Rose Parade Seeks to Stretch Around Globe : International Event Planned, With Foreign TV Audience Expected to Increase Tenfold

Members of Great Britain’s royal family were considered. So were opera stars Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo, and Jacques Cousteau, the French undersea explorer. English-born Bob Hope fit the bill, but he had already done the job--twice. How about Mother Teresa? Well, yes, one official said, even her name came up, briefly.

Such was the brainstorming that began in late 1985 when officials of Pasadena’s Tournament of Roses discussed the selection of a grand marshal for the 1987 Rose Parade. Tournament President Fred Soldwedel wanted someone who (1) was not born in the United States, (2) is world famous and (3) has a positive image. This was all part of a scheme to transform the Rose Parade, that distinctly American institution, into an international event.

Final Choice

Soldwedel, with the final say, settled on one name: Pele. The charismatic Brazilian soccer star with the engaging smile, arguably the most famous man in the world, was approached and signed on. He seemed the ideal complement for the parade’s theme, also selected by Soldwedel, “A World of Wonders.”

The plan shows promise. For the first time, the Rose Parade, with Pele as one of many drawing cards, is expected to reach a major worldwide television audience, beamed by satellite to more than 350 million global villagers, according to parade officials.

In addition to its usual audience of 1 million in person and more than 100 million on U.S. TV, the floral extravaganza will be seen by 250 million people in 28 countries scattered throughout Latin America, Europe and Asia, parade officials estimate.

By contrast, the parade’s previous viewership record, set last New Year’s Day, was 125 million, including about 25 million in foreign lands.

‘Can All Take Pleasure’

“We want the world to be looking in,” said Soldwedel, an attorney. “Over the years, the Rose Parade has become identified with the United States, but . . . this parade is certainly something we can all take pleasure in. As Pele said when he was announced as grand marshal, it’s good to identify with a parade that doesn’t have tanks and guns.”

The projected tenfold increase in foreign viewership represents a triumph of marketing and technology, and a blend of the two. The parade’s international push can be traced back at least two years, shortly after the 1985 pageant that celebrated “The Spirit of America.” The leadership scratched its collective head and wondered how the Rose Parade--which already reached more than 80% of the domestic TV audience--could be made still more successful.

Although boosters have for many years boasted that the pageant reaches a worldwide audience, that was largely a technical achievement, according to William B. Flinn, the parade’s public relations director. Much of the overseas audience consisted of U.S. servicemen watching the Armed Forces Radio and TV Service. CBS and NBC would market their coverage through their international connections, but the networks had few takers. A three-year plan was developed to broaden the parade’s international horizons. There were two keys to the strategy. One was tailoring the parade, or “the product,” as Flinn sometimes says, toward universal themes. The 1986 theme, “A Celebration of Laughter,” was a step in that direction, but Grand Marshal Erma Bombeck is not well known outside the United States.

To the incoming president Soldwedel, the time seemed right for a bolder step. He had noticed that even the “Spirit of America” parade featured 10 floats with allusions to other countries, he said. “That told me the designers wanted a theme that would enable them to do what they could in the international realm.”

The choice of Pele as grand marshal instantly piqued the interest of the soccer-playing world. This New Year’s assemblage also attracted such foreign entries as the Royal Jordanian Armed Forces Band, high school bands from Japan and Canada, and new floats from the Malaysian tourist board and China Airlines.

Many domestic entries also honor foreign lands. The Marching Dutchmen Band of Holland, Michigan, for example, will march the 5 1/2-mile route in wooden shoes. (Each member wears six pairs of socks for comfort.) The float from the city of Santa Ana offers dancers celebrating “Folklorico!”; the city of Torrance blares “Bully for the British,” with a bulldog bearing a Union Jack in its teeth. Enhancing the international alliance, the royal family agreed to send a quartet of royal horsemen to lead the float.

Specialized Coverage

The other key was the development of a TV broadcast that would play not only in Peoria but in Patagonia and Pago Pago, as well. The Tournament of Roses decided to go into the TV production business itself, hooking up with Videospec International Ltd., an international TV distribution firm, to develop a so-called “clean international feed” for the foreign market.

The “clean international feed” is strikingly different from the Rose Parade coverage familiar to most Americans in that it has no commercial breaks, no interviews with the crowd or participants and no “talking head” shots of commentators, according to Videospec chairman Dick Auerbach, a former NBC producer long affiliated with the Tournament of Roses. There are two channels: One features two Videospec announcers providing live commentary in English; the second features only the natural parade sounds, enabling client stations to dub in translations in their native language.

Politics is also a factor. Rather than repeatedly displaying the American flag, the international broadcast will show the flags of every nation that is receiving the telecast; the flags will be exhibited near where the commentators sit.

“That was one of our selling points,” Auerbach said. “That might not seem like a big deal to us, but it really is to them.”

This does not mean the Rose Parade has suddenly taken a hard line against mom and apple pie. “The parade is part of Americana. The Tournament of Roses is not apologizing for waving the flag,” Flinn said. “But we want to tailor the show, just as the Olympics were done, for an international audience.”

Conversation Recalled

Flinn recalled a conversation with a Japanese business colleague. “Everyone loves the Marine Corps band. But he said, you know, the Japanese viewer probably doesn’t want to see that much of it. They have funny memories of the Marine Corps--but they like the United States.”

The only “talking head” on the international broadcast will be Pele, “wishing everybody a happy, healthy New Year in several languages,” Auerbach said. “The parade is the star.”

As of last week, stations in these areas had signed on: Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Trinidad and Tobago, Panama, Japan, Guam, Taiwan, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, the United Kingdom, West Germany, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Denmark, Finland, Belgium and Luxembourg. More are expected, Auerbach said. Videospec also provides coverage of the Rose Bowl game to the countries in a package deal.

The price of the telecast varies widely from country to country, and some receive it free. The international telecast, with only about $30,000 in production costs is very much a shoestring operation in comparison to the costlier network productions, Auerbach said.

The parade helps Videospec make money mostly by enhancing the popularity of the football telecast, Auerbach said. “We make our money on the game.”

The Tournament of Roses also makes most of its $1.5 million annual budget by selling the TV rights for the game, Flinn said. The domestic TV coverage of the parade provides no direct revenue. As for the foreign broadcast, “We’re in it to provide the product, not to make money,” Flinn said. “We’re going to break even this year, instead of in three.”

Viewers’ Choices

Just as U.S. parade watchers have several telecasts from which to choose--in Los Angeles, there is KTLA and KTTV as well as CBS and NBC--viewers in many U.S. and Latin American markets have the choice of two Spanish-language parade telecasts. Unlike its English-language feed to most countries, Videospec is teaming with Channel 52 for a Spanish telecast. A competing telecast is being produced by KMEX and the Spanish International Network.

With no way to measure viewership, parade officials acknowledge that the 250 million is a “ballpark estimate” for foreign viewership. Many, perhaps most, will see a delayed, partial telecast.

Officials are hopeful that the global audience will grow in the coming years. Soldwedel’s travels as tournament president took him to the People’s Republic of China, where he met with officers of a Shanghai-based station that reaches a potential audience of 100 million. Soldwedel said an arrangement was made in which they would broadcast a tape of the 1986 parade “and we’re hoping to get them to show this year’s shortly thereafter.”

Banking on the homily that everybody, after all, loves a parade, tournament officials dream that the event could become a New Year’s tradition the world over. “We’re not looking for it to be a one-time thing,” Flinn said. “Last year, we crawled. This year we’ve gone beyond walking to a jog.”