Beverly Hills Parade Brings Irish Pride to Rodeo Drive : St. Pat Goes Upscale: The Greening of Gucci’s

“They say the streets of Beverly Hills are paved in gold,” said Robin Gilson, who was positioned in front of Gucci’s, wearing a green top hat and cloverleafs painted on her cheeks. “But don’t kid yourself. They are really paved in green. Just ask any merchant along here. Better yet, check out the price tags.”

Shopping is indeed a major pastime in this city. But browsing and buying here took a back seat Sunday to the city’s first St. Patrick’s Day parade, which by all accounts went off without a hitch.

Several blocks of Rodeo Drive--one of the swankiest shopping strips in America--were literally paved in green Sunday, covered with 120 yards of plush green carpet.

It was a welcome mat of sorts for the midday celebration that drew “between 30,000 and 100,000 people,” Sgt. Joe Langer of the Beverly Hills police said.

If a more precise count was lacking, the crowd wasn’t easy to measure. In some spots people stood 10-deep along Beverly Hills’ fabled streets to watch movie and television stars roll past in fancy cars and listen to marching bands belt out toe-tapping Irish anthems.

Everywhere one turned there were green baseball hats, shirts and tube tops, balloons, Irish flags, belts and socks.

The most courageous display of Irish pride was worn by 24-year-old Gail Murphy, who sported a green brassiere, green shorts belted with green balloons and green body makeup, from head to toe.

“I’m from New York, honey, and this is my day,” Murphy said.

Parade-goers began lining the two-mile route several hours before the first of the 110 units and more than 50 celebrities--including Merv Griffin, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Milton Berle and Jim Backus--assembled at the corner of Wilshire and Little Santa Monica boulevards and started weaving through the city streets.

In many ways it was a parade like any other. There was a grand marshal--Ed McMahon, the straight man on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show--military and high school bands, pretty flag and banner carriers and horses, complete with costumed riders wearing shiny holsters and six-guns.

But there were some pure Beverly Hills touches to the procession, which was organized by Irish-born restaurant owner Jimmy Wright.

A bright yellow and green float from Giorgio’s boutique sprayed the crowd with a fine mist of perfume that sells for $200 an ounce.

The sweet scent carried by a light breeze elicited a mixed reaction from those on the sidelines. One middle-aged woman from Pico Rivera cooed: “It’s heavenly. That’s the closest I’ll ever get to perfume like that.” However, another, considerably younger woman, wearing green cowboy boots and French sunglasses, said: “That stuff isn’t worth more than a single scoop of Haagen Dazs.”

Sunday’s parade was the first in Beverly Hills in more than four decades, a fact not lost on a series of fast-talking entrepreneurs who worked the jammed sidewalks.

A West Los Angeles travel company passed out travel brochures announcing discount summer tours to Ireland, while several restaurants circulated flyers pitching their St. Patrick’s Day specials. Other street sellers hawked green T-shirts, buttons extolling Irish supremacy and green carnations.

One flower salesman, wearing a knee-length green and white polka dotted tie, even tried to coax buyers with a poor imitation of an Irish accent.

When asked if he was Irish, he replied: “Everybody is Irish on St. Patty’s Day.”