complete editorial control" since the takeover a few years ago.
In fact, Hardy notes, the team wanted him to stick around a bit longer, but he was ready to hang up his mask, as it were.
What's next: Hardy might be stepping away from the guide, but he's hardly stepping away from Mardi Gras.
- He'll still ride in Rex, as he's done since the organization invited him to join in 2017. (Look for him on the third float with the jester; he's the first man on the passenger side.)
- But his role in Mardi Gras festivities and television appearances has meant there are Carnival traditions he's never personally gotten to see.
- "I've never done Mardi Gras in the Marigny," he says as an example, nor has he seen Chewbacchus. Starting next year, "I can float around, like I used to do as a kid. Before I started the magazine, I used to do 30 parades a year and now I'm lucky to do eight."