The Marshal of Controversy : Touched by a Scandal, Sen. John Glenn Will Still Be an Astronaut-Hero to Many When Leading Tournament of Roses Parade

It has been a bit of a sticky wicket, conceded Tournament of Roses president Don Fedde--”We don’t like controversy more than anybody else. Let’s put it that way.”

But here was Fedde, a genial 52-year-old furniture store owner who has served the tournament faithfully for 25 years, finally getting his shot at the top job and with it the honor of choosing the grand marshal for today’s Rose Parade.

And, bingo, controversy.

On Oct. 12, with flair and flourishes, former astronaut John H. Glenn, now a U. S. senator from Ohio, was announced as grand marshal for today’s 101st Tournament of Roses parade. Announcing his choice, Fedde had praised Glenn as “a hero with steely nerves and harmonious hometown values. . . . “

On Oct. 13, in what Fedde understatedly describes as an “unfortunate” bit of timing, the Common Cause citizens’ lobby called for investigations of five senators, including Glenn and California’s Alan Cranston, on charges they improperly interfered with a federal investigation of now-bankrupt Lincoln Savings & Loan in Irvine.

The Senate Ethics Committee announced 2 1/2 weeks ago that it was beginning a preliminary investigation to determine whether the five had abused their office.

Glenn’s integrity, heretofore untarnished, is being questioned, the key issue being whether Lincoln owner Charles Keating bought Glenn’s influence with a $200,000 contribution to a political action committee controlled by the Ohio senator.

“On selection day, we had thought it was the greatest (pick) we could have made,” Fedde said, adding that Glenn had been a noncontroversial choice for grand marshal, a standout among the dozen or so finalists that included musicians, actors--and former Presidents.

Now, the committee was left to wonder if its hero might have feet of clay.

He emphasized that there was never any serious thought given to uninviting Glenn. “We couldn’t find any basis,” he said. “There’s nothing but innuendo. The innuendo has been very heavy, admittedly. But we think we know all the facts.”

As the “Keating 5” scandal grew, Fedde made it his business to learn everything he could about it. “I read every article, taped every program,” he said.

From Washington, Fedde obtained a copy of the transcript of the meeting that took place in April, 1987, with the five senators and federal thrift regulators, a meeting called at the urging of Charles Keating.

From Glenn, he got a copy of an eight-page statement the senator wrote around Thanksgiving, explaining what he did and did not do, and concluding: “My life has been, and remains, an open book. . . . It’s been a life based on decency, honor, integrity and the highest ethical standards. I have not changed, and with every fiber in my being, I resent anyone implying otherwise.”

Never, Fedde said, was there one terrible moment of crisis when the tournament’s nine-man executive committee sat down and asked themselves, “What do we do now?” It was more a matter of worrying about how big this thing was going to get and how soon.

Although they continued to read about the savings and loan scandal and Glenn, Fedde said, “We have looked into it deeply and we feel his conscience is clear, and we think time will prove our decision to be the right one to proceed with him. . . . He is a national hero and we still consider him so. . . . We just want to honor a space pioneer.”

Sure, some may be critical of the tournament’s choice for grand marshal, Fedde shrugged. Last year, the honor went to Shirley Temple Black, hardly a wildly controversial figure, and, he said, “We even got letters on her.”

Meanwhile, Glenn, for his part, appeared to be enjoying himself enormously as he dutifully worked his way through three days of formalities leading up to the parade.

In an interview Friday morning, shortly after returning from a jog, he said he wasn’t worried about the Keating scandal--”Not at all. That’ll all come out all right. I’m not concerned.” Everything will be OK, he added, when “what I did not do comes out.”

Had he at any time considered withdrawing as grand marshal? “No, not at all. I had no reason to step down. . . . If people have been misled by the media, well, I’m sorry about that. But I know the American people to be very fair.”

For the long haul, Glenn said, he is not concerned. In the short run, he acknowledged, his implication in the Keating affair, is “very irritating.”

As for the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game, “We’ve watched every year on TV,” he said. “Of course, I’d hoped maybe Ohio State (not Michigan) might be here. I guess we’re character-building this year.”

