Rose Parade

A float from the 2004 Rose Parade

The Tournament of Roses Parade was established, and first held, on January 1,1890, in Pasadena, California, eight miles (13 km) northeast of Downtown Los Angeles.

Rooted in tradition, this parade is broadcast on multiple television networks, watched by upwards of one million spectators on the parade route, and seen by millions more on television. Starting January 1, 1923, it is traditionally followed by the Tournament's other event, the Rose Bowl college football game.

In 2002 and 2006, when the Rose Bowl Game was also the BCS National Championship Game, the "Granddaddy of 'em all" was not held the same day as the parade; the 2006 game was played on January 4. Not all fans were pleased with the change; some thought the atmosphere and tradition of the Rose Bowl were lost. However, since the BCS title game is now separate from the host bowl, it will no longer affect the date of the Rose Bowl Game, even when the title game returns to Pasadena in 2010.

The parade is televised on ABC (as the official network of the tournament and the Rose Bowl game itself), but coverage is also available on NBC, Univision (in Spanish), HGTV, and KTLA (the latter two tout commercial-free coverage, although KTLA repeats the parade throughout the day with commercials). Until 2007, the parade was also broadcast on CBS.

History

A Chariot Race during the 1908 Tournament of Roses; later replaced by the Rose Bowl Game

First staged in 1890 by members of Pasadena's Valley Hunt Club, the Tournament of Roses has undergone major changes. The Parade has been held in Pasadena every New Year's Day since, except when January 1 falls on a Sunday. In that case, the Tournament is held on the subsequent Monday, January 2. This exception was instituted in 1893. According to the Tournament of Roses Association Web site, this "Never on Sunday" policy was instituted in order "to avoid frightening horses tethered outside local churches and thus interfering with worship services." Thus, the Parade has never been held on a Sunday. Incidentally, the Rose Bowl Game is also not held on Sunday, to avoid competing with the NFL. Other bowl games usually held on January 1 also follow this rule.

Many of the members of the Valley Hunt Club were former residents of the American East and Midwest. They wished to showcase their new California home's mild winter weather. At a club meeting, Professor Charles F. Holder announced, "In New York, people are buried in the snow. Here our flowers are blooming and our oranges are about to bear. Let's hold a festival to tell the world about our paradise."

And so the Club decided to organize their first New Year's Day parade. Horse-drawn carriages covered in flowers, followed by foot races, polo matches, and a game of tug-of-war on the town lot attracted a crowd of 2000 to the event. Upon seeing the scores of flowers on display, the Professor decided to suggest the name "Tournament of Roses."

Oklahoma Rising Float at the 2007 Rose Parade

Over the next few founding years, marching bands and motorized floats were added. By 1895, the event was too large for the Valley Hunt Club to handle, hence the Tournament of Roses Association was formed. By the eleventh annual Tournament (1900), the town lot on which the activities were held was re-named Tournament Park, a large open area that is directly adjacent Pasadena's world-famous institution of higher learning, Caltech. Activities soon included ostrich races, bronco busting demonstrations, and an odd novelty race between a camel and an elephant. (The elephant won the race.) Soon, reviewing stands were built along the parade route, and newspapers in Eastern Seaboard cities started to take notice of the event.

Main article: Past presidents of the Tournament of Roses Association

Parade

A close up of roses used to create a rose parade float.

Spectators gather before the 2004 Rose Parade: some pay for seats in stands, others spend the night to "reserve" a free spot

The Tournament of Roses Parade has followed the same route for many decades. It starts by going north on South Orange Grove Boulevard, beginning at Ellis Street. Twenty-four hours ahead of time, the entire environs of the neighborhood streets are sealed off and reserved for the massive parade marshalling of the dozens of floats that are participating. On parade morning, it proceeds east on Colorado Boulevard (Pasadena's main thoroughfare and a segment of the former US-66), to Sierra Madre Boulevard. Turning north on Sierra Madre, it ends at Paloma Street. On going North, the floats must travel under the Sierra Madre / I-210 freeway overpass, requiring them to collapse to meet a specific height requirement. In total, this route is 5½ miles (9 km) long; the assembled bands, horse units, and floats take approximately 2.5 hours to pass by.

After the parade, all the floats are 'parked' in a large open area known as Victory Park, and are on display for at least 2 days to allow visitors to view them 'up close and personal' after parade day. Of course, none of the float riders and dignitaries / stars who rode on them are present. Admittance to the viewing used to be free, but a fee has been instituted in recent years.

