Float Designer And Builder Joseph Barth Jr. Dies At 71
Times Picayune 10-30-1996

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Joseph Edward Barth Jr., an internationally known float designer and builder,
died Monday at his home. He was 71.

Mr. Barth was a lifelong resident of New Orleans and a graduate of Warren
Easton High School and the John McCrady Art School in New Orleans.

"I've always been in art," he once said in an interview. "My father was a
plumber and he was always drawing. He got me started."

Mr. Barth worked in commercial art, interior design and theatrical scenery,
but Carnival interested him since he was a child.

During the Great Depression, "the only entertainment families had was Mardi
Gras," he told an interviewer. It was during the Depression that his interest
in Carnival was born, he said.

After World War II, Mr. Barth worked for the Cutall Advertising Studio before
going to work on his own for various Carnival krewes. He also worked for the
New Orleans Recreation Department, painting signs for playgrounds and
backdrops and stage designs for NORD Theater.

He also had worked at Spangenberg Studios, designed interiors of cocktail
lounges and spent 10 years with Blaine Kern Artists, the city's best-known
float-builders.

In 1975, Mr. Barth's children opened Barth Bros. Inc., a company that builds
Carnival floats and other giant sculptures, such as the elaborate entrance to
the 1984 world's fair in New Orleans.

Mr. Barth worked for the company until semi-retiring two years ago. He
continued to teach the float-building craft to others. For the past five
years, he taught classes in float building at Delgado Community College. He
also was an instructor at the Mardi Gras Museum in Kenner.

He was inducted into the Warren Easton Hall of Fame in 1994.

Survivors include his wife, Jean Wilkinson Barth; two sons, Barry and Joseph
"Cookie" Barth III; a daughter, Tana Barth; a sister, Alice Trahan; and two
grandchildren.

A funeral will be held today at 7 p.m. at Jacob Schoen & Son Funeral Home,
3827 Canal St. Visitation will begin at 6 p.m. Burial will be private.