Halloween took on a large significance during the Richard M. Nixon administration, as the first family hosted a series of public events for local children. In 1969, 250 local children from the Widening Horizons program came to a White House Halloween party. The North Entrance to the White House was converted into the mouth of huge 17-foot high pumpkin. Once the visitors walked through, two witches stirring cauldrons awaited, handing out masks. Tricia Nixon, dressed in a purple and green gown with a purple harlequin mask, welcomed the children and their parents. The East Room was bedecked with balloons and filled with sideshows of clowns, magicians, fortune-tellers, puppeteers, and apple bobbers. Jonathan Frid, the vampire Barnabas Collins from the popular daytime soap opera Dark Shadows, was a special guest and in costume and character. In 1971, First Lady Patricia Nixon hosted an early Halloween party for 150 children from the C. Melvin Sharp Health School and Hospital for Sick Children. Characters from the Disney on Parade show appeared and entertained the kids. In 1972, Tricia Nixon Cox hosted a Halloween party for 200 foster grandparents and their foster grandchildren, complete with circus clown Emmett Kelly, Jr., trained dogs, and chimpanzees from the popular TV series Daktari.