The Hollywood legend Dick Van Dyke is just one month away from celebrating his 100th birthday. Despite his advanced age, Van Dyke is still having a blast and enjoying life as much as possible.
Van Dyke showed this once again on Friday, when he celebrated Halloween by watching his 54 year-old wife Arlene Silver perform. Indeed, he was seen looking on with pride as his wife took the stage at their Halloween Vandy Manor event. They’ve produced this extravagant Halloween show at their home in Malibu, California for years, and it never disappoints!
Silver Performs At Halloween Event
On Friday night, Silver made a grand entrance dressed as the villainous Ursula from the Disney classicThe Little Mermaid. She proceeded to lip sync to “Poor Unfortunate Souls” alongside her talented Vandy Manor Dancers.
Van Dyke, 99, could be seen watching from the wings as Silver performed for their neighborhood children. It was clear to all that he was very much enjoying the Halloween celebration.
“This is part of Dick that no one knows about him,” Silver explained to People Magazine. “People associate him with Christmas, but he’s totally Halloween all the way.”
Silver went on to recall Van Dyke Van Dyke telling her about how he used to “have the thing on the street” back in the 1950s and 1960s. When he started that event, it had just a few monsters and backyard decorations. However, it quickly snowballed and soon began including everything from scare actors and life-like animatronics to professional puppeteers and belly dancing.
“We did a lip sync on the porch — on the steps in the middle, the front — and people loved it,” Silver remembered of her first few years hosting Halloween at Vandy Manor around ten years ago. “And we did it 10 times, and Dick was like, ‘Oh my God, we got to get a stage. We got to get lights.’ So then I started doing that.”
Van Dyke ‘Loves To Watch The Show’
These days, Silver has been focused on making their Halloween event something that the whole family can enjoy.
“We have a little bit of everything,” she said. “The stage show is more of a variety show, and it’s more for kids. Little kids can come — sometimes little kids were too scared for the big monsters — and now almost everyone is in costume. That’s the thing I love. I love that everybody’s in costume, and Dick, he loves to watch the show. I’m his favorite. He sits there and watches my show.”
Van Dyke even has his own animatronic that features his voice reciting the opening monologue to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” How fun is that?!
“I just get so proud of it, how it started as kind of a filler thing that, ‘Oh, I guess we’ll just do this one year,’ and how it’s grown to be bigger than that and so unique,” Silver concluded. “Nobody does a live show at their house, and I love that we’ve kept a tradition that people don’t do.”
Van Dyke’s Upcoming 100th Birthday
This comes as Van Dyke is preparing to turn 100 next month on December 13.
“I brag sometimes about how I made it to a hundred and the truth is, if I had known I was going to live this long, I would’ve taken better care of myself,” Van Dyke admitted last month. “And it is frustrating because I don’t know what I did right. Other than her [Silver], I didn’t do anything right.”
We would have to disagree with you there, Mr. Van Dyke, as you’ve done quite a lot right in your life!
It’s so nice to see that even at nearly 100, Van Dyke is still having fun with life. We’d like to wish Van Dyke and his wife a happy belated Halloween, and many more to come!