3 Experts Appraise a Budding Rose Parade

They stooped to look at hedgehogs. They peered into the mouths of alligators. They cringed at Godzilla’s roar. And they climbed stairs to gaze down at tigers, elephants and dolphins.

The three previewers trekked through five warehouses in Azusa and Pasadena last week to preview 53 of the 60 floats that will roll down Colorado Boulevard on Tuesday in the 102nd Tournament of Roses Parade. The remaining floats were being assembled individually.

“I’m amazed at the complexity of them all,” said Clair Martin after 7 1/2 hours of float-viewing. “It’s sort of the conspicuous consumption of paradedom.”

The Times recruited three people with expertise in design, horticulture and parade-going to preview the Rose Parade floats and come up with their individual top three choices. The idea was to give readers an advance look at Pasadena’s most famous event.

Martin, rose curator of the Huntington Botanical Gardens, discovered that previewing the floats and picking favorites is no easy task. And that was especially true six days before the parade, when some floats were nothing more than steel skeletons with only welders’ sparks for decoration.

Still, Martin and his co-previewers were impressed by the time, money and labor spent on floats, which can cost up to $300,000 each.

“Seeing them up so close is so awesome,” said Scott Finnell, lead singer of the Doo Dah Parade’s official band, Snotty Scotty and the Hankies. The Doo Dah, traditionally held the Sunday after Thanksgiving, is a spoof of the Rose Parade.

Martin, Finnell and Stuart Frolick of Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design contemplated their favorites Wednesday evening at the Espresso Bar in Old Pasadena and finally arrived at their decisions.

Martin’s first choice was Godzilla, by American Honda Motor Co.; Finnell’s, foxes hunting, by Dr Pepper Co., and Frolick’s, the basketball player by ITT Sheraton.

The parade’s official judges get more time than the previewers to mull over the 19 trophy winners, which will be announced during the New Year’s Day parade. The three judges selected by the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Assn. make two trips to the warehouses beforehand and one final 4 a.m. stroll along Orange Grove Boulevard as the floats queue up New Year’s Day.

This year’s official judges are Marleen Pedroza, executive vice president of the Fiesta San Antonio Commission; Pasadena float-building veteran David R. Coleman, and Arcadia floral designer Celia Kalm.

They will “look for floral impact rather than the use of seeds, leaves and bark,” said association spokeswoman Kristin Tranquada. Floats designed to be viewed equally from both sides of the street also score high, as do those with dramatic impact and those that match the parade theme, she said.

But for the previewers recruited by The Times, standards were more off-the-cuff.

“What’s the parade theme this year?” Martin asked Wednesday morning, moments before entering the Rose Palace on South Raymond Avenue, where 10 floats were being assembled. The theme is “Fun ‘N’ Games”; grand marshal is comedian Bob Newhart.

Outside the Pasadena warehouse, association members, dressed in their uniform of white suits and red ties, greeted members of the public, who paid $2 to see the unassembled floats. But the officials’ smiles turned even broader when television parade commentators Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards arrived in a gray stretch limousine nearly as long as a float.

“Can we judge the commentators?” Martin asked. “I think it would be more fun.”

Inside, floats were on the floor, some in pieces, some doubled over to fit in the building.

Guide Sue McInerney explained that the floats are painted the same colors as the flowers they will bear so volunteers can easily match the right flower to the right spot. Parade rules require that only natural materials cover the floats.

In one corner, the previewers backed away from the heady scent of glue used by workers applying seeds to a float.

“You can get real high in here,” McInerney said. “That’s why everybody stays so happy.”

At a float-building warehouse in Azusa, the previewers found City Councilman Harry Stemrich, dressed in cowboy hat and Mexican-style vest, standing proudly by the Elks float, a circus wagon to be pulled by Belgian horses.

“Hey, he wanted to bet me 100 bucks that the float would win the sweepstakes prize,” Finnell said as he left with the other previewers. “I had to tell him it was being drawn by 12 Belgian waffles,” he joked.

At a second Azusa warehouse, the previewers listened to an explanation of the hydraulic workings of a couple of the parade’s more complex floats: Godzilla, and the Purple People Eater. Afterward, Martin pronounced them “the Neiman Marcus of floats.” By comparison, he dubbed smaller floats the “Fedco of floats.”

In one of two Arroyo Seco float-building areas, the previewers peered at the inner workings of the Betty Boop float. Inside, a bicycle was rigged to turn the wheels of the giant cartoon figure’s car when a youngster pedals it during the parade.

“Hey, they’re not all battery-operated,” Finnell said. “That poor kid is going to be pedaling the whole way!”

Their pockets full of tiny lapel pins handed out by float-builders, the previewers finally called it a day at the espresso bar. They were surprised and pleased by some floats promoting recycling, ride-sharing and reading.

Overall, Finnell pronounced the parade “kind of kid-oriented more than anything else. . . . It felt like Disneyland.”

THE PREVIEWERS

* Clair Martin, 47

Rose garden curator, Huntington Botanical Gardens, San Marino; past president, Orange County Rose Society

“I went from the big ones to the little ones. Sea World ... and Betty Boop (are) different, lighthearted. I think a lot of the floats take themselves too seriously.”

The Choices

1. Godzilla, American Honda Motor Co.

2. Shamu and skiers, Sea World.

3. Betty Boop, City of Carson.

* Stuart Frolick, 40

Vice president-creative director, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena; artist, writer, editor

“I liked the simplicity of the basketball player and that it’s a game. I think it’s the only float that isn’t coming out of this fantasy world. I think it was a gutsy move for ITT and Sheraton to have a black man dunking a basketball in a parade.”

The Choices

1. Basketball player, ITT Sheraton.

2. Purple People Eater, Carnation Co.

3. Isaac Newton and beavers, Caltech.

* Scott Finnell, 39

Lead singer, Snotty Scotty and the Hankies rock band; Pasadena native, veteran of 39 Rose Parades

“Gee, now that I’ve seen all this giant, fantasy stuff, I don’t know if I can adjust to real life.”

The Choices

1. Foxes hunting, Dr Pepper Co.

2. Isaac Newton and beavers, Caltech.

3. A tie: Shamu and skiers, Sea World; and Betty Boop, City of Carson.