Prior to parade day, for the really adventurous, one can view several of the floats being decked out with their flowery mantles, in the various 'float barns' that dot the Arroyo Seco / Rose Bowl area in West Pasadena, not far from the start of the parade. This period of opportunity typically starts about 48 to 72 hours prior to parade day. Last-minute volunteering opportunities are usually available; If you are willing to volunteer, you just might find a crew willing to hand you a box of flowers and put you right to work!

Since 1955, the parade has been famously lucky and avoided being rained on with several close calls. For the 2006 Tournament of Roses parade on January 2, winds with gusts up to 45 mph (72 km/h) and five inches (130 mm) of rain in the Pasadena area were predicted. Unfortunately, the forecast proved accurate; despite the parade's good luck for 51 years, it rained continuously and heavily throughout the entire 2006 parade. As a result, low television ratings and poor attendance plagued the ceremony. Some floats showed signs of water damage by the end.

Bands

Top marching bands from all over the world are invited to participate. Many top high school marching bands from the United States can be found, along with college and organizational marching bands.

The bands participating in the parade have also developed traditions. For example, Pasadena City College's Lancer Marching Band always marches in the Rose Parade, along with high school band and color guard students from all over Southern California, who are selected by audition the previous autumn. The Tournament of Roses Honor Band is a coveted position, and those selected are among the best student musicians in California. Nine of the high school trumpet players, selected by performance on their auditions, and the best snare drummer, are selected as the Herald Trumpets, who march directly before the Rose Queen's float and play fanfares.

University Marching bands from the two schools participating in the Rose Bowl are invited to march in the parade. They typically accompany the float that represents the school.

Bands that have a long standing arrangement to be in the parade include:

Marching Band during the 2004 parade

• The Tournament of Roses Honor Band
• The Los Angeles Unified School District all city marching band
• The Salvation Army marching band
• The United States Marine Corps marching band

In 1998, the Washington Township High School Minutemen Marching Band from Sewell, New Jersey became the first band in the history of the Rose Parade to decorate its entire ranks with live flowers, in keeping with the practice of decorating the parade floats. Designed by Todd Marcocci, this unique concept and design approach received tremendous support from all major media around the world. Since then, several bands have followed suit.

Also, the Tournament sponsors BandFest, where the selected bands perform field shows at the City College Stadium over two days.

The first British band to take part were the "Royal British Legion Youth Band Brentwood", from Essex, England. [http://www.brentwoodlegionband.co.uk Brentwood Legion Band)

In 2008, the Missouri State University band will perform in the opening show, and the Needham B. Broughton High School Band from Raleigh, NC will immediately follow. The Alexis I. duPont High School Tiger Marching Band from Wilmington, Delaware will make their 5th appearance in the Tournament of Roses Parade, a first for any high school band from outside of the state of California. Also in 2008, the Arcadia High School marching band will make their 14th appearance in the Tournament of Roses Parade.

List of Tournament of Roses Parade themes

Main article: Tournament of Roses Parade themes

The newly elected President of the Tournament of Roses has the duty of picking a theme for the forthcoming festivities. Most of the floral floats in the parade are inspired by this theme.

Grand Marshal

Main article: List of past Grand Marshals of the Tournament of Roses Parade

Repeat Marshals of the Tournament of Roses Parade

• Shirley Temple, 1939, 1989, 1999
• Charles Daggett, 1900, 1901, 1914
• Dwight D. Eisenhower 1951, 1964 (note that Cpl. Robert S. Gray filled in for him in 1951)
• Bob Hope, 1947, 1969
• Richard M. Nixon, 1953, 1960
• C. C. Reynolds, 1902, 1903
• Dr. Francis F. Rowland, 1890, 1892, 1894, 1904, 1905, 1910, 1916
• Dr. Ralph Skillen, 1907, 1908, 1911
• Edwin Stearns, 1896, 1897
• Martin H. Weight, 1898, 1899
• Earl Warren, 1943, 1955

Queen and Royal Court

Main article: Past Queens of the Tournament of Roses

Each year, a selection process is held in early October to find out which Pasadena-area girls (ages 17 to 21) will have the honor of being crowned Queen of the Tournament, or in substitution, one of the members of her "Royal Court". Each year over 1000 girls try out. Six princesses and one queen are chosen. The winners then ride on a float in the parade, and carry out duties in promotion of the Tournament, mainly during its duration and prelude. Their duties include attending over one hundred events in the Pasadena area. They usually receive scholarship money and a 30 piece wardrobe; the 2005 Court also received a Mikimoto pearl necklace. During the time that they attend Tournament events, usually from October to January, each girl usually attends school a few times a week for only a few hours at a time.

