Halloween 1977

Halloween of 1976 did not create much excitement in those that saw the group at Patterson Elementary or out Trick-Or-Treating. That night did stir up some excitement in Troy who's friend, Steve Acquistapace, let him borrow KISS' "Destroyer" album so Troy could get a little more familiar with the band and their music. To Troy's admission, "The music didn't grab me right away. It took about three times listening to that album before I really started to take any interest." By late April of 1977 Troy had become a huge KISS fan and was ready to make plans for a second Halloween dressing as KISS. Wanting to get a jump on making costumes, Troy went back to the other three members that were in the group and asked them if they wanted to dress up again for Halloween. Everyone agreed until Troy told them that is was going to cost about $25 each to make their costumes. It was at that point that Dean, and Paul realized that they could not come up with that kind of money and dropped out of the group.

With plenty of time left before Halloween, Troy put together another group consisting of Joey Capelli as Ace Frehley, Kevin Greene and Gene Simmons, his brother Chris as Paul Stanley and Troy as Peter Criss. All four spent the next couple months doing odd jobs such as mowing lawns and washing windows to make the money needed for their costumes. In mid July, Troy gave Kevin enough money to buy three wigs at the San Jose Flea Market. Unfortunately Kevin came back with three afro wigs rather than two longer curly wigs for the Gene and Paul costumes and one straight wig for the Ace costume. It was at that point that Troy called the whole thing off feeling there was no way to make the rest needed money in time to buy everything and put their costumes together. Not one to sit idle too long, by late August Troy was just dying to dress up again. He went back to Dean Gulbrandson and Paul Alberts and told them that if they wanted to dress up it would not cost $25 as originally planned since he dropped the idea of having more elaborate costumes. Dean and Paul were in again.

In the time since Halloween, Troy had really got in to KISS and decided to change from Peter to Gene since he really liked Gene's persona and stage antics. That shift started a domino effect. Chris decided change from Paul to Peter, Dean changed from Ace to Paul and Paul changed from Gene to Ace. With all the changing of characters, Troy decided to try the make-up on everyone in early October to see how they would look. All the guys looked pretty good except for Dean who did not make a good Paul Stanley. Once everyone realized that Dean just didn't look the part, they decided they needed to find a new Paul. Jack Standish who happened to be there when they tried Dean's make-up on asked Troy if he could get back in to the group. Not knowing how to kick Dean out, Troy, Paul, and Jack decided they would let Dean know Jack wanted to be back in the group so they would draw straws to see who would be in. They rigged the draw so Dean would lose, but Dean caught on and they decided to draw fair. As fate would have it, Dean lost on the fair draw. He was pretty upset because he could tell this was becoming more than just something to do on Halloween. Work on costumes started right away and while it was far from what Troy was originally hoping for, they turned out okay.

Troy Correia as Gene Simmons Make-up Test

Halloween arrived and the guys once again headed to Patterson Elementary School's Halloween Carnival. This year they entered the costume contest feeling pretty good about their chances. There were three contest categories with the group entered in the final category. Unfortunately they lost once again, but it wasn't because they didn't look good. The second category had been won by Troy's sister who was dressed as a Jawa from Star Wars, complete with light up eyes. Ironically, Troy created the light up eye set-up for her costume. Since one of the judges knew Troy and his sister, he persuaded the other judges to vote against the group because he felt it would not be fair for the guys to win since Troy's sister had just won the second contest. The guy who won wore a white sheet around his body and had his face painted white with black circles around his eyes. A far cry from the costumes and make-up job of the group. After the contest, all of the other judges told them they should have won.

This year the members were (L-R) Jack Standish as Paul Stanley, Troy Correia as Gene Simmons, Chris Correia as Peter Criss, and Paul Alberts as Ace Frehley

The year didn't end with Halloween for the group. With the members becoming more in to KISS, Troy, Jack, and Paul dressed up for a few photos in mid November. During this time the group was also talking about plans for a concert which they hoped to hold before the end of the year or early in 1978.

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