The entire Glenn family will be on hand. Annie, his wife, will ride with him. In the stands will be their son, Dr. David Glenn, an anesthesiologist in San Francisco, his wife, Karen, and their sons, Daniel, 7, and Zachary, 5, as well as the Glenns’ daughter, Lyn, who lives in St. Paul.

Glenn hopes to get some good film along the route with his new hand-held camcorder.

There is no indication that he intends to let the cloud of scandal rain on his parade.

“We’re looking forward to it,” he said. “I’m really getting a big kick out of it. It’s a great honor.”

At his first official appearance as grand marshal, at the annual Kiwanis kickoff luncheon Friday at The Pasadena Center, the reception Glenn received indicated that, in the eyes of the public, he is still the bona fide hero who became the first American to orbit the globe in the little Friendship 7 capsule, one February morning 28 years ago.

As he was introduced by Fedde as “the perfect person” to lead this year’s parade, Glenn--the World War II bomber pilot, Korean War fighter pilot and a test pilot who once set a transcontinental speed record--received a steady round of applause, building to a crescendo, then to a standing ovation.

He responsed with a patriotic pep talk, in which he spoke of “walls tumbling down” and “dictators tumbling down” throughout Eastern Europe.

A fit and youthful-looking 68, Glenn, who became a multimillionaire through investments in hotels and who briefly was a Democratic Presidential candidate, breezed through a Saturday morning of television interviews at Tournament House in Pasadena. He described for one interviewer how weightlessness in space feels, talked about the California sunshine and the bitter cold back home in Ohio.

Fedde seemed well pleased. Everything seemed harmonious, nicely in keeping with this year’s parade theme, “A World of Harmony.”

That theme had proved to be an inspired choice this particular year, although, Fedde acknowledged, “What we had in mind was the wonderful Reagan-Gorbachev relationship. How were we to know about these incredible world events?”

Still, the accolades for omniscience were music to his ears in a year when tournament-bashing appeared to be in vogue. Although there have been reports that parade and game tickets were all but going begging, not so, Fedde said. Sales, he said, were only “minutely off.”

And there were the critics asking, once again, if it is moral to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to build pretty floats when there are thousands of people hungry and homeless.

“There’s always an anti-Establishment element,” Fedde said, observing that the festivities are more than “just a party,” that $10 million in television revenues are divided among the 20 Big 10 and Pac 10 schools.

Besides, he observed, “on a cost per impression basis, (a float) is one of the best bargains in the world” for corporate America. It’s advertising, PR, so “why not say it in a joyous, beautiful way?”

He was more concerned about glitches that could arise, even after 18 months of planning. What was going to happen to the people who traditionally park on the other side of the arroyo and walk over Colorado Bridge? The bridge has been closed as unsafe but, he knows, “they’re not going to be aware of it until New Year’s morning.”

A giant robot, the parade entry from General Motors-United Auto Workers, had been a potential troublemaker, 40 feet wide (that’s 22 feet over what’s allowed). The committee worked that one out. Said Fedde, “We’ve put the arms on separate circuits so one arm can go down when the other one comes up.”

The committee, he said, had been very, very busy dealing with requests for exceptions to size limits: “We don’t want the parade to be a size race, a budget race or a horsepower race.”

Fedde had just received a memo from one of his staff with the information that the lead car in this year’s parade, a 1952 Chrysler Imperial Phaeton limousine, was the very car that appeared in the 1984 film, “The Right Stuff,” carrying actor Ed Harris as astronaut Glenn in the tumultuous New York ticker tape parade in his honor in 1962.

(Glenn greeted this news with his opinion that the whole film should have been left on the cutting room floor).

It was all about to happen. Horses, parades, floats.

And an embattled American hero as grand marshal.

Fedde emphasized that all of his opinions on the Glenn matter were just that, his opinions, adding, “Nothing in this world is absolutely certain. We’re running on faith, and that’s all you can do.”

Times Staff Writer David G. Savage in Washington also contributed to this story.