Shal­iza Has­sanali

In front of a cheer­ing crowd, an emo­tion­al 81-year-old Frank Smith made his last ap­pear­ance on the stage at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, bring­ing an end to 54 years of "blood, sweat and tears in mas mak­ing." Por­tray­ing Zam­bo The Witch Doc­tor, an African his­to­ry cre­ation, Smith went out in a blaze of glo­ry at the pre­lim­i­nar­ies of the 2010 King of Car­ni­val as pa­trons clapped, whis­tled and cheered when they found out he was the old­est par­tic­i­pant in the Feb­ru­ary 4 com­pe­ti­tion. But lit­tle did the crowd know that this was Smith's last walk on stage. Smith said that he had mixed emo­tions while bid­ding the crowd farewell. "I felt hap­py know­ing that I had made a sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion to the arts and cul­ture, while a sense of sad­ness gripped my body re­al­is­ing that this was my last hoorah at the Sa­van­nah." Hav­ing com­pet­ed in the King of Car­ni­val con­test since 1956, Smith was knocked out in the pre­lim­i­nary round of this year's com­pe­ti­tion.

RIGHT: ?Skilled wire ben­der Frank Smith promis­es to pa­rade on the streets of Port-of-Spain on Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day for his fans.

Pho­to: Dilip Singh

It was just days be­fore the pre­lim­i­nar­ies while putting the fi­nal pieces on his king at his Dyette Es­tate, Cunu­pia home, Smith de­cid­ed to throw in the tow­el. Smith's wife Joanne, who lives in New York, was told the news by tele­phone. Smith said "old age and his creak­ing bones" have forced him to call it a day. Though he hob­bles to get from one place to the next, Smith looks much younger than his ac­tu­al age. He has vowed not to give up parad­ing along the streets of Port-of-Spain on Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day. Well-known for his wire bend­ing skills, Smith start­ed play­ing mas at age five. In 1956, he pro­duced his first small band The Coro­na­tion of Haile Se­lassie which was pub­lished in Michael An­tho­ny's book The His­to­ry of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Not against panty and bra

The band was lat­er re­named Bac­cha­na­lias by his chil­dren who play an in­te­gral role in pro­duc­ing a va­ri­ety of cos­tumes. Smith took cred­it for be­ing the first band leader to hire dee­jay Fat­man George in Tu­na­puna for his mas­quer­aders to en­joy them­selves. With the sup­port of his chil­dren, Smith was en­cour­aged to par­tic­i­pate in the King of Car­ni­val com­pe­ti­tion in 1956. "It seemed as though I was bit­ten by the King of Car­ni­val bug be­cause year-af­ter- year I would show up at the Sa­van­nah just for peo­ple to see my work," said Smith. Since then, Smith, who many de­scribe as a leg­end, has en­tered every com­pe­ti­tion. Even though he has nev­er won a King of Car­ni­val ti­tle, Smith said it was the peo­ple's love and ap­pre­ci­a­tion that kept him go­ing.

Smith said he had no qualms about the biki­ni and bra cos­tumes which have flood­ed Car­ni­val over the years. "I am not against the panty and bra cos­tumes. Peo­ple have to re­mem­ber we are liv­ing in a dif­fer­ent era. Life is about change." Hav­ing won three Small Band awards with the por­tray­als, Antarc­ti­ca Sun­light, Red­man Ter­ri­to­ry and Trib­al Amer­i­ca, Smith said he was hand­ing over his lega­cy to his off­spring. "This is the on­ly way I can en­sure that my lega­cy does not die." He has passed on his wire bend­ing skills to sev­er­al stu­dents, among them Barataria RC School and Princes Town Ju­nior Sec­ondary School.