Stand-Ins Stage Dress Rehearsal of Inaugural Parade

Mounted police and several marching bands assembled before dawn Sunday for a dress rehearsal of President Reagan’s inaugural parade, eight days before the real thing.

Police blocked off Pennsylvania Avenue between the Capitol and the White House as the bands and several cars acting as stand-ins for the presidential motorcade paraded past.

It took about two hours for the participants to assemble and another hour to make the run-through, officer Ken Donovan of the U.S. Park Police said.

“It was a rehearsal . . . to get the spacing down right,” Donovan said, adding that the real parade will include 700 horses.

Among the groups taking part in the rehearsal besides the park police mounted unit were a Marine Corps band, an Army band and an elite ceremonial Army unit known as “the Old Guard,” Donovan said.

This year’s parade will include representatives of 48 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Idaho and North Dakota declined to send entries. California and Texas, as the home states of Reagan and Vice President George Bush, will have two each.

The Inaugural Committee said the parade will include 37 civilian bands, six military bands, 35 horse units, five marching units, one dog sled from Alaska, 15 military units, seven floats and two choral groups. The nation’s governors or their representatives are the parade’s grand marshals.