The People Who Love a Parade

Back in 1983, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce received an avalanche of mail from angry television viewers objecting to the fact that the credits for that year’s Hollywood Christmas Parade had been shown over the last parade float carrying Santa Claus. What they could not have known was that Santa almost did not make it before the cameras at all--because a pregnant spectator had gone into labor directly in front of his sleigh.

The men and women who coordinate holiday parade elements do not usually face such dramatic events. But, like theatrical stage managers at a live performance, they must be ready for anything. Whether floats are breaking down or it’s pouring rain, the show must go on, especially when there’s a global television audience in the millions to consider.

“I love doing the parade--it takes me back to the pioneering early days of television, when if you made a mistake you didn’t stop the tape rolling,” says Hollywood Mayor Johnny Grant, executive producer of the Hollywood Christmas Parade, whose 61st edition steps off Nov. 29.

It was Grant who had to cope with the unexpected parade route birth; since then, the Santa float has been safely fenced off from the public.

Another memorable arrival occurred in 1987, when singer Stevie Wonder missed his plane from New York the morning of the parade. “The next flight would have gotten him to LAX midway through the parade, on the worst traffic day of the year,” Grant recounts. “The only way to get him here was to have a helicopter pick him up right at the plane.” Grant’s phone calls to Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and the L.A. Fire Department secured a chopper, and the landing--in time for Wonder’s on-screen appearance, of course--was captured by the television cameras.

The pacing of the entire parade lineup--famous faces, floats, marching bands, equestrians, the occasional novelty act--is geared toward TV’s two-hour time slot. “We try to build up each hour so that it will keep the television audience’s attention,” says the parade’s director, William Lomas of Lynwood-based Pageantry Productions. Sitting in a control van at Sunset and Van Ness, he oversees a crew of 150 to 170, communicates with announcers and camera personnel, and makes such decisions as whether to tow a stalled float.

Lomas and Grant deal with seven to 10 cameras, but the equipment is focused on one event at one location. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, which presents its 66th edition Thursday, is really three events in one, according to Jean McFaddin, producer-director of the parade and other Macy’s annual events.

McFaddin usually meets during the summer with network personnel such as telecast director Dick Schneider, who won an Emmy Award last year for his Macy’s coverage, with preparations beginning in earnest in early autumn. “We present everything to NBC--the lineup, the performing order, the songs we anticipate,” she says. “We pick the bands in early spring. We used to fly to towns where the bands were (to audition them), but thank God for VCRs--we can see them on tape. Then the bandleaders come to New York in October, and Dick talks to them about things like camera angles and where they can and can’t stop.”

The night before the parade, McFaddin checks the balloons, watches last-minute band rehearsals and finalizes camera shots. On Thanksgiving Day, she leads off the parade, and watches the television special from a Herald Square command booth, communicating with NBC and parade personnel when necessary.

Macy’s six- or seven-story-high balloons can pose unique challenges. “In 1988 or so, in the rain, Kermit the frog blew into a light pole. I got into a cart and went to see him,” McFaddin remembers. “He’d been losing helium, and by the time I got there the parade handlers were carrying him on their backs. He looked like he was swimming. The parade handlers said I should leave him in, and so did the crowd. So I did.”

Back west in Pasadena, the special nature of the Tournament of Roses Parade, now in its 104th year, makes the “show must go on” philosophy particularly crucial. “The parade moves, rain or shine--the flowers are ready Jan. 1,” says William B. Flinn, assistant executive director of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Assn. and handler of communications and marketing for the event.

“Every float is new, every year. So it can be a challenge, especially if a float breaks down. You’re dealing with a vehicle that’s designed to go five-and-a-half miles, one day only. If a float goes down, it gets towed--that’s the rule.”

Probably no annual procession receives as much television coverage as the Rose Parade, Flinn notes, including the major networks and both English- and Spanish-language local stations. “We have the parade timed to the tenth of a second, to be able to judge what time to put in a float and what time a unit will be in front of television cameras,” he says.

For all the split-second timing and years of experience common to all three parades, they remain live, sometimes unpredictable events. As Flinn says, “We have a lot of factors involved, and things can happen. Putting on a parade isn’t a science--it’s an art.”

The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade airs 1-4 p.m. Thursday on NBC.