Cold? Never! It’s Hot, Hot, Hot

Woodland Hills residents didn’t have time to roll out the red carpet when the University of Michigan band, fresh from the icy Midwest, came looking Thursday for a warm place to practice for the Rose Parade.

People living in Los Angeles’ coldest suburb on the year’s coldest day were too busy tossing bed sheets over their back yard bougainvillea plants to fight off the frost.

But the welcome couldn’t have been nicer for the 235 members of the Michigan band. They were happy just to be able to march without slipping on ice.

The band checked into the Warner Center Marriott in Woodland Hills late Wednesday for a 5-day stay. The hotel is next to the football field-size Warner Park, where the musicians are rehearsing for Monday’s performances in the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl.

At their Ann Arbor campus--where Thursday’s low was 16 degrees--student musicians have had to practice indoors for weeks.

The thermometer hit 30 degrees in some Woodland Hills neighborhoods early Thursday. The National Weather Service recorded 33 as the official low in Woodland Hills, which made it the coldest community in the city.

The temperature had climbed to 43 degrees when the band marched into the park. Nonetheless, most of the musicians looked as if they were headed for the beach.

“Cold? No way! It’s warm to me,” said clarinet player Dan Woytowich, 19, of Farmington, Mich., who was wearing shorts and a T-shirt.

Trumpet player Steve Smith had on swim trunks. He took off his shirt and led others in the brass section as the band struck up one of the songs it will play at half-time of the Michigan-USC game.

The tune is titled “Hot, Hot, Hot.”

“We came from snow and ice. This is beautiful,” said Smith, 20, of Ferndale, Mich. “When we finish up here, we’re gonna sit in the hot tub for a while. Then we’re gonna take a swim.”

Dan Haworth, 22, of Dexter, Mich., wore a tank-top and shorts as he flexed his trombone slide.

“You can’t do this outside now in Michigan,” he said, extending the trombone handle its full length. “Our slides freeze up when we try to practice outside. It’s been pretty dismal, raining and snowing.”

The musicians spread out over the grassy lawn during a break. Steve Dentz, 20, of Rochester, Mich., stretched out in shorts to start his tan.

“There’s a layer of ice on everything at home,” said Dentz, an alto-sax player. “You’d never be sitting outside. It’s too icy and slick to even walk. This is like May in Michigan.”

Shorts-clad cymbal player Mary Jane Demock, 19, of Grand Haven, Mich., turned her dorm room upside-down hunting for her sunglasses before leaving for Woodland Hills on Wednesday.

“We haven’t seen sunny weather in months,” she said. “I had to dig them out and dust them off. This isn’t cold for December. If this is the coldest it gets, this is wonderful.”

When the band started its afternoon practice, virtually all the players had traded in their trousers for shorts. Afternoon sunshine reflecting off a nearby 20-story Warner Center building had helped warm things to about 54 degrees.

“I got rid of my sweat shirt. It was hot,” said piccolo player Nicole Laurin, 19, of Chicago. “After our blizzard conditions, we’re just glad to see the sun.”

Trumpet player Shally Prasad, 20, of Westland, Mich., also removed her sweat shirt, a reminder of Monday’s foe, USC. “It’s absolutely beautiful here. It gets 20 below zero with a wind-chill of 60 below back home. It’s horrible--you can’t do anything.”

Eric Becher, Michigan’s marching band director, said receipts from the Rose Bowl will pay most of the $150,000 cost of the band’s Woodland Hills stay. Besides marching in the 5 1/2-mile Rose Parade, the band will perform a 6-minute Rose Bowl pregame show and an 8-minute half-time act.

He said the band is keeping its routine secret, although the rehearsals in the park will be visible to the public from 10 to 11:30 a.m. today, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (with a noon lunch break) Saturday and 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

‘I Hate Cold Weather’

Among those watching Thursday’s rehearsal was Gary Hetzel, a 1959 Michigan graduate who lives in Northridge. He was shivering in a ski jacket and earmuffs as he watched the shorts-clad musicians form a high-stepping M.

“I hate cold weather,” Hetzel admitted. “I’ve been out here nearly 30 years, but you never forget how cold it gets back there. These kids are not used to California weather.”

At the Marriott, valet parking attendant Bill Martorano said he hasn’t gotten used to this week’s cold snap.

“I’m wearing a sweat shirt, a Windbreaker and a heavy jacket. The Michigan people are walking around in shorts, and I’m freezing.”

Hotel executive L. Scott Robinson said the band is occupying 20% of the 470-room hotel. He said the band also stayed at the hotel in late 1986, when Michigan last played in the Rose Bowl. In seven previous Rose Bowl trips, the band stayed in dorms at UCLA.

Robinson said the hotel was unfazed by Thursday’s frost.

“We replant our flowers every 2 weeks, anyway,” he said.