A bucket of blood douses a young woman wearing a white dress as she stands at the corner of Congress Street and Sixth Avenue.
The scene — with mannequins acting out the iconic prom scene in the 1976 horror classic “Carrie” — is the latest brainchild of Joe Susco, window display enthusiast and co-owner of Hydra, a retro clothing boutique at 145 E. Congress St.
“You only have a quick second to get people’s attention,” said Susco, 44. “That’s one of the main reasons why I try to be creative with my windows. They look and go ‘Whoa, my god,’ and they stop and come back or they come back the next day.”
As he does several times a year, he searched for a window display idea that would be fun and engaging. The “Carrie” prom scene idea received good reviews from friends.
First, he sketched out the idea with as much detail as possible. After he drew the “Carrie” scene, he set about cutting tinsel and gluing letters to read “Senior Prom.” From there, he made the chair and used store-bought fake blood and paint for the gore.
“I just kind of start and put it all together and hope the final project is what I envisioned,” he said. “Up until now, it’s pretty close to it.”
The “Carrie” display came on the heels of a back-to-school display, which featured a blown-up photo from his sister Margo’s first-grade class.
Margo Susco opened the store in 1994 as Hydra Leather and More, a boutique selling alternative styles of leather and vinyl clothing.
About 15 years ago, the store began changing its focus and now sells an eclectic mix of Western wear, vintage, and retro styles from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1980s, she said.
When Joe Susco returned to Tucson in 2012 after spending eight years running Hydra II in Rome, construction for the streetcar project blocked much of the pedestrian traffic on Congress.
“You do whatever you can to make it through and one of those things I did was the windows,” he said.
Margo “always had great windows,” he said. “But I like staging windows. I like creating scenes, creating stories, and she didn’t really do that before.”
“Three years ago Joey brought it up to a different level,” Margo Susco said. The recent displays have a “wonderful sense of experience, a sense of memory lane” that she said remind her of standing as a child in front of department store window displays.
“I’m getting such a kick out of people enjoying the windows,” she said.
Those scenes have been big hits in the annual downtown holiday decoration contest in December.
In the 2012 contest, the store finished second with a steampunk-themed display. The next year, a Santa’s workshop display took second place. Last December’s display won first place with a 12-foot tall Christmas tree and mannequins holding department store shopping bags.
“It’s like the old school when people would go for Christmas and go window shopping,” he said. “They’d walk around downtown and see all the windows with all the neat things in there. I’m trying to bring that back a little bit.”
Earlier this year, Susco created scenes in Hydra’s windows of the Class of ‘58 and a 1950s swimsuit competition. The scenes, as well as much of the store’s clothing, recall the mid-century style Susco describes as people looking sharp no matter the occasion.
“It’s just when women looked like women and men dressed like men,” he said as Frank Sinatra’s rendition of “Somewhere beyond the Sea” floated from the store’s sound system.
“When you took care of yourself, when you looked good. My dad used to say growing up, ‘If you don’t have money, you still look the part,’” he said.
The “Carrie” scene may be more recent than the 1950s, but the reaction from passersby is the same, he said.
“I thought it would engage people and bring them back to the 1970s when it came out. And so far it has,” he said.
Parents stop in front of the window and point out the bucket of blood and the prom sign to their children and explain what they meant in the movie, he said.
Downtown Tucson Partnership CEO Michael Keith makes a point to walk by Hydra, which he said has “one of the best retro feels of any place downtown.”
Shoppers and diners “look forward to seeing those kinds of displays as part of their walking experience,” Keith said.
Walkers may find themselves with much more to feast their eyes on in the next few years, he said. New stores are planned for the ground floor of 1 E. Broadway across the street from a hair salon and art gallery, which will help create another retail zone downtown, he said.
“As this retail comes on line, I think you’ll see more impetus for shopkeepers to get more creative with their windows,” he said.
Whether a store features an elaborate window display or a simpler design depends on store employees and “how into it they are,” Keith said, listing A Perfect Pantry, Johnny Gibson’s Downtown Market, and the Chicago Music Store as other retailers with a flair for engaging pedestrians.
Susco draws on nearly three decades of retail experience in southern Arizona, Los Angeles, and Rome to build eye-catching window displays.
“This is my life. As far as retail, I love every aspect of it,” he said.
Susco started as a teenager, selling T-shirt in local malls, and worked at his sister’s Kanella’s store on North Fourth Avenue, before moving to Los Angeles, where he walked up and down Rodeo Drive looking for work.
He said he landed jobs at the Sunset Plaza and Beverly Center stores of fashion designers Guess and Armani Exchange, but after hobnobbing for a few years he decided it was time for a change.
“I went ‘OK, this has been fun, but it’s not reality. Get me out of here,’” he said.
Rather than return to Arizona, he set his sights on Italy, where his family, which is of Italian and Greek descent, had visited when he was younger.
He worked with photographers and modeling agencies throughout Italy before deciding to start his own clothing shop, which he furnished with U.S. merchandise.
“As Americans love Italian stuff, Italians love American stuff. You have no idea how many cowboy boots I sold to Italians,” he said.
“I carried vintage cowboy boots, retro ‘40s, ‘50s, gothic, a little bit rock ‘n’ roll, a little bit more on-the-edge type stuff,” he said. “Where in Rome it’s such classic high fashion they didn’t have a lot of that.”
In addition to selling to young people with distinctive style, he also outfitted variety-show guests on three Italian television stations with clothes from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. “That was pretty cool,” he said.
Now that the “Carrie” display is drawing looks on Congress, he has to come up with the next idea.
“Every time I do something, I kind of go with all my gusto and do it the best I can,” Susco said. “And then the next season comes up and I go “‘OK, now what?’”
For Tucsonans looking to set up Halloween displays at home, Susco advises: “Be creative. Try to come up with an idea in your mind and just go for it.”
