‘Backyard Rocketeer’ gets a pre-Rose Parade inspection
Spinning alien — check. Animated spaceship — check. A plethora of planets — check.
Hampton Road became a extraterrestrial staging ground Saturday morning as members of the La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Assn. tested the vital functions of “Backyard Rocketeer,” their 39th float entry in Pasadena’s Rose Parade.
The inspection was conducted at the behest of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Assn. to check the maneuverability of the float’s animated components and ensure its exhaust system, special effects and generators passed the requisite safety tests.
Given the vehicle’s many moving parts, the task took time and drew a small audience of local tournament members and float devotees out into the street. Among them was Bob Wallace, vice president of float development, who explained floats naturally become more complex over the years as engineer builders test their chops.
“Everything grows just a little bit. It’s an engineering tradition,” he said. “We think, we could make this a little better and make that a little better.”
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With less than two weeks to go before “Backyard Rocketeer” makes its Dec. 26 trip from the construction site behind Valley Water Co. to the Flintridge Preparatory School parking lot for decorating, volunteer float builders have been working furiously and into the night to finish welding, screening and painting projects.
Once it’s ready, hundreds of helping hands will festoon the float with 30,000 roses, 5,000 orchids, 2,000 carnations and 1,500 mums in addition to untold amounts of other flowers, leaves, fruits, vegetables and dry materials, according to Tournament officials.
Construction co-chair Janis Peterson said this year’s entry, which pays homage to La Cañada’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will feature a musical soundtrack clip from the movie “E.T. the Extra Terrestrial” and the vocal talents of two special women — La Cañada High School graduate and “Everybody Loves Raymond” star Madylin Sweeten as the boy in the homemade rocket and former Rose Parade commentator Stephanie Edwards as Mission Control.
Jeff Helgager will be in the driver’s seat for the Jan. 2 Rose Parade, while Tim Rahtz will man the brakes and keep an eye on the vehicle’s path. As a special nod to Rahtz, who first conceived of the JPL-themed float years ago, son Adam Rahtz was chosen to ride in the animation compartment, Peterson said.
When all is said and done, “Backyard Rocketeer” is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. At least that’s the hope of LCF Tournament of Roses Assn. President Chuck Terhune.
“This year’s entry is going to be mindlessly silly like it should be,” he said. “We’re talking about a young La Cañadan, who has aspired toward a dream of space travel and deep space exploration, which is what La Cañada supports through JPL and NASA.
“It’s also just going to be funny,” Terhune added with a smile.
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