Floats

Originally, floats were created solely by volunteers from sponsoring communities. Currently, most are built by professional float building companies, and take nearly a year to construct. This is not the be-all-and-end-all of the Tournament, as some communities and organizational sponsors still rely on volunteers.

Modern-day process

Shortly after each year's parade is over, the parade sponsors and participating communities start to plan their floats for the following year. Characters and other objects on the float are created separately as pods, consisting of a framework of steel and chicken wire.

The pod is then "cocooned" in the next process; it is sprayed with a polyvinyl material. This pod is painted with the colors of the flowers to be applied to the float.

Every square inch of the exposed surface of a float entered in the Rose Parade strictly must be covered with flowers or other natural materials. These other decorative applicants include bark, seed and leaves.

The float pods are then put on the mechanical chassis of the float. Along with drive train, the chassis regularly include computer-controlled robotic mechanisms, to animate the floats.

In the days following Christmas, these natural additions to the float are applied by volunteers or hired workers. Many people end each day covered in glue and petals. Delicate flowers are even set up in individual vials of water, set into the float one-by-one.

It is estimated that it takes 60 volunteers working 10 hours a day for 10 days to decorate one float.

Quantity of flowers

While many distinct changes have taken place with the Festival's floats, including computer-aided movement and professional float building, the floats have kept true to the event's title and heritage, by using real, fresh flowers. The cost of flowers are included in the total cost of the float and paid for by the float sponsor.

Notable recent floats

• working roller coasters
• a 50-foot replica of the Statue of Liberty
• a robotic chef with moving arms
• a complete tropical paradise, filled with animals
• a working water slide

Post-parade: A Showcase of Floats

Presented by the Eastman Kodak Company with supporting sponsor Bayer Advanced, the Showcase is a paid admission area where the floats are displayed after the parade, for close-up viewing. The parade floats are parked along Sierra Madre and Washington Boulevards in Pasadena for three hours after the parade. On the day after the parade, there are two hours reserved for seniors and the disabled, and a day's worth for the general public.

Attendance

More recent attendance figure are followed by the predicted attendances in parenthesis. Most predictions are conducted by The Tournament of Roses and the Pasadena Police Department. Actual figures are by the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. The Los Angeles Times ran a study in 1980 that said the actual attendance at the parade was actually about 60% of what is claimed each year.

• 1890- 2,000
• 2002- 800,000 (1,000,000; drop blamed on 9/11)
• 2004- (1,000,000)

Trivia

• Elliott Smith wrote a song entitled "Rose Parade".
• In 2007, a float from Oklahoma featured rock band The Flaming Lips.

Volunteers

The Tournament of Roses has become such a large event that it requires 65,000 hours of combined manpower each year, or the equivalent of roughly 7.42 years of combined manpower. Fortunately for the Association, the group has 935 members and 38 student ambassadors, each whom is assigned to one of 34 committees. Responsibilities include:

• selecting Parade participants
• directing visitors on New Year's Day
• serving hamburgers to band members at the end of the Parade route
• giving presentations about the Tournament to community groups

During the Parade, all volunteers are required to wear distinct white suits. Because of this, the volunteers are commonly referred to as "white suiters." In December each year, a fleet of white vehicles with special "ToR" license plates are seen throughout the San Gabriel Valley. These cars are currently donated by American Honda for use in conducting the official business of the parade.

Each year, an honor troop of Eagle Scouts from the San Gabriel Valley Council, and Gold Award recipients of the Mount Wilson Vista Council Girl Scouts is selected to carry the parade banners down the route.

The Tournament of Roses Radio Amateurs (TORRA) have provided audio and video co-ordination for the parade officials through the use of Amateur radio since 1968. With over 300 ham radio operators in TORRA there were several ham radio sites along the parade route equipped with amateur (ham) TV as well as 2-way ham radios. Several mobile units - including motorcycles and pedestrian units (creepie-peepies) provided the video coverage. With modern technology and cell phone service, the TORRA relationship with the Tournament of Roses Association has since ended.

See also

• Portland Rose Festival
• Doo Dah Parade
• Rose Bowl (stadium)

External links

• Tournament of Roses Parade official site

Float construction companies

• Phoenix Decorating Co.
• Festival Artists Worldwide
• Fiesta Parade Floats
• Charisma Floats
• Studio Concepts

Self-Built float organizations

• Burbank Tournament of Roses Association
• Downey Rose Float Association
• La Canada Flintridge Rose Float Association
• Sierra Madre Rose Float Association
• South Pasadena Rose Float Association
• Cal Poly Pomona Rose Float
• Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Rose Float